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Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:10 pm
by Zireael
1) A weird thing happened. I have a system with a planet - Horst I - but the system shows as Unexplored Region. Tried entering it twice, didn't help.
2) Can't attach saves (I wanted to attach one for the above bug) since the folder shows as empty. FO shows me a list with leftover saves from previous installations (which won't load) and a new save which loads, but I can't find the new save in Windows Explorer.

EDIT: I'll keep playing, maybe the saves will show up...

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:13 pm
by Geoff the Medio
Zireael wrote:FO shows me a list with leftover saves from previous installations (which won't load) and a new save which loads, but I can't find the new save in Windows Explorer.
You must be looking in the wrong directory. Maybe try navigating within the FO file dialog to double-check the location.

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:18 pm
by Zireael
Update: Upon logging out and logging back to my Windows user account, all the saves are gone from FO view, as they should. The folder is empty. Starting a new game with the same settings, to recreate the bug.

Will see if the saves stick. If yes, then at least I know logging in/out of Windows fixes half of the saves issue.

EDIT: They stick now - i.e. both FO and Windows Explorer see the new saves now and the mysterious leftovers are gone.

EDIT 2: The bug didn't pop up at Horst. Playing on...

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:22 pm
by Geoff the Medio
Zireael wrote:Update: Upon logging out and logging back to my Windows user account, all the saves are gone from FO view, as they should. The folder is empty.
I suspect you've got all the old saves still on the drive in some other directory. FO has no way to magically remember old saves; they are files stored somewhere on your computer.

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:27 pm
by Zireael
The point is, there are no physical leftover saves at all (no files in the directory and I never changed the directory).
Yet, somehow, after FO is installed and it is first run, it shows saves which do not exist. None of them load. Any new savegames made do not register (i.e. are not saved to the disk).
The problem disappears after I log off and back into my Windows user account. From then on, everything works as it should.
***
I suspect if I logged off and into my Windows user account before running a newly installed binary, the problem wouldn't appear at all. It seems to be strictly connected to logging off/in or restarting the computer.

Maybe something with the registry? (I have no knowledge of how Windows works, but I know it is recommended to restart your computer or at least log off/in after installing new software; it seems that here we have an example of WHY it is recommended)

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:35 pm
by Zireael
And on a positive note - I love the new entries for many things, especially planet sizes.

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:36 pm
by Geoff the Medio
Zireael wrote:The point is, there are no physical leftover saves at all (no files in the directory and I never changed the directory).
There might be leftover saves somewhere, but you're not looking in the right place, or windows is showing the wrong place. FO has no memory of what saves are present after it is shut down. It's possible, but unlikely, that the GUI might show nonexistent saves if you had the game running and then deleted the saves, but this would probably only happen if you actually had the save file selection dialog open at the time. So, if you were seeing these saves in the GUI, there had to have been something on the disk to prompt their appearance in game. Whether logging out and back would remove these, I don't know.
None of [the saves] load.
This may be just because the save file formats are incompatible.
Any new savegames made do not register (i.e. are not saved to the disk).
This is possible; either the new saves are being put somewhere else than where it's finding the old saves, or the weird redirection windows is doing for some reason means the save fails silently...

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:37 pm
by Geoff the Medio
Zireael wrote:I love the new entries for many things, especially planet sizes.
Not sure what you're referring to...

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:46 pm
by Zireael
Geoff the Medio wrote:
Zireael wrote:I love the new entries for many things, especially planet sizes.
Not sure what you're referring to...
I mean the new description of the Natural Tunnels special.

Oh, and it has me wondering: why are adequate planets worse than poor now? Xenological Genetics tech increases the pop capacity for poor planets by 1,2,3,4 and for adequate planets by 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2.

Prior to researching it, I can colonize poor planets but not adequate planets - that is, poor planets have a max pop of 0.5 or something and adequate planets have max pop of 0.0.

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:07 pm
by Zireael
Okay, the bug with Unexplored Region (mentioned in the first post) surfaced again, on turn 91, after researching Neutron Scanner. In addition, the name of the planet is invisible - see screen.

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:59 pm
by eleazar
Zireael wrote:
Geoff the Medio wrote:Oh, and it has me wondering: why are adequate planets worse than poor now? Xenological Genetics tech increases the pop capacity for poor planets by 1,2,3,4 and for adequate planets by 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2.

Prior to researching it, I can colonize poor planets but not adequate planets - that is, poor planets have a max pop of 0.5 or something and adequate planets have max pop of 0.0.
I'm not done adjusting things. Pop for non- good planets will be wierd as of that revision.

EDIT: should all work as of revision 5014

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:50 am
by Geoff the Medio
The unexplored region system is unexplored because it contains a dimensional rift on the first planet. This makes the system and that planet (and its non-orbital buildings) very stealthy, so ships of your empire can't see most information about them.

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 7:41 am
by Zireael
Ookay... so is there a way to change the display in such cases so that:
1) the top bar says 'Stealthy System' or 'Unknown System' but not 'Unexplored System'
2) the name of the planet is visible even if it is stealthy

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2012 7:07 pm
by eleazar
I gotta agree the current information that is revealed/hidden for a stealthed planet doesn't make much sense.

* What sense does it make to say a system in which you have ships is "unexplored"?

* I presume the planet name is hidden to avoid showing the empire color and thus revealing the owner. Still as is, it looks broken.

Re: Notes on rev 5013

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2012 7:32 pm
by Geoff the Medio
eleazar wrote:* What sense does it make to say a system in which you have ships is "unexplored"?
It's making a distinction between having a ship in a system and actually being able to "explore" it and see the system object's details.
I presume the planet name is hidden to avoid showing the empire color and thus revealing the owner. Still as is, it looks broken.
I suspect it's hidden because the player's empire doesn't have sufficient detection ability to see the planet's details; the client doesn't know what the planet name is (or that there's an empire controlling it).

Perhaps "Obscured System" and "Obscured Planet" would be clearer, though it's a bit tricky to know when to use these labels in the client.

Regarding the unexplored system, is it really important to have a distinct label depending on whether or not an empire has, at some point, had a ship spend a turn in a system?