Omaha Beach - Scen #9

[DRG]

This is not a ( I think ! ) Saved battle vs Scenaio issue

dTerms example was..... it appears..... built as a battle not a scenario

????

Is that true ?

My tests were all built as generated battles and I edited the map to put the buildings on. Lazovs test was built as a scenario and was Beegs it appears

How they are built *might* be an important factor so I need some answers please

[dTerm]

Originally Posted by DRG

This is not a ( I think ! ) Saved battle vs Scenaio issue

dTerms example was..... it appears..... built as a battle not a scenario

????

Is that true ?

My tests were all built as generated battles and I edited the map to put the buildings on. Lazovs test was built as a scenario and was Beegs it appears

How they are built *might* be an important factor so I need some answers please

Yes, your correct. It was a generated battle with a custom map.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by dTerm

Yes, your correct. It was a generated battle with a custom map.

OK, maybe we are actually getting somewhere....... that was a custom map

[DRG]

This is my latest test using a Custom map ( so one edited and saved then reloaded for use in the test )

I tried to recreate it exactly as the previous examples



This is how it looked after I cleared the smoke from the bombardment..... there are FOUR "missing" buildings



Then I saved it and reloaded the save




My previous tests were all done from a generated battle. I started it, went to Edit map...... I edited the map and then targeted the buildings with arty and let the turn play out.. THE BATTLE WAS NOT SAVED THEN PLAYED

The critical difference **appears to be** the map had never undergone a save before the barrage was applied to it in the first examples I posted earlier today

This last example that shows building gone after the bombardment but returned after re-loading the save were all made as custom maps, then saved, then applied to a battle ( generated or scenario ) and those ones showed missing buildings

To confirm that will requiure all the same tests done again and again to see if the problem orginates with the saving of the map before the test is run OR if that is just a one-off co-incidence

Ain't this fun ?

[DRG]

Well thats a theory that ended in a dead end which is a good thing as it reduces the variables

I set up a new test from a generated battle using a map that was edited but not saved exactly like my earlier posts today

They are not the exact same buildings but that does not seem to matter

At set up



The targeting





So it looks like the luck of the dice didn't show it in the earlier tests but these ones do and this one and the earlier one were both done as a Generated battle that had the map edited then the bombardment targeted on the buildings so it APPEARS that the problem is not in Map saving which, I guess, is "good news" .......it's one less variable


MISSING BUILDINGS




After re-loading the save the buildings are back




WHY the earlier example that had three complete arty attacks with the same arty and didn't show a missing building is a question I hope I find the answer to but for now remains a mystery

[Mobhack]

Big buildings use a particular larger graphic that is removed if the "key hex" is destroyed. Then the big building graphic goes away and is replaced by a 1 hex rubble graphic as with any other bult up area rubble.

The key hex is not necessarily "part" of the building AFAIR - there are a couple of them where the key hex is on the paved part "outside" the house part.

Any damage to the area "under" the big building graphic causes individual rubble hexes as the hex is flagged as built up area.

This has been the case since the original SP1 came out way back, it is how it has always been - and is baked into the original SSI code. It seems to have been a quick "kludge fix" to let the game have these factories and hangars etc. Multiple hex buidlings have always been squirrely because they were a kludge, leading to road hexes being marked as "BUA", laying and then deleting "large" buildings when making maps leaving hexes marked as BUA (as they dont clear their area properly) and so on since the game debuted.

Any attempt to "fix" that would be a horrendous effort to fix the original kludge that SSI introduced. That wont be happening.

[DRG]

.........I restarted that save and pounded those buildings for 5 more turns and none "disapeared"

........and for those of you that do not remember SP1 and SP2...... this happened then too. ( AH ! I see Andy beat me too it )

The workaround to this ( for now and maybe forever ) is IF you see a large multi hex building go missing, save the game as soon as you see it and restart the game with the save game and that seems to be the reset

[zovs66]

Well it was fun creating the scenario, sort of jump started my creativity.

[DRG]

OK........ this is the last thing I am posting today. It is not a "fix" per se but it is a solution

This is the "Vanish" save that was posted by dTurn after the lower right building vanished leaving only the rubble



At that point I simply pressed the END GAME red arrow button

Then I went to the save game menu and started the AUTOSAVED GAME



The autosave saved the game at the exact point I pressed the end game button so when the game started up it started the game up right at that exact point only now the building is back and the turn can be continued with the building restored

[dTerm]

Originally Posted by DRG

[...]

The autosave saved the game at the exact point I pressed the end game button so when the game started up it started the game up right at that exact point only now the building is back and the turn can be continued with the building restored

Yep, loading the autosave only in case of disappearing buildings, is of cource more convenient than saving every turn manually. Good enough workaround for me.

Thank you, Gentlemen!