Mazz 6 End of Game Area Effect Problems

Post by **Death's Avatar** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:10 pm

Grayswandir wrote:Sphere of Annihilation bouncing around for 2+ hours

It times out after a bit

:) Da Cid (: McCl · Post by **:) Da Cid (: McCl** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:20 pm

Something's going down. And I think it's these lines in the script:

(plte) Player "ChrisP uDog" in the game? True.
Activate on success "(dite) Is it on Heroic or Leg?"
(dite) Is it on Heroic or Leg? True.
Activate on success "(lfeu) Screw up the map, quick, before they win!"

I HAVE UNCOVERED THE TRU7H.
-TGP-

ChrisP · Post by **ChrisP** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:40 am

Thanks to Myrd, the source of the problem has been identified. As it turns out, it's caused by red dragon breath attacks. Each time a red dragon breaths fire, several of the 24 allowable explosions are permanently used up. Enough red dragons breath and it will tie up most of the explosion slots for the rest of the game. There are a few more red dragons on Heroic than lesser difficulties, which explains one thing, but as to why it happens to you guys and not to us, well, my guess is it was happening to us, but never to the extent where it became so obvious. Maybe we managed to kill more red dragons before they breathed on us, I dunno.

In one of the last betas, Jagman modified red dragon breath from Mazz 5 because we noticed it was missing a lot and sometimes doing no damage other than the fire on the ground. I checked Mazz 5 and for sure the problem doesn't happen there. I have yet to look at the tags and try to fix it, but Jagman would be the more qualified person to handle it anyway. I haven't seen him online in the last few days though. Worst case, the breath weapon needs to revert to the way it was in Mazz 5.

I have a few other things to verify, like making sure green dragons don't cause this problem too, as well as completing a few other minor bug fixes, but it should only be a few days before a patch is made available.

Thanks for everyone's patience, and to Myrd, for solving yet another bug.

rabican · Post by **rabican** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:08 am

Different playing styles, when moving away from dl we tend to not kill thralls and stuff and generally we do a lot of moving aronud, results in longer games and more dragons have come in early states of blacktrhall attack when there is a lot of action going on . <----- my excuse :(

buckweaver · Post by **buckweaver** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 7:05 am

Hooray

ChrisP · Post by **ChrisP** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:41 am

Fixed. The amount of bugged projectiles in a single red dragon breath was very random, thus explaining why sometimes it created a big problem and other times less of a problem, or even none at all. And yeah, rab, I think you're right, the longer the game, the more red dragons, especially at the end, so that's probably why it happened to you guys more often.

The mapmaking lesson here is never forget to assign an expansion rate to a projectile with an area of effect damage. Leave the setting at 0.00 and the explosion hangs around forever waiting to expand to full size. This may have been my fault, not Jag's, not that it matters. We both made literally thousands of tag settings and all it takes is one little human error that's hard to detect in-game, and it all gets fubared. Thank goodness for Myrd providing a build with an explosion counter so the precise moment in the film where the problem occured could be nailed down. Otherwise we'd be chasing this for weeks before it was figured out.

Now to fix a few much more minor, though much more difficult, bugs, and then get it ready to ship.

Wismuth · Post by **Wismuth** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:15 pm

Your fix proves that it wasn't fubared, just fued.

ChrisP · Post by **ChrisP** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:25 pm

Well, it would have been fubared if it wasn't for Myrd's help.

ChrisP · Post by **ChrisP** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:36 pm

Ok, I think all the known issues are fixed. The omnipatch file is only half a meg in size, and a link will be provided to the Omnipatch apply application, as well as easy instructions for making the patch. Hopefully, all that's left is to give the new version a full test game tonight and then coordinate with Magma's website people to make it available tomorrow.

Oroboros · Post by **Oroboros** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:04 pm

Incredibly diligent and professional work, CP, Myrd.

A pity Magma doesn't have a way to contribute beer money to y'all.

-Oro

Website · Post by **iron** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:19 pm

I knew it was your fault Oro. Nothing worse than bad dragon's breath that hangs around forever...

Baron LeDant · Post by **Baron LeDant** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 7:18 pm

hooray for ChrisP!

The response time wasn't too bad

Oroboros · Post by **Oroboros** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:30 pm

iron wrote:I knew it was your fault Oro. Nothing worse than bad dragon's breath that hangs around forever...

::Gasps:: How species-ist! Dragon's breath is actually very appealing. But that stink that comes out of humans' mouths first thing in the morning... What do you guys do, gargle used-sock water before sleeping?

-Oro

Website · Post by **iron** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:46 pm

The humans here can speak for themselves. Us steam-driven metallic constructs don't actually breathe per se.

woof •FoG• · Post by **woof •FoG•** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:25 pm

ChrisP wrote:Ok, I think all the known issues are fixed. The omnipatch file is only half a meg in size, and a link will be provided to the Omnipatch apply application, as well as easy instructions for making the patch. Hopefully, all that's left is to give the new version a full test game tonight and then coordinate with Magma's website people to make it available tomorrow.

Top notch effort, CP. Thanks Myrd!

So instead of bonus points for kills, teams should get bonus points for faster wins. ;>

The Tain

Mazz 6 End of Game Area Effect Problems