Is the Air Escort Mission Failing due to poor spelling?

[DukofDeth]

I was poking about the defines and noticed that in the NAI section of the defines "Escort" has been spelled as "Excort". However it is the same in all six instances and all six instances are entirely within the NAI section [which governs AI behvaior as I recall]. I am wondering if the spelling matches how the varible is named in the actual code [which obviously I have no access to] or did I just find an error?

NAVAL_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS = 0, -- Min amount of airwings requested to excort operations

LAND_COMBAT_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS = 2, -- Min amount of airwings requested to excort operations

STR_BOMB_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS = 2, -- Min amount of airwings requested to excort operations

@bitmode WHat is your take on this? I realize mispellings are common and often deliberate but with only three variables using that word they could have just spelled it properly. Also there's no reason to mis-spell it in the comments.

 

[Adonnus]

S is right next to X on the keyboard

 

[KubiG37]

Have you tried correcting the mistake and launching the game? From my personal experience, when you make a mistake in the defines, the game always crashes on startup.

It might actually be working with this mistake "intentionally", I remember finding something similar in the Focus tree code (German or French?, and this mistake was also repeated in every other file relevant to this focus). It's probably easier code-wise to just leave it be, if you find the mistake too late.

 

[bitmode]

I was poking about the defines and noticed that in the NAI section of the defines "Escort" has been spelled as "Excort". However it is the same in all six instances and all six instances are entirely within the NAI section [which governs AI behvaior as I recall]. I am wondering if the spelling matches how the varible is named in the actual code [which obviously I have no access to] or did I just find an error?

NAVAL_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS = 0, -- Min amount of airwings requested to excort operations

LAND_COMBAT_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS = 2, -- Min amount of airwings requested to excort operations

STR_BOMB_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS = 2, -- Min amount of airwings requested to excort operations

@bitmode WHat is your take on this? I realize mispellings are common and often deliberate but with only three variables using that word they could have just spelled it properly. Also there's no reason to mis-spell it in the comments.

Coincidentally I was looking at the same defines as well yesterday. (Was it the thread about air superiority vs interception?) I would not go as far as saying that the misspelling is often deliberate. More like a case of dyslexia and lack of code review.

Writing code is not like prose; developers will use copy&paste and autocomplete wherever they can, making typos in words a lesser concern. When writing a forum post, I sometimes press tab and get annoyed that the browser does not predict the word I was going to type

Those spelling errors should not be causing any errors. If you fix the spelling, the game will complain in the error log about the now missing define with the spelling from the code's perspective:

LUA Error: incorrect lua value: STR_BOMB_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS

@KubiG37 The value of the define will be left at 0, which can cause a crash further down the line with many defines, depending on how they are used.

 

[DukofDeth]

Coincidentally I was looking at the same defines as well yesterday. (Was it the thread about air superiority vs interception?) I would not go as far as saying that the misspelling is often deliberate. More like a case of dyslexia and lack of code review.

Writing code is not like prose; developers will use copy&paste and autocomplete wherever they can, making typos in words a lesser concern. When writing a forum post, I sometimes press tab and get annoyed that the browser does not predict the word I was going to type

Those spelling errors should not be causing any errors. If you fix the spelling, the game will complain in the error log about the now missing define with the spelling from the code's perspective:

LUA Error: incorrect lua value: STR_BOMB_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS

@KubiG37 The value of the define will be left at 0, which can cause a crash further down the line with many defines, depending on how they are used.

I learned the lesson early on about the spelling not being so important as consistency. In HoI3 I noted a host of errors particularly with how they spelled "engineering" and thought to correct it only to get crashes and error codes - mostly crashes as then my pig was a toaster pig. I later thought it might have been deliberate as I tried pronouncing the mis-spelling and it only made sense when I did so with a Muppet Show "Swedish Chef" accent.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[DukofDeth]

Well, I played for a bit and then checked the error log and there were no mentions of any missing variables with "EXCORT" in it; in fact there were no instances of that particular spelling appearing anywhere in the log. Ergo I do believe it is a legitimate set of varibles.

Good thing I didn't embarrass myself by rushing to file a bug report!

 

[Forster]

Has anyone tried changing the spelling to escort to see what happens?

 

[bitmode]

Has anyone tried changing the spelling to escort to see what happens?

See above:

Those spelling errors should not be causing any errors. If you fix the spelling, the game will complain in the error log about the now missing define with the spelling from the code's perspective:

LUA Error: incorrect lua value: STR_BOMB_MIN_EXCORT_WINGS

 

[safe-keeper]

@bitmode WHat is your take on this? I realize mispellings are common and often deliberate but with only three variables using that word they could have just spelled it properly. Also there's no reason to mis-spell it in the comments.

Looks like a find-and-replace. They can have effects ranging from amusing to catastrophic.

Edit: from working as a tester on the First Strike mod for BF2142, I can confirm that devs often elect to simply leave typos in and work with them when they find them, rather than going back and fixing them as that would require, as was said in this thread, also updating everything that refers to them. 'Bork bork excort' works just fine because the game knows what it's saying, so to speak.

Like when a kid is learning to speak and it doesn't matter when they make mistakes because their parents understand what they really mean.

 

[Cavalry]

If you use a coder friendly like Notepad++, then you don't need to type the whole word, just the first few letter and the word appear to choose.

 

[DukofDeth]

I've already used Notepad++ to look for instances of "Excort" in the error log and nothing shows up so it is not a missing varible. Escort doesn't show up either so that also is not missing.

My best guess now is that they could not properly code this earlier in the game development especially as air units were practically teleporting to their targets but the fact is that they don't; they just could not be intercepted on route. Since escort missions often only went so far - the earlier fighters had shorter legs than the bombers - many escort missions would have been redundant in the face of there not having been any en-route interception.

However, that changes with BBA so those variables will no doubt start being used.

 

[Cavalry]

Escort happen on the air zone of bombing. But they choose to use a different mechanic (air visibility) so escort mission is no longer needed. but I don't know why escort parameter still in the game and looks like to have more in NSB.