Author Topic: Cannot complete level 20. bug?  (Read 5868 times)

hoodadilly

  • Guest
Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« on: February 19, 2010, 07:48:35 PM »
Hi Guys,

I'm new to this forum, i just wanted to report this as a possible bug.

I am unable to complete level 20, in the story mode.

I have control over every asteroid that i can get to (and have a tree on every one i can too), yet i simply cannot get seedlings to one asteroid.

I've attached a screenshot.

Please let me know if i'm simply doing something wrong or if there is actually a problem, and if so what to do to fix it.

Cheers!

Edit: of course i can simply unlock the next set of levels, i thought i should report this anyway...
« Last Edit: February 20, 2010, 11:13:49 AM by hoodadilly »

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Ent
  • *****
  • Thank You
  • -Given: 3
  • -Receive: 14
  • Posts: 1,035
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2010, 09:05:39 PM »
Looks like you didn't catch that one to the lower right of the one you're sending from.

hoodadilly

  • Guest
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2010, 01:31:15 PM »
Yeah that's the thing... i can't!

look at the thin green outline showing where i can move my seedlings to, the asteroid is completely outside it.

are the story levels procedurally generated?

if so... is it possible that it somehow did not create it correctly?

cinemabaroque

  • Seedling
  • **
  • Thank You
  • -Given: 0
  • -Receive: 0
  • Posts: 26
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2010, 04:49:01 PM »
It seems that you need to plant a tree on the asteroid between and under the two you mention.  That is probably the asteroid that is able to reach the one you can't get to.  If there is no tree there then you can't use that asteroid to launch from.  The game forces every asteroid to be reachable by at least one other asteroid.

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Ent
  • *****
  • Thank You
  • -Given: 3
  • -Receive: 14
  • Posts: 1,035
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2010, 10:12:45 PM »
Yeah that's what I mean... the one below and to the right of the one you're sending to that's inside your sending empire. Needs a tree on it before you can send from it.

hoodadilly

  • Guest
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2010, 08:20:22 PM »
Yeah i know... but it wouldn't let me. it said that there was room for 0 trees.

I paused my game so that i could gather any other info you may need... but my power went out that night :( so i can't really give any more information other than it would not let me get to that one asteroid and that screenshot.

I know there's not much you guys can do without any more info, but hopefully one day you can trace it down.

Cheers!

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Ent
  • *****
  • Thank You
  • -Given: 3
  • -Receive: 14
  • Posts: 1,035
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2010, 07:05:31 PM »
Ah - maybe I am not taking asteroids on which you cannot plant trees into account in the generation phase...!

hoodadilly

  • Guest
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2010, 08:15:05 PM »
Yeah, that's what i was wondering...  ;)

annikk.exe

  • Achiever
  • Ent
  • ****
  • Thank You
  • -Given: 0
  • -Receive: 4
  • Posts: 1,809
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2010, 02:44:35 AM »
Here's what I think is going on:

Line 9 reads Globals.G.MinAsteroidSeparation=1250, this is a tricky one to understand.. basically when asteroids are created, if they are too close together, the game moves them apart unless the .moveable = false is applied to them.  This moving apart means that in some procedurally generated games, the randomly generated asteroids squash each other apart such that the paths between them become different.  So in some cases a path for sending seedlings between two asteroids that was available in one game, will not be available in the next game.

Line 17 reads Globals.Asteroids.MaxTrees=0 which means any procedurally generated asteroids will naturally have a maximum of Zero trees.

Line 48 reads AddAsteroidRing(4, -100, 100, 800, 150) which adds a procedurally generated asteroid ring containing 4 asteroids, clustered around the centre.  In some cases, the player's asteroid will have a radius of 610, so because the seperation distance is so large the chances of these being squashed outward a long way become high.

Line 51 reads AddAsteroidRing(10, 0, 0, 3400, 250) which adds a ring of 10 asteroids centred on coordinates 0,0.  The distance of the ring from the centre point is 3400, which means some of the asteroids may wind up in the 3400,0 region, putting them roughly where the asteroid in the screenshot appears.  Because they are procedurally generated, all 10 of these asteroids will by default have a maximum of Zero trees, and the game will be free to move them about.


I propose that the game has created the player asteroid and all the inner asteroids to have extremely large radius's.  This meant that the asteroids in the centre were squished outward by the minimum seperation rule until they actually bulge past the asteroids created in lines 53 - 111, and push against the OUTER ring of asteroids created on line 51.  This pushed a zero tree asteroid out so far that the only route to it became via another zero tree asteroid.  This unlikely scenario creates the rare problem described by the original poster.


To fix, my suggestion would be to reduce the maximum seperation distance a bit.  :>
« Last Edit: March 02, 2010, 03:06:00 AM by annikk.exe »

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Ent
  • *****
  • Thank You
  • -Given: 3
  • -Receive: 14
  • Posts: 1,035
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2010, 06:38:54 AM »
Thanks for the clarity!

It's probably better to fix the bug algorithmically, so that such cases never happen; I'd rather get it fixed for sure than simply reduce the likelihood of it happening from, say, 1 in 1000 to 1 in 10000.

TorchFire

  • Playing since 2008
  • Tester
  • Sapling
  • ****
  • Thank You
  • -Given: 0
  • -Receive: 0
  • Posts: 68
  • Eufloria: Yes
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2010, 02:49:45 PM »
I had a similar situation on this level and found that I was able to send a flower to the undiscovered roid.  Then I could continue as normal.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2010, 02:23:25 PM by TorchFire »

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Ent
  • *****
  • Thank You
  • -Given: 3
  • -Receive: 14
  • Posts: 1,035
Re: Cannot complete level 20. bug?
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2010, 01:51:20 AM »
Good info, cheers.