Twilight of the Arnor Beta 6b Change Log

Published on April 10, 2008 By CariElf In GalCiv Journals

I killed a lot of bugs this week.

We're getting close on the invisible ships bug, which we were finally able to reproduce here, but only in release mode, which means that we're debugging it with output statements, so it's taking awhile.

We did manage to determine that it is unrelated to the "Warning: Clone Frames Failed" message in your debug.err files. That happens every time you go to build a starbase that is not on a resource or an ascension crystal. The next build after this one will fix that.

Of particular interest to me this week is if you notice the AI creating too many space miners. I went through the AI code and I think that I found the cause so I tweaked the functions that set the colony's military project for Brad since Brad is still not feeling well.

We're getting close.

+ NEW: Enabled modded campaigns

+ NEW: Hooked up new Ascension victory cutscene

+ NEW: Dread Lords and Minor races now have their own tech trees.

+ FIXED: Added code to update the planet overlay after auto updating improvements or auto terraforming

+ FIXED: Added code to planet::trade to make ejected ships set new home planet, which should fix bug where AI ships try to go home to a planet that their civ no longer owns.

+ FIXED: Bug where AI designed ships didn't show up in the upgradewnd

+ FIXED: Changed the core scout to use a tiny hull so that you can build it and removed hyperdrive

+ FIXED: Core Ship designs will now strip components that they can't use so that races can still build them (eg Arceans will now be able to build core colony ships minus engines)

+ FIXED: Code when removing ship components to be more efficient and to not lose stats. Now ships that have a tech requirement in their xml file will retain that requirement even if the ship design is edited.

+ FIXED: Took out line from AISetColonyMilitaryProject that was not in Drengin AI which is the probable cause of the space miner spam. Also added code to prevent it from trying to build ships it hasn't designed yet.

+ FIXED: Added check to keep minor races from placing spies

+ FIXED: Now saving the weapon and defense focus variables so that they won't be reset to defaults when loading a save game.

+ FIXED: Bug where ShipDesignFocusWnd reset the sliders to the default after loading a save game

+ FIXED: Logic error that was causing the blank thumbnails when upgrading a ship design, which also caused memory leaks.

+ FIXED: Bug that caused the context area to not show any information except about Ascension crystals once an ascension crystal was clicked on

+ FIXED: Bug where Ascension victory was not being handled correctly and was resulting in a military loss (default for unknown game over condition).

+ FIXED: Bug where certain races didn't have anything regarding their relations with you in their reports when playing as certain races. This would have occurred for the Drengin viewing Torians, Iconians viewing various races, and Drath viewing Altarians.

+ FIXED: Bugs with initializing asteroid fields and other game objects

+ FIXED: Missing image for Interstellar refinery

+ FIXED: Crash caused when Terror star blew up colony with an agent on it

+ FIXED: Bug where after a starbase built on an ascension crystal is destroyed, the ascension crystal reappeared but was not detected by the mouse hit detection or collision detection code

+ FIXED: Bug where ships designed for the player by the AI were not showing up under Core ships filters on most lists

+ FIXED: Bugs with having the dreadlords in a scenario

+ FIXED: Bug in the resource manager that may have caused textures not to load

+ FIXED: Whoever manually edited starbaseModules.xml forgot to put closing tags for the "Mining Matrix" and "Advanced Mining Matrix" modules they added. Fixed it in twilight/data/english as well as twilight/metaverseData/English

+ TWEAK: Disabled playing DA or DL campaign in TA

+ TWEAK: Took out skip internet check option because it doesn't do anything

+ TWEAK: Added code to make sure that the AI is not affected by auto launch code

+ TWEAK: Increased max number of asteroid fields to 500 from 250 so that the game won't run out of available asteroid fields when destroying star systems with Terror stars. May increase it further for custom maps.

+ TWEAK: Assigned Ascension victory weight of 2.5

+ TWEAK: Added code to print out AI intelligence values to debug.err when loading a save game

+ TWEAK: AI will now design ships for player after unlocking ship components or researching miniaturization

+ TWEAK: Fixed typo in Krynn Tech tree

+ TWEAK: Made it so that you can't select the dread lords tech tree to use for your race

+ TWEAK: in scenario editor, made it so you can't set the Dreadlords as the player race. This was a bug that existed in the old scenario editor and was overlooked until a user had pointed it out to Cari today.

+ TWEAK: In an effort to get more information about why some ships are invisible, I added information to the “CloneFrames failed” message

Comments (Page 2)

mystic

on Apr 11, 2008

no AI update?

CariElf

on Apr 11, 2008

But we WANT to be able to play as the Dread Lords............

It's not actually possible because they are technically a minor race, although they have their own AI. Also, they don't have all of the models that they need.

Yes, will we? What else should the unique trees be for?

To give us better control of what techs they have access to. We were talking about gimping the minor race tech tree and maybe making the Dread Lords techs more powerful so that if you take over a Dread Lords world, you have the chance to steal a really awesome tech.

By the way, have you considered making a separate tab to place the AI designed ships into?

Well, we don't really have the room. Also, the number of core ships that will show up is now reduced. Only the cargo hulled ships and the scout will show up now. The rest are loaded invisibly for use in custom maps, campaigns and tournaments or free ships from random events.

thehandofzarquon

on Apr 11, 2008

Sounds like good ideas to me.

Would the awesome Dread Lords techs be unique?

As for the Minor Races... it would be kinda nice if the Dark Yor got a gimped version of the Yor tech tree.

The Snathi could probably benefit from a different tree too, but I'm not sure what (Drengin/Korath?). The other Minor Races fit a gimped version of the Terran tree well enough, though.

Loupdinour

on Apr 11, 2008

Oh man, I hope they show up with a battleship in orbit now then. Giving uber-tech steals a possibility from the DL will shorten their lifespan even further than they are for me now.

VermiciousKnid

on Apr 11, 2008

no AI update?

I was about to ask this same question.

With this being the 'final' scheduled beta before release (if it's still on track for the 23rd), where/when is the massive AI overhaul/tweeking we have been hearing about coming? So far only the Drengin seem to have gotten any attention.

DisneyDestroyer

on Apr 11, 2008

I don't understand what's NEW in the Dreadlord or Minor Race tech trees.

I compared with the Terran tech tree. The humans have a few extra techs, but none for DL or Minor. There's also no difference between DL vs Minor.

Is this simply setting things up for a future change, or is it supposed to be distinct in this release?

Zyxpsilon

on Apr 11, 2008

As usual, this Beta run is proving to be filled with surprises as we all go along. Gosh, i suddenly realize just keeping track of that much 'Tweaks' & 'Fixes' is really an amazing programming task(s) by everyone in the Dev-Dept as it involves thorough (more like -- perrrrfecto!) understanding of a huge amount of features.

Serious, i think 29.95$US for the expansion is a tremendous price. It will certainly feel more like a major version - to say the least.

Again, thanks for the superb work. SD should expect my certified money_order by mail sometimes next week, just ready for the release date RUSH.

pndrev

on Apr 11, 2008

Actually, if every tweak and fix is properly documented when checking in the source code in their version control system, it's not THAT hard to write a changelog.

CariElf

on Apr 11, 2008

I don't understand what's NEW in the Dreadlord or Minor Race tech trees.I compared with the Terran tech tree. The humans have a few extra techs, but none for DL or Minor. There's also no difference between DL vs Minor.Is this simply setting things up for a future change, or is it supposed to be distinct in this release?

The difference is before they were using the Default tech three, which is compiled from other tech trees and includes the race specific techs from any civs not loaded in the game. The Terran Tech tree is the closest to the tech tree from DA, so we used that as the basis and took out the special techs. As I said above, we would like to tweak these further but we didn't have time before this beta.

no AI update?

Brad was out of town all last week so he didn't have time to work on the AI and besides being swamped this week, he's sick again.

With this being the 'final' scheduled beta before release (if it's still on track for the 23rd), where/when is the massive AI overhaul/tweeking we have been hearing about coming? So far only the Drengin seem to have gotten any attention

Brad was planning on making changes to the other AIs after he saw how the Drengin AI does and then make similar changes to the other AI accounting for their personalities. We could probably do a last minute beta next week, but I have to ask him about that. So I can't guarantee another beta.

Actually, if every tweak and fix is properly documented when checking in the source code in their version control system, it's not THAT hard to write a changelog.

All of the developers send out e-mails with the changes they made when they check in something to the version control system, so when I make the change log, all I have to do is go through the subfolder in my inbox with all of those e-mails. Then I sort them into New, Tweak, Fixed, and try to make them semi-comprehensible to non-developers. I also have to weed out the things that would make no difference to you guys because it's deep in the code, like "wrote new helper function to wrap text for formatted strings because DirectX does a crappy job (well it does!)".

corekase

on Apr 11, 2008

I guess it was because of the missing end-bracket in the XML

(joking), but with 6B the Drengin are now able to use constructors to add Battle Station and Fortification techs to Starbases on my rig. Had to start a new game though. But thats alright

. All in all, thank you for rocking so much! Can't wait for Impulse to flesh out over the next year or so!

di55ec7ion

on Apr 11, 2008

We could probably do a last minute beta next week, but I have to ask him about that. So I can't guarantee another beta.

I think I would rather have a final version of which i think "Wow, its really better than the last beta i played" than "ok, they didnt change much, so the final is okay". It is more a matter of psychology, i want a final version that deserves its name

Bellack

on Apr 11, 2008

But we WANT to be able to play as the Dread Lords............

I have to agree here. It should be an option to play the Dread lords as well as the other minor races if we set the senario up that way. And I would love to see them as a player race anyway.

Alstein

on Apr 11, 2008

Idea: How about some unique racial core ships to help the AI out , like the Arceans getting an core constructor that's cheaper.

DisneyDestroyer

on Apr 12, 2008

Quick reminder: this post isn't on the front GalCiv2 webpage yet.

CariElf

on Apr 12, 2008

Sounds like good ideas to me. Would the awesome Dread Lords techs be unique?

Depends on what we come up with. Mostly I was thinking of just making them more powerful versions of the techs they have now.

Oh man, I hope they show up with a battleship in orbit now then. Giving uber-tech steals a possibility from the DL will shorten their lifespan even further than they are for me now.

Well, don't forget, if we make the DL techs more powerful, that will also make the DL more powerful.

As for the Minor Races... it would be kinda nice if the Dark Yor got a gimped version of the Yor tech tree. The Snathi could probably benefit from a different tree too, but I'm not sure what (Drengin/Korath?). The other Minor Races fit a gimped version of the Terran tree well enough, though.

Hmm, that could be cool. We may not have time to do that before release though. I handed out the 'fix for release' bug lists earlier this week and thos will take top priority.

Idea: How about some unique racial core ships to help the AI out , like the Arceans getting an core constructor that's cheaper.

One of the races has the lite constructor module. The Arceans' core ships will be a little cheaper than the other race's because the engines are stripped off so that they can build them even without the engine techs.

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