Bug: Case of the Dying Mages (and God)

[Illuminated One]

Hmm, does that bug only kill units or can it give them afflictions, too?

[archaeolept]

the bug only involves what you see when viewing the battle - the actual results are reported in the battle report, but a different seed somehow is used for the rendition of the battle that you view. You are instead viewing another, equally possible, outcome; just not the one which actually occurred.

[LoloMo]

Llama, the Doomsday2 game has been having problems with battle replays not being the same as the battle result quite often. The last time was turn 47 I believe, happened on a big battle. (It's now turn 49). I play Hinnom in that game.

[NTJedi]

Originally Posted by llamabeast

I'm also of the opinion that it isn't to do with OS differences, but I can check if it's run on the LlamaServer, since I have Ubuntu (Linux) both on my server and at home.

I've played many Dom_3 games which uses only a single OS, for both SP and MP(hotseat) games... and I can confirm I've experienced this issue as well.
This issue is extremely rare, but does exist. It's possible for this issue to work in favor of the player as well.

This issue has been around for a very long time... unfortunately unless we can find the exact steps to reproduce the issue it will never be fixed.

Originally Posted by LoloMo

Llama, the Doomsday2 game has been having problems with battle replays not being the same as the battle result quite often. The last time was turn 47 I believe, happened on a big battle. (It's now turn 49). I play Hinnom in that game.

If you can find the exact steps for reproducing this issue... it would be the most major bug which needs fixing.
It would be Bold Red with exlamations.

[lch]

In a blitz that I've been hosting recently there was a report of a replay problem, too. It involves an Ettin Hero dying in a battle to maggots, where he is wielding an Elixir of Life.

Zeldor on Linux 64bit Kubuntu and me on Linux 32bit Gentoo see the Ettin route before he is using the elixir and escaping safely. Hadrian_II, who is on Linux as well, I believe, is seeing the same as what the server, which is on Linux 32bit (Ubuntu), wrote in the log files: That the Elixir of Life is used the turn before the Ettin routes, and then he dies to maggots after routing. The unit is missing in the new turn, so it must have really died, as indicated by these lines from the logs as well:

hitunit 3031 3392 dmg6 spec262272 ba-1
damage 11 on Ettin Mandragora, spec0x2000 ba0
Squad -1 has 14 morale problems (fullss 1 limit 0)
Squad -1 check:___ goodmorale 20+5 badmorale 13+13
rightplayer teamhp 0 max 232
Army rout 100 for Pangaea
Mrlreport (right): good0 broken12 autobreak125 turn7
autobreak 125 for Pangaea
broken unit 3031 removed from bg
damage 10 on Ettin Mandragora, spec0x2000 ba0
damage 9 on Ettin Mandragora, spec0x2000 ba0
damage 9 on Ettin Mandragora, spec0x2000 ba0
damage 8 on Ettin Mandragora, spec0x2000 ba0
looseallitems: cnr 46(Awesome) unr 3031

Attached are the game files. The battle can be inspected for Pangaea, in Patala (province number 32).

Could people that do see the Ettin use the Elixir of Life before routing write what OS they have?

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by LoloMo

Llama, the Doomsday2 game has been having problems with battle replays not being the same as the battle result quite often. The last time was turn 47 I believe, happened on a big battle. (It's now turn 49). I play Hinnom in that game.

I confirm. In this game almost all of my battles have different outcome than the replay shows. Usually it's something of little meaning like wrong aflictions. Big battles differ very much. Some of them, like the example above (I play Lanka there), differ completely giving the win to the wrong side.
I could find more examples if needed.

[Reay]

In a game last year I had a lot of battles that were wrong. In most of my other games I can't remember having any incorrect battle replays. Perhaps once a game is corrupted it continues to happen on a regular basis.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Reay

In a game last year I had a lot of battles that were wrong. In most of my other games I can't remember having any incorrect battle replays. Perhaps once a game is corrupted it continues to happen on a regular basis.

Actually, that might be the genesis of it. Perhaps the game states have gotten corrupted even before the battle.

I don't know how the game state is maintained. Is that the fatherland file?

Game state being the list of all territories, units etc.
Interesting question.

If list of all units is distributed to all users, it is subject to attack - and corruption.

If only the list of known objects is distributed to each user (units owned, seen, interacted with) then adds moves and changes may not be happening consistently across playerlists (reconciling actions between the player's list and the overall manifest.

If the complete manifest is given to each player, you could CRC it and see if the manifests were the same for the server and each player.

If the people from illwinter are reading this thread, I'd like to make a suggestion:

Some of the results I've seen from this bug cannot be the result of just a different number seed.

For example. You send 4 SC's and 200 troops into a province, with a single scout. My results say I won without a single casualty.

But the server results were I lost - thats just simply not possible as a result of a battle bug.

This seems more of a problem with the results of the battle being misapplied.

[archaeolept]

lch, running XP, I see the battle as you and zeldor do - he escapes w/ an unused elixir and 30 hp. I would guess there was a little corruption in the fatherland file; I find it unlikely, though possible, that Hadrian saw something different - if he does, then I would look to the 32bit Ubuntu that the server was running.

[Illuminated One]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

If list of all units is distributed to all users, it is subject to attack - and corruption.

I think each user gets only the units he owns.
Battle replays are saved independently of real units. Meaning real units never show in a battle replay only copies of them.

For example. You send 4 SC's and 200 troops into a province, with a single scout. My results say I won without a single casualty.

But the server results were I lost - thats just simply not possible as a result of a battle bug.

This seems more of a problem with the results of the battle being misapplied.

Did that ever happen?
I had other bugs like a forger getting feebleminded because he was sneaking around an enemy province with an astral mage in it.
As I understand that should only happen to a mind hunter (had those, too).
Maybe there is another bug where the server mixes up unit IDs and applies death/afflictions etc to the wrong units?