[Silver83]

I just had a weird experience with the FSPort mission "The Big Bang". I had almost no chance reaching the Asimov in Time. She exploded every time before I even got there. Then I replaced my 3.6.14 RC5 exe with the 3.6.12 final and there was no problem at all killing those bombers in time. I finally managed to kill them with 3.6.14 after the 20th attempt but I'm not sure wether skill or luck were present.

So my question ist: Does 3.6.14 RC5 changes the balancing in some way? And is it intended?

Oh, and after finally solving this mission my aquired Medal of "Conspicuous Gallantry" wasn't shown. Ideas?

[Cobra]

Oh, and after finally solving this mission my aquired Medal of "Conspicuous Gallantry" wasn't shown. Ideas?

You have to save the cruiser as well, I think.

[Silver83]

I'm well aware of that. The debriefing text mentioned the medal...it just wasn't shown on the right side of the screen...

[mjn.mixael]

sounds like the new build brings out some mission bugs. we'll look into.

[Silver83]

Great. Interested in other bugs / strange behaviour I may found?

[Killbot]

Same here with 3.6.14 RC5. I start the mission, get to kill one, two bombers and bang, everyone's dead.



- Edit:

It's ~6 HP for the Asimov in 3.6.14 vs ~56 HP for it in 3.6.12. Go figure why it instablows.

[Mongoose]

If the RC build isn't reading the hull percentage properly, that's certainly troubling.  Not that I know the code back-end, but maybe the bug has to do with this being a scramble mission.

[Goober5000]

It's not the hull percentage, it's the balance.  The Asimov starts at normal hull but quickly gets wtfpwned.

This is why modifying the AI is so problematic.  Somebody screwed up somewhere.

Can someone Mantis this please?

EDIT: And can someone help narrow down the date range when this appeared?  For example, testing the mission on each of the RC builds?  I'm happy to fix this but I unfortunately have very little time to do testing for it.

[Yarn]

RC4 seems to be the build that introduced this. In pre-RC4 builds (including 3.6.12), the Shivans still manage to deal heavy damage to the Asimov in a few seconds, but the mission is still playable most of the time.

The fact that this is a scramble mission appears to have nothing to do with this behavior.

[mjn.mixael]

Do you mean to say that RC3 doesn't have this behavior? Because that could narrow down the search quite a bit...

[Goober5000]

Indeed it could.  That will be quite useful.

What about the heavy damage at the beginning of the mission?  I don't recall that happening in retail.

[General Battuta]

It's not the hull percentage, it's the balance.  The Asimov starts at normal hull but quickly gets wtfpwned.

This is why modifying the AI is so problematic.  Somebody screwed up somewhere.

Can someone Mantis this please?

EDIT: And can someone help narrow down the date range when this appeared?  For example, testing the mission on each of the RC builds?  I'm happy to fix this but I unfortunately have very little time to do testing for it.

We're also getting reports of this in Blue Planet. People thought the ships were self-destructing they were blowing up so fast.

[Yarn]

Do you mean to say that RC3 doesn't have this behavior? Because that could narrow down the search quite a bit...

That's right.

What about the heavy damage at the beginning of the mission?  I don't recall that happening in retail.

It happens in retail FS2 but not in retail FS1. It could be related to how saving all the cargo in "The Hammer and the Anvil" is much more difficult in FSPort than in FS1.

[Goober5000]

We're also getting reports of this in Blue Planet. People thought the ships were self-destructing they were blowing up so fast.

Okay, so it's not mod-specific.  That helps.  Does the behavior change between RC3 and RC4 for BP too?

It happens in retail FS2 but not in retail FS1. It could be related to how saving all the cargo in "The Hammer and the Anvil" is much more difficult in FSPort than in FS1.

That's fine.  The requirement is for FSO to remain compatible with FS2, not necessarily FS1.  (Compatibility with FS1 is desired via table settings if possible, but it shouldn't be the default.  Additionally, we don't have revision control history between FS1 and FS2.)

[General Battuta]

We're also getting reports of this in Blue Planet. People thought the ships were self-destructing they were blowing up so fast.

Okay, so it's not mod-specific.  That helps.  Does the behavior change between RC3 and RC4 for BP too?

I don't know, I haven't booted FreeSpace for months. Hopefully a wonderful person can test and find out.

[Goober5000]

Has someone Mantised this?

[Yarn]

It turns out the Interceptor (both Terran and Shivan variants) is inflicting twice as much damage as it should. The few other weapons that I have tested (Avenger, ML-16, MX-50, Hornet (FS1), and Harpoon) aren't affected, but I'm sure that some others are.

Also, I have a correction to make: this bug was actually introduced between RC2 and RC3.

[Yarn]

Well, I think I found the exact problem: r8155 and r8182 add a damage radius to missiles that should not have one, causing such missiles to inflict double damage. The Interceptor and the Fury are among the handful of affected weapons.

EDIT: This bug is now on Mantis: http://scp.indiegames.us/mantis/view.php?id=2634

[Goober5000]

Aha!  This looks promising.

EDIT: Many thanks for Mantising this.  Check the ticket for details.

[Goober5000]

Fix committed to trunk.