1.08 bugs.

Shadowstar · #1 October 29th, 2006, 07:42 PM

More bugs:

I attacked an AI homeworld, killed all his ships and bases and then sent in a transport to land troops. It did this, but there were no defending troops or anything on the planet, and so there was no ground combat (this in itself seems odd because the population is supposed to make militia units but did not). At first, I thought the transport didn't drop the troops, but then I looked at the planet and it showed my fighters and troops occupying the planet. However, the planet was still under enemy control.

Next turn, suddenly my fighters are launching from the planet and attacking my ships, but they are now controlled by the enemy AI. It seems the AI magically "converted" all of my units. This is indeed a bug. And yes, they are MY fighters as they use my design and design names, so I know the AI didn't just build some of its own fighters.

So there's that bug. Now I just have to figure out if there's a way I can pull this campaign out of the crapper or if I'll just have to give in and glass the planet.

Raapys · #2 October 29th, 2006, 07:48 PM

You sent a transport ship with 'drop cargo' orders?

Shadowstar · #3 October 29th, 2006, 07:51 PM

I sent a transport ship with capture planet orders, the movement order was an attack-move order. I thought about giving attack-seek with the planet targeted, but I figured it wouldn't matter either way. It's not like the planet's going anywhere.

Although if stuff like this keeps happening, I don't think I'd be surprised if it did...

Raapys · #4 October 29th, 2006, 08:01 PM

You did it in a seperate attack from the main battle?

I've only tried a few capture-planet attacks myself, and all the times I let the AI do the actual battle, just having a 'capture planet' strategy on my cargo ship. All those worked fine: the troops were deployed, combat started the next turn.

Perhaps the bug is that you, I assume, had fighters in the cargo ship with which you 'captured'?

Shadowstar · #5 October 29th, 2006, 08:10 PM

Yes, I didn't really need a carrier in the battle so I assumed I'd just use the fighters for air support on the planet. I put a few extras in with the troops and sent the ship off to do its work. The troop transport arrived after the main fleet had already gone in the turn before and took out all the defenses. One reason I did this was to keep the troop transport out of harm's way. It's probably best I did that too, because otherwise the transport would have bee-lined for the planet while my guys were fighting off the defensive ships. When it did arrive, that's exactly what it did, bee-lined for the planet, but by then it had a clear path and reached the planet with no trouble. It turned and flew away after reaching the planet (that's where it dropped the troops I presume) and the planet report then showed my forces occupying the planet.

I would have expected the planet to go to my control at that phase, but there was no ground combat and the planet remained in enemy hands. I've gone ahead and glassed it now and will just land a colony on it next turn. My main reason for attacking this AI was that his homeworld was about 3 sectors away from the warp point into my home system and his ships keep blockading my other warp points. The sooner I get rid of him, the more territory I will have to myself.

Raapys · #6 October 29th, 2006, 08:13 PM

No, if you do it in tactical combat you'll get a message as soon as the ship reaches the planet that your troops have been deployed and that ground combat will start *next* turn.

At any rate, the presence of the fighters is the only explanation I can see as to why it might get 'bugged'. But then again, I'm not really sure how one is supposed to use fighters in ground combat; if they're just supposed to be in the same hex, or if they're supposed to be part of the cargo drop like yours.

Shadowstar · #7 October 29th, 2006, 08:22 PM

I'm using simultaneous movement, everything is handled by the AI. I prefer that because I will be adapting my Starscape mod from SE4 to SE5 and running PBEM games with it, once the game has been patched a bit more. Anyway, playing simultaneous mode helps me get used to the quirks of the AI system and I can learn how to handle strategies and such.

However, as with any AI, it is potentially buggy. I don't get any messages in combat replays, but I'm used to combat from SE4, and there were no messages there either. If fighters are buggering up the ground combat, then I won't use them from now on, but I've read several posts here from people who have used fighters in ground combat and figured I could use them in a "multi-role" sort of way. Just cuz I don't have any carriers, doesn't mean I can't use em in ground combat, or so I thought... Mostly I just wanted to see how fighters play in ground combat, so in some ways it was also an experiment.