UFO:Alien Invasion

Archive => Bugs prior to release 2.3 => Topic started by: Screet on June 04, 2009, 01:42:24 pm

Title: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Screet on June 04, 2009, 01:42:24 pm
Hi,

first a big thank you for this game - last year I had much fun with the latest stable release. Observing the immense changelogs since then, I thought that I should give the development build a try.

I've got a very big problem with all maps that do include Harvesters, as the Harvesters stairs are non-functional both for the aliens and me. As a result, any aliens trapped in the upper level of a Harvester are impossible to shoot. I've observed the same problem in Odie's builds before and after that release, however as I understand it, even the newer releases use the same maps. I'm running them on Vista 64.

The only workaround I could find yet was never to shoot down a Harvester (as auto missions are not possible then) and only use auto missions when I've got a Harvester on the ground. Interestingly, that leads to another observation, surely known: Auto missions always fail completely or are a perfect success. There's never a civilian harmed or a single soldier lost with them.

Screet, currently downloading R24571 in order to see if aliens still can move to strange places on fighter crash maps (including use of the same space as soldiers do)
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: vedrit on June 04, 2009, 09:23:07 pm
I have run into this problem myself, and asked. The reply I got was that its an issue with the pathfinding system. Until that system gets fixed, there will be continuous issues with some stairs
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Destructavator on June 04, 2009, 09:33:34 pm
Very recently in the SVN I saw a commit made to the pathfinding code by Wilminator, I don't know how much that commit fixed with regards to this issue.

Right now as I type I've updated from SVN and I'm re-compiling all maps on one of my computers, but it'll be a while before they finish and I can test the current trunk.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: odie on June 05, 2009, 06:06:26 am
Hmmm, as far as i know, the complete maps recompile as of 24498 and my last update as of yesterday still did not quite fixed it. Doing a complete recompilation of maps this afternoon and uploading for us all tonite (whose who wans) so that we can all test out ok?

:)

Cheers!

-> Destructavator,

U doing this on ur linux machine or win32 or win64 machine?? :D
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: vedrit on June 05, 2009, 09:06:05 pm
One time, I could go about half way up the ramp before I could go no further
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: odie on June 06, 2009, 09:00:22 am
One time, I could go about half way up the ramp before I could go no further

Hi vedrit,

Its a common issue. I face this quite often on harvester maps too. Mostly i cant go up...... at all.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Catty Nebulart on June 12, 2009, 09:14:13 am
I have found I can go up some strairs but not others in r24642. The stairs i can go up are really random, sometimes I can go up the strairs sometimes not.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: vedrit on June 12, 2009, 10:48:30 am
From what I've heard, some of the Harvester "tiles" are fixed, like in Africa, but not in maps that are randomly generated, like the Farm map(s), though, according to the changelog Odie put together, that should be fixed aswell
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Mattn on June 12, 2009, 12:01:09 pm
I have found I can go up some strairs but not others in r24642. The stairs i can go up are really random, sometimes I can go up the strairs sometimes not.

please create screenshots with the cvar debug_map set to 2
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Catty Nebulart on June 12, 2009, 07:49:45 pm
ok I will do so the next time I run into the problem.

Edit; I have not been able to reproduce the error since I updated and now the game tends to crash before I can get to the stairs. :(
mostly with errors like: "ERROR: LE_NotFoundError: Could not get LE with entnum 0 (src/client/events/event/actor/e_event_actorshoot.c:127)"
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Havoc on November 05, 2009, 03:13:52 am
The most recent development build (ufoai_2_3Dev_r26804.exe) has not solved the Harvester UFO stairs problem.  Every single mission I play, it ends up with one alien on deck 2 (floor 2) holed up.

The worst problem about it is my soliders do not do any reaction fire to it and get shot up rather easily.  I could stomach it if I could throw a grenade or two around there and nab em, but its consistently a real problem.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Viento on November 05, 2009, 09:36:26 am
@Havok: I know the problem and I found a solution that works sometimes.

Move in front of the Harvester, shoot the windshield on level 2. You can use grenade launchers and PB-grenades to kill everything in the cockpit. Just don't use airburst to allow the grenades to get into the cockpit.

With a bit of luck (an depending on the map) you can even bounce grenades through one of the entrances of the cockpit. Consequently it is possible to attack the part of the stairs room next to the cockpit.

It's a bit tedious but it sometimes worked for me.

Andy
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: geever on November 05, 2009, 10:56:02 am
The most recent development build (ufoai_2_3Dev_r26804.exe) has not solved the Harvester UFO stairs problem.  Every single mission I play, it ends up with one alien on deck 2 (floor 2) holed up.

Which map is that?

-geever
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Havoc on November 05, 2009, 02:08:27 pm
I know it happened for Cape Town (Africa), Sweeden Industrial (Europe), and possibly Mexico.

The problem is it takes so long to get through a map properly without getting slaughtered at the beginning, so quickly going through them is quite difficult.

I'll start from the beginning and document each map that comes up for play and document each map that bugs up in the harvester.

I know for a certainty that its not just one map that's the problem.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: geever on November 05, 2009, 10:28:17 pm
I know it happened for Cape Town (Africa), Sweeden Industrial (Europe), and possibly Mexico.

You have old versions of maps or old version of the game. This problem was fixed.

-geever
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Havoc on November 06, 2009, 03:29:26 am
First off, this is the most recent build put out by Destructvator (ufoai_2_3Dev_r26804), so its not an old build I decided to resurrect and install/use.


I made certain before I installed this build release, that I deleted any folders or files left behind of the previous version I used the uninstaller on.

I'll do an uninstall and purge to make sure the folder is gone again and no "recycle binned" material is lying around regarding it.  Then reinstall.

Edit:

It seems doing a second uninstall from the newest version, then reinstalling fixed the harvester stairs issue so far. 

Not sure why or how this occured as every time I do an installation of an updated UFO build, I run uninstaller then every time I make certain that the application folder and its contents of the game are deleted.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Destructavator on November 06, 2009, 09:27:13 pm
Actually r26804 is a little out of date already (happens quickly!) - at the time of this post its up to r26940 already.  I'm going to try to upload a new binary for Win32 this weekend since it has been a while, hopefully that will render less headaches during gameplay, for this issue and others I've seen in the forum that have already been addressed with updates to the SVN code since then.

The best way to stay always-up-to-date is still to learn to use SVN and compile the game yourself, although I admit it can be difficult for someone who hasn't done it before and doesn't code.  (Or you can wait until this weekend, when I upload a new installer.)
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Havoc on November 07, 2009, 01:02:56 pm
Depends on the compiler, familiarity with interface, etc, etc. on how quickly I could get up to speed on building a new version.

I graduated from a 4 year program mostly with the typical skill sets and experience of a typical software developer.  (C++, VB.Net, Java, COBOL, Assembly, Oracle, Database Design & Management, etc.)

However, the systems programmer position I'm employed for is a proprietary programming language for proprietary hardware.  So the general public rarely or never knows about what we program in.  It would be nice to regularly use C++,C#, or VB.Net in my daily programming work, but I do what what they pay me to program in.

A lot of what we deal with is a lot of direct hex and binary string processing to communicate with hardware.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Ildamos on November 07, 2009, 05:27:10 pm
Quote
The best way to stay always-up-to-date is still to learn to use SVN and compile the game yourself, although I admit it can be difficult for someone who hasn't done it before and doesn't code.  (Or you can wait until this weekend, when I upload a new installer.)

Hello Destructavator. Any chance someone knowledgeable can make tutorial on this and sticky it? This way, a lot more people can compile the latest builds, ensuring faster bug reporting and a faster release for v2.3.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: geever on November 07, 2009, 06:06:41 pm
Hello Destructavator. Any chance someone knowledgeable can make tutorial on this and sticky it? This way, a lot more people can compile the latest builds, ensuring faster bug reporting and a faster release for v2.3.

We have that. Start at Getting the source (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Getting_the_source).

-geever
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Ildamos on November 08, 2009, 03:16:50 am
Oh hell this is embarrassing. Thanks Geever!
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Destructavator on November 08, 2009, 05:19:19 am
The wiki is usually pretty up-to-date with all the step-by-step instructions, although I'd also suggest using an updated version of CodeBlocks, not the old last official release from the CB website.  I don't recall off-hand what version the wiki links to, but there are also versions I've uploaded and linked to in this forum (under coding).

In the meantime, I'm also currently uploading a new installer (for the game) right now, I'll check it again and give a link in the morning when it is (should be) done.

If you get stuck on any part of the compiling from SVN process, just post your questions and someone will help.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bed, its late where I am...
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Ralgert on November 11, 2009, 01:52:55 pm
Next map found: +frozen
bug ID: 2895849 (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2895849&group_id=157793&atid=805242)
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Ildamos on November 16, 2009, 10:07:47 am
What build?
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Duke on November 16, 2009, 12:17:30 pm
I have already verified it with a rather recent build.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Ildamos on November 17, 2009, 01:57:10 pm
Dang.
Title: Re: R24498 - any solution to Harvester stairs problem?
Post by: Duke on November 17, 2009, 03:22:20 pm
... and Mattn has fixed it today (r27095) :)
Please verify.