Outpost Universe Forums

Outpost Series Games => Outpost 2 Multiplayer => Topic started by: Spikerocks101 on March 19, 2010, 12:53:56 PM

Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Spikerocks101 on March 19, 2010, 12:53:56 PM
Well, as I said, in a no disasters multilayer game, we got a vortex. Was odd. BTW, I lost the round.
(http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/9162/vortex.jpg)
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Hidiot on March 19, 2010, 12:55:26 PM
Is pie a Dynamix map or not?

Whatever the case, it's probably just a stray disaster not included in the check for enabled disasters.

Or not...
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: TH300 on March 19, 2010, 01:13:32 PM
Several others followed that one. And only vortexes, no quakes, no storms, no meteors.

Now, how is that possible? We all played Pie before, also to mark 1500. And am I the only one who got the warning "vortex imminent"?
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Sirbomber on March 19, 2010, 02:12:22 PM
I thought there was only the one?  I dunno...

It's weird, but it's not like OP2 hasn't done buggier things before.  If this is the first time it's ever happened to anyone, it's probably so rare we don't need to worry about it.  We (read: Hooman) could look into finding out why it happened, but since we really don't know what caused it, it'd be better if he looked into finding out more about SantaWalking.  :P  
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Hooman on March 20, 2010, 01:21:19 AM
Just a curious question, but who exactly was in that game?
 
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Hidiot on March 20, 2010, 03:56:16 AM
Sirbomber, spikerocks and TH300
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: TH300 on March 20, 2010, 06:15:46 AM
Quote
Sirbomber, spikerocks and TH300
Only the three.
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Arklon on March 20, 2010, 04:43:22 PM
Was the game played over Hamachi or netfix?
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Spikerocks101 on March 20, 2010, 05:41:05 PM
Netfix
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Sirbomber on March 20, 2010, 09:41:18 PM
Arklon can attest more than anyone how frequent short-burst lag has caused OP2 to BLAR[size=0] [/size]UGH in extremely bizarre ways (units not dying when they should, extra units getting created, etc.), and that game did suffer from a lot of that type of lag...
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Hooman on March 20, 2010, 10:18:56 PM
Either that or someone had been up to something naughty. Hmm....
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Sirbomber on March 21, 2010, 12:01:18 AM
You caught me. :P

No, I doubt it was someone doing something intentional.  If somebody could spawn a vortex at will, why would they put it in the middle of nowhere?
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Hidiot on March 21, 2010, 03:44:19 AM
To test.

Come to think of it, I still recall one bug that may have been caused by a lag spike a while ago.

Whilst playing a survivor map in development with Sirbomber and Arklon, Sirbomber finished and I think quit the game (for reasons I forget).

A short while later, I notice a supernova Tiger magically appearing over the blight walls surrounding Sirbomber's base. Arklon said he couldn't see it.

I officially withdraw my original ignorant comment  :blush:  
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Sirbomber on March 21, 2010, 09:09:50 AM
Meh, let's just forget this ever happened.  We don't want people figuring out how to reproduce this with more malicious results, after all...
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Arklon on March 21, 2010, 06:22:05 PM
I wonder if it's something similar to the exploit that gives ConVecs random cargo, or the weird invincible "ghost units".
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Sirbomber on March 21, 2010, 06:59:02 PM
Quote
I wonder if it's something similar to the exploit that gives ConVecs random cargo, or the weird invincible "ghost units".
Again, things that we shouldn't look into so they can't be exploited.  The "EMP Shockwave Guard Post" already runs the risk of breaking multiplayer, except you need to waste a perfectly good Structure Factory for a small chance of getting the type of GP you want.  Right now, the process seems to be blindly guessing and crossing your fingers.  Do we really want people figuring out how to get any weapon they want without fail?

Of course, if we don't look into them, then we can't fix the underlying problems...  (though the odds of that happening anyways are pretty slim.)
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Hooman on March 22, 2010, 12:17:51 AM
I looked at the code and the disaster creation calls are fairly obviously guarded by checks if disasters are enabled. Further, if disasters are enabled, the type of disaster is random, so it won't always be the same type.

This sounds like either a bug or an exploit. This does seem quite possibly caused by something I know about. (And other people, hence why I asked who was playing). Although, I'd be surprised if that was really the case. Or maybe I should be more surprised if it was caused by something else I don't know about that is more random. Hmm, the lag comments are interesting.
 
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: CK9 on March 22, 2010, 01:33:14 AM
seeing as we don't have the source code, it is possible there is something you don't know about yet...it could een be something that we triggered by tinkering with the game, heh
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Larrythepoet on March 22, 2010, 03:45:39 PM
I think Dan said that Santa walks under similar circumstances to the dog, but the date has to be 12/25.
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Sirbomber on March 22, 2010, 04:02:52 PM
LTP has a point.  It could just be an easter egg put in by somebody with a sick sense of humor.
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Arklon on March 22, 2010, 04:16:12 PM
Forget it. You need to look into Swarm's infamous acid trip bug since I would love to reproduce it :P
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Sirbomber on March 22, 2010, 04:27:11 PM
I whole-heartedly support Arklon's proposal.
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: evecolonycamander on April 07, 2010, 12:10:43 PM
strange dose that explain the blk colony attacking. in a colony game
note: have not been able to recrated the same sucomstances of blk colony and do not have spellcheck at this time
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Kayedon on April 07, 2010, 12:47:05 PM
Quote
strange dose that explain the blk colony attacking. in a colony game
note: have not been able to recrated the same sucomstances of blk colony and do not have spellcheck at this time
What?
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: CK9 on April 07, 2010, 01:47:33 PM
From what I gather, the black AI colony appeared and attacked him in a colony game...which shouldn't happen unless you're screwing with the .dll.......
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: evecolonycamander on April 07, 2010, 03:00:00 PM
i think fighter ran it to them as well, but he may have been referring to a multi game instead. hey fighter need you to send those screen shots still. and as for the editing of .dlls i wasn't.
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: BlackBox on April 07, 2010, 04:11:22 PM
Quote
I looked at the code and the disaster creation calls are fairly obviously guarded by checks if disasters are enabled. Further, if disasters are enabled, the type of disaster is random, so it won't always be the same type.

This sounds like either a bug or an exploit. This does seem quite possibly caused by something I know about. (And other people, hence why I asked who was playing). Although, I'd be surprised if that was really the case. Or maybe I should be more surprised if it was caused by something else I don't know about that is more random. Hmm, the lag comments are interesting.
IIRC, isn't there some weird way of producing a disaster even when there are obvious checks all over for disasters? (i.e. if disasters are never at any point created by the mission).

If I remember right there was some "debugging menu bar" that could be enabled, I believe somewhere in the TApp class it would process WM_COMMANDs and do certain things (I know disaster creation was one of the options). I wrote a tool to do a SetMenu() on the Dans_RULE_UIFrame window once and these indeed do function.

I do vaguely recall hearing about disasters being triggered by extremely unlikely (but not impossible) game conditions... I think it was in relation to an easter egg like Dan's Dog or something.
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: CK9 on April 07, 2010, 08:17:59 PM
That would be one evil easter egg...
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Sirbomber on April 07, 2010, 09:40:21 PM
Oh, and cheat codes that work in multiplayer aren't?
Title: Vortex In No Disasters Game
Post by: Hooman on April 07, 2010, 11:16:57 PM
Yes, I do recall some code for creating disasters that appeared to be debug related. There is also some unchecked code that can be abused that I know. I have activated disasters in "multiplayer" tests before using two copies on my local computer, although, whenever I tried to demonstrate it to anyone there was always a glitch that prevented it. I vaguely remember the game hanging, or sort of pausing.

So yes, hence why I find this topic interesting.