[18.4 Geoscape/Air Battle] Game broken because of air battle no longer working.

[Virosa]

If i load any autosave or manual save of my game i still get the same problem : when i get an air battle, i do not get asked the Tail, Tail over Land, Engage, Disengage window. And then more problem come up.

It goes strait to the battle. Then, the music play double, i and the alien have a ghost craft of the craft i receive, as in, i dont see it but it shoot, its invulnerable and i cant see it, i dont see its fire arc but i can see its pathing line. When my real plane finally get destroyed by the enemy ghost craft, the battle continue but at same time go back to geoscape, the screen tear and i can see both the Geoscape and the air battle. There is no crash. Opening my base's UI remove the rest of the air battle.

Extra details: Nothing really happened since it was fine until it wasnt. It was fine yesterday and today it isnt. Yesterday i verified files twice. Then played with no more problems. Today when i tried to continue all my save were messed up. (Tho all the saves are no more than 30 min appart total, however they DID work yesterday.)

I had to make a new game... but in the new game its fine.

[Virosa]

Happened again, maybe retreating from combat fuck up the game... I was able to use a old save tho.

[Matthew]

Can you please attach a save file?

[Virosa]

Can you please attach a save file?

A bit late so i'll forgo the 18.4 file, here is a 18.5 that i've re-corrupted using the same method;

http://www.mediafire.com/?5nd831n7os422or

Only send ONE interceptor, to intercept whatever UFO flying around.

If you send a squadron, it still cause issues but less game breaking. (I've noticed base layout thumbnail in base management screen just being blacked out)

Last time i wasn't sure, but now i think it is when you click "End Turn" in Ground Battle while your unit is in the process of doing something, like moving. I doupt its a coincidence that i've been able to play for a long time without this bug and then the one battle i click end turn while my soldier was running, my game get corrupted again.

EDIT: I redid the mission, without doing a end early turn thing and then i was able to do one air battle fine. Then i did another with a squadron and i'm getting same issue i was getting when only sending one once i was playing a corrupted save file. So i dont know wtf is going on. I didn't do anything special. So maybe its related to something that happen around end of month 2 since thats as far as i ever get before i meet a game breaking bug.

This is on a new computer with a clean stand alone install on a different version than i first encountered the bug so i don't think its on my end.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Virosa

[Matthew]

I'm confused now as hell

In the original post you say mention they are working. And in this post you say there is something wrong on the ground combat.

So is the air combat bugged or is it the ground combat? Can you please write a step by step what is going on description about the bug, that would be awesome. I'll look into the action stopping end turning.

[Virosa]

What i said stand. The bug is air combat/geoscape related.

The only constant in the 5 games where i hit this "game ending bug" was pushing the ground combat engine (moving more than 1 soldier at the same time and hitting end turn before they stop moving). AFTER i did some could-be-buggy-prone actions in ground combat i end ground combat without a hitch, but from then on air combat is broken. So if it is one hell of a coincidence, i don't know wtf.

I don't have a step by step solution to CAUSE the corruption, it happen in EVERY game so i don't understand how i'd be the only one that encounter this.

So steps to follow would be simpyl: use my save file and try doing air combat and what happen next is self explanatory, usually game either crash or if you enter the base management menu fast enough you'll see misc graphic bugs. Once that bug kick in, there is no confirmation menu when your planes encounter aliens and the encounter never "end" properly.

I sent this save file to my friend and its broken for him too. He was unable to do more than 1 air battle before the game crashed.

TLDR:

Step 1: Load my save file, a "just analyzed medium UFO" notice should pop.

Step 2: Wait and intercept UFOs.

Sometimes the bug doesnt kick in in the first air battle and whether you send a squadron or a single interceptor, the bug behave differently. WHEN it kick in, the air battle seem broken irreversibly.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Virosa

[Matthew]

Thank your the detailed report and the save file. Everything is clear now.

I never TLDR

[Virosa]

Sweet, keep up the good(hard) work.