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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0020337AI War 2Bug - GameplaySep 25, 2018 5:34 pm
ReporterZeusAlmighty Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Status resolvedResolutionfixed 
Product Version0.773 Terrorized By An Infinite Loop 
Fixed in Version0.775 Unit Stacking 
Summary0020337: AI acting erratically and personal ships not firing--reload is getting artificially (i.e.bug) on cool down
DescriptionI have been having issues with this campaign (see borg cube). Ships of all factions have been shooting/acting/moving erratically and my troops in particular seemed to fire only when manually targeting units.

Looking at some of my passive concussion corvettes, I was getting really long weapon cool down when there shouldn't be anything producing this debuff on the planet.

See save:
TagsNo tags attached.

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ZeusAlmighty

Sep 23, 2018 6:18 pm

manager  

Chris_McElligottPark

Sep 23, 2018 7:42 pm

administrator   ~0049410

That's just the meta file, not the actual save. I'm guessing that this is a problem with too many ships and the targeting cycle being overly long, though. If you look in your escape menu under performance you should see it. I bet it's taking a minute plus to get targeting data; they'll shoot after that. I have planned some changes for the next day or two that will bring the number of raw units down into manageable numbers where this won't happen, by "stacking" units.

Most likely your savegame didn't upload because it got too large, again because of the unit bloat.

Chris_McElligottPark

Sep 23, 2018 7:42 pm

administrator   ~0049411

Side note: savegames zip really well.

RocketAssistedPuffin

Sep 24, 2018 9:03 pm

reporter   ~0049432

This still happening to anyone in new version?

Chris_McElligottPark

Sep 25, 2018 5:34 pm

administrator   ~0049488

This should solve it definitively:

* It is now possible for AI/NPC units/squads to be "stacked."
** A stack consists of 2+ identical units, with a little marker on them stating how many are in the stack.
** A stack is able to fire at up to 5x its normal attack power, depending on how many units are in the stack (1 unit in a stack = 2x, 5 units = 5x, 5+ is still 5x).
** A stack takes damage just as it would if it were not a stack. When the current item visible from the stack "dies," then the next item pops out and the stack count goes down by one.
*** Damage does not roll over from one unit in the stack to the next, so this makes AOE weapons weaker against stacks, as well as weapons with a lot of overkill.
** If a tractor is grappling a stack, then each stacked entity counts as 1/4 of a tractor target for purposes of the grappling capacity of the tractor beam.
*** This makes tractor beams substantially stronger against stacked enemies.
** The purpose of stacks is performance and visual decluttering. These keep the battles runnning quickly while still being large.
*** Note that ONLY mobile ships/squads can stack. Turrets and whatnot do not stack.
*** Stacks will typically only kick in when there are more than 50 of a single type of unit on a planet, owned by the same AI/NPC faction.
*** However, there is a max_count_per_npc_faction_before_stack flag that can be assigned to entities to make them stack sooner.
**** The various starships and guardians that have bubble forcefields now have a value of 3 for max_count_per_npc_faction_before_stack.
***** This keeps them from absolutely tanking performance if the AI somehow gets a hold of a ludicrous number of mobile shield generators on one planet, which has happened in the past.
** The stacking logic runs on a background thread on the game host only, and sends out orders across the network to cause units to stack when needed.
** It's worth noting that this also makes savegames WAY smaller during certain ginormo-battles.
** Additionally, when there are stacked units on a planet, and there are fewer than half the stacking cap, then stacks start being slowly split apart.
*** That way you don't wind up with a single stack of 50 units as the last entity, it will spread back out, first to two stacks of 25, and so forth and so on.
** Also note that the combining into stacks is done by mark level, so if there are multiple mark levels at a single planet it will not mix and match and change the difficulty on you.
** Thanks to these changes, our test savegames where we had awful things like literally 10% sim speed and 50+ second targeting cycles now run at full speed within 30 seconds of loading, and have quarter-second targeting cycles as well. In the 10% performance savegame's case, it also reduced the savegame file size from 8.6MB to 1.6MB.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Sep 23, 2018 6:11 pm ZeusAlmighty New Issue
Sep 23, 2018 6:11 pm ZeusAlmighty File Added: weapon reload.savemet
Sep 23, 2018 6:14 pm ZeusAlmighty Description Updated
Sep 23, 2018 6:18 pm ZeusAlmighty File Deleted: weapon reload.savemet
Sep 23, 2018 6:18 pm ZeusAlmighty File Added: weapon reload.savemet
Sep 23, 2018 7:42 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0049410
Sep 23, 2018 7:42 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0049411
Sep 24, 2018 9:03 pm RocketAssistedPuffin Status new => feedback
Sep 24, 2018 9:03 pm RocketAssistedPuffin Note Added: 0049432
Sep 25, 2018 5:34 pm Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark
Sep 25, 2018 5:34 pm Chris_McElligottPark Status feedback => resolved
Sep 25, 2018 5:34 pm Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => fixed
Sep 25, 2018 5:34 pm Chris_McElligottPark Fixed in Version => 0.775 Unit Stacking
Sep 25, 2018 5:34 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0049488