Glitch with shields.

Talk about general things concerning Forged Alliance Forever.

Moderators: FtXCommando, Ze Dogfather

Glitch with shields.

Postby BRNKoINSANITY » 19 Apr 2013, 01:45

I noticed a while back when the shields were rebalanced to transfer damage that sometimes the recharge bar flickered after shields went down. Last week, I got the details straightened out and I just got a replay put together showing what is happening.

-> If you have 2 shields that overlap, the shield that actually takes the hit transfers 15% damage to the second shield.

-> If a shield takes damage while it is recharging, there is a three second stall till it starts recharging again.

-> Recharge time is faster and does not ever stall when the shield has actually gone down.

The above are no brainer details, but that is the setup for the bug. Here is a description of what is happening in the replay. This is true of all factions, and gets significantly worse under more fire.

Item #1, south side --- a single t2 shield that has units in front to take fire. 1 enemy PD spawned.
Item #2, north side --- same as above, but with a t3 shield lapped over the first shield structure and target. 1 enemy PD spawned.

When the #1 shield takes fire, obviously it goes down and recharges as normal. When # 2 shield goes down, the T3 shield takes fire while it recharges. What you will notice is this. Every time the t3 shield takes a hit as the t2 is recharging, it transfers damage to the (nonexistent) t2 bubble, which stalls the recharge for a split second during the bar flash EVEN THOUGH the t2 should be in full fast recharge with no stall. This adds up every time the shield goes down, until by the end of the replay the #2 shield is almost a full cycle behind the #1 shield due to the recharge stalls.

As you can see, there is not too much effect under 1 pd fire and there is one stall per 1.5 seconds. This does become a MAJOR problem given a situation where you have an array of 4 shields taking fire from say 5 cybran destroyers. The shields are taking a hit several times a second. This means that the stall period causes your shields to go down one by one without letting ANY of them recharge until there are no more bubbles to transfer damage. Basically, all your shields have to go down for any of them to recharge, and at that point the fire on your base will kill everything.
Attachments
834743-BRNKoINSANITY.fafreplay
(8.68 KiB) Downloaded 44 times
BRNKoINSANITY
Evaluator
 
Posts: 951
Joined: 09 Oct 2012, 01:14
Has liked: 43 times
Been liked: 207 times
FAF User Name: BRNKoINSANITY

Re: Glitch with shields.

Postby FunkOff » 19 Apr 2013, 02:25

BRNKoINSANITY wrote:-> If a shield takes damage while it is recharging, there is a three second stall till it starts recharging again.


Hmm. That actually makes sense. Shields wait a few seconds after taking damage to start charging.... but if the shield is damaged when it's down, due to the special "damage spreading" script, then they'll take damage when they aren't even up.

That seems weird... shields should not take damage if they aren't up and if they are not hit.
Last edited by FunkOff on 19 Apr 2013, 03:40, edited 1 time in total.
FunkOff
Supreme Commander
 
Posts: 1863
Joined: 26 Aug 2011, 17:27
Has liked: 14 times
Been liked: 43 times
FAF User Name: FakeOff

Re: Glitch with shields.

Postby BRNKoINSANITY » 19 Apr 2013, 02:48

That is not the point... the 3 second lag is standard and is not a problem. The glitch is that after a shield has completely gone down, its "charge from depleted" is interrupted if a lapping shield takes damage. This should not happen as there is no actual bubble to transfer damage to in order to cause the stall.

Edit -> I reread your post a couple times and I am not sure exactly what your comment means.... but I do think that you understand what I meant by this being buggy.
BRNKoINSANITY
Evaluator
 
Posts: 951
Joined: 09 Oct 2012, 01:14
Has liked: 43 times
Been liked: 207 times
FAF User Name: BRNKoINSANITY

Re: Glitch with shields.

Postby FunkOff » 19 Apr 2013, 03:40

BRNKoINSANITY wrote:Edit -> I reread your post a couple times and I am not sure exactly what your comment means....


It means I agree with you and, in hindsight, the bug should have been obvious. Kudos for pointing it out tho.
FunkOff
Supreme Commander
 
Posts: 1863
Joined: 26 Aug 2011, 17:27
Has liked: 14 times
Been liked: 43 times
FAF User Name: FakeOff

Re: Glitch with shields.

Postby stalewee » 19 Apr 2013, 04:10

I understand. Nice explanation.

Does seem like a bug to me.
User avatar
stalewee
Contributor
 
Posts: 107
Joined: 27 Sep 2012, 07:52
Has liked: 0 time
Been liked: 9 times
FAF User Name: stalewee

Re: Glitch with shields.

Postby Supreme321 » 19 Apr 2013, 04:17

It's just the way the programming seems to work. Might need to make a separate script for shields when they are down to not have any damage go through or the recharge is unaffected by a through projectile from a down shield. It's an unattended problem with the programming.
Ze_PilOt wrote:Once it's done, I will give a little preview thingy so you can test and break it :)
Supreme321
Avatar-of-War
 
Posts: 99
Joined: 23 Jun 2012, 06:32
Has liked: 0 time
Been liked: 0 time
FAF User Name: Supreme321

Re: Glitch with shields.

Postby Ze_PilOt » 19 Apr 2013, 11:39

Yes it's a bug.
Nossa wrote:I've never played GPG or even heard of FA until FAF started blowing up.
User avatar
Ze_PilOt
Supreme Commander
 
Posts: 8985
Joined: 24 Aug 2011, 18:41
Location: fafland
Has liked: 18 times
Been liked: 376 times
FAF User Name: Ze_PilOt

Re: Glitch with shields.

Postby fcosby » 20 Apr 2013, 16:25

Supreme321 wrote:It's just the way the programming seems to work. Might need to make a separate script for shields when they are down to not have any damage go through or the recharge is unaffected by a through projectile from a down shield. It's an unattended problem with the programming.


Yeah I've got your point. Great idea.
- When attacking enemies unexpectedly use hidden weapons.
fcosby
 
Posts: 1
Joined: 20 Apr 2013, 16:21
Location: 1801 Fourth Ave., North Birmingham
Has liked: 0 time
Been liked: 0 time
FAF User Name: dylanians

Re: Glitch with shields.

Postby Gorton » 20 Apr 2013, 17:23

Yes, i've noticed this happening with mobile shields as well.
"who is this guy, he didnt play gpg or what?" - RA_ZLO

*FAF Moderator*
Gorton
Councillor - Moderation
 
Posts: 2543
Joined: 16 Apr 2013, 21:57
Location: United Kingdom
Has liked: 1067 times
Been liked: 455 times
FAF User Name: Gorton


Return to General Discussions

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest