0022173: Coarse background simulation causes engineers (edit: most ships) to not function properly - DEV Arcen

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0022173	AI War 2	Bug - Gameplay		Nov 10, 2019 10:50 pm	Nov 14, 2019 4:18 pm

Reporter	wm46	Assigned To	Chris_McElligottPark
Status	resolved	Resolution	fixed
Product Version	1.007 The Player/AI Arms Race Intensifies
Fixed in Version	1.008 Golems And Arks Come Marching In

Summary	0022173: Coarse background simulation causes engineers (edit: most ships) to not function properly
Description	See video: https://youtu.be/5SAYs0IeUOI When coarse simulation is on, it seems like AttackerLogic_Assister does not properly run for un-viewed planets. Engineers will never close the distance to damaged or constructing objects to assist them. Turning coarse simulation off fixes the issue in my simple case of engineers being out of range. I found the bug while typing this up, here's my quick napkin notes I made for myself: Current Sim Cycle = CurrentFrame % 10 -> [0,3] ; R < 3 = 0, R < 6 = 1, R < 8 = 2, else =3 Current BG Step = CurrentFrame % 10 VeryFirstSimStepCalculation ( Current BG Step ) if ( planetIndex % 10 == current BG Step ) ProcessThisSimStep = true deltaTime == nonZero Entity Logic if ( ProcessThisSimStep ) ; planetIndex % 10 == currentFrame % 10 DoForEntities( ReevaluateUnitOrders ) Reevaluate Unit Orders if (currentSimCycleSlow == EntitySimCycleGroup) Do Logic Reminder: currentSimCycleSlow = currentFrame % 10 --> [0,3] EntitySimCycleGroup = KeyID % 10 --> [0,3] Logic only gets run if: currentFrame % 10 == planetIndex % 10, and currentFrame % 10 --> [0,3] == KeyID % 10 --> [0,3] There's about a 70% chance that the logic will never run for a set of ships on a coarse BG planet, and what had happened to me in my Youtube video is that ALL of my engineers happened to not have their KeyID and PlanetIndex line up ( == no engineer movement, == no passive repairing / constructing )
Tags	No tags attached.

BadgerBadger Nov 10, 2019 11:27 pm manager ~0054492	Great bugfinding.

wm46 Nov 10, 2019 11:27 pm reporter ~0054493	It should be noted, it appears that TargetListPlanning and MetalFlowPlanning do not have any restrictions on which ships have their logic runs per frame group, so as long as the ships were in range of something they'd work just fine. It also seems like the imbalance gives the AI a large buff, since the AI can give direct orders to unviewed planets through their "all in" and "breakthrough" logics on the faction logic threads, while your ships might be dicking around on the corner of the map unable to move into position. Note: Protection logic planning also requires planetIndex % 10 == currentFrame % 10. There was a bug report that a person's command station was destroyed and the shields left intact. This can happen because shield protections get cleared if there's no AI ships on the planet, leading to structures being technically unprotected even though they are under the shield. Then when a wave hits: TargetListPlanning runs since there's no restriction on SimGroups. Then CombatStep runs (no restriction on SimGroups), which calls SystemStep (no restriction on SimGroups), which fires at targets in TargetListPlanning. Then since the planet is coarse: 1) the shots insta hit to save time calculating shot movement, resulting in 2) The shots hit before ProtectionPlanning even runs and shields the command station. This will only happen if the command station is within firing distance of the entrance wormhole (which is always the case for snipers).

Chris_McElligottPark Nov 14, 2019 4:13 pm administrator ~0054563	Thank you! Fix 1: * Fixed an issue in the ReevaluateUnitOrders code that would sometimes have background-coarse planets not run the logic for their ships at all. Now those ships only use the secondary "SimCycleGroup_Slow" logic if this is on a "tier 1" planet that gets processed every frame. ** The intent of the sim frame processing was to split it out across multiple frames, which works great on those tier 1 planets, but for planets that are already being split across multiple frames it could mean that their ships might not get new orders ever until the player visited the planet. This could greatly nerf engineers, for example.

Chris_McElligottPark Nov 14, 2019 4:18 pm administrator ~0054565	Thanks! Fix 2: * The forcefield protection planning was being run only intermittently on tier 2 planets, which include player forces that are not being monitored right now. Now it ONLY runs those intermittently on tier 3 planets (no players), and runs them continuously otherwise, so as to never run into cases where enemies could get off a few shots at something of a player that was being protected by a forcefield.

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Nov 10, 2019 10:50 pm	wm46	New Issue
Nov 10, 2019 10:51 pm	wm46	Description Updated
Nov 10, 2019 11:27 pm	BadgerBadger	Note Added: 0054492
Nov 10, 2019 11:27 pm	BadgerBadger	Assigned To	=> Chris_McElligottPark
Nov 10, 2019 11:27 pm	BadgerBadger	Status	new => assigned
Nov 10, 2019 11:27 pm	wm46	Note Added: 0054493
Nov 10, 2019 11:28 pm	wm46	Relationship added	related to 0022165
Nov 14, 2019 4:13 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Note Added: 0054563
Nov 14, 2019 4:18 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Status	assigned => resolved
Nov 14, 2019 4:18 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Resolution	open => fixed
Nov 14, 2019 4:18 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Fixed in Version	=> 1.008 Golems And Arks Come Marching In
Nov 14, 2019 4:18 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Note Added: 0054565