A Few Issues (Main issue: Drones)

[RAD-82]

I just took this data from the recent 1.5.10 update. None of these are critical, but one of them does effect gameplay.

Highest priority: Blue choices for drones in events.

blue_event_drones.png

This event should have a blue choice for the beam drone.

Code: Select all

<event name="DISTRESS_TRAPPED_MINER" unique="true">
   <text>You arrive at the distress beacon near a small asteroid belt and find a ship with pirate markings partially crushed between two large rocks. It must have been illegally mining the belt without proper equipment.</text>
   <distressBeacon/>
   <choice hidden="true">
      <text>Try to dislodge the ship by shooting at the rocks.</text>
      <event load="DISTRESS_TRAPPED_MINER_SHOOT"/>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true">
      <text>Destroy and loot the ship. They're just pirates.</text>
      <event load="DISTRESS_TRAPPED_MINER_LOOT"/>      
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true" req="WEAPONS_BEAM_DAMAGE"> <!-- JUSTIN - TO DO - List of beam weapons-->
      <text>(Beam Weapon) Carefully cut the ship out.</text>
      <event>
         <text>You use your beam to make a few precision cuts in the asteroid. The ship gives a quick burst of thrust and the rock crumbles away. They thank you and offer some of the resources they have collected.</text>
         <autoReward level="MED">standard</autoReward>
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true" req="COMBAT_BEAM">
      <text>(Beam Drone) Have your drone cut the ship out.</text>
      <event>
         <text>You program the drone to work carefully around the trapped ship. In a short time it allows the ship to easily slip out of its cage. They thank you and offer some of the resources they have collected.</text>
         <autoReward level="MED">standard</autoReward>
         <item_modify>
            <item type="drones" min="-1" max="-1"/>
         </item_modify>
      </event>
   </choice>
</event>


This only specifies the Anti-Ship Beam Drone I, and as the image shows, it doesn't work. It needs updated to include the Anti-Ship Beam Drone II, and tested to make sure it works. Also uses beam drones: ROCK_STARSHIP_MINE.

Code: Select all

<event name="CIVILIAN_ASTEROIDS_BEACON_2">
   <text>They respond: "Help! Our shields are down and we won't last long!"</text>
   <choice hidden="true">
      <text>Try to shield their ship with yours.</text>
      <event load="CIVILIAN_ASTEROIDS_BEACON_LIST1"/>
   </choice>
   <choice>
      <text>Don't risk our ship. Leave them to their fate.</text>
      <event load="CIVILIAN_ASTEROIDS_BEACON_LIST4"/>
   </choice>
   <choice req="DRONES_DEFENSE" hidden="true">
      <text>(Defense Drone) Use a Defense Drone to protect their ship.</text>
      <event load="CIVILIAN_ASTEROIDS_BEACON_LIST2"/>
   </choice>
   <choice req="REPAIR" hidden="true">
      <text>(Repair Drone) Send a Repair Drone to fix their Shields.</text>
      <event load="CIVILIAN_ASTEROIDS_BEACON_LIST2"/>
   </choice>
   <choice req="teleporter" hidden="true">
      <text>(Teleporter) Offer to beam them aboard your ship.</text>
      <event load="CIVILIAN_ASTEROIDS_BEACON_LIST3"/>
   </choice>
   <choice req="ROCK_ARMOR" hidden="true">
      <text>(Rock Armor) Shield their ship with yours and escort them out.</text>
      <event>   
         <text>You succeed in preventing them from being entirely destroyed, your improved hull taking the brunt of the asteroids that make it past your defenses. They offer you some of the scrap and fuel they were mining out of the asteroid as thanks.</text>
         <autoReward level="MED">fuel</autoReward>
      </event>
   </choice>
</event>


This specifies DRONES_DEFENSE. That's new, because I know it used to just be DEFENSE, which would use any drone with <type>DEFENSE</type>. The problem here is that the DRONES_DEFENSE list doesn't have DEFENSE_2 in it, it has DEFENSE_2_ENEMY. It also has ANTI_DRONE in it, and it just seems wrong that an ion-shooting drone that isn't designed to shoot asteroids works in this event. I tested that in 1.5.4 and thought it was because of the DEFENSE type because I didn't know it was changed to the DRONES_DEFENSE list. edit: I deleted my 1.5.4 files, so I don't know when this change was implemented.

edit: I just watched a video by VanguardOfValor. At 16:25, he encounters this asteroid event, and he has a Defense I drone equipped. He doesn't have a blue option to use it. I don't know if he is running 1.5.4 or 1.5.10 in this video.

Code: Select all

<event name="DISTRESS_INFESTATION" unique="true">
   <text>You find a number of ships fleeing from a small space station. You hail them, asking what's wrong: "Help! We're being overrun by some sort of giant alien spiders!"</text>
   <distressBeacon/>
   <choice hidden="true">
      <text>Send the crew to help! Giant alien spiders are no joke.</text>
      <event load="DISTRESS_INFESTATION_LIST"/>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true">
      <text>Leave them alone.</text>
      <event>
         <text>You can't risk fighting some unknown alien on every backwater station you come across. You prepare to jump.</text>
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true" req="BATTLE">
      <text>(Anti-Personnel Drone) Send your battle drone in to help.</text>
      <event>
         <text>You pull up alongside the station and release the drone through the airlock. Within a short time the majority of the creatures are dead, with only a little collateral damage. They express their most sincere gratitude.</text>
         <autoReward level="MED">stuff</autoReward>         
         <item_modify>
            <item type="drones" min="-1" max="-1"/>
         </item_modify>
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true" req="BOARDER">
      <text>(Boarding Drone) Launch a Boarding drone into the station.</text>
      <event>
         <text>You launch the drone and it crashes through their hull, leaving a huge breach. You watch as the drone tears through the creatures while debris and dead bodies fly out of the breach. The owners of the station are less than effusive when they thank you, and offer only a meager payment. Maybe it's a good time to leave...</text>
         <autoReward level="LOW">standard</autoReward>         
         <item_modify>
            <item type="drones" min="-1" max="-1"/>
         </item_modify>
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true" req="BEAM_BIO">
      <text>(Bio Beam) Use the beam to pick off the spiders.</text>
      <event>
         <text>You instruct them to drop their shields and you are able to kill the creatures without damaging the station. "The monsters just started bursting into flame as we watched. What a terrifying weapon... Here, take this for your help, friend."</text>
         <autoReward level="HIGH">stuff</autoReward>
      </event>   
   </choice>
</event>

I haven't tested this one, but I assume that the Ion Intruder Drone will work on the alien spiders because it is <type>BOARDER</type>. It doesn't make sense to me that it could fight the spiders in the manner written in the event. Maybe that's okay...
---
Next on my list: Red-Tail floor graphic.

redtail_floor.png

The y-offset for the floor needs increased by 2, from 19 to 21. You can also see that the top door on the shield room overlaps the floor image. kestral_2_floor.png needs edited.
---
Last: Pilot glow.

pilot_glow.png

In the picture, you can see that the glow is one pixel too high. The offset values in rooms.xml are correct. I don't know what you can do about this, because not everyone has this issue. Various videos on the internet show it misaligned like this, while others have it in the correct spot. It seems like an issue with the hardware/software on the users end. Hopefully a solution can be found so it places the glow correctly for everyone.

edit: It only applies to the pilot. The other systems have no problem when they face right.

[RAD-82]

There have been a few replies by Matthew recently, but none of them addressed this issue, so I'm going to bump this topic just in case it was missed.

No, I have not reported it at that other website, http://www.getsatisfaction.com/FTLgame, because it looks like that would require me to sign up for another website, which I don't really want to do.

edit: It seems I can sign in with Google, so I guess I can remember that for the future.

[Matthew]

Thank you for the thorough report. I'll make sure this stuff gets looked into.

[RAD-82]

Perhaps this has already been fixed for the next patch, but I did some more testing in 1.5.10.

When testing against the alien spiders in DISTRESS_INFESTATION, only the normal BOARDER drone worked; BOARDER_BOSS and BOARDER_ION did not work. I suppose this event is working as intended and my theory-crafting from before was wrong.

When testing 5 defense drones (DEFENSE_1, DEFENSE_2, DEFENSE_2_ENEMY, BOSS_DEFENSE_2, ANTI-DRONE) on the CIVILIAN_ASTEROIDS_BEACON event, only ANTI-DRONE would work. Considering the game has to get that from the blueprintList DRONES_DEFENSE, something must be wrong since the other two drones on the list, DEFENSE_1 and DEFENSE_2_ENEMY, aren't working. It may seem that the game only recognizes the last item on the list, but when I turned the AE content off, meaning ANTI_DRONE is no longer on the list, the last item, DEFENSE_2_ENEMY, still doesn't work, so that idea is wrong.

I thought that it was using the drone <type>, based on my limited 1.03.3 modding experience, but it seems I was wrong. I reset the requirement from DRONES_DEFENSE back to DEFENSE, and DEFENSE_1, DEFENSE_2, and DEFENSE_2_ENEMY worked. BOSS_DEFENSE_2 and ANTI-DRONE did not work. This suggests that drones that are prefixed with DEFENSE in their name is required. I assume this only works with DEFENSE and COMBAT, since it didn't work like this with BOARDER (and COMBAT_BEAM from my first post).

I forgot to test the new COMBAT_BEAM_2 and COMBAT_FIRE drones on the AUTO_DEFENSE_RADAR (req="COMBAT"), but my tests from above lead me to believe that they would work.

Drones seem to have some unique coding when it comes to events. It would be nice if they behaved more like weapons.

edit: After finding an old post, it seems the game has issues with drone names starting with DEFENSE and COMBAT. I don't know anything about the coding, but I guess it refuses to use DEFENSE or COMBAT for anything other than req="DEFENSE" and req="COMBAT" blue options after that old fix was applied, and I don't even know how it was broken before that.

I said above it would be nice if they behaved more like weapons, but maybe they already do or did, until that DEFENSE/COMBAT fix was implemented. I should try new tests with drones using different names, but I don't know when I'll find the time.