Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 2.5

[TarMinyatur]

Thanks for your collective efforts.

I am encountering a crash with version 2.5.

If the Unit Cost Formula in alphax.txt is set to 2 or 4 (and their derivatives -- 10, 12, 18, 20, 26, or 28), the game crashes as soon as the first base is named.

Exception: Unhandled - C0000095.INT_OVERFLOW

[Yitzi]

I found the problem.  The formula, if you remember, is (weapon cost+armor cost)*chassis cost/4.  This is rounded down, so for a scout patrol there is a cost of 0.  To fix it, simply set chassis costs high enough that every unit has cost at least 1 (or make those that don't into predesigned units and set their cost manually.)  For the original idea of "1 for infantry, 2 for other land and sea units, and 3 for air" you'd want to set chassis costs to 4, 8, and 12 respectively.

[Nexii]

Yay great work as always!  And yay for someone else trying mode 2/4 (actually I've been playing on a mix of modes).  I believe previously mode 2/4 didn't have the divide by 4 applied?  This actually better though since now you can set cost multipliers such as 1.25x, 1.50x, 1.75x, etc.

[Buster's Uncle]

Would it be a good idea to edit something about this into the description with the download?

[Nexii]

It's all in the twiki here

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/New_alphax_variables_in_Yitzi%27s_patch

[Buster's Uncle]

That's nice.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to idiot-proof?  Maybe a master list of boilerplate instructions with each update?

[Yitzi]

Yay great work as always!  And yay for someone else trying mode 2/4 (actually I've been playing on a mix of modes).  I believe previously mode 2/4 didn't have the divide by 4 applied?  This actually better though since now you can set cost multipliers such as 1.25x, 1.50x, 1.75x, etc.

Indeed.  Previously it was a flat 1X for infantry, 3X for air, 2X for everything else.  But I changed it because it allows better multipliers.

That's nice.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to idiot-proof?  Maybe a master list of boilerplate instructions with each update?

There is no such thing as idiot-proof, especially for something like this.  The instructions for each variable are in the wiki, and I generally add new instructions with each update, and I try to make sure that the version included by default in the patch will produce the pre-patch version of the game (except for bugfixes), so that non-idiots can mod safely, but I can't ensure that idiot modding won't break the game.  Although even without my patch, idiot modders wouldn't last long; it's fairly easy to do something like use an invalid key.

[Buster's Uncle]

Well of course.  As the engineers' joke goes, if you make something idiot-proof, the world will build a better idiot.

Include a link to the wiki stuff in your descriptions, though?

[Yitzi]

The wiki entry on the patch has its address in the patch readme ("Full information regarding my patch can be found at http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Yitzi%27s_patch."), and that contains a link to the new alphax variables.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okydoke.  That ought to do it.

[Nexii]

Since related to TarMinyatur's post above.  I noted that when using cost mode:2, adding a special ability to a unit with a weapon+armor cost of 1 crashes the game.  This is even if you set chassis factor to 4 or 8.  Probably order of operations resulting in divide by 0 as you explained already Yitzi

[Yitzi]

Since related to TarMinyatur's post above.  I noted that when using cost mode:2, adding a special ability to a unit with a weapon+armor cost of 1 crashes the game.  This is even if you set chassis factor to 4 or 8.  Probably order of operations resulting in divide by 0 as you explained already Yitzi

Firstly, it's not a divide by 0; it's a unit cost of 0 which actually causes an overflow-based error in the AI calculations.  But what you describe shouldn't happen, and when I tested it (with trained 1/1/1, setting infantry to a chassis cost of 4 and hand weapons to a weapon cost of 0) it did not crash the game.  Maybe you'd better describe exactly what you did that made it crash (i.e. the exact numbers and ability in question.)

[Nexii]

Ok you're right that weapon cost: 0, armor cost: 1 doesn't crash the game.  What I was using was the opposite - weapon cost: 1, armor cost: 0 which crashed the game for me.  At least since the former doesn't crash, I can rework the costs

[Yitzi]

Ok you're right that weapon cost: 0, armor cost: 1 doesn't crash the game.  What I was using was the opposite - weapon cost: 1, armor cost: 0 which crashed the game for me.

Well, that has nothing to do with mode 2; most likely it was trying to calculate the cost of something like Hypnotic Trance, which has cost weapon/armor.  Avoid any special abilities with cost -1 (weapon/armor), and that should work ok too.

[TarMinyatur]

I found the problem.  The formula, if you remember, is (weapon cost+armor cost)*chassis cost/4.  This is rounded down, so for a scout patrol there is a cost of 0.  To fix it, simply set chassis costs high enough that every unit has cost at least 1 (or make those that don't into predesigned units and set their cost manually.)  For the original idea of "1 for infantry, 2 for other land and sea units, and 3 for air" you'd want to set chassis costs to 4, 8, and 12 respectively.

Ah! Thanks again. I'll remember to set chassis costs >= 4 when using Unit Cost Formula #4.