[MOD 0.18] Robot Army. v0.4.4

[kyranzor]

hey there^^

say, is it possible to deactivate it, that the droids turn on you if you hurt them?

because when i'm going with them and use flamethrowers or rockets, its not fun for anyone involved
*edit: its also really nasty with the rocket bots... enemies get close, rocket bots hit eachother, rocket bots proceed to kill eachother. every time :/

I found that the friendly fire thing is inconsistent.. I tested it recently, just me shooting at some guys with my SMG, and they didn't care. But later when rocket guys were with some SMG and rifle bots they all wanted to kill eachother. I find it hilarious but I guess it's less funny when it's resources being wasted.

The friendly fire and the bots tuning on eachother is a strange mechanic that Wube put into the game and I'm not sure how to deal with it. I'll ask some devs and see if there is a workaround like a "ceasefire" command I can spam in the background scripts..

[stoa]

ah, so its an already existing thing and not your own code there.. that makes it tricky, indeed..

i guess i just play it safe for now then and ignore the rocket bots until there is some way to get around that mechanic.

still, really wierd

[kyranzor]

ah, so its an already existing thing and not your own code there.. that makes it tricky, indeed..

i guess i just play it safe for now then and ignore the rocket bots until there is some way to get around that mechanic.

still, really wierd

Yes it's annoying and I don't see why the devs needed to code it like that seeing as the only units and unit groups in the game currently are biters and they don't actually have the ability to friendly fire as all their attacks are single target homing acid blobs or melee.

I have found that only one or two rocket bots with a large formation of riflebots is a very good combo. Try it out?

Also with terminators they are good, but the terminators will execute them if they friendly fire lol.

[torsteinr]

Great mod!

I tried to upgrade from version 0.1.42 to 0.1.43, because I ran into the issue with removed loot-chest.

But after replacing the zip-file in my mod-folder and loading my save game I get this error message:

--
Error while running mod-robotarmy::on_load().

Detected modification to the 'global' table:
CRC before: 1144277132
CRC after: 1847573658
--

And the save will not load anymore.

Any tips?

Edit:
It seems to not have anything to do with 0.1.43, i switched back to 0.1.42 and tried to load the same save, and got the same error message.
Could it be some followup error from the invalid loot chest issues i had?

Edit2:
Tried loading an earlier save, from before i had loot chest issues, still the same error. On both mod-versions.
Starting a new game with robot army seems to work fine, but my main-save looks broken

[kyranzor]

Great mod!

I tried to upgrade from version 0.1.42 to 0.1.43, because I ran into the issue with removed loot-chest.

But after replacing the zip-file in my mod-folder and loading my save game I get this error message:

--
Error while running mod-robotarmy::on_load().

Detected modification to the 'global' table:
CRC before: 1144277132
CRC after: 1847573658
--

And the save will not load anymore.

Any tips?

Edit:
It seems to not have anything to do with 0.1.43, i switched back to 0.1.42 and tried to load the same save, and got the same error message.
Could it be some followup error from the invalid loot chest issues i had?

Possibly.. It's a very strange bug and you are the first to have mentioned it. Please try deleting lines 234 to 253 in the Control.lua file of my mod (the entire on_load () function) and see what happens when you load the game with 0.1.43

[torsteinr]

Great mod!

I tried to upgrade from version 0.1.42 to 0.1.43, because I ran into the issue with removed loot-chest.

But after replacing the zip-file in my mod-folder and loading my save game I get this error message:

--
Error while running mod-robotarmy::on_load().

Detected modification to the 'global' table:
CRC before: 1144277132
CRC after: 1847573658
--

And the save will not load anymore.

Any tips?

Edit:
It seems to not have anything to do with 0.1.43, i switched back to 0.1.42 and tried to load the same save, and got the same error message.
Could it be some followup error from the invalid loot chest issues i had?

Possibly.. It's a very strange bug and you are the first to have mentioned it. Please try deleting lines 234 to 253 in the Control.lua file of my mod (the entire on_load () function) and see what happens when you load the game with 0.1.43

Deleting those lines did the trick . But i can't help but wonder what i'm missing with no on_load()

[kyranzor]

Deleting those lines did the trick . But i can't help but wonder what i'm missing with no on_load()

Well you are now missing some lua-logic for the run-once section of code at the start of the on_tick function, and the squad AI may not ever run now if the "last update tick" variable is not set back to 0.

[torsteinr]

Deleting those lines did the trick . But i can't help but wonder what i'm missing with no on_load()

Well you are now missing some lua-logic for the run-once section of code at the start of the on_tick function, and the squad AI may not ever run now if the "last update tick" variable is not set back to 0.

Hmm, well, things seem to be working fine. I replaced the loot chest and sent out a big attack, the squads seemed to behave like before, and they picked up artifacts and placed them correctly in the new chest. I made a new savegame after this, and tried to switch back to the original 0.1.43 (with on_load()), but I still get the error message when I try to load the save. So it seems I'm stuck using the "hacked" mod for now.

[kyranzor]

Deleting those lines did the trick . But i can't help but wonder what i'm missing with no on_load()

Well you are now missing some lua-logic for the run-once section of code at the start of the on_tick function, and the squad AI may not ever run now if the "last update tick" variable is not set back to 0.

Hmm, well, things seem to be working fine. I replaced the loot chest and sent out a big attack, the squads seemed to behave like before, and they picked up artifacts and placed them correctly in the new chest. I made a new savegame after this, and tried to switch back to the original 0.1.43 (with on_load()), but I still get the error message when I try to load the save. So it seems I'm stuck using the "hacked" mod for now.

Well it's entirely possible my on_load() function is superfluous and in fact is detrimental. I am going to do some adjustments to the way global variables are init/checked/set and remove the on_load() function officially and release a patch some time in the next 12 hours.

Thanks for being my guinea pig/lab rat.

[orzelek]

There was a change in game that detects on load modifying the global table for the mod. Thats why you are getting the error when on_load is present.

[kyranzor]

There was a change in game that detects on load modifying the global table for the mod. Thats why you are getting the error when on_load is present.

Oh so 0.13.5 is going to do this for everyone? Shit I better get this patch out quick.

Edit: yeah reading the 0.13.5 changelog it does indeed dislike my on_load function. I will publish a fix as I said, in the next 6 hours at most. In the meantime people can hack out the on_load function as I instructed earlier and it will run correctly enough for now.

To fix the loading issue, deleting lines 234 to 253 in the control.lua file of my mod (the entire on_load () function) will fix the game loading for now.

[Apolise]

So i have an interesting problem, And while i don't get any errors on the server, nor do users get any errors when this happens but i'll do my best.

So we have a Headless server running 13.4, of Factorio, and 0.1.42 of Robot Army, after playing the game for a few hours with 4-5 people, suddenly no one is able to join, it completely locks the Server when someone joins. looks like Desync, but no message is posted/written to the logs. nothing happens until the server is forced shut down. and while we multiple mods, we removed them all 1 at a time, and when Robot Army was removed this issue stopped, adding Robot Army back locked up the Server(No info in logs, on any machine unfortunately). now it just happens when the 3 player joins, even if they were just in the game. Sadly i don't have any more information, and i loved the mod, it was a fun way to clear out Ore Deposits. Is there something i could possibly turn on that would write more Verbose logging in Factorio to troubleshoot this more? i looked through the Forum post but didn't see anyone else with this issue, so i like to believe it's some weird Config issue on my side, i'm just not sure how to troubleshoot it other then removing the mod and checking the log file.

Mods on the Server:
BigBags
BobConfig
BobLogistics
BobAssembly
BobLibary
Bobmining
BobPower
DeathChest
Factorio-Reach
YARM
RailTanker
EvoGUI
Tree_collision

[kyranzor]

So i have an interesting problem, And while i don't get any errors on the server, nor do users get any errors when this happens but i'll do my best.

So we have a Headless server running 13.4, of Factorio, and 0.1.42 of Robot Army, after playing the game for a few hours with 4-5 people, suddenly no one is able to join, it completely locks the Server when someone joins. looks like Desync, but no message is posted/written to the logs. nothing happens until the server is forced shut down. and while we multiple mods, we removed them all 1 at a time, and when Robot Army was removed this issue stopped, adding Robot Army back locked up the Server(No info in logs, on any machine unfortunately). now it just happens when the 3 player joins, even if they were just in the game. Sadly i don't have any more information, and i loved the mod, it was a fun way to clear out Ore Deposits. Is there something i could possibly turn on that would write more Verbose logging in Factorio to troubleshoot this more? i looked through the Forum post but didn't see anyone else with this issue, so i like to believe it's some weird Config issue on my side, i'm just not sure how to troubleshoot it other then removing the mod and checking the log file.

Mods on the Server:
BigBags
BobConfig
BobLogistics
BobAssembly
BobLibary
Bobmining
BobPower
DeathChest
Factorio-Reach
YARM
RailTanker
EvoGUI
Tree_collision

Hi and thanks for the report. Can you confirm a few things for me? The person who joins, has their character ever been on the server before? I wonder if it is some bug in my on_player_created function.

You say that after some adjustments/adding/removing now it doesn't let the third player rejoin? Is it a particular player or ANY player after the 2nd that causes the frozen game?

I will try to get the log functionality working again (it seems to have broken since 0.13) and ill put something in each of those event functions (don't worry they don't happen very often).

One more thing, have you tried with robot army v0.1.43? I doubt it'll do much but it might help.

[Apolise]

Hi kyranzor,

This happens to new Characters(we had a new player) and existing players(We all tried after, and after a certain number(it was the 4th player, then it started happening when the third player joined after about another 2-3 hours in the game. so doesn't seem related to just new players. we just spawned about 55 bots(the first tier ones, i think they are clockwork), not sure how many bots were already existing in the world, i think we spawned 200 overall, most of them were dead or not doing much at the time though(we had a large group just sitting not doing much a few blocks away from our base, they weren't roaming/hunting). when we removed the mod all the bots and machines disappear so i don't have a save of that world, but i'm okay with giving it a try if my group is(the new version). even if that doesn't help.

it's a fun idea and if there is something i can do to help i'll give it a go.

[kyranzor]

Okay guys, some serious bug fixes and massive code-rework in 0.1.44 please get it from the mod portal.

Apolise, i'll send you some info by PM tomorrow and a special version with extra logging added to help work out what the issue is. try this new version first though, please.

[Phantum]

Okay guys, some serious bug fixes and massive code-rework in 0.1.44 please get it from the mod portal.

Apolise, i'll send you some info by PM tomorrow and a special version with extra logging added to help work out what the issue is. try this new version first though, please.

Do you have a changelog somewhere?

[kyranzor]

I ran out of time to update all my sources of info last night but I did manage to out changelog on the mod portal discussion board.

Here it is:
Changes from 0.1.43 to 0.1.44 release:
- fixed on_load being used incorrectly.
- fixed squads disbanding after successful mission or if they fail a move order and their unitgroup becomes invalid. they will keep re-forming the squad.
- changed all global tables to be referenced by force name so it's totally player-independant now.
- added parameters for config to change grab artifacts radius
- made rocket droid splash area basically none, and made damage very high to help deal with big biters.
- fixed it so you don't lose the loot chest if you try to place it wrong

[Phantum]

I ran out of time to update all my sources of info last night but I did manage to out changelog on the mod portal discussion board.

Here it is:
Changes from 0.1.43 to 0.1.44 release:
- fixed on_load being used incorrectly.
- fixed squads disbanding after successful mission or if they fail a move order and their unitgroup becomes invalid. they will keep re-forming the squad.
- changed all global tables to be referenced by force name so it's totally player-independant now.
- added parameters for config to change grab artifacts radius
- made rocket droid splash area basically none, and made damage very high to help deal with big biters.
- fixed it so you don't lose the loot chest if you try to place it wrong

Awesome thanks!

now to see how well it works on bob's mods ;P

[kyranzor]

The next release (provided it's not another critical bug fix and I have time to add more features) will have the ability to gather any "artifact" including those dropped by bobs enemies. If I can work out how to avoid friendly fire (literally) issues I will be including a flamethrowers droid too.

The "guard station" should also make it in the next release, where inserted droids are spawned as guards that defend their local area (and maybe send droids to nearby alerts if I can access alerts via the mod API)

[buder5]

i have an idea for you add the abbility to manage a squad to a patrol route between 2 waypoint or 2 building serving as waypoint i will like that alot XD