Matrix Games Forums

"Unit disappearance bug" (UDB for short) is very simple, needs not be mistified and I believe should be corrected easily.

It happens when an unit is divided into many sub-parts (when loading into transports, travelling by C47s etc.). One of those sub-parts ALWAYS retains the original name of the unit (ie. 13th Doomed Inf.) while others take various "/" designations (ie. 1/13th Doomed, 2/13th Doomed, 3/13th Doomed etc.)

The part that retains the original unit name needs not be the largest part (indeed, it may be the smallest). It is oftenly the part that is last to be loaded on transports.

Now, if the sub-part that retained the original unit name gets destroyed (their transport AP/C47 gets sunk/shot down or they are destroyed in the combat - WHOLE unit may disappear, even if 90% of the unit was in other sub-parts (1/13, 2/13, 3/13 etc.)

It does not happen always, but this is the ONLY way in which this bug may appear.

This seems to me like rather trivial bug from the programmers POV, easily reproducible and easy to investigate, and unrelated to system specs. And I hope easily correctible. I stress that it may appear not only in case of sea transport, but also in the case of unit being transported by C47 (when the last C47, carrying the last part of the unit, the part that retains the original unit name, gets shot down).

Dan, please make sure to forward this post to developers.

As for the "Replay out of sync bug" I must admit I haven't noticed it since the last patch, or even if I did, it was long time ago and I have already forgot about it (knock on wood).

O.

Oleg,

I agree with most of your thoughts since I've handled about 5 of them so far. You do learn stuff about a bug that way:) I've send every single save so far to the Matrix team so rest assured they have them.

I sincerely hope it is easy to fix.

I can tell you the 'out of sync' problem still exists. First time I have seen it. When I run the combat save about 6 or 8 times I get two completly different results. One of them occurs about 1/4 to 1/3 of the time and is about what I would expect, I as Allies get creamed but I hit three of his ships( 4 bombs on Shoho). In the other one I get creamed and have no attacks on his TF at all. Also he attacks from a range of 8 and his Kates use Torpedos in the attack, I think that at a range of 8 they should be using bombs. In the Allied favorable result, we both react to 5 hex range and in the other only he reacts to range 8.

Its a very wierd thing.

BTW, U2, do you know if anyone has been able to recreate the two different results from my save files? I would like to know if my computer system can be eliminated as the culprit.

Originally posted by BillBrown

BTW, U2, do you know if anyone has been able to recreate the two different results from my save files? I would like to know if my computer system can be eliminated as the culprit.

Hi BillBrown,

I will go through all files today. I usually have two days per week where I go through all files collected so far.

OK, I don't know your schedule or how the routine works. This is the first problem I have had so I am ignorant of the procedings. Says something doesn't it, had the game since it came out and this is the only time I had any problems like this( my problems are either self inflicted or by my opponents).

Hi, In testing we found most of the different replay errors were caused by computers being "out of synch" mostly from different versions being used. It appears there is another way to cause this, it needs to be tracked down.

In my PBEM, I usually saved all combat reports and commented them (noting for example the ships sunk, scuttled or returned to PH/Japan on the day they are damaged)

In one big turn I didn't take the time to comment it, just paste the combat report in my compiled file and sent the turn back to my opponent. Then I relaunch one week later the combat save (I'm USN) to report all what happened. A common practice for me and things have always been replayed the same way.

There were several naval battles and then one of my CV and LBA strikes Jap ships... All was repeated exactly for the naval battles (same numbers of shell hits on each ships) and then for the first ten or so air attacks and then something gets wrong. In the report they were only 2 or 3 more air attacks, in the replay they were 7 or 8 and a CA that I attacked several days in a row later was reported sunk (in the report, same attack sank a DD).

Both me and my opponent use v2.30. First replay was showing the same as what my IJN opponent saw.

Maybe discrepencies are linked to the size of the combat save ?

Just a note, playing extensively just to pin down the bug. Normally, I use the ESC key to get past the popup panels all the time instead of clicking on that tiny little button.

Playing for days without touching the ESC key once, not a single problem. Switch back to using it, something screws up within 20 turns of use. Might just be a windows bleedthrough problem with it swiping the key sometimes, causing the game to get lost...

I sometimes experience the replay problem when rerunning the combat save and I've never used the 'esc' key, just use a mouse click to skip the intros.

Hi all,

I guess i had thought i was just incompetent against Adm. DadMan but...

I was having the same sort of problems while playing as the allies. Early on i had 3 carriers caught by his 1 turn earlier then i expected him so my fighters were only at 40% CAP and about 14-15 fatigue. Well, i only got about 8 fighters for CAP and 2 of the 3 carriers were sunk and the other invalided back to Pearl.

In early August things had been quiet for some time, i had 2 carriers at Noumea and my cats had spotted a Jap trans. TF heading down the slot to his Lunga base.
I sortied a cruiser SF TF and my carriers. The second turn out i set my CAP to 50% on both carriers just in case. (as a point of fact i had NO idea where his carriers were. ) Well, his carriers were there just north of Lunga
and they hit my carriers and i had 6!!!
wildcats launch as CAP. Needless to say I lost both carriers. And then saw his armada heading to Noumea which i had no way to stop. I quit in massive amounts of frustration as my LBA wound not attack his spotted bombardment TFs multiple times.

Yes, i know about having an Admiral with good skills, having low fatigue, high morale, blah blah blah.

I am not an idiot (i hope!) but I could not get anything to work!

then i saw this post.

I also am running a 900mhz Athalon with Windows 98se. coincidence?

I had 96! Wildcats on those 2 carriers at 50% CAP with zero fatigue and i got a 6!! fighter CAP.

grrrr....

Mike