The Movement Bug: An Arguement Against MP?

Raiel · #1 October 18th, 2009, 01:29 PM

I've seen the "movement bug" before in SP... you know the one: you issue orders to move a commander or a group of commanders to attack an enemy province, you hit "End Turn", the turn processes, you eagerly anticipate the battle results... and nothing. Your units haven't budged. They haven't attacked. They just decided to have a picnic. A month-long picnic.

That's discouraging, but in SP you have the option of backing up your turns or taking a relaxed attitude. Even against an Impossible AI (or 5), that one turn probably won't be enough to change the outcome of a game. But against human opponents the same does not always hold.

On turn 57 of SummerMadness, while trying to take Fomoria's Capitol, I got hit by this bug. In scores of single palyer games, I've only encountered this bug 2 or 3 times. But I've only played about 250 turns of MP Dom3 and it's shown up at a critical juncture. A slightly risky Strategy (series of map movements) with a potentially hefty payoff became a no-win situation because of a bug.

I know that there is a chance to stop an opposing army by attacking from the target province. That's okay with me. If that had happened, I'd curse at my monitor for a few moments and move on. But this is quite different. It feels like a chess opponent stealing a move. I'm angry. I want to walk away from Dominions 3 and never look back. That will pass (I hope), but it demands a couple of questions...

How often do you encounter this bug?

How do you compensate for the potentiality of this bug?

Does this bug drive you to irrational rage? (Just curious.)

Frozen Lama · #2 October 18th, 2009, 02:25 PM

I have a question: did you have a scout in the province you were trying to move into? i've seen someone else mention that, and last time i saw the bug (two days ago) i had a scout in the prov they were moving into. i don't know if that is the bug or what, but its a hypothesis i've been thinking about.

your questions:

i've seen it either two or three times in MP i've probably done about 300 turns of MP

hope

yes

chrispedersen · #3 October 18th, 2009, 02:33 PM

I've had this bug *decide* 2-3 games.

I quit playing dominions for a year once because of it. I would say it hits me about every other game.

I'm playing Mictlan in Zebra - it hit me three turns in that game.

Elegy · #4 October 18th, 2009, 04:46 PM

I'm the admin of the game in question, SummerMadness. For people who have encountered the bug, does a rollback and immediate forced hosting help change the outcome?

Bananadine · #5 October 18th, 2009, 05:51 PM

Hey, Raiel is in one of my games! THIS IS SUDDENLY IMPORTANT

I've played around 300 turns in multiplayer by now, and probably a few hundred by myself, and I don't recall ever seeing this bug--which doesn't mean I haven't seen it (I might have failed to recognize it when it happened, or forgotten it after recognizing it). But that does mean I never saw it have a big effect, because I would remember that! I do know that I've strongly suspected such a buggy event of happening several times--but as well as I can remember, there always ended up being a reasonable explanation for why the units didn't move, one that just wasn't obvious right away. (I'm not trying to say the bug is a myth or anything though; I wouldn't know about that!)

I think I might have a pendant of luck on. You should try making one of those, it helps a lot

Quitti · #6 October 18th, 2009, 05:57 PM

Seen it a few times - no uber-critical moments ruined by it though.

If it would, I'd be annoyed, true, but it's still a game. And the bug is not the most common thing happening - you probably get ruined more times by a unlucky event in the start of the game/critical moment (plague in capitol, high unrest event in start/war or stupidly unlucky rolls in combat vs your SC pretender or something in these lines) more than by the bug in question. And MP games aren't really a scarce commodity at the moment. If none are being set up, nothing prevents you from doing so.

NTJedi · #7 October 18th, 2009, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raiel

How often do you encounter this bug?

How do you compensate for the potentiality of this bug?

Does this bug drive you to irrational rage? (Just curious.)

1st Question:
I seem to crash into this bug about one out of four games.

2nd Question:
Move the troops a different direction and come at a different angle, perhaps teleport a SC to the target enemy province.

3rd Question:
Very very few things drive me into a rage. A game bug never drives me into a rage.

archaeolept · #8 October 18th, 2009, 07:43 PM

is this a PBEM, or did you back up your uploaded turn? Just so as you can check and make sure that you hadn't sent it in w/ incorrect orders. I know often enough i've clicked on units and screwed up what I thought were their orders...

As to the bug, i've seen many, but have not encountered a common movement bug. If you can confirm that the turn sent had the proper orders, was there any battle or event in the originating province? or, heck, in the intended province?

Fantomen · #9 October 18th, 2009, 07:49 PM

It has been suggested somewhere that having a stealthy unit (like a scout) in the target province may trigger this bug sometimes. I have encountered it both with and without having a scout there so I dunno.

So far been spared from this bug causing any major problems but it sure is annoying.

Raiel · #10 October 18th, 2009, 09:24 PM

Frozen Lama & Fantomen: I also read that report. Sorry, no scout of mine in the target province. Though I'm pretty sure at least one other player has an astral window on the target province - that's entirely irrelevant as far I've experienced and read.

chrispedersen: Thanks - I guess I should feel at least somewhat fortunate.

Bananadine: It's real. I'm not planning on doing anything as rash as disappearing, but I thought about it. Maybe you can send me that pendant... one can never have too much luck, no?

Quitti: You're right, but I've a bit of the competitive perfectionest in me. I take myself too seriously.

NTJedi: Again, thanks... I guess my experience is not worse than the average. And of course you aren't driven into a rage - you're a Jedi. But I hate bugs with a passion. Unless they're the kind that show me exactly where my own code is wrong.

archaeolept: I didn't back up the 2.h file. However, that battle was the last one planned and ordered... I did end the turn and then go back in to verify the orders stuck... then Quit Without Saving.

The other thing I can add is that I had my armies split into two different groups for ease of scripting. Both groups are still selectable this turn and both had move orders... even if I had clicked in such a way to cancel one groups orders, the other group would have moved in.

Finally, my intended victim has confirmed that he did attempt to attack my province from the target province and he was confused about why his armies didn't attack.