TFTD Reasearch Bug Fix

[BladeFireLight]

I'm working on a program to Fix TFTD games that had hit bugs in the research.

 

my TFTD Bug Fixup Uitl checks for the MC Reader and Sub Construction bugs.

 

For example if you finished the MC Lab with out having the an MC reader in Stores. runing resfix game_x will check for MC Labs being complete. if it is and MC reader is not avalible it marks MC reader availible for research.

 

Right now it does not check for an MC Reader or Sub Construction to be in your base stores. I plan to add this later, to keep with how the DOS 2.1 beta works.

 

If you have xcomtuil installed resfix runs automaticly after each combat on your current game.

 

-Blade FireLight

[Bomb Bloke]

And I still haven't gotten around to adding your xcomutil-undo-kit to the files section yet!

[Loupgris]

I will download this patch when I get my own computer.

[BladeFireLight]

I updated resfix to fix the TFTD v1.0 Aquaplastics bug

[Bomb Bloke]

Bump!

[teklor]

Does this patch work with the CE version?

[Bomb Bloke]

Should do, as it patches save files (which are the same for the DOS/CE versions).

[BladeFireLight]

Does this patch work with the CE version?

 

This works with or without xcomutil. it just modifies the research file of a saved game (or missdat with xcomtuil)

should work on all PC versions of TFTD.

[Pete]

Ah Blade, you are quite frankly The Man - very useful util this

[BladeFireLight]

Ah Blade, you are quite frankly The Man - very useful util this

 

Thanks.. Now if only Real Life would alow me the time to work on some more cool things.

[JellyfishGreen]

Something interesting I pulled off my TFTD CD (unplayed, as of yet). May be of value to NKF, or the Wiki, as it mentions Version 2 of TFTD:

********* X-COM: TERROR FROM THE DEEP [v2] README.TXT ********

[deletia]

************** GAMEPLAY TWEAKS/BUGS FIXED ***************

 

Gameplay

 

* Equipment left in the X-COM craft on linked missions is now

returned to base if you succeed in the second half of the

linked mission.

 

* Alien molecular control defence stats have been modified.

 

* Proximity grenades now retain their prime from a reload on a

tactical game.

 

* The 'funding' bug has been fixed so that there are no dis-

crepanciesnin the X-COM accounts at the end of each month.

 

* There were rare problems with panicked soldiers dropping weapons

in 'mid-water' - this has now been fixed.

 

* All craft automatically reload when you buy new ammunition.

 

* You now do not require a Deep One corpse in your inventory to

research aqua-plastics. However you still need to have researched

a Deep One corpse.

 

* One branch of the research tree has been modified. Whereas before

you needed ion accelerators, magnetic navigation and a lobsterman

navigator to be allowed to research magnetic ion armour you now

need to research ion armour, magnetic navigation and ion

accelerators.

 

* The Leviathon troop deployment bug has been fixed.

 

* A rare bug which could kill live aliens on return to base is fixed.

 

Memory

 

* Memory allocation has been improved to take greater advantage

of free conventional memory - the game will now be much less

likely to run out of memory on some machines.

 

* On rare occasions on some machines the game used to hang with

a 'Cannot load COMMAND.COM: System halted' error - is fixed.

 

Misc.

 

* The 'Groundhog day' bug is now fixed.

 

* The crash bug associated with clicking both mouse buttons is fixed.

 

Sound.

 

ENSONIQ/GRAVIS CARDS & CD ROM ANIMATIONS

The CD-ROM animations cannot unfortunately be run on a sound card

which does not fully emulate a SoundBlaster (known examples are the

Ensoniq Soundscape 16 and the Gravis Ultrasound series). The 'slide

show' will play instead.

 

PROBLEMS WITH DAUGHTERBOARDS

The general midi sound selection from setup only supports true

MPU-401 MIDI interfaces (such as the Roland LAPC-1 and SCC-1).

Daughterboard MIDI devices do not fully comply with the above

standard and unfortunately therefore do not work. Instead select

FM music from the Terror From the Deep setup utility. Alternatively

select 8 bit soundblaster emulation and the general midi should work.

 

RECOVERING EQUIPMENT & LIVE/DEAD ALIENS FROM ALIEN BASE

& ARTEFACT SITES

Although it is possible to successfully complete an alien base

or artefact site by destroying the Synonium device and returning

to the entrance you will not recover any alien artefacts, aliens

(live/dead) or equipment unless all aliens in the base have been

incapacitated (equipment/aliens carried by troops are not affected

by this).

 

FREE MEMORY

X-COM: Terror From the Deep requires a minimum of 2.5Mb of free

memory. If you are experiencing any of the following problems

then we recommend that you strip out as many TSR's (such as

SMARTDRV) from memory to increase your free memory:-

 

Crashing between geoscape and tactical

Crashing out of tactical back to geoscape

Blue text appearing corrupting screen

 

If you are experiencing other difficulties then we recommend you

still try to maximise the amount of free memory available.

 

QEMM STEALTH MODE

We recommend disabling QEMM stealth mode when playing Terror From

the Deep.

[Azure]

What the heck was the 'Groundhog Day' bug??

 

Azure

[NKF]

It's sort of referencing the Groundhog Day movie where Bill Murray kept waking up to the start of the exact same day over and over again. Fun movie.

 

 

This happens when, in the Geoscape, the game crashes at unexpected moments (doesn't it always?), but then moves on to the battlescape and a previous mission will be loaded. However, it loaded at the very start of the mission.

 

This was more common in the Dos version of the game with the main core of the program being a simple batch file - or a batch file converted into a .com file. The collectors edition, or at least the plain vanilla version of the Collectors edition sans XComutil does not have this. Instead, it just crashes to the desktop.

 

- NKF

[cpohara]

hey guys, new here

 

blade, your file description says:

 

"TFTD's research tree is nefarious for it's game breaking glitches. This little tool will stop them hindering your progress."

 

Does this fix all the problems listed here: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=TRTBAG ?

 

Also, will I know right away when I've encountered the problem or should I periodically use the tool to "clean" my saved games?

 

Thanks in advance for the help, I played this game back in the 90s and just started again with DosBox after reading an LP at somethingawful.com... my getting my a** kicked rate has not improved much, it turns out...love the game tho

[BladeFireLight]

hey guys, new here

 

blade, your file description says:

 

"TFTD's research tree is nefarious for it's game breaking glitches. This little tool will stop them hindering your progress."

 

Does this fix all the problems listed here: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=TRTBAG ?

 

Also, will I know right away when I've encountered the problem or should I periodically use the tool to "clean" my saved games?

 

If the problem can be fixed by researching "another live alien" I dont change them. I also dont address the 1.0 to 2.0 upgrade issues.

 

If your usesing xcomutil my patch hooks it and runs every time you end combat. otherwise just use if there is somthing broken

 

The fixes are the MC Reader, Sub Construction and Aqua Plastics

Below is the main logic of the program.

 

-Blade FireLight

 

		////////////////////////////////////
	// MC Reader Bug Fix
	cout << "MC Reader: ";
	if (research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_MC_Lab) == RESEARCH_COMPLETE &&
		research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_MC_Reader) == NOT_RESEARCHED &&
		research.AbleToResearch(RTT_MC_Reader) == RESEARCH_UNAVAILABLE)
	{
		cout << "Repairing bug\n";
		research.SetAbleToResearch(RTT_MC_Reader);
	}
	else { cout << "bug not found\n"; }

	//////////////////////////////////////
	// Sub Construction Bug
	cout << "Alien Sub Construction: ";
	if (research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_Transmision_Reslover) == RESEARCH_COMPLETE &&
		research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_Zrbite) == RESEARCH_COMPLETE &&
		research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_Alien_Sub_Construction) == NOT_RESEARCHED &&
		research.AbleToResearch(RTT_Alien_Sub_Construction) == RESEARCH_UNAVAILABLE)
	{
		cout << "Repairing bug\n";
		research.SetAbleToResearch(RTT_Alien_Sub_Construction);
	}
	else { cout << "bug not found\n"; }

	////////////////////////////////////////
	// Aqua Plastics Bug Fix
	cout << "Aqua Plastics: ";
	if (research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_Deep_One_Corpse) == RESEARCH_COMPLETE &&
		research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_Aqua_Plastics) == NOT_RESEARCHED &&
		research.AbleToResearch(RTT_Aqua_Plastics) == RESEARCH_UNAVAILABLE)
	{
		cout << "Repairing bug\n";
		research.SetAbleToResearch(RTT_MC_Reader);
	}
	else { cout << "bug not found\n"; }

[useopenid4registration]

		   ////////////////////////////////////
		 ////////////////////////////////////////
		 // Aqua Plastics Bug Fix
		 cout << "Aqua Plastics: ";
		 if (research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_Deep_One_Corpse) == RESEARCH_COMPLETE &&
			 research.HasBeenResearched(RTT_Aqua_Plastics) == NOT_RESEARCHED &&
			 research.AbleToResearch(RTT_Aqua_Plastics) == RESEARCH_UNAVAILABLE)
		 {
			 cout << "Repairing bug\n";
			 research.SetAbleToResearch(RTT_MC_Reader);
		 }
		 else { cout << "bug not found\n"; }

 

I'm guessing by now this is fixed, but I'm just verifying that the line should read:

research.SetAbleToResearch(RTT_Aqua_Plastics);

[Pastshelfdate]

Hi, all,

 

Thanks, Firelight, for the trip down memory lane with the coding sample. Once upon a time, I coded very well, but then my ride to college fell through, and 20 years later (Long, sad story with fairly happy ending), I was behind, and couldn't catch up with the people who had grown up with computers at home.

 

I really do appreciate all the work on editing around research bugs. I've recently found a research bug that's not cited on the UFOpaedia site. Now I wish I'd kept a log of my research, but I thought others had found all the bugs. For some reason, I can't research the Sonic Oscillator, and thus the P.W.T. Cannon is also out of reach. I'm still doing well in the game, but I don't want others, especially new players, to miss out on the sweet cannon. Now I'm really sorry I wasn't able to pursue my computer science studies further.

 

I know this will be a lot of work for someone. All I can do is give a heads-up, and hopefully we have enough eyeballs to make this bug shallow.

[Nilex]

Many thanks for the tool. Proved it usefulness even today.

 

Somehow I encountered both bugs (MC & Sub Const) even though I'm playing using latest TFTDextender. All while paying close attention to avoid both. Even delayed research paths just to make sure, so I expect to have first MC trainees only in September, lol. No matter, I'm in it for the long haul anyway. One can never optimize enough. While I'm aware there are more methods to fix botched research this looks cleanest and simplest, just what I needed.

 

As many will notice the OP is ancient and, understandably, links are long dead. BB's files section link has also ran astray in the meantime. I was able to find the updated .zip archive on russian forum. Hope link isn't breaking rules. Program itself must be run in DOS environment in case it wasn't obvious (DOSBox will do just fine).