Strange graphics effect

[BeBro]

In my Rome scn, a Barbarian unit created via events cause strange graphics effects. When the unit moves, the terrain around it changes (hmm, not really, but it looks like a ChangeTerrain event). Has someone an idea how to solve this?

Only one unit cause this (a mounted archer in the Extra7 slot), all other units, created with events or not, are ok.

------------------
Civ2000

[Mercator]

Did you by any chance create that unit on [odd, even] or [even, odd] coordinates? Those aren't correct coordinates (only [even,even] or [odd,odd]), but I thought the units were created. That might cause some strange graphics effects.

[BeBro]

Thanks, Mercator, but this wasn´t the solution. I tested also other graphics for that unit, other values and flags, but all with the same negative result.
The only solution seems to disable the unit for the whole game...

------------------
Civ2000

[BeBro]

Prometeus, there are no more empty slots ( ) but perhaps exchanging with another slot work...

Thanks, Hendrik, I´ll try the reload/save thing.

------------------
Civ2000

[AroSch]

Hmmh, this kind of effect I have seen some days ago in a scenario from a german site. (No, not a CIV2-Webring-Member ) It was the events.ger wich was not korrect: the CREATEUNIT-coordinates wasnt o.k. The Unit was created "between" the Fields. Check out the coordinates again. I hope, this will help.
[This message has been edited by AroSch (edited October 25, 2000).]

[Captain Nemo]

I am almost certain that is the problem too! I have had it several times.
If you create a unit on odd-even or even-odd coordinates location, this can happen with very strange side effects... The unit becomes invisible and can capture cities, without capturing them... So you get dual ownership of a city and can get into your own city... The weird terrain changes also occur as the invisible unit moves around near your units. In Red Front I made the mistake once and had these units hidden on wrong coordinates in the setup game so even after I corrected the location in the event file the weird events continued to happen.
This can also occur if you edit the sav binary file and flop some location coordinates by mistake.

[Hendrik the Great]

Reload the scenario until it doesn't happen anymore and play a bit around with it. It happened when I made Daroae, too and I kept reloading and saving the scn until it was gone.

------------------
Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.nbci.com/thalys

[Prometeus]

Have you considered to move it into another empty slot ( i.e. submarine unit ) ? Maybe it's just unit's position in Units file that doesn't work ...

[Hendrik the Great]

This is the respondsible event:

@IF
RANDOMTURN
denominator=10
@THEN
CREATEUNIT
unit=Scythen
owner=Barbaren
veteran=yes
homecity=Scythia
locations
123,64
122,66
124,64
121,65
125,63
endlocations
@ENDIF

I think it's that those odd and even numbers don't do well together...

------------------
Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.nbci.com/thalys

[BeBro]

Yes, Hendrik, I know it is this event (thanks to Nemo, AroSch and, despite my post above, Mercator ), but the problem remains after I corrected or completely removed the event.

I think this has to do with the invisible units that Nemo has mentioned. So, all these Barbs created with a corrected event work, but there are still some of these units that were created by the old, uncorrect event. And these "old" units cause the weird looking graphic changes, but you can´t simply kill these units because they are only visible when they are moving.

I played several turns with a revealed map, every turn I saw these Barbs moving, but when their turn was over and I tried to look into the area where they should be they weren´t visible. The only good thing is that the terrain looked normal again (until the next Barb turn).

I have no idea how to solve this, currently the only way that works is to disable the unit and give it zero MP. But that means that I wasted one unit slot...

------------------
Civ2000

[Prometeus]

"Homecity=Scythia" ?
When I create a barbarian unit in Events.txt, I never give to that a hometown... because my scen crash quickly. Are you sure that this work even if Barbarian civ is Hex-edited ?

[BeBro]

This homecity doesn´t exist in the scn, it´s only for the atmosphere. I don´t think that this is a problem in my scn, I also have some other (non-existing) homecities for units created by events. Sounds better as "none"...

------------------
Civ2000

[Stefan Härtel]

I might be mistaken, but I think it has to do with the fact that Barbarian units can't have hometowns. Do you have any other Barbarian units with hometowns appearing?

[BeBro]

Stefan, it works with other units, AI and Barbarian. However, to make sure that this isn´t the reason for any problems, I´ll remove all these "hometowns".

------------------
Civ2000

[Prometeus]

quote: Originally posted by BeBro on 10-26-2000 02:18 PM "none"...

Hmmm, I have the italian version ( case sensitive ) so i have to put on "None" as barbarian hometown...

[BeBro]

...and in my German version it´s "keine" The "none" was only for the "Anglophiles" here

Ok guys, thanks for all the help, but I decided to leave out the Scyths (I hate them ) and use the events for other things. However, if somebody has the solution for the graphics problem, I´m still interested in it (but I think Mercator, Nemo and AroSch have pointed out the main problem). Next time I have to be more careful with the coordinates...

------------------
Civ2000
[This message has been edited by BeBro (edited October 26, 2000).]

[Captain Nemo]

Can you enter the scenario and play the barbarians via Hex-editing? That was the way I finally got rid of my "phantoms" (But mine were not Barbarians). The other solution is to make them air units with 1 move and let them crash (Hopefully).

[BeBro]

Thanks, making them air units doesn´t help, but I´ll solve the problem via hexediting.

------------------
Civ2000