In situations like this, it helps greatly to temporarily add an event to the mission that gives you the variables you want to check as subtitles.
To do that you need a) a message like so:
$Name: DEBUG - slot1
$Team: -1
$MessageNew: XSTR("Slot 1 - $h_slot-1", -1)
$end_multi_text
$[variable name] will be replaced with the current value of the variable.
and b) an event that like this:
$Formula: ( when
( true )
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - slot1"
20
20
( false )
( false )
1000
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - slot2"
20
22
( false )
( false )
1000
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - slot3"
20
24
( false )
( false )
1000
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - slot4"
20
26
( false )
( false )
1000
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - slot5"
20
28
( false )
( false )
1000
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 0"
40
20
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 1"
40
22
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 2"
40
24
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 3"
40
26
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 4"
40
28
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 5"
40
30
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 6"
40
32
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 7"
40
34
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 8a"
40
36
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - anchor slot gr 8b"
40
38
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - turn"
15
15
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - next group"
15
17
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - signals send"
30
15
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - signals limit"
30
17
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
( show-subtitle-text
"DEBUG - timer actual"
45
15
( false )
( false )
1000
1
100
)
)
+Name: DEBUG display
+Repeat Count: -1
+Trigger Count: 99999999
+Interval: 1
This should help you to track if and when the variable check occurs and if anything interferres with it.
Oh, and before I forget one of the basics: you are running the missions as a small campaign for testing? - because persistent variables will never work in the mission simulator