What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

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Dr.MonaLisa
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What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Hello everyone.

This is an atypical topic, as I would like to ask the community of modders to help me research the bug present in EE2 (since ver 1.0 probably).

The bug I'm talking about is that fighter-bombers and bombers are "exploding" their projectiles (bombs, rockets) much higher above all ship units. From what I tested they're attacking ground units correctly, however with ships the explosion effect is always visible so high and unrealistic.

Some screenshots:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.58.22.520.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.58.22.520.jpg (332.79 KiB) Viewed 16855 times
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.58.40.771.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.58.40.771.jpg (348.44 KiB) Viewed 16855 times
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.59.49.597.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.59.49.597.jpg (340.79 KiB) Viewed 16855 times
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_14.14.33.492.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_14.14.33.492.jpg (341.64 KiB) Viewed 16855 times
As first I thought that it's caused by the Planes Height Mod, however, I tested on ver 1.2 and the same thing happens. In fact, on the official version missiles / bombs explode right after the launch.

The test save file is here:
empireearth2://decode-downloader-ee2-sa ... ew&id=1547
Dive bombers Missile Bug 2 (ship).sav
(892.27 KiB) Downloaded 647 times
I think the problem is in ship units, not the planes, but I can't be 100% sure.

Could you guys please try to mod game (of course after backupping it) and play with different values, etc. in order to detect a solution for this bug? Obviously I tried myself, but it's hard for me to focus on it fully.

I'm waiting for ideas and maybe test results from you :)
Best regards,
Dr.MonaLisa
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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by RGV1 »

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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Thank you for your reply, RGV1.

Iwanicki seems to experience this problem too:

Iwanicki_Screenshot 2021-07-19 220654.png
Iwanicki_Screenshot 2021-07-19 220654.png (318.45 KiB) Viewed 16831 times

What I noticed is that this bug can be "fixed" by setting a low unit sizeX, but obviously it's a bad solution.
So it seems like the game things that ships are as tall as their size X / size Y. That's weird.

Do you have any other ideas how to try to fix it?

EDIT:

Helicopters also seem to be affected at higher heights:
helis.jpg
helis.jpg (861.34 KiB) Viewed 16830 times
Best regards,
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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

I have good news!

The upcoming Minor Update 158015 will have the following fix:
- Fixed a bug (present since ver 1.0), where projectiles (usually guided missiles and bombs) were exploding way too high above ships. Reference addresses: 007F7B1C (EE2), 0088E8CC (AOS):
* It was happening, because the game uses the unit size X (width) as their top impact border. It was not that noticeable for the smaller, rounded ground units as much as for the big, elliptical ships.
* The fix detects if the target unit "moveType" is "kUnitMoveType_NavalShallow" or "kUnitMoveType_NavalDeep" and simulates the same behaviour as when attacking buildings. Following with guided missiles is not negatively affected (works in the unchanged form).
* It also improves explosion visuals in lower epochs, during sea battles. Projectiles (including torpedoes) now explode right next to the hull instead of somewhere far beside. Discussion and before/after screenshots are available in this forum topic: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=5491
* WARNING: This update will make previously recorded game playbacks with naval units used - incompatible (they will hang/stop) due to incorrect synchronization. Game saves should not be affected.
This fix is done by the assembly, so I included it to both versions of UP1.5: Normal and Developers.

In short, units with moveType: kUnitMoveType_NavalShallow or kUnitMoveType_NavalDeep will now take projectiles (including bombs) as if they were buildings.

Screenshots:

Sea Battle Before 158015:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.32.21.232.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.32.21.232.jpg (297.12 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

Sea Battle After 158015:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.31.10.343.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.31.10.343.jpg (281.58 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

Torpedoes Before 158015:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.21.20.926.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.21.20.926.jpg (383.69 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

Torpedoes After 158015:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.24.59.419.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.24.59.419.jpg (374.95 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

Fighter Bombers Before 158015:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.29.21.117.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.29.21.117.jpg (386.36 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

Fighter Bombers After 158015:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.27.32.277.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.27.32.277.jpg (397.68 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

Bombers Before 158015:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.29.48.866.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.29.48.866.jpg (403.56 KiB) Viewed 16818 times
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.30.43.407.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.30.43.407.jpg (277.67 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

Bombers After 158015:
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.28.15.940.jpg
EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.28.15.940.jpg (389.25 KiB) Viewed 16818 times
Best regards,
Dr.MonaLisa
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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by RGV1 »

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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

Thanka RGV1! I still have some other things to test / improve before the 158015 release, but please let me know if you would need the updated Developers Version files faster. I think this fix is worth addidng with the update of EE4 mod :)
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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by RGV1 »

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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

OK, I'll try to finish it :)
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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by Sat42 »

Still astonished to discover such bugs that were always present in the official versions of EE2.

Still amazed at Dr.MonaLisa's determination to fix the games for all of us.

Great work, thanks a lot!
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Re: What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

Post by Dr.MonaLisa »

I released a Hotfix Update 158017: https://ee2.eu/patch/changes/#158017
With the following fix:
— Addressed an issue occurring after update 158015 (with a fix for projectiles exploding way too high above ships):
* In lower epochs ships that are moving could not take any damage, especially when the game speed was slow or medium.
* It could be considered as a benefit (possible micromanagement during sea battles), however Unofficial Patch 1.5 was designed not to change the vanilla experience / gameplay. That's why it has been rated as a bug.
* The new version of the "projectiles fix" detects if a projectile is a bomb, torpedo or guided missile, otherwise it's not activating (arrows, cannons). Torpedoes and guided missiles are following the target, so the bug doesn't occur, and bombs have never been following the target, but they deal area damage. This way the visual bug is fixed without a negative effect on the gameplay.
* Thanks for the report and providing the game save file to player: "KOZZY7".
Changes in short:
- In epochs 1-10 we should not longer see any difference during sea battles (screenshot "Sea Battle After 158015" is outdated now).
- Only torpedoes, guided missiles and bombs will have the new fix enabled, because it doesn't affect the simulation / gameplay.

Sorry for the inconvenience. It's always like this. A bigger update needs several hotfix updates to make everything perfect :(
Best regards,
Dr.MonaLisa
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