Ambrosia Garden Archive
    • Ambrosia Garden Archive

    • The Mystical Disappearing Outfits!

       EV Developer's Corner
      3 7 267
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      M

      I forget who it was, but someone asked me what a long question would be. Here's one:

      I have discovered a way to make two outfits completely disappear without explicit use of Dxxx!

      Heres the situation. I have outfit X and outfit Y, and their pertinent info is this:

      Outfit X
      OnPurchase:
      On Sell:
      Avail:

      Outfit Y
      OnPurchase: D(Outfit X)
      OnSell: G(Outfit X)
      Avail: O(Outfit X)

      What happens, is that, at first, I CAN buy X, and not Y- correct behavior. I buy X, and then I can buy Y- correct behavior. I buy Y, and both X and Y completely and utterly disappear! I get charged for Y as well.

      Just in case it helps, X does basically nothing by itself (negative accel and turn), and Y is a weapon.

      My theory is that outfit X gets deleted first, and then the engine re-checks the availability of Y, sees that it is wrong, a says, no, you can't have Y, and I don't get it. This does not explain this: I can buy as many X as I want, and it behaves the same- each Y I buy takes away one X, and I get no Y's. Obviously, in this case, removing one X would not make O(Outfit X) equate to false.

      What is REALLY strange about the whole thing is that I have used an identical setup ALL OVER THE DURN PLUG, and it works perfect. The only difference is that you don't buy X in all the other cases, it comes with the ship, and X happens to be invisible.

      Anybody else run into this problem? Any ideas on how to fix it?

      ------------------
      ~Charlie
      Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)

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    • U
      U

      Item Y doesn't have any ModType fields that give a Map, does it? A map in any ModType field will cause the item to behave as if the "Remove after Purchase" flag is set.

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    • M
      M

      Nope- no map. Item Y is identical to item X, except for the addition of using Modtype 1 as a weapon. Outfit X isn't a map, either- and neither has "Remove after Purchase" set. That would be too easy.

      ------------------
      ~Charlie
      Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)

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    • A
      A

      I've tried to reproduce your problem, but everything works fine. I used the same NCB statements outlined in your initial post. I even called them "Outfit X" and "Outfit Y". I have previously experienced "disappearing" weapons outfits, but it was always caused by some error in the outfit or weapon definition. If the debuglog.txt file contains ANY error or warning messages that pertain to any of your plug/data-file resources, then you should eliminate the causes of all of those messages, no matter how innocuous you may think they are. I have seen repeated situations where the game-engine behaves strangely with error/warning messages present and then behaves as expected when those messages are eliminated, even if the messages do not appear to relate directly to the anomalous behavior.

      (This message has been edited by Arturo (edited 07-31-2003).)

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    • M
      M

      I checked the debuglog for problems before I posted here, but didin't find anything. I've checked all the related resources a few times as well. However, I'll go back and pick through the log with a fine-toothed comb. If you can't duplicate the problem, it must be on my side somewhere. thanks.

      ------------------
      ~Charlie
      Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)

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    • A
      A

      Correction:
      I spoke (typed ?) too soon. If both outfits are non-weapons, everything works as it should. However, only if Outfit Y is a weapon will the anomalous behavior be seen. Furthermore, if the "OnPurchase: D(Outfit X)" statement is removed from weapon Outfit Y, then you have a real moneymaker. In that version of the anomaly you can purchase and receive weapon Outfit Y, but every time you try to sell weapon Outfit Y you not only get an Outfit X returned to you by the "OnSell: G(Outfit X)" statement, but weapon Outfit Y is not removed from the ship's inventory, plus you receive 50% of weapon Outfit Y's value. Eureka! It's the Nova version of perpetual motion ... er ... credits.

      Apparently your surmise that there is a bug in the order of evaluation of NCB operators is correct. I suggest that you send an email to help@ambrosiasw.com (I wouldn't bother with "Help on the way" for a problem of this complexity) outlining the bug so that on the off chance of a v1.0.7, this anomaly will get included in the to-be-fixed list. And from past experience, make sure your email subject says something like "EV:N 1.0.6 game-engine bug" so that it will be readily recognized.

      Sorry for the premature report of "problem not found".

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    • M
      M

      I'll get that bug report on the way. It's a darn good thing too, 'cause the debuglog don't say nuttin'. Heheheh. Thanks for the confirmation.

      ------------------
      ~Charlie
      Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)

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