Khammander cyst placement sometimes doesn't work

Cee Colon Slash

<div class="IPBDescription">... pathfinding problems?</div>Hi folks,

B215 issue: sometimes when I'm playing as khammander I can't drop a cyst in a logical next place. This is coupled with a big slowdown in performance: my assumption is that the program is doing some massive computing to figure out whether the next-in-chain position is legal and coming up blank. Most times I'm able to make my chain work by taking it in another direction, but a couple of times, it really screwed the strategy.

I wanted to take some video to show what was going on, but couldn't get that configured correctly... will try again. The place that I remember most is NS_Docking, going from Onos Bar towards cafeteria, I literally couldn't place a cyst from just outside the doorway to the small corridor leading to cafeteria.

Anyone else seeing this issue?

_Necro_

Yeah, had this issue several times now since 215. For example, also in tram from repair room to logistics. Trying to put a cyst in this region lags the game extremely until you move your mouse out of this region. This isn't bound to specific location. A script seems to go havoc. I haven't checked if it fires errors when this happens.

Nakorson

<!--quoteo(post=1955887:date=Aug 2 2012, 06:34 AM:name=Cee Colon Slash)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cee Colon Slash @ Aug 2 2012, 06:34 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1955887"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hi folks,

B215 issue: sometimes when I'm playing as khammander I can't drop a cyst in a logical next place. This is coupled with a big slowdown in performance: my assumption is that the program is doing some massive computing to figure out whether the next-in-chain position is legal and coming up blank. Most times I'm able to make my chain work by taking it in another direction, but a couple of times, it really screwed the strategy.

I wanted to take some video to show what was going on, but couldn't get that configured correctly... will try again. The place that I remember most is NS_Docking, going from Onos Bar towards cafeteria, I literally couldn't place a cyst from just outside the doorway to the small corridor leading to cafeteria.

Anyone else seeing this issue?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I don't know which problem you exactly are talking about.

There is currently a problem that sometimes you can't place buildings as khamm, since the building you place most is the cyst it happens most while trying to place a cyst. You can fix it by changing the tab of the build menu to a other tab and switch back to tab with the cysts. Then it should work again.

The other thing which you could mean is that when you want to place a cyst a circle helper is displayed and you can't place a cyst though it is in the circle. This happens when the new cyst would be around a corner or something i like that were there is no direct line between both cysts, so the distance becomes longer.

_Necro_

This sadly doesn't fix it. And the two problems you have mentioned aren't it either. You can't drop the cyst only in a specific location (and that seems to be random) and your fps goes down to 1 when you move your mouse with activated cyst over this area. No tab or building selection change fixes that.

You can cyst into this area without problems when you are connection from another cyst - line. So everything points to a bug with the script that checks if you can build a cyst or not.

<b><!--coloro:#8B0000--><span style="color:#8B0000"><!--/coloro-->I remember one thing that may be the cause: The region that bugs seems to have always clogs. Maybe the way-finding script goes havoc when the way is blocked by clogs?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></b>

Nakorson

<!--quoteo(post=1955903:date=Aug 2 2012, 07:11 AM:name=_Necro_)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (_Necro_ @ Aug 2 2012, 07:11 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1955903"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->This sadly doesn't fix it. And the two problems you have mentioned aren't it either. You can't drop the cyst only in a specific location (and that seems to be random) and you fps goes down to 1 when you move your mouse with activated cyst over this area. No tab or building selection change fixes that.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Then i think i didn't have the problem yet.

Typhon

Yeah, I saw the same thing last night. It seems especially flaky with elevation changes. I think part of the disconnect is that the ui suggests that its a raw distance check (the yellow circle from other cysts) but in actuality its using the navigation mesh to check the distance, which means that if you're placing around a corner in a hallway it looks like it should be measuring the diagonal (through the wall) but its actually measuring the distance around the corner.

Mr.Greedy

I got this a few times in Onos bar. Very annoying. FPS goes down to 1. Changing the commander or changing the tab from buildmenu doesnt work.

DJPenguin

had this occur in summit at the entrance to reactor core. only when trying to place a cyst there would the game's frames tank and i couldn't drop one.

Smaug

Next time it happens, would it be possible for you all to take a screenshot, and take a look to see if there are any console errors being spammed (I think that's where you need to check)? Edit - could be good to compare the pictures to find consistencies.

Cee Colon Slash

Just got a screen recorder set up and I will be recording videos from now on. :)

Typhon

You know what would easily fix this problem (and a bunch of other problems)? Just make it so you can only place cysts on infestation.

No more problems calculating a path from an existing cyst to where you're trying to place, no more problems with misleading placement restrictions. Plus alien comm can't cyst spam into marine held territory, and it slows down alien expansion.

Cee Colon Slash

No please. It takes around 20 seconds (or so - seems like forever) for cysts to produce a meaningful amount of infestation. It would take minutes just to get to the next resource tower.

Typhon

You can always speed up the infestation expansion rate to get whatever speed is needed for proper balance. I just think the core concept solves a lot of problems.

Cee Colon Slash

To the original problem: I recorded some video on NS_Summit, where I don't think I had experienced the problem before:

View it here:
<a href="http://videobam.com/tMIai" target="_blank">http://videobam.com/tMIai</a>

Or download it here:
<a href="http://www2.zshare.ma/2hxjgu9s0eey" target="_blank">http://www2.zshare.ma/2hxjgu9s0eey</a>

What we're looking at is the passage between Summit and Flight Control. At around 20 seconds you'll see I try to place a cyst up the stairs, but I'm unable to do so; I turn on r_stats to see the frame rate drops. You can see a gorge has placed clogs in that hallway, but even as he removes one to let an Onos pass the problem is still there. Time passes. Later on in the battle (at the 50 second mark) the space is cleared of clogs, and I can place cysts in that passage as normal.

Typhon

That sort of makes sense if its using the pathing mesh to find cyst legality. Clogs block navigation, and the cyst code isn't set up to ignore them. Although why the mesh isn't updated until quite a while after the clogs are gone is odd. I wonder if you block off a hallway with marine structures if that blocks cysts too, or even with other alien structures.