Bug report consolidation thread

[Paul Vebber]

I am putting together the bug list for version 5.02 and want to make sure I haven't missed any.

If you have posted a bug report could past a link here or repeat the problem?

BUgs are repeatable things that you believe do not work as intended. THe 88 Flak shooting when unloading is a wonderul example!

If you know a cause, that is a VERY big help, but things like "random opfire in online play hangs and doesn;t fire or fires at the wrong unit - no apparant reason" is good enough.

Please do not report disagreements with the pref settings - so no "tigers are not accurate enough" or infantry die to much" unless it is is of such monumental proportions that you think it a bug (ie if Tigers never got more than 5% chance to hit no matter what - if its 70 and you think it should be 90, then turn up the hitting pref to 133


Thank you all for your reports! We can't fix everything, but will do our best to fix what we can!

[Totenkopf]

I don't know if this is a bug, but the game often make this annoying screeching sound. There's a thread about this problem somewhere on this forum.

[Jack]

I found when pbem and you happen to have your troops use their assault boats. They continue to be loaded status but you can see the troops on the ground. I did have a Foreward Observer disappear on me. Nowhere on the map but was able to use him to call in artillery. Does that make me a cheater?

[ June 02, 2001: Message edited by: Jack ]

[Figmo]

Paul,

Here's one I haven't heard mentioned yet.

When you pick the "bulls eye" - e.g. "set direct fire target" - because you see some units but no units are within your firing range the game displays a line to the nearest victory hex. Sometimes, even if units are in your range it shows the line to the nearest victory as the first choice and no unit are in the hex. I don't think it should do this - correct me if I'm wrong. I can send you a save if you can't reproduce it and I tried deleting the STEEL.PRF file and that didn't fix it.

Thanks,
Figmo

[davidcarrell]

The screeching feed back noise. I usually have it occur when exiting a game.

[Resisti]

Paul,
good idea to do this thread,but could you post here the list you've built up so far ?
Txs.

[Voriax]

The MG teams will fire both the MG and the secondary weapon even with 1 crew.

The 88mm flak bug seems to be related to the 'heavy flak' class. I did a small test with US and Soviet heavy flak guns and they all had shots available immediately after unloading them from transport.

And as reminder, those bazooka teams that use HE ammo as HEAT (and have that max penetration)

And the case when rifle/lmg fire causes penetrationg hits to tanks (linked to vulnerable location hit). I've had at least 3 occasions when such damage has occurred..agains very thin skinned tanks, PzI and FT-17 in my cases.

Voriax

[Paco]

I think version 5.0x is a great improvement from version 4.x, but there are a couple of things that could be fixed:

* The screeching sound appears to occur if you have the ingame music 'run for too long'. I've noticed that if I leave the game for a fast bathroom break and the game music is running, the screeching sound will appear after I come back and it won't leave even if I restart the game. Only restarting the computer will do.

* The campaign screen where you change/update your units is way too unforgiving and has a few flaws apart from that. If you change one unit, there's no going back, so I you by mistake happen to change your sherman into a truck you'll be sorry. Also I think that you should be able to bring new units into your 'core force' instead of just upgrading/changing. Othwerwise, players that use their last 50 points to buy a platoon of cheap units like trucks when building up their 'core force' will have an advantage by doing this since they can upgrade those trucks to tanks, making a new tank platoon. If you're pleased with your force and find no need to upgrade any units, then you should be able to bring new units onto the battlefield.

* The units listings in the encyclopedia and unit change/upgrade lists are way to unorganized apart from the 'force composition screen'.

* When you build up your force for a campaign, I've noticed that sometimes only one unit will appear in the units listing after you purchased a platoon, for example, even if you have enough points. Also when the units sometimes turn red in the listing after you buy them (I suppose this is because of shortage of units), they will not go back to white if you return the units that you bought. I'm not really familiar with the changes to the units purchase system yet so please forgive me if I'm wrong.

This is all I could think of right now. Hope it makes sense.

/Paco

[Perkele]

Hi,

I emailed this already to you some time ago, just trying to make sure this gets fixed...

Units classified as light infantry can't inititate melee combat.

Also there something bizarre about infantry untis numbered 135-140 in Finnish OOB. They have ROF 6. Pretty much every other infantry unit have ROF 9.

Also their cost is compared to units 128-133 isn't right. The range 135-140 is identical to 128-133 except for the ROF and infantry/light infantry classifation. Some units in the range 135-140 cost more and some cost less than their equivalent unit in the 128-133 range. Wierd. Maybe I'm missing something here.

-perkele

[Alexandra]

* The campaign screen where you change/update your units is way too unforgiving and has a few flaws apart from that. If you change one unit, there's no going back, so I you by mistake happen to change your sherman into a truck you'll be sorry. Also I think that you should be able to bring new units into your 'core force' instead of just upgrading/changing. Othwerwise, players that use their last 50 points to buy a platoon of cheap units like trucks when building up their 'core force' will have an advantage by doing this since they can upgrade those trucks to tanks, making a new tank platoon. If you're pleased with your force and find no need to upgrade any units, then you should be able to bring new units onto the battlefield.

This isn't a bug as such. The first part is just a paying attention to detail thing. The second, adding to the core, is something I don't think the engine can handle. Even if it could, there'd have to be all sorts of code written for when you get promoted, how many additional units you'd be authorized, etc. I'd love to see this too, but I don't think it can be done in SP. Maybe in Combat Leader

* When you build up your force for a campaign, I've noticed that sometimes only one unit will appear in the units listing after you purchased a platoon, for example, even if you have enough points. Also when the units sometimes turn red in the listing after you buy them (I suppose this is because of shortage of units), they will not go back to white if you return the units that you bought. I'm not really familiar with the changes to the units purchase system yet so please forgive me if I'm wrong.

The red means a unit is rarity unavailable. The reason that once bought it doesn't go back to white if you 'give it back' is to prevent PBeM purchasers from buying a unit, seeing it then go red, giving it back, buying it again, etc, which would allow a player to work around the rarity.

Alex

[DELTA32]

Here's a neat bug....kind of like this one. When playing solitaire (not sure about PBEM) tank kills post just fine for the firing unit. However....if you finish off any surviving crews by other means....it awards the crew-killing unit with an armor kill ! I actually love this bug....my armor kills the vehicle...and my supporting MG gunners finish off the crews, getting themselves a Tank Kill Badge too ! Everyone wins. Iron Crosses for all !!!

Delta 3-2

[Stuart Millis]

Originally posted by Perkele:
Hi,

Also there something bizarre about infantry untis numbered 135-140 in Finnish OOB. They have ROF 6. Pretty much every other infantry unit have ROF 9.

Also their cost is compared to units 128-133 isn't right. The range 135-140 is identical to 128-133 except for the ROF and infantry/light infantry classifation. Some units in the range 135-140 cost more and some cost less than their equivalent unit in the 128-133 range. Wierd. Maybe I'm missing something here.

-perkele

As they stand, the costs should be as follows:
135- 24
136- 24
137- 26
138- 26
139- 24
140- 24

Perhaps Voriax can answer why the ROF is 6?
Was it intended that this reduced ROF should be accompanied with a higher FC?

[Stuart Millis]

Originally posted by Paul Vebber:

BUgs are repeatable things that you believe do not work as intended. THe 88 Flak shooting when unloading is a wonderul example!

A long, long time ago this very topic was discussed at length. It was pointed out that the Flak 18 could be fired without unloading from the road wheels. However the possibility that this characteristic has been carried over to all guns of this class indicates a bug.

[Zorachus99]

I'm sure this is well known, and I did perform a search to see if I could find anything.

Both my friend and I have 4 network adapters installed under microsoft networking. Because of this, both versions of steel cannot find the internet connected adapter. This makes it impossible for us to play Spwaw over the internet. Is there a workaround to force steel to use a user-defined network adapter?

Thanks,

Justin

[Fritz]

I noticed this one when fighting ( solitare ) the Long WWII campaign. I as playing the Japanese and started out fighting in East Asia till about late '42 then switched to the Pacific till late '43, ( up to this point no problems except for a near continuous lack of visibility distance ) then back to East Asia where I was fighting the British.

The first two battles back in East Asia I was defending against a British assault which I easily defeated in a few turns as there was only a few platoons of Airborne troops and a couple of Recce Platoons on the British side. I doubt there was more than 200-300 points of British side against my several thousand points of Japanese.

Remebering back into the mists of time I think this bug occured in arlier versions of the game.

Cheers, Chris

[Alby]

Originally posted by Figmo:
Paul,

Here's one I haven't heard mentioned yet.

When you pick the "bulls eye" - e.g. "set direct fire target" - because you see some units but no units are within your firing range the game displays a line to the nearest victory hex. Sometimes, even if units are in your range it shows the line to the nearest victory as the first choice and no unit are in the hex. I don't think it should do this - correct me if I'm wrong. I can send you a save if you can't reproduce it and I tried deleting the STEEL.PRF file and that didn't fix it.

Thanks,
Figmo

Also seen this, but going further, if you hit the "N" key for the next target, it then targets the upper lefthand corner hex (I.E. your rear upper hex)

[ June 03, 2001: Message edited by: Alby ]

[Alby]

AIR SECTION BUG,,,
have to start game, set prefs, then exit game, then, restart to get any air sections.
at least I think thats how, not even really sure. They keep resetting to 0 after evrygame.
just a reminder

[ June 03, 2001: Message edited by: Alby ]

[Resisti]

This is a copy/paste from a previous post of mines:

1)WRONG TURNS:the game change randomly the # of turns you set.

2)CUSTOM MAPS: problems(impossibility) to choose a custom map to play pbem; it works with random ones instead

3)"SAVE GAME FAILED TO LOAD" OR THE "REC FILE NON UPDATED" BUG
This is the most devastating one,cause it gives you no other choice than to clear the slot and start again(what abt if this happens at the last turn? I dont want imagine that!)

4)STRANGE TARGETING
units suddenly keep targeting the up left corner of the map or enemy victory hexes....

[ June 04, 2001: Message edited by: Resisti ]

[Kharan]

Just making sure...

Reinforcement and retreat flags are left out in generated battles with a custom map. Workaround is to load the map once in a hotseat game before starting the real game. Also, R-flags do not get saved in a map. ( http://www.matrixgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=004057 )

All slot 4 weapons which have a warhead greater than 3 have a 360 degree firing arc. ( http://www.matrixgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=004219 )

Prevent the receiving party of an airstrike seeing the opposing player's troops.

Vehicles immobilized in the editor often get fixed at the start of the scenario.

There's a bug with setting artillery and spec ops target hexes. To see what I mean, select the first scenario "The Agony of Doom", go to unit U0 and press "B", set the first mortars target. When you set the second unit's target somewhere else, the first target is moved there too.

With C&C on, clicking on each recon unit for the first time does not display the movement range correctly.

Fix vehicle crews being added automatically to kill score (if you kill them, they are counted twice). When the unit's side does not surrender, the crew is added twice (if you kill them, they are counted three times).

Unit availability is rerandomized every time you enter reinforcement purchase screen and is not carried over from the initial purchase phase.

Shouldn't there be an asterisk setting in the preferences?

How should a timeout work? The manual probably incorrectly states it's identical to a command intervention, but in practise it only pauses the game for the duration of the fanfare (3 seconds).

Live delay and Message delay defaults are back to 200 and 10 in v5.1.

Bomb strike with Fast Arty off only displays the first bombed hex, then the screen jumps to your troops while the other bombs fall. With Fast Arty on it doesn't show anything, only plays 1/4 second of the bombing sound effect.

The screeching sound with SB Live.

[Mikimoto]

Hello.
1. I have seen this bug: When it is my turn and I fire one unit against the enemy, the system says "special ops fire". It's impossible to be op/overwatch fire because it's my turn.
2. And this too: Sometimes infantry weapons (rifles and light machineguns) do damage, even destroy, light armoured vehicles (I remember a FT-17 destroyed by MG34) when "vulnerable hit location" is displayed.
But, please, let it in the game, I love this!
3. I don't know if this is a bug: When I do an airlanding assault, the enemy fires against the gliders, but never against the transport airplanes. It was in the first turn of the scenario (generated campaign). Perhaps they fire when the gliders are touching earth (those 4 hexes of inertia land movement) but I am not sure.
4. Wish list, not bugs: mortars as lone units (not *2 *3 etc..). A button for oriented battles (infantry heavy or tank heavy opponents). Possibility of adding more units to the core force, spending a lot of points (value of the unit *10, for example).
And no more... It's a great game!!!