Can't work it out

So there's this map bug where sometimes a map outfit won't reveal systems that it should reveal but I just can't work out exactly what causes it. Doesn't seem to occur in the default scenario so I've attached this plug which contains a different galaxy (I'm sure some of you will recognise it). Start a new pilot and land on the spacedock. At the bottom of the outfitters there'll be two map outfits - the first a 3-jump the second a 2-jump. Buy one of them and observe the map. Then start a new pilot again and buy the other one. In both cases there are systems that should be revealed but aren't. So can anyone work out what causes this and if there's anything that can be done it? All I've managed to determine so far is that it doesn't seem to be related to implicit hyperlinks or visbits but possibly something to do with the ordering of the hyperlinks.

(EDIT): Gah, but I did I bin it, I swear! Ah well, here it is again.

This post has been edited by Guy : 31 July 2005 - 12:18 AM

Um... I'd love to try to figure that out, but Mac plugs need to be binned before you zip them. IF you're using DropZip, go to the preferences, and find the "Preserve Macintosh Content" checkbox, and check it. If you're using another zip utility, find a MAcBinary encoder (BinAndZip works well), and bin the plug before zipping it.
If you're on Windows, something went badly wrong, as the file came out as 0K, with no extension.

Edwards

Did you get the fixed file Edwards?

Land where? There are no spobs!

Really? Did you start a new pilot? There should be a moon and a spacedock.
Make sure there's no other plug-ins, just this and the normal Nova data files.

This post has been edited by Guy : 01 August 2005 - 07:33 PM

Sorry, I didn't realize you'd updated the file until you posted. It works fine now though. Thanks.

And yes, the bug does appear to lie in the order in which links are declared in the s˙st resource. After I determined which systems seemed to be involved, I trimmed the map down to just the Thallos-Rigel-Capella triangle (with Belaspelon thrown in to see if the map was working).
Then I further edited the plug so that the remaining systems only declared the links between themselves. I put the links in ascending order of RID (Rigel, Capella), as I normally do. The problem remained.
Then I reversed the order of the links in the Thallos syst, so that Capella came first, and problem vanished.

My guess as to what is going on is that when the game checks to find out what distance systems are from a specific point, it goes to the first link in the list, then to its connections, and so on, out to the limit of the map (or mission), assigning distances as it goes. Then it repeats the process with the next link in the list, but does not overwrite previous distances, even if the new distance is shorter.

Basic conclusion: If you've got a triangle of systems, you have a problem. One arm or the other isn't going to map properly.

(EDIT)I just built a somewhat neater example of this, designed for use with AbsoluteMinimum. It consists of a triangle of systems, with another system off of each of the points. You can buy a two-jump map in any of the three central systems, and see which point system doesn't show up. Links are set up so that lower-numbered triangle systems come first.

Edwards

PS. Nice map, by the way.

Attached File(s)

• MapBugTest.bin.zip (850bytes)
  Number of downloads: 11

This post has been edited by Edwards : 01 August 2005 - 10:38 PM

Ah, I get it. So when you buy a 2-jump map Argo works fine as there's only one way to get to it in 2 jumps or less. But when you buy the 3-jump map it thinks that Argo is 3 jumps away and doesn't explore beyond it. So the problem extends to more than just triangles.
And yeah, I noticed when I move the Capella link in front of the Rigel link that the problem then switched to Rigel. Can't be avoided.

So now that Edwards has pointed out the cause I can understand why this doesn't occur in fed space. But in other places, especially those with 3-jump maps, you may find this problem. On Rebel II for example, the 3-jump map should reveal Evlei but it doesn't (I think I noticed that once before actually but must have forgotten).