Psionic Attack Hard Limit?

[kabill]

Someone has me hunting a possible bug in Hold the Line!  Can't figure out what the issue is but I'm wondering if its related to the number of psionic attacks some aliens have (vanilla doesn't seem to have more than two psionic powers on a single alien but the mod adds a third to Praetors).  By any chance, is anyone aware of there being a hard limit on the number of psionic powers AI units can use in a turn (either by design or owing to coding weirdness)?

[Solver]

There's a limit of each ability being used once per turn. So a Praetor would only do Fear once per turn, for instance. And the only types of attack that work are mind control, hallucinate, fear and dread.

[kabill]

But no limit on the number of different powers that can be known/used?  I'm only using those four functional powers in the mod; my best guess was that maybe there's an issue with Praetors knowing Fear, Mind Control and Dread together (but even then, I think dread triggers differently anyway so I don't see why there'd be an interaction with the other two).

Alternative, I guess, is a bad interaction between Fear and Mind Control on the same alien (no vanilla aliens knows this combination and it's the only profile that fits with the issues described to me).  Never mind, was hoping for an easy solution but may need to do some testing

[Solver]

There's no such hard limit from a quick reading of the psionic attack source file. Although come to think of it, I forgot to check one layer up, whether the psionic behavior can be triggered at all a second time, I'll do that later.

[Charon]

• Psionic attacks seem to have a 1 turn cooldown. So only every second turn.
• Dread only works for race="praetor"
• im also pretty sure an alien can only use 1 psionic ability per turn, then all psionic abilities go on cooldown. Eg. an alien unit cant use Fear and then Mind Control. This might be changeable in the behaviour.xml under the child <Psionic>

X-Division has a lot of aliens with 3 or more abilities on the same alien without any issue. But without describing the problem there is no way to make a profile to see if it fits.

[kabill]

6 hours ago, Charon said:

X-Division has a lot of aliens with 3 or more abilities on the same alien without any issue. But without describing the problem there is no way to make a profile to see if it fits.

Quote

There's no such hard limit from a quick reading of the psionic attack source file. Although come to think of it, I forgot to check one layer up, whether the psionic behavior can be triggered at all a second time, I'll do that later.

That's useful to know.  Means I'm not looking in the right place.

I don't have extensive information, just an indication that the mod is causing random crashing on alien turns during later ground missions (specifically large and huge UFOs).  If it's those kinds of UFOs it means it's linked to Caesan Leaders or Praetors.  But I can't see anything that would be causing a crash, especially as I've been told Mind Control and Dread are both being used without issue (at least some of the time).  I found a typo in a file linked to the Berserk (Hallucinate) power which could plausibly have been causing crashes since it was a file name reference.  But if that was the problem, it shouldn't be encountered only on late-game missions, as the mod gives this power to Caesan Officers.

It being related to the specific powers being used was a longshot - I just can't see anything wrong with the modded files and my next best guess was that there was some hardcoded weirdness that I was accidentally triggering without knowing (and I really don't want to pull the mod apart line by line to try and isolate the issue...).

[Charon]

@kabillIs it a CTD or an infinite alien turn crash ? You can distinguish infinite turns by activating your FPS on screen. If the FPS is 60, you got an infinite turn crash, if its around 5 the game works as normal.

 

Also why do you think that the problem is with your mod ? Even XCE has unresolved psionic issues, especially regarding Mind Control. I think Solver fixed Mind Control issues more times than he has fingers on his hands, and people still kept rolling in with more and rarer bugs.

 

Down below is an example. Phase 3 with Ceasan Leader Class units, with PsionicAttacks="Fear, Dread, Paralyse, MindControl" and <Rank  type="PsionPsycho"> with PsionicAttacks="Fear, Dread, Paralyse".

 

Edit: now that i think about it, i could propably remove dread from the leader, to eliminate possible sources of problems.
Edit2: As far as i know there are specific infinte turn crashes which start to happen in Phase 3, so with the introduction of Caesan Leader Class units.

Edited August 14, 2019 by Charon

[kabill]

16 hours ago, Charon said:

@kabillIs it a CTD or an infinite alien turn crash ? You can distinguish infinite turns by activating your FPS on screen. If the FPS is 60, you got an infinite turn crash, if its around 5 the game works as normal.

  

Also why do you think that the problem is with your mod ? Even XCE has unresolved psionic issues, especially regarding Mind Control. I think Solver fixed Mind Control issues more times than he has fingers on his hands, and people still kept rolling in with more and rarer bugs.

  

Down below is an example. Phase 3 with Ceasan Leader Class units, with PsionicAttacks="Fear, Dread, Paralyse, MindControl" and <Rank  type="PsionPsycho"> with PsionicAttacks="Fear, Dread, Paralyse".

...

Edit: now that i think about it, i could propably remove dread from the leader, to eliminate possible sources of problems.
Edit2: As far as i know there are specific infinte turn crashes which start to happen in Phase 3, so with the introduction of Caesan Leader Class units.

Ah, sorry, it's a freeze rather than a crash (I was misremembering).  And I was assuming it was the mod only because it was reported as such - it's a long time since I played and I don't really remember getting issues like this (although I rarely played to the point it seems to happen).  But if there are issues in vanilla/XCE which might cause it, then I guess that might be it!