[Bug Report] Interface Bugs in 1.03

Or how I learned to stop worrying and look irked at a different menu.

Since the release of 1.03, I managed to put together a couple of mid-length games with SubtleSarcasm and Eric the Half-a-Bee of BSU infamy and ran head-first into a few irksome issues that were … unexpected … to put it gently. Not game-breakers (in fact, I think the in-game functionality has been vastly improved and rather like the way it is now) but in pre-game/UI setup places.

  1. The patch deleted all the random-creation maps I had before install.

    I fully expected my save games to not be usable but I was more than mildly shocked when I went to load the map I’d created in the in-game Map Editor (as opposed to Galaxy Forge) and saw … nothing. It took me a bit to put together a replacement which made me mildly grumpy. You can create some elaborate random-gen maps with interesting texture with the editor and I’d been tinkering with a fair number, all reduced to murdered electrons in the wind when I installed the patch. In retrospect, I can understand why they might have been of questionable compatability (ie. the Pirate Base change), but some kind of warning they’d go pfft would have been nice.

  2. Previewing the random map creation from the Multiplayer game creation and then Quit Game-ing puts you back at the Single Player Tutorial menu.

    OK, I admit, I don’t get this one at all, given it worked just fine in 1.00 and 1.02, but I’ll chalk it up to moving all the bits around with the Game Options menus. Still, it’s deucedly annoying if you’re a multi-tweak map creator like myself, as it adds a number of pokes at the mouse every time you test a change. That, my friends, is annoying. I’d even accept if it put you back in the Single Player Map Creator page for that map, but that’s not what it does.

  3. There really needs to be some way to edit the window size of running Sins in a window without going to hunt down the user.settings file in %APPDATA% and editing it.

    Just an annoyance more than anything, really. I want to run it at 1600x1000 (and I do), it just required tweaking all my settings again after the patch. Not that big a deal except that particular setting is just darn annoying to find and make.

  4. Been said elsewhere but probably worth noting, as much as I love the in-game font, the option to make it slightly bigger or change it needs to be built in for pure accessibility reasons.

    A simple Video Options button would do just fine there to revert it to something less stylized if desired.

Other than that, I’m pleased as punch and hope to keep poking at the actual mechanics for a long time to come. I imagine Ironclad is busy like a shaved wookie in putting together a demo for Sins that captures the feel of the game without giving everything away, and I earnestly and actively applaud their ongoing efforts.

5,401 views 6 replies
Reply #1 Top
I'm getting some kind of weirdness where i'm trying to play a huge map and as soon as it loads, the game kicks me to the defeated screen instantly... i think my game is corrupted some how... though it was running fine for about 20 minutes then the game crashed and when i loaded it back up... poof as soon as i load a map im defeated... weirdo
Reply #2 Top
The patch deleted all the random-creation maps I had before install.
End of quote

I think the files are actually still there, just like the saves. At least they seemed to be for me. I deleted them manually when I realized they were no longer compatible.

Reply #3 Top
1) The game changed how maps are read (this was in the patch notes) so all you had to do was open them up in notepad and change versionNumber from 0 to 1, there have been several threads reporting this fix since as early as probably one hour after patch release ;) It didn't actually delete anything.

2) This is a known issue for IC :)
Reply #4 Top

The patch deleted all the random-creation maps I had before install.I think the files are actually still there, just like the saves. At least they seemed to be for me. I deleted them manually when I realized they were no longer compatible.
End of quote

Still a woeful pain to deal with without some foreknowledge. That said, I’m vaguely surprised they didn’t auto-migrate the maps they at least knew were created in the Map Creator and, as such, were of a static nature, especially if it is as simple as it seems. It’s the sort of little thing I’d rather get some kind of in-game awareness of (“This is an incompatible map,”) rather than just having it appear pfft. Minor in the greater sense, but a SMoP in a real sense.

The glitch with going back to the wrong menu when quitting from a multiplayer map edit preview is actually the worse of the two. Made more complicated by the fact that if you call the Map Creator from the Single Player menu, it exits back from Previews into exactly the right place. As things are, that’s obviously the place to tinker with them, but it shouldn’t have to be. Minor, but frustrating.

I may be the only person more interested in poking the UI warts until they get chillblained off, but since I can’t stomach whining in public repeatedly about how the Cobalt and Javelis need more nerf than a kindergarden full of psychopaths or that Ironclad should just forget any of their own design goals and listen to the thought I put together after I finished smoking a bong with my buddy Jeremy who’d played a game of Sins earlier with Camilla and Prince William, and he said … Well, let’s just say I’m not an utter ass and don’t really want to be.

At this point I fully expect the Frasiers to go a bit underground to focus on putting together a demo before too much gets back this way, and well they should. If a mini-patch comes out of the prototyping phase for the demo, though, I certainly wouldn’t object. I’ve always supported the idea of small patches doing less more often are easier to manage. Regardless, good stuff is in play and I’m enjoying it.


Reply #5 Top
Hi this is not a reply more a question, has anyone tried to lock teams and then exit the game. For me if I load it again the lock team is disabled, the faulty AI diplomacy is back on and I fight suddenly all 8 Ai players.

Just wondering if anyone else has seen this?
Reply #6 Top
When you load the game, you need to refresh the options by clicking the Game Options button and then accepting again before you click Start, that will fix it.

Basically what happens is your options are saved, but when the game starts it initializes to the default options so you need to apply yours again before you load. You won't actually have to change them again, they'll show up properly when you go into Game Options, just need to be accepted again.

IC is aware of this :)