Messages

1

Bugs in development version (2.6-dev) / Re: Some fuzzy bugs, appearing simulteneously in current 2.6

« on: July 21, 2022, 03:53:15 pm »

Time to make it clear - problem around intel driver is due to GPU hang, as kernel log says.
Exact reason is, of course, not clear - someone confirmed it to be hardware bug, reproducing it with windows 10 bootable usb.
It seems, different intel gpu (sandybridge, skylake, etc) may have different hardware bugs, and in my case it's sandybridge, which seems to be enough old.

There's common way, how this bug appears during gameplay:
1. I have a freeze for few seconds, with common situation, that there's smoke in field (though could be also possible due to fire).
2. If camera doesn't move since 1st moment - it's certain, freezes will repeat. 3 freezes are enough for me to crash with batchbuffer problem.
3. What's interesting, it never happens in first move, no matter how much smoke I span - I had 6 of total 8 men with smoke in pockets, each with at least 2 in pockets. Smoked almost area around dropship (in total - I used all TU to just smoke), then left PC without action for number of minutes - no freeze during this time. Freezes started only on next turn, when I got bored of that and began to move soldiers.

2

Tactics / Re: Survival problem using smoke - enemy attack without spotting.

« on: September 13, 2020, 11:02:56 am »

I always put valuable soldiers right into smoke no matter how they cry about it.

I did not mention in situation description, that soldiers stay in smoke, as it's in topic title. It's exactly about cases when attacked soldiers are in smoke. When played very hard at slightly earlier revision, I don't remember anyone in smoke being attacked without previously spotted by someone (if someone can seem me in smoke, I'm likely to see him if he is in scope of whomever he sees).
I'm not sure, how screenshots could help... may be videos could. Or... well, if only I made battlescape projection then added text comments. Could try next time (hope, these static maps are available for skirmish).

As for effectiveness of RF, it's situational. There are exactly two enemy types, against whom RF is good (sometimes only good):
- All melee-only enemies (either bloodspider or blade without sidearm/grenade available). This is good case to set high-TU RF mode, depending on minimal distance, enemy can make from nearest uncovered point to attack range for closest enemy.
- Hovernets at low range. Since they have only one firemode, for 16TU, they are also convenient target. Both during attack (I was able once to do 2 3x AR bursts with hiding/unhiding after each) and for RF - if no other enemies are expected, it's essential to set rifleman to 16x RF mode and shotgunner... two shots are enough in begining, but he's better to not miss, so besides having support, they walk with popguns for first time (4TU with still ability to somehow damage bloodspiders and not bad precision makes it best CC trainee weapon).
I always play to never lose anyone. Moreover at very hard . Sometimes it's too unclear, who are to be targed by enemy.

3

Tactics / Survival problem using smoke - enemy attack without spotting.

« on: September 04, 2020, 02:57:50 pm »

Previous times I successfuly used smoke to prevent enemy attacking soldier without getting right to next tile near him. At such distance units are usually spoted if in field of view (3 squares in front of my soldier, side squares are out). As result, enemy could not attack without reaction fire. Of course if enemy did not split spotter/attacker roles between different units.

Now I try latest July master commit (build near of mid-august), finally decided to master very hard level. I'm not sure, is it due to difficulty or code change (probably regression), but at least in some cases none of my soldiers spoted anyone (no even dedicated spotter) before being attacked. Smoke definitely works even if soldier stays at last covered tile before open area (otherwise reaction fire would be triggered from there too).

Examples (usually with shevaar, though could be with tamans too):

1. At mansion with panic room defense objective, minimal version (no garden part, spawning near underground far entrance).
- Two soldiers, one sabot-shotgunner with bomberman approaching underground service transport entrance in main building, shevaar is wondering inside. Those men are staying so, that full slope width is in fov (even if enemy passed behind, there would be spotting message with camera movement). People where attacked when slightly more than half of slope length remained, shevaar still was inside. Noone was ever spoted. I'm just not sure if attacker got close. On next round I discovered possible attacker (one shevaar outside) at side upstair (spoted with men, approaching main entrance). No way shevaar could do it if approached where could be spoted.
1.1. Same, but with armored taman with plasma rifle, this time it did not move after shot, yet it was right near of jalousie gates. Both cases - there is no dedicated spotter.
1.2. Other case on same mission - two men approaching to farthest (service non-underground) entrance. Again shevaar. Men stoped behind protrusion from side wall, before light column and car. One right behind protrusion, second near. Shevaar ended at other side of protrusion, right in inner corner, still trying to fire - probably to second one. Though this time line of fire reliably crossed protrusion.
2. Military bunker map. Several man approaching left entrance (ground level). Sabot-shotgunner in middle of corridor (3 tiles wide), filled by smoke. By some reason only 2 tiles wide part was filled. Two more man ended up right befind that part: sniper, who made two shots to shevaar inside (at entrance to baracks at left). Shotgunner, from seating missed 4 shots, left last for reaction fire (it was expert-level, but distance was maximum for sabot shotgun). Shotgunner was several tiles back from entrance corridor end. I don't know, who was target, but that shotgunner got hit, than that shevaar fall to sleep closest to split wall, leading to lift. There was shevaar in room, pretty able to shoot and hide remaining soldiers (that highly wanted sniper), but it only ended closer to barrack door.

4

Design / Re: RE: Weapon Proposals[1st Post-nub-INCOMPLETE]

« on: August 28, 2020, 07:33:10 pm »

I begin to think, that they don't even read topics, saying about new weapons, new ammo or any changes in caption, like my own .

Just some rationale to enhance above:
It's clear that up to 2050 world could move further towads "human" weapons using as low as possible calibers. But at least when Phalanx project is started (begining of gameplay), it's should be clear, that more effective weapons could be discovered in near past. Lower caliber means not only weaker rounds but also less acceleration force (thus anti-armor effect).

- Using rifle caliber (lower than pistol's standard cal) took place during WWII. With lower caliber - could be some spy weapon, for hidden target kill (should avoid even some clothes, not only armor), but choosing such as best anti-alien weapon in the world (sic) by dedicated anti-alien company looks rather funny (may be taman eye could suffer from that). So, 8mm or 9mm, possibly with subcaliber darts (later plasma bullet) is necessary.
- .50cal assault rifle (there is known real world implementation) could be great as heavy assault rifle (as with needlers).
- Light Machinegun (that one with 5.56mm caliber) - needs higher ROF than assault rifle.
- 7.62mm (RW general purpose) machinegun could take role of heavier machinegun (again as with needlers).
- Choosing semi-auto only variant for shotgun looks not enough, we already have (in RW) full-auto shotguns. Riot shotgun could be full-auto weapon with some burst modes (3x, 5x).
- Oh, and low-cal pistol _Must_ have burst fire mode in order to be rated as anti-alien weapon.
- Pistol shotgun must be able to use all ammo, usable by riot shotgun. With slugs it could be better pistol variant. Finally it's not supposed to be shooted in gangsta style, so such weapon must have special butt, usable for heavy one-hand weapons (same for auto-pistol).
- Also heavier machinegun could just have even higher ROF, probably be revolver gun. 3-barreled XM is too unrealistic for game, pursuing realism. At least it must get rid of electric motor. Making it revolver gun, with balanced automatics and powerful muzzle brake (using full exhaust separation after bullet pass via dedicated gas engine) would make such MG usable in man-portable role.
- Oh, just for multibarrel - 4-barrel 20mm electric-driven... avia cannon. Seriously? Devil knows, how phalanx could mark it as best anti-alien weapon in 2049. Even RW USA uses 30mm 7-barrel as really best anti-tank weapon for it's as famous fighter-bomber. It could be not worst if could get rid of electric motor (it would need more power for 4 barrels than it's now for 6 or 7 of them). Looks funny side by side with 20mm anti-material SR, chosen by phalanx as only (and world best) sniper weapon.
- There could be one- or two-barrel (gast) version with higher caliber, enough to take medium-weight weapon role. Could be same minirockets, but still with more ammo and precision.

All earth bullet/projectile weapon could have additional ammo types.
- "alien" subcaliber darts from alien materials. If coilgun choose it for it's ammo type, then why not try it for everything else. Also good for railgun. It would be great upgrade after alien materials are researched, before plasma bullets and coilgun are available.
- Coilgun looks better choice for antimatter rounds than railgun, due to (audibly) even softer projectile start. Also it could fire full-caliber explosive rounds (lower caliber than for GL). Plasma blade bullet would be ideal for such precise round launcher (unlike grenade launcher).
- Alien needlers could use with minimal changes any other ammo, designed at earth. Auto-coilgun, serving as more advanced replacement for machineguns.

By the way... Laser and plasma wounds should not bleed. Yet cyber organisms could also bleed (from hydroulic systems) and malfunction (in form of reduced speed).

5

Discussion / Carbon nanotubes is not best armor material on earth

« on: August 28, 2020, 05:21:32 pm »

I just discovered carbon nanotubes could be not best armor material against alien weaponry (even today).
Hope it will make sence to be noted here .

This link is from CNT wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boron_nitride_nanotube

It's claimed to have same mechanical properties (or at least tensile strength - not sure if it same about others, including pressure resistance), but higher thermal stability - CNT is claimed to fail at 400°C with BNNT at 90°C.

One publication clames BNNT is even stronger than CNT.
https://www.materialsforengineering.co.uk/engineering-materials-news/boron-nanotubes-are-stronger-than-carbon-nanotubes/111959/

Yet during previous search I noticed SiC nanotubes mentioned, but can't find anything about it with unrestricted read access. Everything I could find requires some login (for begining... did not try to go any further).

6

Bugs in development version (2.6-dev) / Re: Some fuzzy bugs, appearing simulteneously in current 2.6

« on: February 11, 2019, 08:02:40 am »

I got first bug - failing time control buttons. It s not about keyboard. I did some base maintainance in pause when it happened. I had second base building in progress (control center, electrostation, radar, barracks) when core laser research completed, so i began aircraft laser research.

UI_ExecuteLuaEventScript
lua error(0) [node=bases.sections.facilities.content.building_lab, behaviour=panel]: [string "_assets_base.ufo"]:46: attempt to index a nil value

7

Bugs in development version (2.6-dev) / Re: Some fuzzy bugs, appearing simulteneously in current 2.6

« on: February 10, 2019, 08:43:29 pm »

First bug, whose message i can't find both in bugtracker and on forum:

Window 'tipoftheday' not found
Sanity check for script data
...buildings ok
...tech ok
...aircraft ok
...items ok
...nations ok
UI_ExecuteLuaConFunc
lua error(0) [node=bases.current_employees, behaviour=confunc]: [string "bases.ufo"]:105: attempt to index a nil value
UI_ExecuteLuaConFunc
lua error(0) [node=bases.current_employees, behaviour=confunc]: [string "bases.ufo"]:105: attempt to index a nil value
(Error lines pair appeared totally 15 times)

Searching on forum i get this:
Each word must be at least two characters long.

It is only first seconds of new standard gameplay, so no visible issues yet. Possible, that it is not related to there.
For now i only created base at Africa and covered russia with 3 radars.

P.S. I wanted to add new line to terminal to separate visually next log (or some #xxxx separator), but it somehow scrambles terminal's own input feedback, making all input blind. After crash terminal is not restored, requiring to type reset to make input not blind again.

8

Bugs in development version (2.6-dev) / Re: Some fuzzy bugs, appearing simulteneously in current 2.6

« on: February 10, 2019, 10:56:30 am »

Ok

I'm about to try it with new standard game, probably.

> 1) exit from hercules AirCraft (jungle map with crocodile loadscreen)
Is this true only with 4?

Usually if i wanted to cover hercules exit with smoke - the only option was to throw it to floor right before exit, otherwise it rolls down inevitably, also useful to cover soldiers after they did first cleanup. But i never throwed many grenades at one place (though one time during skirmish i tried smoke together with gas grenade - at dumb map, after passing far bridge entrance/exit.

> 2) entrance to the Hunter UfoCraft (Snow map)
What i usually get when smoke is on map, especially in several instances/places - crash with i965: Failed to submit batchbuffer I/O error, but that is way different. Never used smoke right in entrance, since it breaks ir googles which are vital in such places.

9

Linux / Re: X server crash in tactical missions

« on: February 09, 2019, 02:39:08 pm »

Similar crash, but with different conditions, with 2.6-dev.
Exact error seems to be localized to russian:
i965: Failed to submit batchbuffer: ??/???
What i can understand as input/output error.

I believed long time it is driver bug unless found intereting statement:
https://www.reddit.com/r/opengl/comments/89twa8/how_to_work_around_graphics_driver_bugs_i965/

NVidia tends to have the most forgiving drivers, in my experience. AMD has less forgiving drivers. Intel can be downright cruel at times.

On my system it happens after longer time. I have no exact idea of reproducing - last time i played "village" map on very hard, starting game right from point when firebird headed to mission. I made 2 or 3 restarts due to some mistakes, at last managed to eliminate 2/4 enemies and find 3rd in far house, when i got killing freeze - i had another one on same attempt, but it did not crash, probably because i unintentionaly moved camera, because after unlock camera where in one of map corners.

Just before very hard gameplay (my first attempt... btw, whatever they say - unwounded soldier survives single plasma pistol hit even on v-hard) i made standard, trying new for me play order at geoscape, and sometimes i had several tactical missions before crash.

10

Bugs in development version (2.6-dev) / Antimatter transfer vanishes after reloading game

« on: February 09, 2019, 05:29:59 am »

Someone already made this topic in Mac section, but it seems to be independent. If i start new antimatter send, than save and load new save, antimatter disappears from send, while on sender it is like sent, so antimatter is just lost.

11

Bugs in development version (2.6-dev) / Some fuzzy bugs, appearing simulteneously in current 2.6

« on: February 07, 2019, 08:57:42 pm »

I'm playing 2.6, from commit f8a652df9221007449fed3b21c66b28de5a314dd:
* Make it possible to utilize the whole screen on "fill"-ed windows (set proper window size)

During game runing session three bugs begin to appear (nearly at the same time, listing in order i usually notice them during gameplay):
- Movement time indicator doesn't appear when i'm to move soldier.
- For some (but not all) soldiers it is impossible to fire weapons: if i choose fire mode from menu, cursors changes from crosshair with movement position marker to simple green crosshair, but not aiming one. For some soldiers, however, it still works. E.g., i fired with two soldiers than switched to next. Bugs happens with most soldiers, excepting previous two (may be more, but most - exactly).
- Soldiers health bar disappears - i faced it both at geoscape during base management and during mission.

For first i found similar bug:
https://ufoai.org/bugs/ufoalieninvasion/issues/5389

Other two - i don't know what search phrase is suitable, probably it is not reported.
"cannot fire" search on bugtracker gave something seemingly unrelated.

Since first bug could not reproduced by anyone - i don't know, what exactly leads, so i will describe my sequence.
I began new standard game.
- Founded base at africa, added new one lab, factory, interceptor hangar to base.
- Built ufo storage and two radars in south america.
- Dearmed soldiers, pulled out, repulled back 12 soldiers, watching to stats.
- Bought aircraft and soldier gear, selling unused (autopistols, rocket launchers, TR-20, etc).
- Loaded dropship crew with full weight for better training - so base inventory has dozens of GL frag ammo (i made set of versatile groups, each with AR, close combat, sniper and bombers/GL).

Accelerated time until March 26, at then got first scout on base radar (at africa). It landed in close asia city before fighters could reach it - when i got africa happiness lowered just before, i sent stiletto for some patrol to look to edge pieces, uncovered by radar, and it was too far to make it in time.
Bugs appeared during tactical mission. With my full-encumbered soldiers i managed to kill one taman and corner another and spider, tamans are with blades (i prefer snapshots for training, using bursts only in critical situations, as well as pistols intead of shotgun due to better accuracy by default).

I don't know, when healthbar disappeared from stats (i don't monitor it specially during play - it is just crazy, i even forgot about this bug, as it did not happen while i played post-endgame just before this new attempt). So, the only warning that can't be missed is inability to activate firing cursor mode for most soldiers.

Game restart fixes all bugs.
When i played endgame and later at previous attempt, game simply began to slowdown gradually, making some operations torture, e.g. selling/buying or adding items to be sent. But i remember it appearing in begining - can't remember, when this sort of bugs disappeared.

Edit: forgot another symptom - in geoscape time control keys stop working (don't remember what if just click these buttons).

12

Feature Requests / Re: Geoscape labels and hiding alien transports

« on: February 06, 2019, 07:32:57 pm »

Waited unless new incoming transport appeared. However, it disappeared at some distance from base, probably because noticed two crafts (empty firebird with saracen) staying here. It approached only after i managed to send saracen from position before it could be detected. Looks like just one craft is enough to detect, as next time single stingray detected it in minutes or hours of game time after barely made it to rendezvous with transport, moment before it entered to another base.
These labels still could be useful, so that next time you know, where transport is heading after course correction.

P.S. Strange - i enabled reply notification for start message, but still did not get notification (though i got it for another threads, from discussions group).
Update: it is ok now - by some reason email ISP allowed two replies to incoming, while others and next where moved to spam before downloaded.

13

Feature Requests / Geoscape labels and hiding alien transports

« on: February 05, 2019, 05:39:11 pm »

I had complex situation while on geoscape, where i had potential alien base search point (i could catch exact coordinates only after transport left base, though even with almost fine positioning base doesn't appear several days), two more transport approaching (one already corrected course to possible destionation), and for better aircraft load - 1 scout, 2 harvesters (unclear, which are hunting) and 3 missions with 1 terror (can't wait).

To cope with that i had hercules, two saracens and stingrays (using rarely, if no other mean reachable like lure craft, due to pressure of work) and firebird, which i keep specially for alien base search, staying long on same place.

Problem is that transport ufo are more important for tracking, because there is no events for ufo, disappearing by going to base. For now it needs to be manually tracked by transports. One time i waited about week, just keeping 3 crafts just covering disappearance point, and still not found. After reloading to moment of transport approach, i did it in just a day after by finest aircraft placing transport hide point with full zoom). But it was the only job for moment, now it is way harder. For another base i could not remember exact location, because crafts where busy, and determined it exactly only when catched it taking off, but placing on exact takeoff point seems to need much longer than previous case.

Would be very useful to be able to place custom labels, which either don't have functions unlike crafts, installations or missions, or have just one - send some craft to these coordinates, which acts like for mission, but doesn't trigger any actions on arrival, and craft just stays here. In addition, event system could have special events for ufo hiding and unhiding (different from appearing and disappearing in space), where hiding could automatically add label (which may be manually removed when not needed) and unhiding - just like appearing transport - allow to stop time or just make notification.

There could be more uses for labels, such as drafting objects before actually instantiating, for better planning. Some alternative for draftable objects, which may be created like objects, but don't begin build, unless confirmed.

Edit: Added screenshot with all objectives.

14

Discussion / Re: Thermobaric ammo

« on: February 03, 2019, 10:35:58 pm »

Thanks, but i meaned other article, describing principle of bumblebee ammo detonation (which is missing for english). Though english page is still useful - i did not even know that there is GL variant with 1.5 times smaller caliber, but almost same yield.

Edit:
I learned better this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon
Looks like it briefly describes what i previously found only at russian-only page about Thermobaric explosion, referenced from russian version of first link.
So, it is referenced not even by bumblebee page.

Its idea to have fuel mixed with partial amount of oxydizer, begining react (first part) by scattering detonation wave, before second stage (air burning) begins. Which seems to be only true thermobaric variant, effective with calibers, used by infantry weapons.

15

Discussion / Is high resolution texture pack still available?

« on: February 02, 2019, 04:57:27 pm »

I discovered today, that there is separate texture pack, but the only pk3 link i found obsolete:
https://ufoai.org/forum/index.php/topic,5583.msg45052.html#msg45052

Not sure yet, how my i965 sandybridge videosystem will work, just wanted to try.