Bug Reporting Thread

Chris H.'s Ultima / ACS-style game development system!

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Bug Reporting Thread

Post by Garth's Equipment Shop »

Report A Bug Thread - Anything that seems amiss while working with any of the ACK editors.

List of old Bug Reports from individual threads started before this thread existed:


[BUG] Step Macro Entering Room (Work around found by Admiral Ackguh as well as useful ideas from rld)


[BUG] Creatures Passing Light Source Terrain


Getting / Dropping Vehicles (strange bug?)


Drop/Destroy Object and Step Macro (bug?)


ACK bug - creatures walking over obstacles


Summon Creature Bug?


Two bugs regarding object actions?


Problem with Touch Macro


Double moves by creatures on step macro map edit


Object-triggered macros using LASTMOV


Step macro issues

The original Bug Report thread started by ACK Developer Chris Hopkins: ACK bug discussion thread

Not sure how useful it is now considering how old it is but its here for the sake of thoroughness.
Last edited by Garth's Equipment Shop on Mon Mar 24, 2014 4:02 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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Post by Chris H »

Cool, thanks, this helps. Maybe the manual needs it's own thread. :) I was recently annoyed when I saw that the section on macros didn't list the mathematical operators/functions that can be used.

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Post by Admiral Ackguh »

[BUG] Game Engine

If the player has not yet Talked with any character, any macro code that changes the value of HELLO variables will not work.
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Post by Admiral Ackguh »

[BUG] Game Engine

The RND() function, when used in TITLE or INTRO macros, generates the same numbers.

What I mean is that (say) the same RND(10) in the above macros will always generate (say) a 5 every time the user presses "Run Adventure". This is not easy to explain, but it spoils a game supposed to have random settings for each new game.

WORKAROUND: Put a "press key to continue" prompt at the beginning of a TITLE or INTRO macro, but instead of using WAITKEY or GETKEY, use a special loop:

Code: Select all

1:  SET Z = RND(10)
2:  SET Z = KEYPRESS
3:  IF Z = 0 THEN 1
After this loop. random numbers will be more random, and definitely not the same for each game session. I think the RND() function always starts with the same seed, and the engine "randomizes" it only when game play begins (i.e. after TITLE or INTRO). My loop calls RND() an essentially random number of times determined by player wait time in milliseconds.
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Post by joebonk »

i remembered that the tandy computers always produced the same random results. In the one that had cartridges and had basic built in, the basic command for a random number was always the same. And the ibm clone also produced the same results. On the basic one, if you had a list that said:
1 x = rnd(1 to 10)
2 print x
3 goto 1

then you would get something like 187295073 and it would be the same every time it was run.
I also played ultima5 on the ibm clone and every time I started a save game, I knew what monsters I would have to face as the rnd picker always selected the same ones in order.

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Post by Chris H »

These last couple seem pretty straightforward to fix. (Data structure not set up until first conversation, and random seed not set until gameplay begins)

Are you using the base version or rld's patch? I haven't been able to sync up with him yet, but in the meantime anything I change in the base version, I'll document for him so it's easy to fix in his as well.

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Post by Admiral Ackguh »

joebonk wrote:i remembered that the tandy computers always produced the same random results. In the one that had cartridges and had basic built in, the basic command for a random number was always the same. And the ibm clone also produced the same results. On the basic one, if you had a list that said:
1 x = rnd(1 to 10)
2 print x
3 goto 1

then you would get something like 187295073 and it would be the same every time it was run.
That is exactly the same effect that I described before with the TITLE and INTRO macros. My workaround was based on my previous experience with older computers and operating systems - which is in turn based on a standard randomization technique going back to the 1960s!

No, I'm not that old. I just read old books, including one from the early days of BASIC. That particular version of BASIC had no KEYPRESS or INKEY$ function, but did have RND. A suggested technique was to prompt the user at the beginning of the program for a number, and then run RND that many times (a seed of sorts).
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Post by Admiral Ackguh »

Chris H wrote:Are you using the base version or rld's patch? I haven't been able to sync up with him yet, but in the meantime anything I change in the base version, I'll document for him so it's easy to fix in his as well.
I use the base version.
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summon creature

Post by joebonk »

Bad news, I think summon creature no longer works
I have a misc object (a scroll that summons a demon)
and when I use it nothing happens. The message when used
shows up but nothing happens. And every item that calls a
creature does nothing. I never tested them until today but I had 4 items that hopes to do this.

On the other hand, I have a pyramid portal that the player can not enter unless they have magic item. Now, if the player
can not enter, it ends up bumping the portal instead, and I had it set to summon creature (mummy), and THIS WORKS!
Summon creature just doesn't work with misc objects.
I wondered if it was the patch, but i just tested the pyramid and it still works. The summon creature won't work with the
objects not on map, maybe.

If this is the case maybe I can have it put something on
the map and you have to do a ceremony on the object put
on the map to do it.

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Post by Chris H »

That... Actually makes sense. When called by a map object it knows where to put the new NPC, when called by an inventory object it doesn't know.

This might be fixed in rld's patch. In my project (u4part2) I micromanaged the process and whenever I "create" a creature, I had him hidden somewhere inaccessible and I simply moved him. More work to do it this way though, and the original ACS-inspired way really ought to work.

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Post by joebonk »

Edit: moved that to mapset question.
But here is a bug today:
I set the USE key to override the ready cast and use function.
But when I tried to ready an armor, I suddenly had 255 shields that I didn't set the play to have at start. And the game said I must drop stuff cuz its too heavy. When I replayed it, I double checked if those shields were there at start and they weren't. Then when I went to ready the armor, I couldn't and the same shield showed up in inventory and 255 of them and I couldn't ready anything anymore until I dropped all 255, which i didn't of course.
The fix seems to make the original keys function as they should, cast ready use.
But a small other bug returned, whenever I start a new game, the second or third turn want s to cast a spell, and I have to esc to get out of it but nothing like that happens again. That bug also happened in u4part2. Now I think the two are related since they both happen by setting the USE to replace the others or not. Maybe wrong though.

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[BUG] Game Editors

Post by Garth's Equipment Shop »

New ACK Community member elvisT found a bug while editing people. I confirmed this bug in my own test game. People placed on maps do not get hp updated when you raise their hp in the editor. This means you must go into your maps and replace every instance of them manually with the newly edited version!

http://www.joltcountry.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 5519#75519

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Post by joebonk »

Every cone weapon used by enemies shoots in the opposite direction from the player. If the player walks to above the enemy the cone will shoot down. If the player walks to the right of the enemy the cone shoots left.
Image
The player can shoot the weapon correctly. it's just enemies that always go the wrong direction. always opposite of player. npcs in path of cone still get hurt (in this case in side the fire), but player doesn't since he she can never be in the fire.

UPDATE:
Image
It is also with beam weapons. Again, player can use this weapon fine but enemies always shoot in opposite direction of player. Seems the direction they 'choose' is dependent on where player fired his/her weapon. If the player is above enemy, then fires the weapon, the enemy will start firing in the opposite direction. The player can move anwhere and the enemy weapon will continue firing in that direction. The player could walk into the path of the enemy weapon and then get hurt. But if player walks to the side, and again fires the player weapon, the enmey will change and begin a new but opposite direction. Otherwords, it is always the opposite direction of where player last shoot player's own weapon relative to position of enemy.

All I did was made a range weapon (laser pistol) and set it to beam. The cone weapons do the same thing. I set them to a tile. And the tiles always shoot in the opposite direction.

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[BUG] AGGRO variable

Post by Admiral Ackguh »

This is what the ACK Manual says about AGGRO:
AGGRO: The number of visible creatures currently hostile to the player. (Read-only)
For most battles, it works. These are one where the PC is fighting alone against enemy creatures.

If the PC has allies, however, these allies are counted in AGGRO. Suppose that the PC is aligned Good, and runs into a room full of Good creatures and Evil creatures fighting. AGGRO reports the total number of creatures. In away correct, because they are all hostile to each other, but only some of them hostile to the player. After the last Evil creature is killed, AGGRO still counts the good ones in the death macros - but when the step macro fires, AGGRO becomes zero. That makes it useless in death macros in battles involving allied creatures.

In one game, I made the enemies non-moving so that their death macro could use MAPCHK to count them, rather than using AGGRO. I could also have kept track of how many of them die, by incrementing a variable.
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Post by Garth's Equipment Shop »

Hey Joe did you ever get the enemy ranged weapon problem fixed? I would be surprised if this was an actual bug left in by Chris since this is the first I've ever heard of it happening.

I'm thinking maybe some file or piece of code in a file got corrupt in your copy of ACK and perhaps testing in a newly created test game in a freshly downloaded copy of ACK might fix it. Also is that copy of ACK the default game or is it using rld's megapatch? Not sure it makes a difference but it helps to have all the facts when trying to locate a problem.

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Post by Garth's Equipment Shop »


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Post by joebonk »

Garth's Equipment Shop wrote:Hey Joe did you ever get the enemy ranged weapon problem fixed? I would be surprised if this was an actual bug left in by Chris since this is the first I've ever heard of it happening.

I'm thinking maybe some file or piece of code in a file got corrupt in your copy of ACK and perhaps testing in a newly created test game in a freshly downloaded copy of ACK might fix it. Also is that copy of ACK the default game or is it using rld's megapatch? Not sure it makes a difference but it helps to have all the facts when trying to locate a problem.
Actually I did not get it fixed. And it put on hold my scifi game. It's a big thing if enemies can't shoot lasers at you. Even dragons shooting a spread of fire goes the wrong way. Yes I am using the latest patch. I can't remember the details but I think I tested if u4.2 had any enemies doing it and I think the dragons in the exodus castle had this bug, but I had since embedded the game into my ack folder with the patch so maybe the patch is causing the problem. Unless I'm thinking of something else. If someone is using the patch, could they make a quick test of a game with such a weapon?

If the tile is dots, it will work. But a laser will not and I think setting the tile to a custom graphic will mess it up too. I will download the game and use it separately, test such a weapon, then install the patch and test it again. Then I will create the same weapon again just to see if ack remembers an old state of something. Hope I can fix this one. But I could never do without the patch extras, What a treat :)

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Post by Garth's Equipment Shop »

Attempting to reproduce the problem in a test of my own now. Will report back shortly.

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Post by Garth's Equipment Shop »

Yeah I got same results. I searched the UPDATE.TXT file included with ACK in which Chris lists all of his recent changes to the code. I found this which seems to be related.
----------- Changes in v3.241:

Creatures no longer use area-of-effect weapons like they used to; there were too many conflicting issues with friendly fire, etc. They should still be constrained to the range, but the attack will now just show on the intended target. (I may fix this, or at least make them more visually spectacular again, in a later patch.)
I then searched the manual for some elaboration on this but found nothing specifically about cone or area of effect weapon use by creatures. I guess we will just have to wait for Chris to wander in here to give us more details about what exactly he was doing with the area of effect weapons use by creatures.

Btw, my test took longer than expected because in the process of testing this I stumbled upon a few other annoyances that may or may not be bugs.

1. Could not score any successful ranged attacks on a creature while in a boat nor while on a tile that the creature could not walk on (woodland tile requiring hiking boots in this case). As soon as I exited the boat or woodland tiles so the creature could get to me to attack (a creature with no ranged attack) I was then able to successfully score a hit on it almost immediately (i used 100 ranged skill to test this). So it seems that ranged attacks are somehow nerfed when the creature being attacked is unable to fight back.

2. The test game I used has woodland tiles that can only be passed while wearing hiking boots. When you try to enter a woodland tile without them you get the message that you need hiking boots. Once I put on the boots I can travel those tiles and never see that message again.

However. If while wearing the boots I board a boat and then while boating around the shoreline if I bump into any woodland tiles on the shore I see that message again that I need to be wearing hiking boots even though I actually am wearing them.

I know ways I can prevent that from happening but it just seems like that is something the engine should handle by simply canceling that message while in a boat just like the game doesn't need to inform you that you can't travel on normal passable grassland while in a boat, its just a given.


3. I ran into what I thought was a bug when my character along with his boat disappeared and while invisible couldn't move until I exited the boat then the boat reappeared and I could walk on land. Boarding boat again resulted in same weird effect. What it looked like at the time it happened was that the water icon was set to water but i don't know why that would prevent movement.

So I exited game and went into object editor and looked at water object but no icon was set. So I set it to something to see what would happen. I tried the game again and this time when I entered the boat my character changed to that icon I set for water and was able to boat around. But I knew that wasn't how it was supposed to work for vehicles which should automatically handle the icon changing for you.

So I exited again and changed the water icon back to nothing and checked the boat object to make sure it was proper and it was so I tried the game again and this time the boat worked like normal. So no idea what happened there.
Last edited by Garth's Equipment Shop on Mon Mar 24, 2014 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Garth's Equipment Shop »

Further testing shows I can use ranged weapons effectively from a flying vehicle for which I made a boarding macro to turn fly on, and exit macro to turn it back off.

Also I found there was a step macro running which was an attempt at creating a final fantasy style combat which ran in a loop using mosaics. I never saw any mosaics run as i was testing but perhaps it still somehow messed with the screen as i described in my previous post.

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