First of all, really nice idea with these modules! I tried a few of them (Defenders, Desolation, Alt Faction Distribution) and found a few bugs and issues:
1. After installing the modules I am getting random "Stack trace:" (I guess memory overflow) crashes after a while (speak: a few hours). It usually shows as me not being able to save anymore (via menu or quicksave), animations not playing and the game still kind of runs okay-ish until ultimately crashing when changing levels. Strangely enough, saving via console works but then the created savegame is corrupted (e.g. all quests are completed when loading that save).
I tried disabling all of your modules and removing all the pertaining files but then my savegames get corrupted. I can play but in areas with defenders the game starts doing the aforementioned shenanigans and crashes ultimately with a "syntax error in switch condition"-error thrown in the log. I used the modules since starting my playthrough so maybe they are by now pretty much dug in for good?
I am aware that X-ray is not the most stable of engines but I have never encountered this type of crashes before. I mean, I had stack-trace-crashes due to faulty builds/other addons but never with the above mentioned symptoms (it would usually just CTD randomly). This was really new to me.
2. Some of the descriptions in the MCM are broken, they show their reference code (e.g. the main Rowan's mods-menu and the Alt Faction Distribution-menu) where the descriptive line should be. Also the Rowan's Mods-menu shows the options for the Zombie Surge Spawns and nothing else. Even if the module is not installed. Is it supposed to be that way?
3. I could not really see a difference in number of defenders in certain parts (e.g. Clear Sky swamp base). I am using the pulsed spawns setting.
4. I am not sure if this is just coincidence or due to the defenders-module but certain areas (Rostok, Garbage) seemed pretty abandoned for about 20 ingame days (my pop setting is 0.75 for stalkers). This seemingly got better when I disabled a few factions in the defenders module. Could just be observational bias though. Do defenders count to the whole number of human NPCs in the Zone?
5. I don't know if it was due to this mod but I ran into an issue where the garrison of Monolith at Radar was almost completely respawned after I returned from X-19 (spending effectively 20 minutes in the lab). I had disabled Monolith-defenders before even going to Radar. Though I am not sure if this is not a vanilla issue/just how spawns work.
What was actually nice is that Kitsenko respawns with the defenders at Rostok. In my playthroughs, he often died to dynamic mutants and I hated having his corpse just lying about the checkpoint forever. Broke my immersion. That he resurrects is quite neat.
I understand that these modules are experimental and I am really looking forward to your further development (and also hoping for a few fixes cause I don't wanna ditch my current playthrough :D).
Hey, apologies for taking a bit to get back to you - I'll be looking into this report in more detail (and I appreciate the detail you've put in!). I've already refactored a fair amount of my codebase prior to your reports, so mileage may vary with future updates.
Regarding the save-game corruption -- are you seeing this only when using the defender module? If you use one-time rather than pulse, do you ever see the issue? You will see issues if removing the module in an existing save, as the defenders are a custom squad type and that definition is needed in existing saves.
If you get the crash, mind popping the exact error you were seeing regarding the switch behaviour?
Beyond that, to answer a few of your questions:
Q 2. The MCM bug was an oversight, as I had previously had all modules bundled together - and had split them off. That has been resolved in the next release! The core module basically only has a debug option for advanced logging at this point
Q 3. Defenders (even on pulse) should only ever spawn one active defender squad. The pulse basically just checks the bases that are meant to get defenders, checks to see if the faction owning it is allowed them, and then checks to see if a defender squad is present - and if not, spawns them. The one-off is there if you don't want new defenders after the defender squad has been killed, for example. The defender squad consists of 3 high rank characters
Q 4. A defender squad will count as a squad for spawning purposes in the base smart. If you for example use 0.75, the capacity will be reduced by 25% in each smart, which means the defender squad in say the CS Marshlands base will use one of the occupying slots in that smart. The defender/s won't have any notable impact, and won't affect the overall population of levels or the zone in general though. It might result in a base sending out squads sooner, especially if you have lower pop, as the defender squad can't be selected for patrols, attacks, and so on (if you use Vintar0's Warfare mod)
To elaborate on the above, if say a smart with a capacity of 3 has with a defender squad and a unique squad, neither can be selected for warfare type stuff. So when a new squad spawns, it will likely be selected immediately as it is the only viable candidate
Q 5. My mod and the related modules doesn't respawn rates or anything of that nature for normal faction spawns - in fact, the defenders spawning is the only active gameplay affecting module - everything else has impact on the new game, but not after
I have one question about question 4. Did you activate the desolate module, because that could cause low pop at the start which regenerates after days in the zone.
3 comments
First of all, really nice idea with these modules! I tried a few of them (Defenders, Desolation, Alt Faction Distribution) and found a few bugs and issues:
1. After installing the modules I am getting random "Stack trace:" (I guess memory overflow) crashes after a while (speak: a few hours). It usually shows as me not being able to save anymore (via menu or quicksave), animations not playing and the game still kind of runs okay-ish until ultimately crashing when changing levels. Strangely enough, saving via console works but then the created savegame is corrupted (e.g. all quests are completed when loading that save).
I tried disabling all of your modules and removing all the pertaining files but then my savegames get corrupted. I can play but in areas with defenders the game starts doing the aforementioned shenanigans and crashes ultimately with a "syntax error in switch condition"-error thrown in the log. I used the modules since starting my playthrough so maybe they are by now pretty much dug in for good?
I am aware that X-ray is not the most stable of engines but I have never encountered this type of crashes before. I mean, I had stack-trace-crashes due to faulty builds/other addons but never with the above mentioned symptoms (it would usually just CTD randomly). This was really new to me.
2. Some of the descriptions in the MCM are broken, they show their reference code (e.g. the main Rowan's mods-menu and the Alt Faction Distribution-menu) where the descriptive line should be. Also the Rowan's Mods-menu shows the options for the Zombie Surge Spawns and nothing else. Even if the module is not installed. Is it supposed to be that way?
3. I could not really see a difference in number of defenders in certain parts (e.g. Clear Sky swamp base). I am using the pulsed spawns setting.
4. I am not sure if this is just coincidence or due to the defenders-module but certain areas (Rostok, Garbage) seemed pretty abandoned for about 20 ingame days (my pop setting is 0.75 for stalkers). This seemingly got better when I disabled a few factions in the defenders module. Could just be observational bias though. Do defenders count to the whole number of human NPCs in the Zone?
5. I don't know if it was due to this mod but I ran into an issue where the garrison of Monolith at Radar was almost completely respawned after I returned from X-19 (spending effectively 20 minutes in the lab). I had disabled Monolith-defenders before even going to Radar. Though I am not sure if this is not a vanilla issue/just how spawns work.
What was actually nice is that Kitsenko respawns with the defenders at Rostok. In my playthroughs, he often died to dynamic mutants and I hated having his corpse just lying about the checkpoint forever. Broke my immersion. That he resurrects is quite neat.
I understand that these modules are experimental and I am really looking forward to your further development (and also hoping for a few fixes cause I don't wanna ditch my current playthrough :D).
Sincerely,
Schuchart
*edit* typos
Regarding the save-game corruption -- are you seeing this only when using the defender module? If you use one-time rather than pulse, do you ever see the issue? You will see issues if removing the module in an existing save, as the defenders are a custom squad type and that definition is needed in existing saves.
If you get the crash, mind popping the exact error you were seeing regarding the switch behaviour?
Beyond that, to answer a few of your questions:
I have one question about question 4. Did you activate the desolate module, because that could cause low pop at the start which regenerates after days in the zone.