Notes on 5611

[Sloth]

In addition to being doubled specials are spamming buildings and units approximately once every 5 turns or so. In some way that is better. Having a single Dragon Tooth is not particularly useful late game. The multiple Neutronium synthesizers is a bit silly.

It looks like the RemoveSpecial command isn't working. Here is the script:

Code: Select all

        EffectsGroup
            scope = Source
            activation = OwnerHasTech "LRN_XENOARCH"
            effects = [
                AddSpecial "ANCIENT_RUINS_DEPLETED_SPECIAL"
                RemoveSpecial "ANCIENT_RUINS_SPECIAL"
            ]

The new special gets added, but the old one is not removed. I'm sure this script was working fine some time ago.

[Geoff the Medio]

The new special gets added, but the old one is not removed. I'm sure this script was working fine some time ago.

This is also probably just a visibility issue, in which it's not updating the client's universe object info about removed specials.

[Sloth]

The new special gets added, but the old one is not removed. I'm sure this script was working fine some time ago.

This is also probably just a visibility issue, in which it's not updating the client's universe object info about removed specials.

But the removed special is still handing out Neutronium Synthesizers and Dragon Teeth, which should be handled by the server.

[Dilvish]

hmm, does the local empire copy of the universe ever actually create objects from specials? or if it does, do they last more than the single turn they're created, until a new copy of the universe is gotten from the server? It seems like probably not (certainly seems it shouldn't), and so the buildup of more than two of a special-product, where there really should be at most one, indicates something is going wrong on the server side....

[Dilvish]

both planets are within the same range and one registers, the other doesn't. Also, it very often happens to the homeworld that it's not registered as captured (the color stays)

To slightly expand on the answer by Geoff, if your homeworld is lost & you have no more ships nor colonies nor outposts, you have no detection sources & so won't get any more updates on system ownership.

I do think it would be better if, in the case of a planet loss, we were sure to update the ownership at least so that it now longer shows as owned by the player, modifying the planet object-ghost kept as last-visble by the player, perhaps showing its ownership color as grey like we would for a stealthed planet.

As for the two planet scenario, is it perhaps that the first planet to get captured is marked with changed ownership since it is still observed by the second, but the second is not since there is no longer any detector around once it is captured? That seems most likely to me.

[Geoff the Medio]

hmm, does the local empire copy of the universe ever actually create objects from specials?

No.

[Dilvish]

new issue (minorish): it seems that the code for auto-selecting the first ship in a fleet (the motivation for which I think predated the current auto-colonize and auto-invade features) is preventing the auto-invade feature from being able to consider using more than one ship (if any are actually selected, it sticks with them). I think the auto-select-first-ship still has value with respect to outpost ships (until auto-outposting is implemented), but that's it, and should probably be restricted to them, or simply eliminated.

**edit** actually, looks like auto-select of first ship is also blocking auto-colonize and auto-invade if the first ship of the first fleet in the system is not of the right type

[Dilvish]

let me provide a specific example of specials-weirdness:
on turn 62 I colonize Taylor I, which has a single golden pyramid for ancient ruins (I have Active Radar)
on Turn 63 I complete Xenoarcheology
on Turn 64 I get a DragonTooth at Taylor

I next notice that at turn 67 I have a new Dragontooth at Taylor, and it is giving me a distinct extended visibility range, it's not just some kind of ghost. I also notice that there are now 2 Neutronium Synthesizers on Taylor 1, and in addition to the depleted ancient ruins pyramid that I expect, there is also a fresh pristine ancient ruins pyramid showing for Taylor.

On turn 68 the new Dragontooth from turn 67 is on its way elsewhere, and I notice that a third Neutronium Synthesizer has appreared; the 2nd ancient ruins pyramid still reads as fresh.

The next several turns I don't notice anything new, until turn 74 I notice I now have MultiSpectral Shields available. This entire time Taylor I was my only planet with ancient ruins, and at no time did I get a sitrep message about receiving the various benefits, which I seem to recall getting in the past.

Looking over the specials description, it really does seem that Sloth is right, and the "RemoveSpecial" is not working, as well as GenerateSitRepMessage not working.

[unjashfan]

Looking over the specials description, it really does seem that Sloth is right, and the "RemoveSpecial" is not working, as well as GenerateSitRepMessage not working.

I agree. Some sitreps that used to appear now don't, most notably the exobot colony ship being built (though the sitrep for the exobot colony origin building does show up), and domesticated space monster spawns.

[Geoff the Medio]

Some sitreps that used to appear now don't...

Does anything change if you enable show sitreps with errors in the options UI tab at the bottom?

Possibly an attempted effects optimization broke something.

[unjashfan]

To add to the list of weird stuff, here's what I came across: AI somehow managed to troop a planet guarded by the 65k dyson forest horde. How's this possible? Kudos to the AI for giving the forests the finger by trooping in front of their faces

[Zireael]

Not surprising, as the Dyson Forest only dish out 2.0 damage - if the troopers had any battle ships with them...

[Dilvish]

related to RemoveSpecial not working, it appears that "Destroy" is not working either -- my (empire owned) small Snowflake just morphed into a regular snowflake, but it still left the small snowflake behind, fully active.

[davidescott]

related to RemoveSpecial not working, it appears that "Destroy" is not working either -- my (empire owned) small Snowflake just morphed into a regular snowflake, but it still left the small snowflake behind, fully active.

You are going to nerf my Dragon Tooth Battle fleet. It was fun attacking my enemies with 65 Dragon Teeth.

[Geoff the Medio]

Whatever the issue is with specials, it's not specific to the RemoveSpecial effect. I removed all specials but ECCENTRIC_ORBIT_SPECIAL, set its span rate to 99999.0 and changed its effectsgroups to

Code: Select all

    effectsgroups =
        EffectsGroup
            scope = Source
            activation = Turn low = 3
            effects = RemoveSpecial "ECCENTRIC_ORBIT_SPECIAL"

I then started a game and played a few turns, and they all disappeared as expected.

My guess is that it's only properly executing the first effect in a group.

Edit: Should / may be fixed in SVN.