Fixed Empty officer appearing in Passengers

[Wolve]

Ahoi!
I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but at random instances during gameplay I noticed empty officers (don't know how else to call em) suddenly appearing in my Passenger list (shown below)

I can assign them to my party, but they won't show up. They do get an image however.


Is this a bug or something intended? If so, what do I do with em?
I'm playing Build 14 Beta 4 2 April.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Please provide savegame and log files.

Also, please let us know the EXACT circumstances when your officers become "empty" like that.

We did have this bug at some point in the past, but it was fixed ages ago and should not be happening any longer.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I have not seen that in a long while.

 

[Wolve]

I didn't have log enabled, will do that now (unless you just need system.log). Also I'm not sure when it happened...somewhere during capturing ships and selling them...I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I didn't have log enabled, will do that now.

How is that possible?

I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks.

 

[Wolve]

Ye sorry just noticed it was on by default =P I can post em if you like, but I got no clue what the exact moment of that bug was.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Ye sorry just noticed it was on by default =P

I should think so!

I can post em if you like, but I got no clue what the exact moment of that bug was.

Indeed then probably that doesn't help so much now.

Well, then just keep an eye on it for now. If it happens again, please describe the exact circumstances and immediately upload your compile.log file then.

And one extra thing you can do to test this: Extract the attached file to your PROGRAM\Characters folder.
This adds an additional "debug log message" to the ClearCharacter function, which was the reason for this bug occurring the last time we had this problem.

With this change, EVERY time that function erases a character, it will display the name of that character on your screen.
If you recognize that name as being one of your current officers, then that confirms the bug has returned.
That notifies you immediately when it happens so that we can track down where and when it occurs.

Looking through the relevant code again now, I don't know how this problem can still be triggered.
But you never do know; there could be some angle I haven't thought of yet.
Hopefully your testing will allow us to squash this once and for all!

 

[Wolve]

Thnx! Will add it. Also just recruited a new officer and it just replaced that blank one, so it's not that much of an issue it seems.
Will post as soon as I find anything.

 

[Wolve]

Ok ClearCharacter just deleted a guy for me while I went from map to sea mode near Antigua. Was doing a cargo quest from Kralendijk to Saint John's.
It was not one of my own officers though, not sure if that matters.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It was not one of my own officers though, not sure if that matters.

If it isn't one of your officers, then it isn't a problem.
That function is specifically supposed to delete characters that aren't needed anymore to clear up space for new ones.
It becomes a problem when it deletes a character that was meant to stick around.

 

[Wolve]

Ok it gets even better! I think I found the cause. I was screwing around a bit with the option to hire a specific officer. I noticed clear character delete an officer I just hired, but I had changed the model to female and renamed him/her/it and assigned it to a ship. When I left the tavern the clearchar deleted the old name of that officer, so I checked the ship but she was still there. Went back in, hired a new officer and it got changed with my 3rd officer so i changed it back. Funny thing is...that new guy got copied so now I got 2 of the same guy. I fired one of them (the most right) and kept the other. Changed back to my old officers and slept a nght in the tavern to hire a new officer the next day. Poof! empty officer appeared. Hired a new guy, he got doubled as well.
Save file and log file are in the attachment

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Oh dear, I think I feel a headache coming on, trying to understand what happens there....

Just to be certain, please replace this line in your PROGRAM\Characters\character.c:

TraceAndLog("ClearCharacter erases " + GetMySimpleName(character) );

With this:

TraceAndLog("ClearCharacter erases " + character.id + "(" + GetMySimpleName(character) + ")" );

That adds the character ID. Whatever name-changes you do to any officers of yours, their ID itself should remain identical.

Only exceptions are when characters get "copied", which may happen for:
- Enemy captains during boarding
- Any officer upon hiring
- When assigning any officer as captain of a ship or fort commander/governor upon town capture

I think those are the main points in the game where stuff like that happens.

 

[Wolve]

Ok I changed that line. Will conduct some more testing tomorrow if I have time

 

[Wolve]

Tried making the system go FUBAR again....so far nothing :\ did get the popup again that it cleared the old named officer after renaming/remodel the recently hired one. No duplicates this time however...will post if I find something

 

[Pieter Boelen]

did get the popup again that it cleared the old named officer after renaming/remodel the recently hired one.

Do you have full details for that one?
Renaming an officer or changing the model of an officer does NOT affect anything other than the name and model.
Therefore it has nothing to do with "character clearing", which means something else must have happened.

Can you do ONLY a rename and see if you get the message? And then do ONLY a model change and check the same?

 

[Wolve]

Ill check that now.
I just encountered having an empty officer after selling my awesome Gunboat tiny tub. Save and log are in the attachment.

Edit:
As soon as I hired a new officer to try the rename/remodeling it got duplicated...prolly due to that empty officer still in play. Will try a different save

Edit2: Ignore the save file, had the empty officer already from a different point on (around when I accepted a cargo delivery q)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So.... Did selling a ship trigger it then?

 

[Wolve]

It seem not...I haven't sold a ship for a while...just doing cargo deliveries and ship hunting quests. I only noticed the empty officer because of the passenger list when I removed the captain.
Think I'll stop posting untill I know for sure

 

[Wolve]

I did find what caused the officer to be duplicated. When having an empty officer in your party and you hire an officer spawned using the Specific officer option from the bartender it gets doubled.
When hiring an officer who is in the tavern already that officer will replace the empty one.
When removing that officer from your party Clearchar will delete him once you go to a different area and you will have the empty officer once again (though the role of it changed from civilian to comrade-at-arms)
When firing said new officer the officer will be removed from passengers without leaving an empty officer behind.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So... at what point do you first get that "empty space"?

What I mostly need to know is: When I start a new game, what exact actions do I need to take to trigger this bug?