Bugs / Impressions

Ummm and about the only unexpected in debug.err is:
*DEBUG ERROR: *** MWinEditFields::Create - Unable to load sprite book Sysoptions ***

But perhaps that's ok?

That's definitely not a good thing. I'll have to get that up there.

Umm not that it makes any difference this early in the game...but I decided to play a little with English.str, and GalCiv doesnt take swedish chars in it.

Like ÅåÄäÖö (if your browser can display those )

Oh, btw...in case ya need it for the sysoptions-bug. Heres the complete debug.err (with a normal English.str)

Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: Canvas width was taken to the nearest dword.
Debug Message: RGB in format 5:6:5, Masks reported as f800:7e0:1f
Debug Message: Canvas width was taken to the nearest dword.
Debug Message: Canvas width was taken to the nearest dword.
Debug Message: Canvas width was taken to the nearest dword.
Debug Message: Canvas width was taken to the nearest dword.
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 369e99
Debug Message: Added fonts: font2 font1 Comic10 Comic12 Comic12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: Comic14 Comic14B Comic16 Comic16B Comic18
Debug Message: Added fonts: Comic18B Celtic14 Celtic12 Celtic10 Buck16
Debug Message: Added fonts: Buck16Red Buck16Yellow Buck18 Buck18Red Buck18Yellow
Debug Message: Added fonts: Basker14 Basker16 Arial13B Arial16B2 Arial10
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial12 Arial12B Arial14 Arial14B Arial16
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial16B Arial18 Arial18B GaraWGold11B GaraBW14B
Debug Message: Added fonts: GaraW11B
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: No Music\*.mp3 files in current directory.
Debug Message: No Event Music\*.mp3 files in current directory.
Debug Message: Game Initialization completed.
*DEBUG ERROR: *** MWinEditFields::Create - Unable to load sprite book Sysoptions ***
Debug Message: Canvas width was taken to the nearest dword.
Debug Message: Canvas width was taken to the nearest dword.
Debug Message: Reading Star Names
Debug Message: GameUninitialize start
Debug Message: GameUninitialize end
Debug Message: Main Shell terminating normally
Debug Message: MemMan: Unable to find pointer in GetBlockInfo. Memory system: Palette
ASSERT ERROR in file g:\projects\pear\source\memman.cpp at line 579.
Debug Message: MemMan: Trying to free memory that has not been allocated. Memory System Palette
ASSERT ERROR in file g:\projects\pear\source\memman.cpp at line 361.
Debug Message: MemMan: Unable to find pointer in GetBlockInfo. Memory system: Palette
ASSERT ERROR in file g:\projects\pear\source\memman.cpp at line 579.
Debug Message: MemMan: Trying to free memory that has not been allocated. Memory System Palette
ASSERT ERROR in file g:\projects\pear\source\memman.cpp at line 361.

No, we're just missing a file. As idiot proof as the system is, unfortunately, I'm too dumb to have used it correctly and forgot to put in that file.

the colony naming error appears to be the code interpreting the variable 'no' as a string in of itself and not a variable.

I tested (very) little on Win98SE with 384 RAM at work.
Noticed nothing special. Seemed to work just as good as under WinXP

I don't know what's causing the colony ship naming thing. That's just plain weird, and I haven't seen it.

I have seen the fast switchy bug, though. Did it happen when you had two of your own ships occupying the same space?

Fredrik is also missing mp3 files from the Event and Music folders. I don't think that it will make a difference yet because I'm currently only using the wav files.

Well, I've seen the naming bug a few times, but it doesn't happen to often, and is easy to miss.

The fast switching bug on the other hand happens very often. I also experienced it with three or four different ships at once.
And I also had trouble getting my ships to do, what I ordered. The ships suddenly began to freeze up and didn't move for many rounds. Colony ships sat next to their destination, and refused to colonize.
I'm not sure if it began before or after I started th first combat, but all two battles I managed to start seem to have caused an error:
Debug Message: Destroying ship Arcean Empire ColonyShip 5. Orbiting: 0
ASSERT ERROR in file g:\projects\galciv\source\starship.cpp at line 1958.
Debug Message: Destroying ship Arcean Empire StarFighter 24. Orbiting: 0
ASSERT ERROR in file g:\projects\galciv\source\starship.cpp at line 1958.


And sometimes the ships seem to get random orders. In one game I just mass produced Colonizing ships, and send them to all planets in sight, then passed a few dozen rounds. When I looked around, I found a dozen colony ships and my single scout all in one sector, doing nothing. And I never ordered any ship to fly there. No idea what could have happened.

Oh, and one comment about the research screen ... the pop up informing us that a tech has been researched seems to come the round after the tech was developed. If you don't wait for it, but change manually, you'll gain a round. Seems that the routine that checks if a tech is researched is called before this rounds research is added.

>I have seen the fast switchy bug, though. Did it
>happen when you had two of your own ships occupying
>the same space?

I only had two ships that was away from orbit, the two the screen swithed between. They were in different quatrants.

Hmmm Swedish chars isnt popular. I cant enter them in the Empire/Leader box at startup.

Sometimes when selecting a unit (no matter which type) that already have moved this turn, I cant scroll the view more than a few pixels in any direction. Pressing Find or Turn solves it.

>And I also had trouble getting my ships to do, what I >ordered. The ships suddenly began to freeze up and >didn't move for many rounds. Colony ships sat next to >their destination, and refused to colonize.

Was there anything that might have blocked them? Were there red destination cursors on the stars? If you selected them, did they have any moves left?

The first debug message is harmless, the second indicates that something is not quite right with the code that does the ship-star collision detection.

They might have stopped because other ships colonized their stars first, but since the scout wasn't supposed to be there, that sounds like something else went amiss. What is the date and time on your exe?


And sometimes the ships seem to get random orders. In one game I just mass produced Colonizing ships, and send them to all planets in sight, then passed a few dozen rounds. When I looked around, I found a dozen colony ships and my single scout all in one sector, doing nothing. And I never ordered any ship to fly there. No idea what could have happened.

Oh, and one comment about the research screen ... the pop up informing us that a tech has been researched seems to come the round after the tech was developed. If you don't wait for it, but change manually, you'll gain a round. Seems that the routine that checks if a tech is researched is called before this rounds research is added.

[Was there anything that might have blocked them? Were there red destination cursors on the stars? If you selected them, did they have any moves left?]

Nothing blocked them. It affected most of my ships, and no matter where I tried to move them (even next square) they didn't move. And yes, they had movement left.

.exe 01/07/2002 06.24 pm

Just for fun, I bumped this after I searched for "bugs" and hitting go. The old days betatesters at work, and even then nobody bothered about sleeping