Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 2.4c

[Yitzi]

Yitzi's unofficial SMAX patch 2.4c

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=156

Fixed a bug.

[DreamTwister]

Thanks for working on this. I've tried this out for the first time on this patch, no issues to report.

[Dio]

I have found a bug. This bug occurs when you start a game on a customized random map and then start using the scenario editor. Once you start applying terrain to the map in the scenario editor, the terrain selection interface freezes and you cannot select any other terrain type or any other menu selection.

[BFG]

Wow, you've been BUSY!  Thank you, yitzi.
(I just came back to SMAC/X after a lengthy hiatus.  I had no idea there was so much work being done on a patch.)

Could someone quickly summarize the intent of Yitzi's patch-work?  Specifically, which of the following would best describe it:
(1) Limited to correcting obvious errors, crashes, etc. that remained in the last official patch
(2) Attempts to rework/rebalance various problematic aspects of the game have been added
(3) Attempts to improve the AI in certain areas have been added
(4) Some combination of the above


I'd also be curious if anyone's made use of my new tech icons but that's a different discussion

[Geo]

I have found a bug. This bug occurs when you start a game on a customized random map and then start using the scenario editor. Once you start applying terrain to the map in the scenario editor, the terrain selection interface freezes and you cannot select any other terrain type or any other menu selection.

It works for me.

[Yitzi]

I have found a bug. This bug occurs when you start a game on a customized random map and then start using the scenario editor. Once you start applying terrain to the map in the scenario editor, the terrain selection interface freezes and you cannot select any other terrain type or any other menu selection.

I'll look into it, but if it works for Geo it's very possible I won't be able to replicate it and then I can't really help you unless you provide any files you've changed from standard.

Wow, you've been BUSY!  Thank you, yitzi.
(I just came back to SMAC/X after a lengthy hiatus.  I had no idea there was so much work being done on a patch.)

Could someone quickly summarize the intent of Yitzi's patch-work?  Specifically, which of the following would best describe it:
(1) Limited to correcting obvious errors, crashes, etc. that remained in the last official patch
(2) Attempts to rework/rebalance various problematic aspects of the game have been added
(3) Attempts to improve the AI in certain areas have been added
(4) Some combination of the above


I'd also be curious if anyone's made use of my new tech icons but that's a different discussion

It's a bit of (1), and (3) if I happen to run across it and it's really obviously a mistake, but mostly (2), but with a twist: Because many of these "problematic aspects" are unclear whether they're a problem and if so what the fix is, I don't change them, but rather create a new option in alphax.txt that lets people customize to rebalance as they want.  No clue about the new tech icons; I haven't touched them, though I don't think .exe coding is needed to use them...

[Yitzi]

Dio, I can't replicate your problem, so without files and an exact description of what you do to cause it, I can't really do anything about it.

[BFG]

No clue about the new tech icons; I haven't touched them, though I don't think .exe coding is needed to use them...

It's no big deal.  I just created a couple of SMAC-like icons for "Inertial Damping" and "Global Energy Theory" since, while most of the assets--audio, config file, etc.--made it into the final game for those techs, the icons were lost somewhere along the way.
(The tech024.pcx and tech070.pcx files corresponding to these two technologies are duplicates of others.)

[Dio]

I found a bug in the code. This bug involves the faction energy bonus (abbreviated FACTENERGY) in the script file and the associated code for it in the game. For some reason it is not showing up in the faction budget screen (pop up screen that appears when you press F3).

[Yitzi]

I found a bug in the code. This bug involves the faction energy bonus (abbreviated FACTENERGY) in the script file and the associated code for it in the game. For some reason it is not showing up in the faction budget screen (pop up screen that appears when you press F3).

A few questions:
-Does this bug occur in Kyrub's patch?
-Do you still get the relevant energy interest/penalty, and it just isn't displayed, or does it not work at all?
-Can you provide the faction file of the faction you tested it with?

[Dio]

I found a bug in the code. This bug involves the faction energy bonus (abbreviated FACTENERGY) in the script file and the associated code for it in the game. For some reason it is not showing up in the faction budget screen (pop up screen that appears when you press F3).

A few questions:
-Does this bug occur in Kyrub's patch?
-Do you still get the relevant energy interest/penalty, and it just isn't displayed, or does it not work at all?
-Can you provide the faction file of the faction you tested it with?

This faction rule works as it should in game in both kyrub's SMAX patch and your most recent patch version. However, it does not show up in the faction budget screen in either version. I have tested it with this faction file.

[Yitzi]

I found a bug in the code. This bug involves the faction energy bonus (abbreviated FACTENERGY) in the script file and the associated code for it in the game. For some reason it is not showing up in the faction budget screen (pop up screen that appears when you press F3).

A few questions:
-Does this bug occur in Kyrub's patch?
-Do you still get the relevant energy interest/penalty, and it just isn't displayed, or does it not work at all?
-Can you provide the faction file of the faction you tested it with?

This faction rule works as it should in game in both kyrub's SMAX patch and your most recent patch version. However, it does not show up in the faction budget screen in either version. I have tested it with this faction file.

Ok...I don't think it'll make the short list, but once I finish that (next up, by the way, is scaling support costs and a few support-related fixes, which I'm mostly done with), it's definitely a viable request.

[Dio]

After some testing and tweaking I have learned that the rainfall indicator in the scenario editor is taken directly from the level of cloudiness chosen for the map (sparse clouds=arid, average=moist and dense=rainy). In addition, the brush size selection in the scenario has more bugs than I intially thought. First, their are additional sizes of brushes that can only be selected by going to the brush selection menu under the edit map menu. Also, I have discovered that the the help boxes for the interface brush selection are being drawn from the script or labels file. Note: I am currently working on fixing this and it appears at the moment to me that it is incorrectly drawing the information from the script file.

[Yitzi]

If you come up with a fix, feel free to share it with me (i.e. what section you changed and how), and I can work it into my next patch.

[Dio]

I figured out how to fix the brush help box display bug metioned above. First, go to address 0045B328 and change the constant 0F64 to 0ED4. Then go to address 0045B3E1 and change the constant 0F7C to 0EEC. Then save the changes to the executable file and the bug will be fixed.

The underlying issue was that the game was taking the incorrect labels from the labels.txt file and applying it to the mouse over help boxes. In addition, this particular label drew all the labels from within a certain range of constants and applied them to the interface. This caused the labeling procedure for this interface to function and appear differently from  some of the other labels that you find in the executable code.