[Mephisto]

Hi all, here comes my bug list. I already sent them to Aaron.

1.) Problem with the counting of produced units

Assume 20 Planets are present and colonized. This line should therefore produce 4 "Recon Satellites"
Entry 1 Type := Recon Satellite
Entry 1 Planet Per Item := 50
Entry 1 Must Have At Least := 0

In fact it will produce 4 "Recon Satellites" and puts them in the cargo bay. Everything is fine up to now. The moment the AI launches one satellite, it will forget all launched ones (i.e. here one) and will produce another one for the cargo hold. The problem is that the AI almost always launches all satellites and lays all available mines so there is a steady "drain" of the units out of the cargo. The AI will now try to meet the Entry 1 Planet Per Item:= 50 line again and starts to produce more of the units. This leads to 2 problems:
I.) The AI will not produce any items that are further down in the build list as it is always trying to meet this build line first.
II.) The AI will produce insane amounts of launched satellites and mines. My AI-Narn-Empire now has over 500 recon satellites for about 25 systems. Further the AI will hit the "Max Unit line" of the setting.txt. If so, it can't even launch fighters in a combat.
Solution: Count the spaceborn units just as the units in cargo.


2.) Boarding ships
Boarding ships will not actively engage an enemy ship even when armed with a "real" weapon like a depleted uranium cannon. The boarding ship (BS) will run for the battle field corner until any of the enemy ships lose all of it's shields. If enemy shields are down, the BS will board the enemy. Solution: Make the BS check if enemy shields are down. If not, close in and fire a weapon upon it. Recheck shield status and proceed until successful or destroyed.


3.) Multiplayer
In a multiplayer battle the topmost player of the player list will always move and fire first in a battle. To be added Last to a game (and therefore be at the bottom of the list) is a huge disadvantage in a multiplayer warp point battle.
Solution: A solution would be to make the defenders (i.e. all ships already present in the sector) always move and fire first. If more then one “defender” is present, let the first “mover” be chosen randomly.


4.) “Do not move through minefield”-line
The line is working very good – in fact too good sometimes. If this line is activated, even the AI minesweepers will avoid the mined sector. Therefore it is never cleared and you can even trap the Ai in it’s systems if you mine all there warp points.
1. Solution: Make Minesweepers ignore this line.
2. Solution: Alternatively you can split this line into to: “ALL ships avoid minefields” and “Ships avoid minefields EXCEPT Minesweepers”.


5.) Minesweepers will not enter a mined sector that has enemy units like satellites and mines present. This is good in general but bad if the sector contains mines. In this case, the Minesweeper will stay in an adjacent sector and wait for a warship to destroy the enemy units. Unfortunately the warship will wait in an adjacent sector and wait for a Minesweeper to clear the mines before entering the sector. This way the AI will stack large forces in front of a combo minefield/satellitefield but will never do anything about it.
Solution: Minesweeping is a suicide mission anyway so let the minesweeper enter mined sectors if they contain only satellites or planets. These units/planets can’t even harm a Minesweeper as it will stay out of range in a battle (“Don’t get hurt “ strategy). If the planet contains fighters and destroys the Minesweeper – so be it, at least he has swept the mines and cleared the path for the warships.


6.) Ships will sometimes sit in a enemy minefield (without critical damage) but will never move out of the field. Worse, for some reason the AI will initiate combat with the minefield (don’t know how he is doing this), that take a lot of processor time to process it (of course without a result) and in a simultaneous game he will even attack multiple times.


7.) The population transport minister will often load his cargo ships with population but will not bring it anywhere.
Solution: The Ai should either load and move them or don’t load them (bad because of lost bonuses on “loading” planet, no population growth for loaded population).


8.) The population transport minister will never move population to a planet with 0 population but >0 facilities. As the Ai will not give up planets these 0 population planets are effectively lost for the AI.
Solution: Make the minister move population to 0 population worlds.


9.) Space Yard Ship Production
The AI will try to produce units (like troops) even if the SYS is in deep space.
Solution: Make the Ai check available cargo space in the sector before assigning unit production to a yard. If there is enough space for at least one unit, let it produce it. If not, proceed to a non-unit-item in the scripted build list.
This will also address another production problem. At the moment, the AI will assign an item to a production queue. If it was not successful with the production (i.e. not enough cargo), it will delete the item from the queue and will fill the queue again following the orders from the scripted build list. But there is problem with this: If there is not enough space in the whole empire to create a unit, the Ai will go on and delete it from it’s build queue (not enough space) and add it again (because the script file says so). A nice vicious circle that can stall the production of a whole empire.


10.) The Afterburner item description does not state: “Only one item effective per unit” but in fact only one Afterburner is effective.
Solution: Change the item description.


11.) Experience points for shooting down missiles/fighters
You can earn very much experience point by only shooting down missiles and fighters. Your ships and fleets can read legendary status in only one to two battles.
Solution: Reward fewer experience point for shooting down a missile/fighter. 1/10 would be a good choice IMHO.


12.) In “ship/fleet transfer” menu the ship list will always jump back to the top when you transfer a ship. This can be very annoying when many ships are present and the ships you want to transfer are at the bottom of the list.
Solution: Make the menu stay at the same “height” even if you move a ship.