Computer controlled units

[chris h]

Just found two units wandering around the map on their own. Somehow computer control and been truned on for them. Now I didn't do this deliberately!

Anyone any idea why this should happened?

Note the only way I know of turning it on and off is through the Unit menu and I rarely go there!

[DRG]

All I can say is the game does not turn on computer control all by itself

BUT

IF you ran a turn under computer control for both sides the game can retain the computer control mode for what would be your human control side

ALSO......... if you have not run your side under computer control at any point and ONLY played out whatever type of battle you are playing under full Human control there is NO WAY I know of that the game will change a couple of units to Computer control that started out set up as Human Control

[Killbasa]

What were you playing? A scenario, campaign, generated battle, or generated campaign?

[chris h]

What were you playing? A scenario, campaign, generated battle, or generated campaign?

Generated campaign, it's not just started been on the go for sometime.

[Killbasa]

Have you opened the unit menu at all during this battle? If you press the H key while that menu is open it is possible to inadvertently switch units to computer control. It will switch the unit at the top of the list the first time you press H while on that screen and will go down the list from there with subsequent presses. If the formations that were under computer control were on the very top of the unit list that would be my guess.

[DRG]

Pressing the "H" key and inadvertently pressing it too long while you are fighting your units will call up the roster menu AND switch from human to computer control and it will happen quickly

Pressing "H" while in the midst of battle will bring up the HQ menu and lingering a bit too long pressing the 'H' key will cause a switich from Human to computer control. IF you notice it happening the fix is easy but if it was an inadvertant press , the changeover might not be noticed

The game guide indicates pressing H........."Go to the roster (clipboard) menu."

And it does. But pressing H while in that screen changes human controled units to computer control and AFAIK that change to computer control is not mentioed in the guide and AFAIK this is the first time in over a quarter century this *might* have been the cause of an issue

I did not know it would do that until I tested it deliberatly so this is "new to me" as well

[Ts4EVER]

I didnt even know you could switch units to PC control, is this something that could be used in scenario design?

[DRG]

Sure.

You could set specific units to act independantly from the units you control directly

This is a weird one. Neither Andy nor I knew that pressing H while in control of your units would change units to computer control. I just tried it with an old save in MBT and pressing and holding 'H' changed every formation up to Q to computer control but would not change any beyond Q by pressing H........ I could change most units beyond Q manually but not with 'H'
27 years doing this and that's a "new one" is damned strange......pick an old save you don't use any longer and experiment

"It's not a BUG it's a FEATURE"...:D

[Dion]

I done that before. It's too easy to make a mistake in the computer world nowadays, so I double check just about everything before advancing to the next turn. Takes extra time, but well worth it in my opinion.

[chris h]

Sure.

You could set specific units to act independantly from the units you control directly

This is a weird one. Neither Andy nor I knew that pressing H while in control of your units would change units to computer control. I just tried it with an old save in MBT and pressing and holding 'H' changed every formation up to Q to computer control but would not change any beyond Q by pressing H........ I could change most units beyond Q manually but not with 'H'
27 years doing this and that's a "new one" is damned strange......pick an old save you don't use any longer and experiment

"It's not a BUG it's a FEATURE"...:D

Thanks, now I know it's a feature

[chris h]

Probably left over from the original version way back.

[DRG]

Probably left over from the original version way back.


I have to admit that the aswer to that is NO
I dug out a v1 windows version from May 6/ 2006.
Started a save game and presses H
The formation menu appeared and pressing H again DID NOT SWITCH HUMAN CONTROL TO COMPUTER CONTROL

When Andy gets past the health issues he is dealing with ( eye surgery ) he'll have a look at the code
In the meantime I will take a look ON THE OFF CHANCE I might see something obvious. The first thing I will do is start the games with the older EXE's I have saved to see when this started

EDIT sometime between SPww2 v6 and SPmbt v9 ( 2013 - 2015 )this started to be possible to occur

[DRG]

Further info...........
pressing H while in the Fomations menu will change human controled units to computer control
Pressing C while in the Fomations menu will change COMPUTER controled units to HUMAN control

That is in the same block of code with setting waypoints

[DRG]

I did find the code that was causing these issues

The first question that needs answering was why was hot key control given to Computer/Human control. There may be a bigger issue this is connected to..............or it may just be " it seemed like a good idea at the time"

The bottom line now is the code that *seems to be* the cause of this has been located.Disabling it is easy but the question that remains was why it was done in the first place

[Mobhack]

The cure, when I can read the code again in a few weeks, will likely be to disable these hotkeys since its such a rare thing that I have only done 2 or 3 times in the past decade or so, can be left to pressing the buttons with the mouse. Which is how I did it when required, having no idea there were even hotkeys ! - and it was likely me who coded these, the why is buried in the mists of time since I have absolutely no recollection of actually doing that.

[georgesedlak]

New to us too, really neat.