Mining shields on landers during mining no longer as effective under multiple hazards

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It seems that the lander's protection (heat shield, weather shield, bio shield 
and quake shield) are no longer working as well as they used to a few version 
ago.
Was something changed?

It seems that as soon as there are 2 dangers, or you are shooting while a 
danger is under you, you lose life.
The % chances used to be much lower.

For instance, the rainbow world I landed in recently is only a 476 degree C. 
temp world and only a class 4 weather; yet I lost nearly a full complement of 
lander crew within a few seconds. I used to be able to land on planets with 
twice as more hazard and barely lose 2 or 3 crew.
Any idea what changed?

Assigning Jaakko on this one, I think it's probably programming related.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by Awakened...@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2012 at 12:14

Attachments:

• Landers_Hazards.jpg

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Does this occur in 320x240 mode as well? Or is it confined to hi-res modes?

Original comment by Jaakko.M...@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2012 at 7:53

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I cannot yet confirm this since my save games no longer works. I'll let you 
know soon as I use the F5 debug key to test it.
Anything on your end that could explain this? 

Original comment by Awakened...@gmail.com on 25 Dec 2012 at 4:09

• Added labels: Priority-High
• Removed labels: Priority-Medium

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In 320x200 the lander shields seem to be working fine.
To test it I went to the closest planet around Alpha Centauri (very hot) and 
left the lander on the surface.
It got destroyed after about 30-45 seconds (with shield) on 320x200.
It got destroyed after about 10 seconds (with shield) on hi resolution.
So there seem to be a change to the percentage or the way it's calculated or 
something. 

Original comment by Awakened...@gmail.com on 25 Dec 2012 at 5:11

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Dropped down the probability of losing crew vs hotspots in 1280x960.
It might be that because the lavaspots have more gfx frames in 1280x960 (=they 
live longer) AND the individual flames are placed closer to each other (=more 
flames hit the lander simultaneously), the odds of getting hit are increased.

I decreased the probability of getting hit in 1280x960. Try again, see how it 
works now. Report back and I'll drop the odds down more if it's still too tough.

Original comment by Jaakko.M...@gmail.com on 25 Dec 2012 at 6:30

• Changed state: Started

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What is very strange is that this bug is relatively new. Unfortunately I didn't 
note the revision number when I created the issue tracking, but if you look at 
it it's about 5 days old.  I tested the game much longer than that and I can 
guarantee that it didn't do that at first, even though we were on high 
resolution from the start.

Somehow, something we coded about 5 to 7 days ago changed the probabilities of 
shielded lander. I specifically remember using shielded landers for quite a bit 
of time with no problem; I'd get an occasional crew dead when 3 or four hazard 
would hit me all together, but it was very acceptable.

Then all of a sudden after one of the revision, it changed and the shielded 
lander became very delicate - the shield still shows when a hazard hits it, but 
as soon as more than one hits it at the same time, it becomes ineffective.

So you may want to take a look at how a previous revision around landers / 
mining / bio gathering may have impacted this functionality?

Original comment by Awakened...@gmail.com on 25 Dec 2012 at 11:59

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The mineral/bio pickup function is separate from the damage code. They have no 
impact on each other.

If you look at the revision, you will note that at the very same time (5 days 
from you posting) Damon added the missing lavaspot graphics, increasing their 
frame number. This bolsters what I assumed was the problem in comment 4.

The easy solution would be to back down the number of lavaspot frames in 
hires4x back to 13 which it is in lo-res, and drawing the separate lavaspot 
elements as far apart from each other as in lo-res. But that would look crappy 
(I tried it), and that's what we don't want in our zingy, gorgeous hi-res mod :)

So, we'll need to fine-tune the damage probabilities until they're pretty much 
alike in hi-res and lo-res. How is it currently after the latest changes to the 
probability number? Does it take about equal time for the crew to die now?

Original comment by Jaakko.M...@gmail.com on 28 Dec 2012 at 10:03

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How does the current situation seem, any need for updating the probabilities?

Original comment by Jaakko.M...@gmail.com on 29 Dec 2012 at 2:54

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Looked real good yesterday.
Unless you changed it again, I'd say it's good now.
Will retest to be sure.

Original comment by Awakened...@gmail.com on 29 Dec 2012 at 4:10

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I haven't changed it in some time, so should be ok? Marking this fixed, but 
re-open if it wasn't satisfactory.

Original comment by Jaakko.M...@gmail.com on 29 Dec 2012 at 5:19

• Changed state: Fixed