Description
2.7.2 [60bf] Enigmatic Fortress: bug report and feedback
Game Version
2.7.2
What version do you use?
Paradox Launcher
What expansions do you have installed?
Synthetic Dawn, Leviathans Story Pack, Distant Stars
Do you have mods enabled?
No
Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
Hello, I stumbled on the Enigmatic Fortress' bug on my turn! Although I had the usual menial mods [824a] when this occurred, I soon found that the scripts where erroneous, and I made a clean save without mods for testers. In the following, "EF" stands for Enigmatic Fortress.
Description as per experience:
When I finally could send a fleet to the Enigmatic Fortress's system, thanks to a ending and mostly won war against a neighbor empire, the other neighbor, neutral, empire had decided to fight it and already disabled it. EF awoke and both fleets disabled it again in but a couple of days. I then was offered the two mutually exclusive Special Projects to enter the structure. However, it happened that the Fortress awoke every few weeks, and I was offered each time it was disabled a new pair of SP. Thankfully, once I searched one, I couldn't search the same or the other one anymore, and I could go on the event chain. Thankfully again, I could select the next SP in the chain, before the SP view got cluttered with the same pair of first SP, spawning again and again each time the Fortress awoke and was disabled. I could successfully complete the event chain, but what a mess!
Summary:
Each time the Fortress is disabled, the first pair of SP (to enter the airlock) spawns for the disabling empire, notwithstanding the fact that it has already chosen a SP or even that its exploration team successfully penetrated the structure already.
What I don't know (not experienced, not tested):
- what if you choose the alternate SP (i.e. send a scientist)?
- what if you don't choose any SP before the EF reactivates and is disabled again (i.e. does another pair of SP spawn?), the SP stays open for 1080 days.
Peering at the files:
In events/leviathans_events.txt:
We can read that the SP to enter the Fortress are granted by leviathans.2111, which is launched by one of two on-action events:
- on fleet destroyed (perpetrator): leviathans.2099
- on fleet disabled: leviathans.2100, gate event for leviathans.2101
Each time, only the killer/disabling empire gets access to leviathans.2111. Let's call it the "Empire".
None of these events checks whether the Empire has already started the enigmatic_fortress_chain event chain, i.e. it was already offered the first pair of SP, but 2099 resets all such chains for every empire before restarting it for the Empire. I'm not sure, but ending an event chain should remove any associated SP.
Moreover, both events handle story.8 "First Contact: Leviathan" country event quite oddly as compared to how other leviathans scripts handle it (on destroying or disabling the EF, instead of on entering system or on spawning for the others), as if the Empire didn't already met the EF before, whereas there's leviathans.2105 on entering system first time to ensure this, plus perhaps the usual leviathans.9 that triggers on first contact with the EF country, that should be when one of your fleet enters EF's system first time, if I'm not wrong. Fortunately, story.8 has a built-in check to prevent displaying twice, or more, the same "First Contact" pop up.
The rest of the scripts looks okay.
Suggested fixes:
It's difficult to figure a fix without knowing what designers have in mind about the EF, story-wise, but given that its reactivation seems to be allowed in scripts (upon bad choices, or elapsed time), then it shouldn't regenerate that fast like any other disabled ship.
1/ Canceling EF's regenerative properties once it's disabled, and allowing it to regenerate again only per script, should solve the main bug (the fast reactivation/disabling/SP spawning cycle).
Alternatively, one can say that the Empire has to maintain a military presence in the system all the time its exploration team is progressing inside. Indeed, that's was quite fun to have to disable it again and again, if only the SP had stopped from spawning each time.
2/ Adding a limit condition in gate event leviathans.2100, that would check if the Empire has already started the enigmatic_fortress_chain event chain should prevent the SP from spawning each time the EF gets disabled (for the Empire only).
e.g. (please check the syntax)
Without the added limit = {} block, this on_ship_disabled gate event only checks that the disabling ship's owner is a default empire, and not if it has already sent an exploration team inside.
Other "bugs" or textual inconsistencies:
In leviathans_l_english:
* leviathans.2105.desc:0 "We have detected some kind of utterly massive space installation drifting quietly at the edge of the [fortress_system.GetName] system. Although preliminary scans show it to be very old, the structure has an intense power signature. Several smaller structures can be seen floating near the main installation, and all of them appear to be heavily armed.\n\nIf we are to learn the true nature of this ancient relic, we will likely have to overpower its defenses through force of arms..."
"at the edge of the": it's not at the edge, it's right at the center (acting as a starbase). Alternatively, it's really drifting through the star system, and in my case was disabled right at its center, and in either case "edge" is inappropriate.
Suggestion: replace "at the edge of" by "near the center of" or 'through".
* leviathans.2160.desc:0 "Time has run out. The enigmatic fortress has recovered from our initial assault and is once again starting up its defenses. Transmissions from the exploration team have already been scrambled, but their last transmission indicates that they met the fate they were prepared to risk."
* leviathans.2160.a:0 "But not the one we hoped for."
Let's recall that this country event occurs one year after the empire decided to NOT DO ANYTHING at the fortress. What is a team still doing inside?
Suggestion:
leviathans.2160.desc:0 "Time has run out. The enigmatic fortress has recovered from our last assault and is once again starting up its defenses. Transmissions from the exploration team have already been scrambled, but their last transmission indicates that they met the fate they were prepared to risk."
Conclusion and feedback:
I had much fun to play it for the first time but I strongly believe that this or these oversight(s) are an excellent opportunity to overhaul the whole Enigmatic Fortress chain, so as to make it more different than the Technosphere (i.e. not just send a team, and go through the SP chain):
- make empires having to keep the EF in check all the time their exploration team are inside;
- allow several empires to send independent exploration teams (from the "Airlock" to the "Tower");
- first empire to solve the "Pivot" blocks the other teams;
- any blocked team may have a modified version of the torpedo event;
- add an option for the winning empire to reactivate the EF; so that any other empire can try and master it on their turn;
- prevent gestallt consciousness from getting an instant and full reward: it's so cheap and unfair. Have them spend time to get it, to the least.
- add an option when the fortress is scuttled, and yet still useful for other empires.
- destroying the EF is border-line, imho, because the Curators tell that many have already entered and left, but each time it reactivated.
Steps to reproduce the issue.
Load the savegame
Choose the Demolition SP (I have a science ship in a nearby system in case you want test the other SP)
Upload Attachment
File(s) attached[/CODE]
2.7.2 [60bf] Enigmatic Fortress: bug report and feedback
Game Version
2.7.2
What version do you use?
Paradox Launcher
What expansions do you have installed?
Synthetic Dawn, Leviathans Story Pack, Distant Stars
Do you have mods enabled?
No
Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
Hello, I stumbled on the Enigmatic Fortress' bug on my turn! Although I had the usual menial mods [824a] when this occurred, I soon found that the scripts where erroneous, and I made a clean save without mods for testers. In the following, "EF" stands for Enigmatic Fortress.
Description as per experience:
When I finally could send a fleet to the Enigmatic Fortress's system, thanks to a ending and mostly won war against a neighbor empire, the other neighbor, neutral, empire had decided to fight it and already disabled it. EF awoke and both fleets disabled it again in but a couple of days. I then was offered the two mutually exclusive Special Projects to enter the structure. However, it happened that the Fortress awoke every few weeks, and I was offered each time it was disabled a new pair of SP. Thankfully, once I searched one, I couldn't search the same or the other one anymore, and I could go on the event chain. Thankfully again, I could select the next SP in the chain, before the SP view got cluttered with the same pair of first SP, spawning again and again each time the Fortress awoke and was disabled. I could successfully complete the event chain, but what a mess!
Summary:
Each time the Fortress is disabled, the first pair of SP (to enter the airlock) spawns for the disabling empire, notwithstanding the fact that it has already chosen a SP or even that its exploration team successfully penetrated the structure already.
What I don't know (not experienced, not tested):
- what if you choose the alternate SP (i.e. send a scientist)?
- what if you don't choose any SP before the EF reactivates and is disabled again (i.e. does another pair of SP spawn?), the SP stays open for 1080 days.
Peering at the files:
In events/leviathans_events.txt:
We can read that the SP to enter the Fortress are granted by leviathans.2111, which is launched by one of two on-action events:
- on fleet destroyed (perpetrator): leviathans.2099
- on fleet disabled: leviathans.2100, gate event for leviathans.2101
Each time, only the killer/disabling empire gets access to leviathans.2111. Let's call it the "Empire".
None of these events checks whether the Empire has already started the enigmatic_fortress_chain event chain, i.e. it was already offered the first pair of SP, but 2099 resets all such chains for every empire before restarting it for the Empire. I'm not sure, but ending an event chain should remove any associated SP.
Moreover, both events handle story.8 "First Contact: Leviathan" country event quite oddly as compared to how other leviathans scripts handle it (on destroying or disabling the EF, instead of on entering system or on spawning for the others), as if the Empire didn't already met the EF before, whereas there's leviathans.2105 on entering system first time to ensure this, plus perhaps the usual leviathans.9 that triggers on first contact with the EF country, that should be when one of your fleet enters EF's system first time, if I'm not wrong. Fortunately, story.8 has a built-in check to prevent displaying twice, or more, the same "First Contact" pop up.
The rest of the scripts looks okay.
Suggested fixes:
It's difficult to figure a fix without knowing what designers have in mind about the EF, story-wise, but given that its reactivation seems to be allowed in scripts (upon bad choices, or elapsed time), then it shouldn't regenerate that fast like any other disabled ship.
1/ Canceling EF's regenerative properties once it's disabled, and allowing it to regenerate again only per script, should solve the main bug (the fast reactivation/disabling/SP spawning cycle).
Alternatively, one can say that the Empire has to maintain a military presence in the system all the time its exploration team is progressing inside. Indeed, that's was quite fun to have to disable it again and again, if only the SP had stopped from spawning each time.
2/ Adding a limit condition in gate event leviathans.2100, that would check if the Empire has already started the enigmatic_fortress_chain event chain should prevent the SP from spawning each time the EF gets disabled (for the Empire only).
e.g. (please check the syntax)
Code:
ship_event = {
id = leviathans.2100
hide_window = yes
is_triggered_only = yes
trigger = {
has_ship_flag = fortress_vault
from.owner = { is_country_type = default }
}
limit = {
from.owner = { NOT = {has_event_chain = "enigmatic_fortress_chain"}}
}
immediate = {
from.owner = { country_event = { id = leviathans.2101 } }
}
}Other "bugs" or textual inconsistencies:
In leviathans_l_english:
* leviathans.2105.desc:0 "We have detected some kind of utterly massive space installation drifting quietly at the edge of the [fortress_system.GetName] system. Although preliminary scans show it to be very old, the structure has an intense power signature. Several smaller structures can be seen floating near the main installation, and all of them appear to be heavily armed.\n\nIf we are to learn the true nature of this ancient relic, we will likely have to overpower its defenses through force of arms..."
"at the edge of the": it's not at the edge, it's right at the center (acting as a starbase). Alternatively, it's really drifting through the star system, and in my case was disabled right at its center, and in either case "edge" is inappropriate.
Suggestion: replace "at the edge of" by "near the center of" or 'through".
* leviathans.2160.desc:0 "Time has run out. The enigmatic fortress has recovered from our initial assault and is once again starting up its defenses. Transmissions from the exploration team have already been scrambled, but their last transmission indicates that they met the fate they were prepared to risk."
* leviathans.2160.a:0 "But not the one we hoped for."
Let's recall that this country event occurs one year after the empire decided to NOT DO ANYTHING at the fortress. What is a team still doing inside?
Suggestion:
leviathans.2160.desc:0 "Time has run out. The enigmatic fortress has recovered from our last assault and is once again starting up its defenses.
Conclusion and feedback:
I had much fun to play it for the first time but I strongly believe that this or these oversight(s) are an excellent opportunity to overhaul the whole Enigmatic Fortress chain, so as to make it more different than the Technosphere (i.e. not just send a team, and go through the SP chain):
- make empires having to keep the EF in check all the time their exploration team are inside;
- allow several empires to send independent exploration teams (from the "Airlock" to the "Tower");
- first empire to solve the "Pivot" blocks the other teams;
- any blocked team may have a modified version of the torpedo event;
- add an option for the winning empire to reactivate the EF; so that any other empire can try and master it on their turn;
- prevent gestallt consciousness from getting an instant and full reward: it's so cheap and unfair. Have them spend time to get it, to the least.
- add an option when the fortress is scuttled, and yet still useful for other empires.
- destroying the EF is border-line, imho, because the Curators tell that many have already entered and left, but each time it reactivated.
1) The bad choices:
Both leviathans.2153 and leviathans.2155 could launch another event, and why not reuse leviathans.2160 "Repowering the Fortress"?
Currently our team is instantly destroyed whereas they took days to penetrate the core. They could rush for the exit and sadly, a few days later, leviathans.2160 would spawn. This would add some thrill, I believe.
2) An ending alternative:
2.1 Both leviathans.2151, leviathans.2154 and leviathans.2156 should not yield instant reward, given the nature (vastness and sophistication of the EF):
- both launch a same new Special Project to start the real study of the fortress's core. A science ship is required in orbit with a level 4 scientist aboard. The study lasts for month.
- deleting the curator_poi and earning the guardian_system_killer flag are still instant, though.
2.2 After a final event "Harvesting the Fruit" that corresponds to the actual reward, the empire is given two options: a) scuttle the Fortress before leaving it (erase all data and leave a wreckage), or b) carefully undo what was done to harness the core, so that the science ship and the team has time enough to reach the edge of the gravitational pit before the Fortress reactivates.
Option a) would allow other empires to gain a SP on the wrecked fortress, a limited version that would yield only 6 month of research and no special tech.
Option b) would reset the Fortress for other empires to try and study it in their turn.
I know that option B could be exploited in MP, but we already have a first-winner only-served leviathan with the Technosphere.
3) Allow for a competition between empires once the fortress is disabled:
- each empire is free to progress on the fortress event chain as it fits.
- first one to trigger a reactivation launches an event to other country that have exploration teams inside:
a new leviathans.2158 "The Fortress: Reawakening" "Something has changed in the Fortress, our exploration team reports that increasing signals indicate that the Fortress is somehow repowering its inner systems fast. They are already on their way toward their shuttle at full speed, but the structure never looked that much gigantic. They urge us to abandon the system."
then for everybody, a modified leviahtans.2160 "Fortress Repowered", spawned a few days later, to let civilian vessels (science ship) to reach for the edge of the gravitational pit.
- first one to reach the core (leviathans.2150):
-- gates forbid this event for other empires; instead of launching.2150 "The Pivot", other empires launch a new leviathans.2140 "Forbidden Core" "Our exploration team reports that they reached a dead-end, despite being closest than ever to what could be called the "center" of the maze. It looks like some inner systems have partly reactivated, sealing any access to the core space, turning doors and hatches into solid armored walls. Perhaps this change could be related to the presence of other exploration teams in the Fortress? One of the demolition specialists in the team suggest that a recently uncovered conduit could allow for a skilled pilot to launch an anti-armor torpedo directly at the Fortress's core. What should we do? Option a "Fall back and let's see what happens" / Option b "Evacuate the Fortress and send in a torpedo that would penetrate a cruiser's armor."
Option a: evacuates exploration team, ends fortress chain for this empire. Only when the current "owner" of the Fortress will end its own event chain and leave the fortress, this empire will be able to "resume"" its investigation (actually, study a wreckage, or fight the Fortress again).
Option b: evacuates exploration team, launches a modified version of leviathans.2157, delay: a few days (to evacuate and be consistent with emergency evacuation cases). The other empires get no prior notice, and receive only a modified, purely informational leviathans.2157 (say, leviathans.2159):
"The Fortress is no more. From what we can infer, one of the other military forces present on location decided to crack open or to scuttle the deactivated leviathan. Only a modified torpedo could have done this, and the ancient structure instantly turned into a giant anti-matter bomb, obliterating itself and irradiating the whole system and any ship within. Archaeologists already qualify this of "most expansive artificial fireworks"
"Was it really bad luck or pure dumbness?" / "We shall remember, for the next time."
Both leviathans.2153 and leviathans.2155 could launch another event, and why not reuse leviathans.2160 "Repowering the Fortress"?
Currently our team is instantly destroyed whereas they took days to penetrate the core. They could rush for the exit and sadly, a few days later, leviathans.2160 would spawn. This would add some thrill, I believe.
2) An ending alternative:
2.1 Both leviathans.2151, leviathans.2154 and leviathans.2156 should not yield instant reward, given the nature (vastness and sophistication of the EF):
- both launch a same new Special Project to start the real study of the fortress's core. A science ship is required in orbit with a level 4 scientist aboard. The study lasts for month.
- deleting the curator_poi and earning the guardian_system_killer flag are still instant, though.
2.2 After a final event "Harvesting the Fruit" that corresponds to the actual reward, the empire is given two options: a) scuttle the Fortress before leaving it (erase all data and leave a wreckage), or b) carefully undo what was done to harness the core, so that the science ship and the team has time enough to reach the edge of the gravitational pit before the Fortress reactivates.
Option a) would allow other empires to gain a SP on the wrecked fortress, a limited version that would yield only 6 month of research and no special tech.
Option b) would reset the Fortress for other empires to try and study it in their turn.
I know that option B could be exploited in MP, but we already have a first-winner only-served leviathan with the Technosphere.
3) Allow for a competition between empires once the fortress is disabled:
- each empire is free to progress on the fortress event chain as it fits.
- first one to trigger a reactivation launches an event to other country that have exploration teams inside:
a new leviathans.2158 "The Fortress: Reawakening" "Something has changed in the Fortress, our exploration team reports that increasing signals indicate that the Fortress is somehow repowering its inner systems fast. They are already on their way toward their shuttle at full speed, but the structure never looked that much gigantic. They urge us to abandon the system."
then for everybody, a modified leviahtans.2160 "Fortress Repowered", spawned a few days later, to let civilian vessels (science ship) to reach for the edge of the gravitational pit.
- first one to reach the core (leviathans.2150):
-- gates forbid this event for other empires; instead of launching.2150 "The Pivot", other empires launch a new leviathans.2140 "Forbidden Core" "Our exploration team reports that they reached a dead-end, despite being closest than ever to what could be called the "center" of the maze. It looks like some inner systems have partly reactivated, sealing any access to the core space, turning doors and hatches into solid armored walls. Perhaps this change could be related to the presence of other exploration teams in the Fortress? One of the demolition specialists in the team suggest that a recently uncovered conduit could allow for a skilled pilot to launch an anti-armor torpedo directly at the Fortress's core. What should we do? Option a "Fall back and let's see what happens" / Option b "Evacuate the Fortress and send in a torpedo that would penetrate a cruiser's armor."
Option a: evacuates exploration team, ends fortress chain for this empire. Only when the current "owner" of the Fortress will end its own event chain and leave the fortress, this empire will be able to "resume"" its investigation (actually, study a wreckage, or fight the Fortress again).
Option b: evacuates exploration team, launches a modified version of leviathans.2157, delay: a few days (to evacuate and be consistent with emergency evacuation cases). The other empires get no prior notice, and receive only a modified, purely informational leviathans.2157 (say, leviathans.2159):
"The Fortress is no more. From what we can infer, one of the other military forces present on location decided to crack open or to scuttle the deactivated leviathan. Only a modified torpedo could have done this, and the ancient structure instantly turned into a giant anti-matter bomb, obliterating itself and irradiating the whole system and any ship within. Archaeologists already qualify this of "most expansive artificial fireworks"
"Was it really bad luck or pure dumbness?" / "We shall remember, for the next time."
Steps to reproduce the issue.
Load the savegame
Choose the Demolition SP (I have a science ship in a nearby system in case you want test the other SP)
Upload Attachment
File(s) attached[/CODE]
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