Reminder to fix two 'kill quota' bugs

[bru888]

Hi, this is just a reminder that we need to fix two "kill quota" bugs in a couple of DLC scenarios. This is where a primary objective is set to require exactly a certain amount of kills to end the scenario but the game player is allowed to rack up more than that amount by the time the scenario ends. Being quite literal, of course, the trigger says "Nope, fail" and the player is frustrated.

We've known about this one since the end of May (confirmed by Shards): Objectives completed but game does not finish. That's the one in the Blitzkrieg, Kiev scenario where the "Destroy or rout 100 [Soviet] ground units" is set to exactly 100 and it should be ">99" because as the OP indicated, he finished with 104 and failed.

This one may be new to us; I had not heard about it until this OP posted yesterday: Winter war end issue. Here, in Winter War, Lapland scenario, it's the same thing. The objective is to "Destroy or expel 65 German units from Lapland." This player managed to kill 71 of them and lost because the trigger is set to exactly 65. This should be set for ">64" in this case.

Another DLC is about to be launched and with it, presumably, another patch will be released. Can we get these two fixes into the patch in time?

[bru888]

Here's something else that comes under the heading of Murphy's Law: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

It's also really not a bug but an oversight in design, perhaps. This complaint comes from a game player who posted in the OOB Matrix forum. It's regarding the "Inflict 15 Damage to Battleships" primary objective (which means you cannot advance unless you attain it) and this trigger in the Kriegsmarine, Operation Torch scenario:

Screenshot 2.jpg (187.88 KiB) Viewed 4824 times

The game player makes the absolutely valid point that, if he plays on easy setting and since there are only two U.S. battleships in the scenario, he cannot possibly win. This is due to, when one plays on easy difficulty, each enemy unit begins with a strength of 6. That means there are only 12 total U.S. battleship strength points to damage and therefore one cannot possibly win the scenario on that difficulty setting.

This is an instance where playing on Easy difficulty is harder than Hard difficulty. Like, impossible!

Well, I don't know if you want to work on this at this point. You should, in my opinion, but I don't own any stock in this franchise. It would probably require doing something else in place of this objective or building a series of triggers that look at the scenario difficulty setting and adjust this "kill quota" number accordingly.

I would love to see the two things in the first post fixed, however. Those are quite easy. Thanks.

[bru888]

Hey, actually, no! You did provide for this possibility with this trigger which spawns a third battleship on Easy difficulty:

Screenshot 4.jpg (194.28 KiB) Viewed 4822 times

And it does work; here are the three battleships on Easy difficulty (not sure why one starts on strength 4 but there are 16 BB strength points out there.

Screenshot 3.jpg (285.45 KiB) Viewed 4822 times

I will go back to the game player in the other forum and inform him that he needs to look harder for a third battleship on Easy difficulty. Super! Now you can make those easy "kill quota" fixes in the other two scenarios referenced in the OP and call it a day!

[adherbal]

These issues should all be fixed in the next update, scheduled for release this month.

[Andy2012]

These issues should all be fixed in the next update, scheduled for release this month.

Cool, good job.
Another minor thing I noticed: In the Marines DLC, you get a secondary to let your engineers do 30 damage (Iwo Jima?). Reward should be a Sherman Zippo. Doesnt work at all (the counter stays at 0).

[bru888]

I dunno, Andy. It worked alright for me just now.

Screenshot 1.jpg (457.68 KiB) Viewed 4745 times

What I thought was if you happened to be "standing" in the spot with a friendly unit when you inflicted the 30th damage point with an engineer, would the Zippo tank be blocked?

Screenshot 5.jpg (374.99 KiB) Viewed 4745 times

Turns out, no. It gets placed down nearby.

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Maybe yours got lost? It looks a lot like any other Sherman tank.

[Andy2012]

Nope, I am pretty certain. Had two engineer units two or three star on the field, they dealt damage, the counter never moved from 0.

[bru888]

Nope, I am pretty certain. Had two engineer units two or three star on the field, they dealt damage, the counter never moved from 0.

You're saying and I'm believing. Let me look at it again tonight with some other variables like the "one of your soldiers is standing on the Zippo landing spot, dude" that I tested. That wasn't a problem but maybe something else is afoot. I will post here again if I find anything.

[Andy2012]

Nope, I am pretty certain. Had two engineer units two or three star on the field, they dealt damage, the counter never moved from 0.

You're saying and I'm believing. Let me look at it again tonight with some other variables like the "one of your soldiers is standing on the Zippo landing spot, dude" that I tested. That wasn't a problem but maybe something else is afoot. I will post here again if I find anything.

Well, as a mod, my word is now beyond doubt.
But I dont think it has something to do with the Zippo landing spot, rather how damage is counted. Counter is probably broken. I mean, it is still a minor bug and I finished the whole campaign by now. Solid mission design, but not much emotion for me. Marines is probably more interesting for the US market with the whole emotional connection to the Pacific campaign.
And dont overextend yourself here, this is not a paid position, remember?

[bru888]

And dont overextend yourself here, this is not a paid position, remember?

No problem. I'm doing this as a labor of love (but not for you, Andy, although I do like you a lot ) The thing is, the more I try to answer questions and investigate issues, the more I learn about the game.

[Andy2012]

No problem. I'm doing this as a labor of love (but not for you, Andy, although I do like you a lot )

"Ma, I found a friend on the internet" "Good for you, son. Now you only need to find a job there, too"

(Just having a laugh here)

[adherbal]

Nope, I am pretty certain. Had two engineer units two or three star on the field, they dealt damage, the counter never moved from 0.

How long ago was this? I haven't looked into this yet but from bru888's tests it appears to work. Quite some time ago there were changes done to the damage/kill counting so perhaps that fixed it but that's probably over half a year ago.

[Andy2012]

Nope, I am pretty certain. Had two engineer units two or three star on the field, they dealt damage, the counter never moved from 0.

How long ago was this? I haven't looked into this yet but from bru888's tests it appears to work. Quite some time ago there were changes done to the damage/kill counting so perhaps that fixed it but that's probably over half a year ago.

Only played Marines recently after becoming a mod. I thought I should at least know most of the DLCs. Marines worked fine except that. I had two engineers, they dealt damage to units and structures, but the counter stayed at 0.
Still not a big deal, mission works anyway.

[adherbal]

I just checked and am pretty sure what caused the bug. There used to be only 2 US engineer types available in the game: '41 and '42. Now there is a whole range of '39 until '45, but the trigger only accepted damage for '41 and '42 types.

[Andy2012]

I just checked and am pretty sure what caused the bug. There used to be only 2 US engineer types available in the game: '41 and '42. Now there is a whole range of '39 until '45, but the trigger only accepted damage for '41 and '42 types.

Hey, thanks.
(Weird how specific the whole trigger stuff is. Guess it has to be.)

[bru888]

I just checked and am pretty sure what caused the bug. There used to be only 2 US engineer types available in the game: '41 and '42. Now there is a whole range of '39 until '45, but the trigger only accepted damage for '41 and '42 types.

Hey, thanks.
(Weird how specific the whole trigger stuff is. Guess it has to be.)

Andy, I just want you to know that I believed you the whoooolllle time!

[Andy2012]

@bru: Yeah, right. Do I hear a hint of sarcasm there?

@adherbal: Another minor issue - I noticed that in the campaign launch map, the description and name of the Blitzkrieg campaign is blank. Mouse hover says 'name', description is empty.
Edit: Fixed it with the steam "repair" function. Everything back. Wonder what destroyed my Blitzkrieg...