66 replies to this topic

[thudo]

Up on the site for testing by our team:

Changes:

- SCAR errors should be fixed now (Hopefully). Tested it and didn’t get any errors.
- Changed back FoF logic
- Removed T1 mines
- Installer fixed
- Fixed 2 harassing issues

Please try with HEROES and AI donations enabled especially in Multiplayer and SAVE/LOAD scenarios!

[kreative]

- Fixed 2 harassing issues

Which issues were these?

Just saved and loaded a 2 vs 2 with Heroes, AI Donations.
New Heroes reset function fired, no errors. It's all good baby, yeah!

Edited by kreative, 13 April 2007 - 01:04 AM.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Which issues were these?

- Commanders retreating to early
- Harassing attacks aborted too early

Just saved and loaded a 2 vs 2 with Heroes, AI Donations.
New Heroes reset function fired, no errors. It's all good baby, yeah!

Glad to here! But to be perfectly sure, it has to be tested for all different AI races now.

[Inquisitor]

Up on the site for testing by our team:

Changes:

- SCAR errors should be fixed now (Hopefully). Tested it and didn’t get any errors.
- Changed back FoF logic
- Removed T1 mines
- Installer fixed
- Fixed 2 harassing issues

Please try with HEROES and AI donations enabled especially in Multiplayer and SAVE/LOAD scenarios!

Nice! We will test it tonight.

I have played a lot of mp games with Heroes enabled and on hard without problems, but yesterday I tried enabling AI Donations and play on Harder with a friend. We got a sync error and (after involuntarily restarting DC) tried removing AI donations, which did not help. We had to play on Hard to get it to work! I didn't try enabling AI donations on Hard, but I will test it tonight.

So it seems impossible to play on Harder in mp.

Anyway we played three friends vs. three Hard AI on Kasyr Lutien yesterday without problems and one of my friends has a very slow computer, so we experienced a lot of lag during large battles. We were completely overrun by the AI, so it was very good games! I think it is because of the map. The AI is just insanely good when it has time and space to expand.

We play all mp games via Hamachi.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

We got a sync error and (after involuntarily restarting DC) tried removing AI donations, which did not help. We had to play on Hard to get it to work! I didn't try enabling AI donations on Hard, but I will test it tonight.

This should not happen again. I fixed that bug yesterday.

[kreative]

Glad to here! But to be perfectly sure, it has to be tested for all different AI races now.

Going to do this now. So to the other testers, do something else!

[ThetaOrion]

I hope you get this whole thing resolved regarding the multiplayer and desyncing.

I was wanting to get the kids back together for some more DSL LAN play with Dark Crusade, probably at the STANDARD setting, as I am still trying to sell them on Dark Crusade.

Of course, since I had the AI Mod and the UC Mod installed, I have completely avoided bringing up DSL LAN play with Dark Crusade, because I knew all about the desyncing reports and I am still trying to sell these guys on Dark Crusade. If it crashes or desyncs on them even once, I have lost the sale, and I probably won't ever be able to coax them back into it.

AND, they weren't all that impressed with the plain vanilla AI that Relic had given us the last time we tried DSL LAN play. I pretty much lost them then and there, so I only have one more time to make it right and make the sale, and I want to do it with the AI Skirmish Mod as the AI enemies. But I'm not even going to try it, until I feel confident that these LAN desyncing issues have been solved.

That's why it interests me to see you guys working on it, and I have my fingers crossed that someday the solution might actually be found and implemented. I hoped to be able to one day use it again to get the sale and convince them that Dark Crusade is okay after all.

[kreative]

Save/Load error test
Map: Hellfire Canyon
Match: 1 vs 1
Game Modes Used: Annihilate, Heroes, AI Donations
A.I. Difficulty: Hard
Resources Rate: Normal
Resources Sharing: Off
Factions: All races vs Random CPU
Comments: Played until some units received experience, saved game, loaded game, played until units received experience again.
No errors during gameplay.
No errors in console log.
No AI scar errors.

Edited by kreative, 13 April 2007 - 11:50 PM.

[thudo]

Well thats a superior report!

Thank you Kreative for the positive commencement of one of our more pressing issues..

[Inquisitor]

I hope you get this whole thing resolved regarding the multiplayer and desyncing.

I've played more than ten games via Hamachi and a few via Gamespy without problems. Get your friends together and maybe try Kasyr Lutien on Hard. We've had some great games vs. the AI on this map because the allied AI players seem to assist each other both on the defense and on the offensive.

We only had sync problems in this version when playing on Harder and that should be fixed already!

[thudo]

We only had sync problems in this version when playing on Harder and that should be fixed already!

But there is NO difference between HARD and HARDER except the AI gets a resource bonus and thats NOT controlled by the AI or our mod.

[Inquisitor]

We only had sync problems in this version when playing on Harder and that should be fixed already!

But there is NO difference between HARD and HARDER except the AI gets a resource bonus and thats NOT controlled by the AI or our mod.

Then why did ArkhanTheBlack say that he fixed that bug yesterday in post #5 just above?

We were not able to play a mp game on Harder in b3. Sorry, but I have not have time to test it in b4 yet.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Then why did ArkhanTheBlack say that he fixed that bug yesterday in post #5 just above?

In my test games I got the error on hard. It shouldn't be dependent on the difficulty level. No idea why you only got it on harder. But who cares as long as it's fixed now...

[Inquisitor]

Then why did ArkhanTheBlack say that he fixed that bug yesterday in post #5 just above?

In my test games I got the error on hard. It shouldn't be dependent on the difficulty level. No idea why you only got it on harder. But who cares as long as it's fixed now...

Yeah, you're right! I'll test both harder and AI Donations within a couple of hours with two friends vs. 3 AI.

[Inquisitor]

MP test on Harder
Version: Skirmish AI 2.3b4
Map: Oasis of Sharr
Match: 4 vs 4
Game Modes Used: Annihilate, Heroes
A.I. Difficulty: Harder
Resources Rate: Normal
Resources Sharing: Off
Factions: Necron, SM, Chaos, IG vs 4 random AI
Comments: Sync error at the start of the game. Tried same map/settings on Hard without problems right afterwards.

EDIT: Corrected Match: from 1 vs 1 to 4 vs 4

Edited by Inquisitor, 15 April 2007 - 08:14 AM.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Sorry, sync errors are out of our reach... We can only deal with AI and SCAR errors.

[thudo]

Yeaaah that could have been a HARDCODED GAME issue. Even default vanilla DC gets "synch errors". If you tried again, and it worked then there ya go.

[Inquisitor]

Yeaaah that could have been a HARDCODED GAME issue. Even default vanilla DC gets "synch errors". If you tried again, and it worked then there ya go.

I have not been able to play a single mp game on Harder in 2.3. We've had to revert to Hard to get it to work and we have tried many times. I'm almost certain that we could play on Harder in a previous version (2.1 or 2.2).

My guess is that it has something to do with Heroes because I recall ArkhanTheBlack saying that he wanted the AI to start with Veteran troops at Harder. Maybe it is out of your reach, but now you know that it is an issue.

I'll see if I can get to test mp on Harder without Heroes tonight.

EDIT:

Sorry, sync errors are out of our reach... We can only deal with AI and SCAR errors.

It is the exact same error we had when we enabled AI Donations in previous versions, so sync errors in mp seem to sometimes be related to enabling SCAR code.

Edited by Inquisitor, 15 April 2007 - 08:11 AM.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

It is the exact same error we had when we enabled AI Donations in previous versions, so sync errors in mp seem to sometimes be related to enabling SCAR code.

Well, the SCAR code is without any doubt the main reason for any sync errors. The warning to deactivate if lag in MP games is experienced is not just for fun.
But it's true that harder starts with experienced troops. Although it's highly unlikely, it might be the cause. In the file Dowai_mod\Data\scar\Heroes\settings.scar, there is a struct at the top...

AIUnitStartingRank =
{
Easy = 1,
Standard = 1,
Hard = 1,
Harder = 2,
Insane = 3,
}

... If you set Harder and Insane to 1, the troops will start normal just like in the lower difficulty levels.

[Inquisitor]

It is the exact same error we had when we enabled AI Donations in previous versions, so sync errors in mp seem to sometimes be related to enabling SCAR code.

Well, the SCAR code is without any doubt the main reason for any sync errors. The warning to deactivate if lag in MP games is experienced is not just for fun.
But it's true that harder starts with experienced troops. Although it's highly unlikely, it might be the cause. In the file Dowai_mod\Data\scar\Heroes\settings.scar, there is a struct at the top...

AIUnitStartingRank =
{
Easy = 1,
Standard = 1,
Hard = 1,
Harder = 2,
Insane = 3,
}

... If you set Harder and Insane to 1, the troops will start normal just like in the lower difficulty levels.

Will I just have to change the AIUnitStartingRank struct on the host or should it be changed on all the clients?

Anyway, I have just tried disabling Heroes and then Harder works just fine in an mp game with two players and two AI opponents. Have you tried running a mp game on Harder on your LAN setup?

Please don't let the release of 2.3 be delayed because of this issue. It is after all a minor one and I just think it should be noted in the readme.