What causes a bug with the fighter-bombers and ships?

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Hello everyone.

This is an atypical topic, as I would like to ask the community of modders to help me research the bug present in EE2 (since ver 1.0 probably).

The bug I'm talking about is that fighter-bombers and bombers are "exploding" their projectiles (bombs, rockets) much higher above all ship units. From what I tested they're attacking ground units correctly, however with ships the explosion effect is always visible so high and unrealistic.

Some screenshots:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.58.22.520.jpg (332.79 KiB) Viewed 15634 times

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.58.40.771.jpg (348.44 KiB) Viewed 15634 times

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_13.59.49.597.jpg (340.79 KiB) Viewed 15634 times

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-06_14.14.33.492.jpg (341.64 KiB) Viewed 15634 times

As first I thought that it's caused by the Planes Height Mod, however, I tested on ver 1.2 and the same thing happens. In fact, on the official version missiles / bombs explode right after the launch.

The test save file is here:
empireearth2://decode-downloader-ee2-sa ... ew&id=1547

Dive bombers Missile Bug 2 (ship).sav

(892.27 KiB) Downloaded 598 times

I think the problem is in ship units, not the planes, but I can't be 100% sure.

Could you guys please try to mod game (of course after backupping it) and play with different values, etc. in order to detect a solution for this bug? Obviously I tried myself, but it's hard for me to focus on it fully.

I'm waiting for ideas and maybe test results from you

[RGV1]

I will duplicate the answer. Suddenly someone else will read, for the future.

Hi MonaLisa!
I met this bug when I adapted new bombers.
It is available with fighter-bombers and heavy bombers. He meets both rockets and bombs.
But, this bug is not present with helicopters (which is surprising).
This bug greatly interfered with setting the attack range and reload speed.
I couldn't figure it out with him.
The shells explode almost immediately after the flight.
My considerations:
1 On sea vehicles, it is in the 3D models themselves that there are no missile hit points (special protrusions on the 3D model so that the game knows where to hit the projectile).
2 There are missile hit points on naval vehicles, but in the 3D model itself (or in the text files of the game) they are not spelled out for bombers' shells (it works for helicopters).
3 There may be problems in the animation itself, in relation to naval units, she does not understand when to end the explosion animation. The shells hit the target, the damage is done, this shows that the problem is only in the animation ...

Possible solution.
Compare the missiles of the helicopter and the bomber, replace the type of missiles of the bomber with the type of missiles of the helicopter (if different) and see what happens.

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Thank you for your reply, RGV1.

Iwanicki seems to experience this problem too:

Iwanicki_Screenshot 2021-07-19 220654.png (318.45 KiB) Viewed 15610 times

What I noticed is that this bug can be "fixed" by setting a low unit sizeX, but obviously it's a bad solution.
So it seems like the game things that ships are as tall as their size X / size Y. That's weird.

Do you have any other ideas how to try to fix it?

EDIT:

Helicopters also seem to be affected at higher heights:

helis.jpg (861.34 KiB) Viewed 15609 times

[Dr.MonaLisa]

I have good news!

The upcoming Minor Update 158015 will have the following fix:

- Fixed a bug (present since ver 1.0), where projectiles (usually guided missiles and bombs) were exploding way too high above ships. Reference addresses: 007F7B1C (EE2), 0088E8CC (AOS):
* It was happening, because the game uses the unit size X (width) as their top impact border. It was not that noticeable for the smaller, rounded ground units as much as for the big, elliptical ships.
* The fix detects if the target unit "moveType" is "kUnitMoveType_NavalShallow" or "kUnitMoveType_NavalDeep" and simulates the same behaviour as when attacking buildings. Following with guided missiles is not negatively affected (works in the unchanged form).
* It also improves explosion visuals in lower epochs, during sea battles. Projectiles (including torpedoes) now explode right next to the hull instead of somewhere far beside. Discussion and before/after screenshots are available in this forum topic: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=5491
* WARNING: This update will make previously recorded game playbacks with naval units used - incompatible (they will hang/stop) due to incorrect synchronization. Game saves should not be affected.

This fix is done by the assembly, so I included it to both versions of UP1.5: Normal and Developers.

In short, units with moveType: kUnitMoveType_NavalShallow or kUnitMoveType_NavalDeep will now take projectiles (including bombs) as if they were buildings.

Screenshots:

Sea Battle Before 158015:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.32.21.232.jpg (297.12 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

Sea Battle After 158015:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.31.10.343.jpg (281.58 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

Torpedoes Before 158015:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_09.21.20.926.jpg (383.69 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

Torpedoes After 158015:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.24.59.419.jpg (374.95 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

Fighter Bombers Before 158015:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.29.21.117.jpg (386.36 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

Fighter Bombers After 158015:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.27.32.277.jpg (397.68 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

Bombers Before 158015:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.29.48.866.jpg (403.56 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.30.43.407.jpg (277.67 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

Bombers After 158015:

EE2_ScreenShot_2021-07-20_17.28.15.940.jpg (389.25 KiB) Viewed 15597 times

[RGV1]

Great job.
Yesterday (after reading the post at work) I also began to think that the error is a "hardcoded problem". And this saddened me, because by means of modding perhaps it was only possible to come up with crutches
(crooked fix).
Your solution veri good

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Thanka RGV1! I still have some other things to test / improve before the 158015 release, but please let me know if you would need the updated Developers Version files faster. I think this fix is worth addidng with the update of EE4 mod

[RGV1]

"I think this fix is ​​worth addidng with the update of EE4 mod" - yes, bugs should be fixed in mods as well.
"before the 158015 release" - could you manage to send it to me in discord (or in another way) by July 25 (Sunday)?

- I almost finished adapting the English translation at 9.8.0.
I want to make the English version 9,8,0 faster, because maybe in August and September I will have little free time. Therefore, I am trying to release 9,8,0 at the end of July, but I don’t make any announcements (suddenly I don’t have time in time)
I have left little work on translating 9,8,0, but everything will still need to be tested.
Of course it won't be a ideal translation, but better than version 9.02
As a result, I would really need the "158015 release" patch.

[Dr.MonaLisa]

OK, I'll try to finish it

[Sat42]

Still astonished to discover such bugs that were always present in the official versions of EE2.

Still amazed at Dr.MonaLisa's determination to fix the games for all of us.

Great work, thanks a lot!

[Dr.MonaLisa]

I released a Hotfix Update 158017: https://ee2.eu/patch/changes/#158017
With the following fix:

— Addressed an issue occurring after update 158015 (with a fix for projectiles exploding way too high above ships):
* In lower epochs ships that are moving could not take any damage, especially when the game speed was slow or medium.
* It could be considered as a benefit (possible micromanagement during sea battles), however Unofficial Patch 1.5 was designed not to change the vanilla experience / gameplay. That's why it has been rated as a bug.
* The new version of the "projectiles fix" detects if a projectile is a bomb, torpedo or guided missile, otherwise it's not activating (arrows, cannons). Torpedoes and guided missiles are following the target, so the bug doesn't occur, and bombs have never been following the target, but they deal area damage. This way the visual bug is fixed without a negative effect on the gameplay.
* Thanks for the report and providing the game save file to player: "KOZZY7".

Changes in short:
- In epochs 1-10 we should not longer see any difference during sea battles (screenshot "Sea Battle After 158015" is outdated now).
- Only torpedoes, guided missiles and bombs will have the new fix enabled, because it doesn't affect the simulation / gameplay.

Sorry for the inconvenience. It's always like this. A bigger update needs several hotfix updates to make everything perfect