235 Time unit berserker?

[Mouse Nightshirt]

I've switched to my PC version of EU owing to the fact my sister has stolen my PS2.

 

I came across this irritating bug today, where my soliders have been paniced by pesky sectoids. However, for some reason, every time they are made berserk, they are given 235 time units to play around with. What's really irritating is that the cost of firing a shot seems to be the same. I had a single unit kill 6 of my soldiers in the skyranger with a hideously lengthy blast of berserk fire (took about 18 shots or so).

 

Is this a common bug in the PC version?

[Kratos]

I have never seen this occur. Odd.

[Zombie]

Is this a common bug in the PC version?

Yep, it's a common bug. Our friend NKF has mentioned this a few times around the forums.

 

IIRC the soldier probably gets the max for the variable which is 255 TU. Not that it makes any difference, as the results are the same: a ton of shots. :mad:

 

- Zombie

[Kratos]

I'm glad none of my men experienced this. :mad:

 

Hey, how can you make this bug occur? Just curious.

[Zombie]

How? Make sure he has the lowest bravery. Then have him do something stupid (like killing a bunch of officers) to reduce morale to a very low level (0 is good). Then all you have to do is wait until he/she goes berserk.

 

(You could also make sure a soldier has bad psionic skills and bravery, then let some Sectoid leaders/commanders or Ethereals play mind games with him).

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Bug? Bug? This isn't a bug. It's the effect of cocktail of bodily chemicals that give your soldiers superhuman strength and speed while under extreme mental duress. Or something like that. It happens in the PC versions of UFO and TFTD - although I don't have the playstation version so I can't really tell how it works in there. We'd need someone with the Amiga version to give us an overall picture of whether or not it's meant to be a bug. I say it makes things so much more dangerous - for everyone.

 

The reason you get so many shots is beacuse all your weapon costs are based off your Max TUs. Say 60. Using a laser rifle, we can get snapshots at 15 TUs each (4 shots at 25% each). Not bad.

 

Now, when your soldier goes berserk, your Current TUs is pushed to 255 or slightly less points. Even at this level, your firing cost is still based off your Max TUs. In my example, it's 15 TUs per snap. This is 255/15 = 17 possible snapshots. It won't be 17, exactly, as you still need TUs to turn about wildly.

 

Just imagine what you'd get with a soldier at 50 Max TUs and a laser pistol or pistol?

 

How about trying to get an alien to do this? Might have to help it pick up its gun every so often.

 

- NKF

 

(Zombie, this is the same principle I used in my quarter/sectopod damage test save to give some soldiers a very high number of mind probe uses for that one turn)

[Zombie]

(Zombie, this is the same principle I used in my quarter/sectopod damage test save to give some soldiers a very high number of mind probe uses for that one turn)

Yep, I know. Didn't mention the current/max TU effect because you always do such a nice job of explaining it.

 

Well, I think we have explained the reason why units seem to get more shots when going berserk: a sudden increase of 255 TU. But what about why units get 255 Current TU in the first place? I mean, that would be the last choice I would assign a variable. I could see a value of 0 being assigned to current TU as an intermediate value. But how/why do we get to 255 from 0?

 

- Zombie

[Mouse Nightshirt]

I had this bug again today. It wasn't always 255 TUs. It was 235 (or in and around that) on several occasions. Is it displaying the first TUs used when it does that?

[NKF]

It sounds like you may be seeing the numbers after the unit's done something. Still, give me some numbers. What's the soldier's max TUs and what weapon is the soldier using?

 

- NKF

[JellyfishGreen]

But what about why units get 255 Current TU in the first place? I mean, that would be the last choice I would assign a variable. I could see a value of 0 being assigned to current TU as an intermediate value. But how/why do we get to 255 from 0?

Zombie, I hesitate to point this out to a grognard such as yourself, but 255 is of course the maximum value you can cram into an 8-bit binary number. (2^8 - 1) And they intended to max out berzerkers, evidently.

[Zombie]

Of course I realize that stat numbers cap at 255. Common knowledge.

 

So you think the 255 berserk TU are set that way intentionally? Interesting. I suppose it would be easier than setting Max TU to the level of each soldier unit in the game.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

That could be it, but it wouldn't be any harder to just refresh to max TUs. Or, this is what could've happened. See the following totally fictional lines of C code:

 

Programmers write tens of thousands of lines of code
.
.
.

/*Current_TU = Max_TU;	TODO: Must fix this later after debugging */
Current_TU = 255; 

.
.
.
Programers continue to write tens of thousands more lines of code

 

Then never got round to it.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Well, if you put it that way it makes perfect sense.

 

One of Murphy's laws on Technology (I have them all memorized):

 

If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

Seems fitting.

 

- Zombie

[Pherdnut]

Ohhhhhh... So THAT'S what happened in my TFTD game when my guy blow through an entire sonic cannon clip after going 'zerkies.