Nasty Drone Bug Reported

[LGM]

One of the players in a PBW game that I am hosting just reported this nasty bug. I suggest that people discuss whether Drones be used in games until this is fixed.

> There is a bug in the game in how it handles Drones and Minefields
> which became evident Last turn.
>
> To confirm the bug, do the following in a test game:
> 1) Put up a minefield around a planet for Player A. (I used 105
> mines in my test)
> 2) Built one small Drone for Player B.
> 3) Targeted above planet with above Drone.
> End result:
> A) Minefield 'triggered' and *all* mines went off. I.e. Minefield gone.
> B) Drone 'survives' and goes on to attack planet.
>
> End result - 1 small Drone clears entire Minefields better than a
> fleet of Minesweepers - and is one heck of a lot cheaper (although
> not reusable).


[ July 29, 2002, 06:12: Message edited by: LGM ]

[dumbluck]

This bug has already been addressed in the next patch!

The problem is that mine warhead damage doesn't stack. There is no partial damage carryover like in weapons fire. So if your unit/component (ie, colony module, Shipyard component, drone, etc.) can withstand a single warhead's damage, it goes untouched.

[ July 29, 2002, 08:18: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

[LGM]

To summarize, the minefield bug which until recently only really applied to level 1 mines, now applies to level 3 mines if a drone is big enough to take 310+ damage. Easy to do with Armor (Organic 2+ or Armor 3) on a Medium or Large drone. Hosts should either ban Drones or make people understand that minefields are next to useless until the next patch.

[capnq]

One could work around this by modding this line of Settings.txt

Drones Can Be Hit By Mines := True

to prevent drones from sweeping minefields.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by capnq:
One could work around this by modding this line of Settings.txt

quote:

---

Drones Can Be Hit By Mines := True

to prevent drones from sweeping minefields.

---

Yes, but onfotunatly this allows the drones to attack the planet without seeping the mines, so the effect is pretty much the same, no?

Geoschmo

[Rollo]

Originally posted by geoschmo:

quote:

---

Originally posted by capnq:
One could work around this by modding this line of Settings.txt

quote:

---

Drones Can Be Hit By Mines := True

to prevent drones from sweeping minefields.

---

Yes, but onfotunatly this allows the drones to attack the planet without seeping the mines, so the effect is pretty much the same, no?

Geoschmo

---

hmm, close but not quite. at least the drones will not be able to clear the road for the fleet

[LGM]

Changing the settings flag would prevent a drone from clearing a minefield to allow a fleet to come in. As it stands today, one drone can clear an entire minefield. The damage to the planet is not as significant as clearing every minefield the drone moves through on its path.

What does it take to get that setting changed for a PBW game? Would it just take message to the administraitor by the host? Would it not affect all games using that Mod set? I I am hosting a 1.67 Standard game.

[geoschmo]

This would require the use of a mod. You could make it an otherwise stock mod with only that change to the settings.txt file. If this is something you want to do, let me know for sure and I can set it up for you on PBW.

Geoschmo

[capnq]

Another way to avoid the problem in new games would be to turn off Drones in game Set-Up/Technology, which would be a lot easier than a mod.

[LGM]

Most people, I figure, want to use Drones since they are new to gold. Turning them off is kind of like going back to 1.49, minus bug fixes and the weapon mount additions. The way I see it, the purpose of buying gold was to get the fix for the combat order problem. Other than that, I see little improved value in the game. We have only seen one patch since January. I guess there are some cosmetic UI changes too. Some might debate that the weapon mount changes were good as planets can be tougher to attack now.