Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Chiron News Network => Topic started by: Yitzi on October 26, 2014, 06:01:45 PM

Title: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Yitzi on October 26, 2014, 06:01:45 PM

Includes some useful bugfixes. Details in the .txt file.
Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=281 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=281)

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Guynemer on November 02, 2014, 05:32:33 PM

Thanks again Yitzi!

I noticed a small UI bug, not sure if it was a holdover from a previous version (haven't played since 2.something or other): on the domestic advisor screen, the "Best Bases" area is not displaying correctly.  It just says PSYCH OUTPUT or something or other down the line.  If you click on one, it will display and sort your bases according to minerals, energy, etc, so it is just the UI display itself that is fouled up.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Yitzi on November 02, 2014, 05:51:34 PM

Very strange, as it works fine for me...

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Guynemer on November 02, 2014, 06:32:01 PM

Well that is quite bizarre.  Must have been a snafu with my installation.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Actually, regarding a possible installation snafu... is it normal AI behavior in your patch for an AI to send wave after wave after wave of probe teams to be murdered by the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm?  Or wave after wave of them to simply infiltrate datalinks over and over again?

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 02, 2014, 06:43:54 PM

Sounds typical to me.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Yitzi on November 02, 2014, 07:39:24 PM

Yeah, the AI seems fairly stupid at times...

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Guynemer on November 02, 2014, 09:09:21 PM

C'est la vie.  Just wasn't sure if that was another symptom of a install snafu, or a limitation of what could be done with the AI in a 15-year-old program.  Thanks again for your hard work!

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Yitzi on November 02, 2014, 10:13:08 PM

Quote from: Guynemer on November 02, 2014, 09:09:21 PM

C'est la vie.  Just wasn't sure if that was another symptom of a install snafu, or a limitation of what could be done with the AI in a 15-year-old program.  Thanks again for your hard work!

Actually, I'm pretty sure that more could, in theory, be done with the AI even with a 15-year-old program (I know I've found at least one other place where the AI doesn't make much sense); it's just that the SMAX AI designers seem to have either not been top quality or were short on time.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 02, 2014, 10:20:12 PM

I never thought an incredible amount of effort went into Crossfire as it so clearly did for the original.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Ms Lucifer on November 03, 2014, 08:50:37 AM

Thank you!

Do I need to install 3.1 and 3.2 first?

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: gwillybj on November 03, 2014, 12:04:53 PM

Quote from: Ms Lucifer on November 03, 2014, 08:50:37 AM

Thank you!

Do I need to install 3.1 and 3.2 first?

No.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Guynemer on November 04, 2014, 08:33:55 PM

I did a fresh install from GOG on my wife's netbook and installed the patch, and still got that weird best base UI thing.  I'll try to get a screenshot to post here.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: CuriousCursor on November 13, 2014, 07:56:41 PM

Screens for what Guy is seeing attached.

First shot is of the Best Bases screen from a game started under Yitzi's 3.3 patch with the enhanced information flag in alphax.txt set to 0.

Second shot is from the same game loaded after setting the enhanced information flag to 1.

Hope this helps.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Yitzi on November 13, 2014, 08:20:26 PM

Very strange, as I'm not getting that bug...

CuriousCursor, are you getting it on your own machine, or did you get those files from Guy?

And I'd like input from everyone else, about whether they are encountering this bug or not (and whether they got from GOG before patching or not; that shouldn't make a difference, but maybe it is.)

Another question: With enhanced information, going into each base screen should cause there to be a number after "PSYCH" in the upper middle buttons corresponding essentially to talents minus drones (but also maybe counting "virtual" talents and drones, superdrones, etc. depending on which drone rules you're playing with); the number on the base screen should correspond to one of those bases, probably either the last one in the base listing or the last one you visited.  I'd like to know which base it actually does correspond to.

And there are some more things that require someone who has the bug and is willing to help me by using a debugger to figure out what's going on...I have an idea of what sort of thing might be going on, except that I'd need confirmation and can't do it myself because I don't have the bug...

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: TarMinyatur on November 13, 2014, 08:48:58 PM

If I load a saved game from patch 3.2, I get the enhanced information bug described by CuriousCursor.

If I start a new game using patch 3.3, the display of "Best Bases" is normal.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Yitzi on November 13, 2014, 09:06:27 PM

Quote from: TarMinyatur on November 13, 2014, 08:48:58 PM

If I load a saved game from patch 3.2, I get the enhanced information bug described by CuriousCursor.

If I start a new game using patch 3.3, the display of "Best Bases" is normal.

On the plus side, this means that it was probably already been fixed by one of the other fixes, and the problem simply persists through savegames, but once the existing savegames are completed the problem will be solved for good.  On the downside, it will probably be extremely difficult to fix it in the existing savegames, and it may be better to simply not use enhanced information until starting a new game with 3.3.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: gwillybj on November 13, 2014, 09:08:37 PM

Yitzi, I hope this zipfile helps:
A savegame started in version 3.3 --  you need only load the game and press F4 then Best Bases, and the list will be all PSYCH (0).
A screenshot of the debugger at that point.
The edited alphax.txt used in that game (don't know if it's needed).

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Yitzi on November 13, 2014, 09:17:35 PM

Well, I found why it wasn't happening for me: It only happens if you have more than one base, and my test game had only one base.

Now I think I know what's going on, and I just have to figure out the best way to fix it.

(By the way, where's the faction pack you were using for that game?)

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: gwillybj on November 13, 2014, 09:40:26 PM

As to the glitch: It happens when I load that savegame in [3.2] but not in [3.1e]. As you mentioned, it happened only after the second base was founded.

The factions are just a bunch of "blanks" I use to test things. I start the game with Randomized Personalities and Priorities, so I never know from one game to the next how each will play out.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: gwillybj on November 13, 2014, 10:08:21 PM

Any chance it might be related to alphax.txt? There is only one line different from [3.1e] to [3.2], which is the added line at the end of #RULES:

2,       ; Talents granted by Paradise garden {0 to 127, or -128 to -1 for fraction of base size: -1 means equal to size, -2 means size/2, etc.}

I don't know if that's useful or not  :-\

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Guynemer on November 13, 2014, 10:09:07 PM

I didn't touch your txt files at all; just installed the 3.3 patch on a fresh GOG install.  It showed up on my desktop and my wife's notebook, neither one had ever had SMAC/X installed before (got a new desktop a few months ago).

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Yitzi on November 13, 2014, 10:39:53 PM

Quote from: gwillybj on November 13, 2014, 10:08:21 PM

Any chance it might be related to alphax.txt? There is only one line different from [3.1e] to [3.2], which is the added line at the end of #RULES:

2,       ; Talents granted by Paradise garden {0 to 127, or -128 to -1 for fraction of base size: -1 means equal to size, -2 means size/2, etc.}

I don't know if that's useful or not  :-\

The paradise garden change wouldn't affect this; if it's not happening in 3.1e, that's probably due to one of the bugs fixed at 3.2 covering it up.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: CuriousCursor on November 14, 2014, 08:02:03 AM

Quote from: Yitzi on November 13, 2014, 08:20:26 PM

CuriousCursor, are you getting it on your own machine, or did you get those files from Guy?

The shots were from my own copy of the game. Sorry for that ambiguity; I was obviously seeing the same bug Guy was, and I just figured I'd help move the debug along.

I'd comment about it further, but it looks like you've already squashed this one with 3.3b (That was fast!), so I'll just add my thanks for all the effort you're giving.

Title: Re: Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 3.3
Post by: Dio on November 15, 2014, 03:28:31 AM

Thank you to Yitzi for getting the facilities free after a certain tech working in the alphax file :).