VCMI 0.7 - Bug Reports

International board Help & Bugs
#54

#57 When the hero is on the move the screen seems to get centered after every step instead of smoothly following the hero.

Just felt it was so annoying i had to report it :stuck_out_tongue: . maybe it’s possible to change this already somehow?

#58 Attacking an enemy stack with a ranged creature reduces the enemy stack instantly instead of after he’s been actually hit.

#55

@Aidis: I also noticed #57 - and I believe it becomes particularly obvious if we pick up an object at the end of a movement, and map seems to still center itself behind the pop-up message window we get.

#56

I’m not familiar with how bug trackers work, but let us know how we can help if it’s sth for us.

#38 is resolved as well. And maybe also #22?

These, together with #45 are missing from the above list. But #45 is very hard to reproduce, so I don’t know in which category would go.

#3 was indeed not a bug, but we do have the related bug which should be included in TO BE RESOLVED list - and we could give it a separate bug code - #59 : Horde buildings, once built, still show as not built until the corresponding dwelling is upgraded (though I’m not sure if relogging issues reported in old versions helps you, or quite the contrary - in case you have a well organized log of everything that was previously reported).

#8 was indeed not a but. And same for #27, though for #27 I was thinking of starting a poll to check what would be the preferred default choice between gold & experience (as I suspect 90% of players would prefer experience).

Maybe give it a log number - #60 - and here is the complete functionality description:

I’ll go for the more simple alternative. :stuck_out_tongue:

That is indeed a very good thing to know and check every now and then. Thanks! :slight_smile:

#57

#61 - Enter key does not work in the Chest window.

#62 - NumPad Enter does not seem to work in any window.

#63 - Adv.Map scrolling behind pop-up window. We can scroll the Adventure map behind some pop-up windows (Chest choice, level-up), but not behind other windows (Learning Stone, Water Wheel, etc).

In H3C the map is always frozen behind these pop-up windows. But now I’m not sure what is best for VCMI. I’ve noticed that particularly on high resolutions, can actually become interesting to be able to scroll the map while you have a choice pop-up window open. Not only may it seem “cool”, but can even turn useful - e.g.: you have a choice between 1000 Gold & 500 Experience, and you know you need about 500 Gold by the end of the day; you could use this feature to scroll around a bit, to see if there’s any pile of gold within the reach of one of your heroes, and then you could go for the experience without a worry.

Alternatively, if you go for disabling the map scrolling behind window, I would still consider implementing it in the form of a certain key combination (e.g.: Ctrl+Arrows)

But one thing is sure: I wouldn’t leave it as it is - scrollable behind some windows, but not behind others.

#64 - The 1024x600 resolution doesn’t really work on my PC. It basically looks just like 800x600, plus a big black area in the right side of the Adv.Map. I’m not sure if it’s supposed that only one of the 2 new resolutions work on a certain machine (depending on the display settings), or it’s indeed really a bug.

#65 - When selecting resolutions in the console, if instead of selecting 0, 1, 2 or 3, I type “resolution 1024 x 600”, the console crashes. I know it’s my “mistake” not indicating one of the 4 values as requested, but maybe the console could simply return an “Invalid command” line and remain functional, instead of crashing.

#66 - Exiting game (System Options - Quit to Desktop) in full screen mode causes the application to stop responding. We can only kill it from Task Manager.

#67 - Left, bottom and right sides of the frame surrounding the Adventure map still need to be adjusted in size. See here for more details.

#58

#68 - Border or Quest Guards can’t be accessed from all directions - Tested in War of the Mighty (Border Guards near both Red castles are inaccessible) and Tale of Two Lands (in Subterranean area south-east of starting Red castle, one Quest Guard is accessible but the other isn’t).

Best regards,
Steven.

#59

Implemented, though 8 hero limit includes garrisoned heroes. I’m not sure if not counting them was an intentional feature.

Fixed.

#60

#69 There is a click sound when clicking anywhere at the main menu. should just make a sound when clicking on any of the options(new game,load game etc).

#70 The “default” sight radius is bigger in VCMI than in H3C, and also not centered around the hero.

In none of the following pictures did i have any items that increased sight.

these two pictures is from a new started map:
H3C: i42.tinypic.com/2415hfm.jpg
VCMI: i39.tinypic.com/121fif5.jpg

As you can see in the VCMI pic the sight radius is bigger and also not centered around the hero. (I havent moved at all yet in none of those pictures.)

These 2 following pictures is after walking the path shown in my earlier VCMI picture(i39.tinypic.com/121fif5.jpg) + 3 steps straight down.

H3C: i41.tinypic.com/erncb4.jpg
VCMI: i42.tinypic.com/2011rtz.jpg

As I said earlier in none of these pictures did i have any skills or artifacts that could increase my sight radius (to my knowledge at least).

EDIT: i44.tinypic.com/bhdq2c.jpg
Much more easy looking comparison pic with some photoshop skills :stuck_out_tongue:

#61

@Aidis: I can confirm the issue about FoW, though probably the devs are also well aware. I’ve noticed it long time ago, but I thought it was intentionally implemented like this to give us a better perspective (and make it easier to test longer paths from the beginning). For that reason I wasn’t gonna bring it up before 0.8 - but I guess we can have this changed earlier as well.

@Tow: Thx for all the fixes, in such a short time. :->

Some comments on a couple of issues:

I’m not very sure about that either, though no later patch or add-on ever changed that, so to me it looks like it was meant to be like this. Few arguments I can think of:
~ H3 came after H2, which had those Captains if you remember - some sort of L1 “heroes” which could be hired on top of the maximum amount of heroes available, to defend a certain town when the strong hero was away
~ NWC may have wanted to somehow keep that H2 feature, but somehow simplified and in the same time more flexible (H2 Captains could not leave the town, an extra hero in H3 was able, in case one of the main heroes was killed or temporary garrisoned)
~ I don’t think allowing garrisoned heroes on top of 8 heroes on the map would have negative effects - if I’m not mistaken these extra heroes remain as L1 and rarely step out of towns
~ And lastly, as VCMI will offer support for higher resolutions, bigger maps, more alignments and more heroes, “limiting” the amount of heroes would kinda be going in the opposite direction, and give the player the feeling he/she’s a bit “short on heroes” (which didn’t much happen in H3 original)

UPDATE: I just realized the best way to figure this out was to check the H3 manual and here is what they say about it:

I also thought that showing the tooltip only after the button is clicked (so actually only after the open window is closed again) is a bit weird. Glad you agreed to implement it on hover :slight_smile: (and that you’re considering §2 as well).

Are you referring at 0.7? I still see it as follows (in both 800x600 & 1024x768):

  • upper frame correct
  • left frame too big
  • bottom and right frame too short

But just in case I was not very clear what I’m referring to, I’m talking of the big black (with pattern) background frame behind the Adventure map, not the small gray frame of the Adventure map itself.

Here’s an example of how much I can go to the left (too much) and down (too little) by scrolling the map to the left lower corner:

#62

Fixed.
I’ve made impossible to scroll map with mouse when any dialog is opened. Instead of that I’ve added possibility of scrolling with keyboard: CTRL+Arrows. As you wished :slight_smile:

Fixed.

Fixed.

Fixed.

Fixed.

#63

http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/images/smiles/all_hail.gif :stuck_out_tongue:

[size=67]Note: the credit for reporting #52 goes to dikamilo though ;)[/size]

#64

Great work with all the fixes =)

some more things i noticed:

#71 Creature stack number frames in battle can overlap when standing close to each other.
H3C: http://s5.tinypic.com/1ilh87.jpg VCMI: http://s5.tinypic.com/348oaq1.jpg (It’s 3 serpent flies vs 43 gremlins)

#72 You can’t move your mouse at all while moving the adv.map with you keyboard arrows. the adventure map will stop move even tho you have your arrowkey pressed down.

Following things are probably not that important but i will report them at least.

#73 The slider in the Available scenarios section where you select map could have some improvements. atm to be able to drag it you have to actually press the on the blue “block”, it should be possible to press anywhere on the slider so it jumps there and drag in the same move. Would be great to be able to use the mouse scroll wheel to slide too.

#74 Using the mouse scroll wheel in the main menus and in Available Scenarios and such makes the cursor act weird. it kinda starts doing everything in slow motion as long as you keep scrolling and moving your mouse at the same time.

In addition to #73 maybe it would be great to be able to use the mouse wheel in other “slider windows” like when you split stacks and recruit stacks and such? just came to mind now i dont really know how useful it would be but you could think of it :wink:

0.72 bugs and issues
#65

You are right. I will probably implement proper behaviour by the 0.71 release.

I was refering to 0.7b, sorry for not standing this clear.
It’s still not working identically as in original but is better than 0.7.

Fixed. I’ve also implemented scrolling scenario list with the wheel. I hope to add scrolling to the other parts of interface soon. Thanks for suggestion.

#66

Fixed.

Implemented.

Done.

Fixed.

Implemented in the stack splitting window.

Fixed.

#67

AFAIK fixed/added by Tow Dragon.

I’ve changed path calculation formulas, it should be better new :slight_smile:

Fixed.

Implemented.

Fixed, thanks for precise description :slight_smile:

#68

Implemented rebalancing possibility :slight_smile:

#69

To avoid spamming the 0.72c thread with a discussion on this, I thought of raising this in the thread where I reported the issue. It’s something that was never addressed in the end I believe. The VCMI and H3-WoG “static” creature animations in battle are very different. For example, please load the attached game in both VCMI & H3WoG, and attack Grand Elves with Christian:

In VCMI, all creatures seem to be doing the same thing: breathing. Not bad animation, just maybe a bit monotonous.

In H3WoG, the creatures aren’t breathing, but every 10 seconds, each of them have a more-or-less customized animation (and luckily not all together :slight_smile: ):

  • Behemoths show their claws (?) and roar (silently:p)
  • Beholders & Troglodytes move/open their mouths (differently)
  • Imps rub their noses :slight_smile:
  • Elves are checking their bows
    (and so on - each creature having its own animation, be that funny or dull)

Now, I’m a bit lazy to install RoE again to check this, but are the (breathing) animations you guys are using from the original RoE, while the custom animations came later? Or you created them yourselves?

I’d like to have this cleared out before adding it to SourceForge (if necessary at all - because in case your animations are the original ones, then we don’t really have an issue; even if the custom animations are a bit more interesting:)
just testing.h3m (4.72 KB)

#70

This is a very minor thing (maybe the smallest “issue” I’ll ever report :p): I see the above has been implemented 99%. Only keys not coded to stop movement as well are CTRL, Shift & the function keys (other than those mentioned in my post that they shouldn’t). While I doubt anyone will jump to the function keys to stop a movement, I would still add Ctrl & Shift in the code (unless you had a particular reason to leave them out).

#71

Was there any change since RoE?
Animations we use are present in creatures’ .DEF files. We neither did them or distribute them with VCMI, it’s a part of H3:WoG installation. It seems that NWC prepared animations for “standing” creature but they didn’t use them in battles (efficiency reasons?).

Apart from that .defs contain special animation that is played when creature is hovered with mouse or randomly from time to time (that are the animations you listed).

#72

I wouldn’t know. And I just realized I can’t check that as the only H3 copies I have in the house are two different versions of Heroes 3 Complete (the original one on CD and the DVD version released later on by Ubisoft). My old copy of RoE is among the disks I left to my little brother when I left the country 5 years ago (hoping he will give it a try some day - but strategies are just not his thing). :stuck_out_tongue:

Interesting. As for why NWC left them out, could be various reasons:

  • efficiency as you say (in case you are referring to system resources needed to support up to 14+ “passive” animations continuously)
  • focus: maybe they felt it’s easier to focus on the active creature if others don’t move in place all the time
  • or, as I said earlier, maybe they felt the customized animations are more interesting than the breathing animation for all
    It can be a combination of the above and - as I cannot check RoE - I don’t know if they took a decision upon it as result of their beta, or even at a later date, with the release of AB or SoD. What makes me suspect they left it out at a later stage, is the fact that although H3C & WoG do not have these passive animations, when I first saw the creatures “breathing” in VCMI, and the First Aid Tent flag fluttering, it felt somehow normal, like I would have seen those animations before.

So what shall we do in the end? Keep the “breathing” as originally coded by NWC, or change it to the special animation like in H3C & WoG?

However, even if we keep it or not, we still need to fix bug 0.72b#8, concerning the speed of these passive animations, which should always be Slow, regardless of the speed we set in the Battle Options screen, which should only impact active animations. And that because - even if I don’t have a H3C reference to compare for the “breathing” one - both the breathing & the special animation look somehow unnatural on Fast (and even on Normal sometimes). We do have a reference for the special animations though, and those are always Slow in H3.

#73

bump

I’m bumping this 'cause I see there are many users online these days (programmers & testers) - maybe others would like to give their feedback on these passive animations as well. For more details see also 4 posts above.

FYI - this was discussed also at Celestial Heavens, and there were a couple of users happy to hear VCMI is using the original “constant breathing” (don’t know how else to call it) animation originally intended by NWC. However I for one still prefer the custom animations every ~10 seconds, not only when we hover over creatures. This is of course not urgent, but it would be useful if we gather more opinions on it… if people have any preference at all. :slight_smile: