Nice review Ormu, and those screenshots look really great! I can't wait to try this amazing mod from medicineman by myself.
To answer some of the topics being discussed:
Ormu wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:34 pm
I also tried to restart this mission from the beginning by editing the save files, but I considered it cheating. For some reason, the total game time counter went buggy as well. I had visited some earlier levels to collect useful vehicles from them but it couldn't have taken 8 hours.
edit: Now that I think about this... could UA add the
entire time spent on a particular level to the total counter each time you exit that level? It might explain this issue.
It seems like true in UA:Source, I haven't checked in the original UA... Personally, I would consider this as a bug if it also happens in the original game.
Incidentally, the total played time displayed in the debriefing screens slightly differ from Save/Load screen: As it only counts the gameplay time from the moment the mission has started, up until the user's host station is placed over open Beam Gate; whereas the time stamps displayed in Save/Load screen next to user profiles do include the additional time taken during the beam out process (i.e. the time taken for units being transported out of the level at the end).
medicineman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:05 am
Ormu wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:34 pm
-- On levels where there's an AI host station on your side, the AI host may create healing vehicles to attack ordinary enemies. Such actions are completely useless of course. This may be hard to fix properly, but using the job_**** parameters creatively might help.
Will make a note to adjust that. Setting everything to 1 ought to do the trick.
The job_ parameters will do the trick for AI adjustments. 0 might be preferable to 1 since apparently it's also a functional value. Also while unverified, lowering a unit's shield value might potentially help at further discouraging its usages, too.
medicineman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:05 am
Ormu wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:34 pm
-- I'm not sure if this can be fixed, but on level 22, the "Atomic Bomb" unit belongs to the AI host station that is on your side. Jumping directly into it is not recommended. You can "hijack" it by drag-selecting multiple vehicles on the map (at least one must already belong to you), but I noticed that this may lead to a crash.
I haven't been able to fix that... The game gives all the units to the last station defined for a given faction. Since the AI comes second in the ldf, it seems to go to that. I'll think of a way to hint that the player has to grab it. Maybe the AI is trying to use it too which could cause it to crash, I'll check.
From my experience, jumping into AI managed vehicles and moving around is fine, but converting them into your control and further giving them orders could be detrimental for the game's stability…
medicineman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:05 am
Ormu wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:34 pm
-- On level 25, the enemy hosts suddenly stopped all construction and vehicle production. After destroying 2 of them, the remaining one started to produce units again. This may be a bug in UA itself.
Might be UA doing something weird. I experienced a serious onslaught.
Hmm... There are many possible reasons for this 'stuck' behaviour: Given that AI host station wasn't out of energy, either the AI host station did not had direct line of sight (AI requires visible targets on the map before they can deploy units there) over enemy units, or (more likely!) the AI host station's movement was somehow stuck at something while attempting to move into other places. Usually, complex collision models of environments and physical properties of individual robos are responsible for this.
You may be able to check if this is the case by manipulating the save game file so that you are in a direct ownership of the problematic AI host station, and verify where its displacement vector is aligned at. If the host station is on the move, then it's doing nothing because it's stuck at the spot (obstalces, terrains... etc.) for some reason.
Similarly, if a host station is designed to 'flux' and 'twist' in the script, when it gets stuck at somewhere or something while en route, it will neither perform 'flux' nor 'twist' when they are moving; even if it may simply look stationary in its position. You can check it in this way, too.
For the record, UA AI will only issue new orders to units after the current orders given to units have been achieved. This logic applies to robo AI as well; the main problem here is that AI cannot actively abort their current orders given to themselves! It is also the lynchpin of the notoriously clumsy radar construction AI.
Perhaps the destruction of other host stations in the level might have had a 'refresh' effect on its routine...?
medicineman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:05 am
Ormu wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:34 pm
-- On level 22, one of the tech upgrades has a misplaced keyword. This is not a serious issue but I noticed this while trying to figure out something else.
-- After beaming out from level 19, bogus vehicles appeared in the creation menu. I beamed out with the Myko vehicles which may have caused this. (I can now see that those vehicles were meant to be used on that level only.) This might be a bug in UA. See the screenshot below.
Will fix the upgrade. Yeah, I need to find a good way to disable those units since they seem to hang around after the level is over (for one level at least). A lazy way might be to copy/paste disable commands into most/all of the other levels.
Since I haven't looked at the file structures of the mod yet, I can't say with certainty but perhaps organising a new set of dedicated and separate unit script files to load and apply into each level when needed accordingly might help? I really liked how Metropolis Dawn expansion made use of numerous data scripts to create more controlled and polished gameplay environment whenever necessary.