Caster of Magic II Bug Reports!

[aedorn]

I'll need the save file from before the battle and instructions what to do to reproduce the problem (such as spells being cast). (the turn based autosave should work)

The fight with the Chosen, I just run him out and kill everything. The second fight is where the undead knights come from, and for that I just do dispelling wave at max power then hit auto combat. I've reloaded and tried it a dozen times now and it worked every time.

[Slingers]

Bug in V1.00.04 (not sure if it was mentioned anywhere before)

Long city names can crash the game. Try naming a city "TEST CAPITAL" or hold down m, w, A, B, C, D, E, G, H, J, K ... key to reproduce. If you for example rename the first city correctly, the game already crashes before it starts.

[Seravy]

It's still too long?

In the changelog "-Reduced maximal number of characters in city names : 14->12, as a crash was reported when using the maximal amount of characters.
"
I even dropped it by 2 to be on the safe side. Any suggestion how much is actually safe? (I'm pretty sure the predefined names have some quite long stuff actually)
Or should I try a different approach and allow any side by shorten the names, displaying only the first X characters?

[Seravy]

I'll need the save file from before the battle and instructions what to do to reproduce the problem (such as spells being cast). (the turn based autosave should work)

The fight with the Chosen, I just run him out and kill everything. The second fight is where the undead knights come from, and for that I just do dispelling wave at max power then hit auto combat. I've reloaded and tried it a dozen times now and it worked every time.

Confirmed.
The Knight unit has no "undead damage" on it but has the "undeaded" flag enabled.
I suspect this might be a bug with certain effects not clearing this flag when bringing units back to life or something like that, I'll have to investigate.
Edit : correct, the knights already are marked as "died to undead damage" when entering combat.
...checked Regeneration, Raise Dead and Animate Dead and all of them properly clear the "undeaded" flag. I can't think of another way to bring a dead unit back to life.
...But the unit can't be marked as undeaded if it isn't actually dead. Oh wait, Automatic Combat actually doesn't check for the units to be dead when marking them as undeaded. But it only happens to the loser and the loser is supposed to...lose the battle so no surviving units...except that was only in the DOS version. Now that Automatic combat can end in the attacker retreating, it's possible for them to lose and still have living units.

So my most probably theory is this : Those Knights attacked an AI army, failed to win (enemy was invisible or flying) and were forced to retreat.
But this too has a flaw. The AI doesn't attack unless they win. They never initiate battles that result in retreating unless their army was relying on flying superiority. But that implies the enemy didn't fly. So the Knights should have been fighting and winning the battle or dying in the process. Unless...the enemy army had an invisible unit.

So the AI attacked using those Knights, and some flying ranged units like Sprites. They killed most enemy units with the ranged attacks but then got forced to retreat without losing the Knights because the enemy unit was invisible. As the enemy unit also had Life Steal, it marked the retreating Knights as died to undead damage without being actually dead. That honestly is so much of a corner case unlikely scenario that I doubt but it's the only one I can think of.
You didn't fight those Knights before, right? So they could have only gotten marked as undead while fighting another AI so only in Automatic Combat.

[Slingers]

Any suggestion how much is actually safe?

The 12th "m" leads to a crash or the 11th "M" or "W". It looks like it is about the available space in the top row.

[aedorn]

So the AI attacked using those Knights, and some flying ranged units like Sprites. They killed most enemy units with the ranged attacks but then got forced to retreat without losing the Knights because the enemy unit was invisible. As the enemy unit also had Life Steal, it marked the retreating Knights as died to undead damage without being actually dead. That honestly is so much of a corner case unlikely scenario that I doubt but it's the only one I can think of.
You didn't fight those Knights before, right? So they could have only gotten marked as undead while fighting another AI so only in Automatic Combat.

Correct. I had no prior engagements with said knights.

[Slingers]

Maybe no more space on the city screen.

Exactly. It's 25 population figures wide.

Hmmm ... just because of that? For example, if you use the numbers 2, 3, and 4, up to 100,000 inhabitants can be displayed with minor fine-tuning restrictions. The theoretical Maximum Population is around 92, I think. But space to display resources would be the next limitation before that is reached, I guess. Anyway, maybe it is possible to think about a cap higher than 25 one day.

[drake178]

Maybe no more space on the city screen.

Exactly. It's 25 population figures wide.

Hmmm ... just because of that? For example, if you use the numbers 2, 3, and 4, up to 100,000 inhabitants can be displayed with minor fine-tuning restrictions. The theoretical Maximum Population is around 92, I think. But space to display resources would be the next limitation before that is reached, I guess. Anyway, maybe it is possible to think about a cap higher than 25 one day.

I think it's the figures that are the issue here not the numbers. The little icons you use to set farmers/workers? They may be condensed / overlapped to a degree, but most certainly not that much. Remember, you also need gaps to separate sustenance farmers, as well as potential rebels.

[Slingers]

I think it's the figures that are the issue here not the numbers. The little icons you use to set farmers/workers? They may be condensed / overlapped to a degree ...

If you look at the fantasy image in the previous post, you will find no overlaps. The same 25 figures and the numbers 2, 3 and 4 from the new unit counter setting would be required to display up to pop 100000.

[Mqz]

87)
New game, few turns in, crash on next turn. Can replicate crash every time.
Both Merlin and I have quite a few spell books in common and we startede the game with trading 4 spells.
If you cast detect magic you can see Merlin cast 3 summons and then the game crash.
(I am not trying to build a city or do anything this turn)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ptx0otmqtaigg...h.png?dl=0
Savegame - crash next turn
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fg3ml7ht8ftfd2...h.sav?dl=0

Can also reproduce if you just click 12-15 turns into the game from the turn 1 savegame, without doing anything.
Edit: Looks like it is every time his settler is trying to build a city close to the pole. Looks like it is a revisit of an old problem again? (Number 11, city too close to the poles).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t0ahcyu4cpdch2...r.png?dl=0
Savegame - turn 1
https://www.dropbox.com/s/creodrpf550jqz...e.sav?dl=0