Crashes, Bugs and Troubleshooting

[Tango589]

I've just had a strange experience. Playing as the USSR, I was tasked with destroying an enemy ship in a 6 ship battle group. This turned out to be USSR as well. Just to see what would happen, I sunk 4 of the 6 ships, including the target. The remaining ships DC'd me to oblivion, which I expected. I jumped out of the game, used the Mission Completer, restarted back in Odedssa port and was immediately marmalised by a US Task Force right outside the port! Needless to say, that was the end of me. None of the USSR patrol aircraft lent a hand, neither did any fellow whips in the area. What could cause this anomaly in the first place?

[TheGeoff]

Originally Posted by Tango589

I've just had a strange experience. Playing as the USSR, I was tasked with destroying an enemy ship in a 6 ship battle group. This turned out to be USSR as well. Just to see what would happen, I sunk 4 of the 6 ships, including the target. The remaining ships DC'd me to oblivion, which I expected. I jumped out of the game, used the Mission Completer, restarted back in Odedssa port and was immediately marmalised by a US Task Force right outside the port! Needless to say, that was the end of me. None of the USSR patrol aircraft lent a hand, neither did any fellow whips in the area. What could cause this anomaly in the first place?

That's very unusual. There are several checks to ensure you are only given orders to engage ships or groups which are hostile to your nation - I don't know how that mission could have been given. Was the target definitely a USSR ship, and did you get a 'mission complete' message when you sank it? Or could there have been an undetected US submarine nearby which was the actual target? I've never seen anything like that happen in my testing.

Edit: Was a nuclear war in progress? Sometimes nations will declare war on themselves when the nukes start flying, so that could explain why you were ordered to sink your own ships.

The second one is a combination of bad luck and not-yet-implemented features:

While most AI task forces are assigned to strategically important areas, a few will appear at semi-random locations to spread out the action a bit. Sounds like a US taskforce decided by chance to sail right up to Odessa!

Combat between AI units has not actually been added to the game yet. They will maneuver around and try to intimidate each other but they can't yet fire their weapons. This was a compromise I made a while ago, because running the AI routines for thousands of ships firing at each other made the game run extremely slowly. I recently made a breakthrough on this front, however, and combat between AI units will definitely be added in the next version - it's working pretty well so far, though there are still a couple of minor problems to iron out.

[Tango589]

I've found that when I use the Foxtrot class sub, things go a bit screwy when I save and reload. The motor control panel and misc. systems control panel both 'fill in' the missing gaps, so there are suddenly inoperative turbine controls on the motor panel, and there are the missing ventilation section controls added back in, but inoperative, to both panels revert back to 'nuclear sub status'. Also, my crew members can no longer find their way out of their respective sections, despite me opening the doors for them.

I've also found that the mission log changes from whatever your starting choices were, to a USSR sub. For instance I started this mission in a French Foxtrot Class sailing from Marsailles, yet after saving and reloading, the log reckoned I was sailing a nuclear boat for the USSR out of Sevastopol.

I know you didn't design this sub, but would you be able to fix these?

[TheGeoff]

Originally Posted by Tango589

I've found that when I use the Foxtrot class sub, things go a bit screwy when I save and reload. The motor control panel and misc. systems control panel both 'fill in' the missing gaps, so there are suddenly inoperative turbine controls on the motor panel, and there are the missing ventilation section controls added back in, but inoperative, to both panels revert back to 'nuclear sub status'. Also, my crew members can no longer find their way out of their respective sections, despite me opening the doors for them.

I've also found that the mission log changes from whatever your starting choices were, to a USSR sub. For instance I started this mission in a French Foxtrot Class sailing from Marsailles, yet after saving and reloading, the log reckoned I was sailing a nuclear boat for the USSR out of Sevastopol.

I know you didn't design this sub, but would you be able to fix these?

I did make the Foxtrot actually! Thanks for pointing these bugs out, they shouldn't be too hard to fix. I'll probably release a mini update which fixes them soon.

[Tango589]

Originally Posted by TheGeoff

I did make the Foxtrot actually!

Whoops, my mistake. BTW, how's the Sub Commander 3D going?

[TheGeoff]

The problems you mentioned have now been fixed, redownload the game to get the update. In the process of fixing them I found and fixed a far more serious bug which could lock you in the menu and prevent you from saving or resuming the game So thanks for pointing them out!

The 3D version is coming along well. I put it on hold for a couple of months, but I'm working on it again now - doing the code for the electrical systems at the moment, as well as modifying the multiplayer system to be more practical. Also I have found someone who may be able to do the 3D models for the game, which will hopefully make the development process much faster.

[USS Moose]

Downloaded v 0.27 - refitted the the Triton class sub at Tampa, USA and the torpedoes glitched into the sub...