Bug Fix of the Day

This article is regarding Red Faction

RedFaction.com
SEPT.5.2001 Item: 33658 From: Jeff Farris to Joel Hunter [Red Faction PC] APC doesnt seem to respect the players "invert y" control, making it very frustrating for inverted-y (ie normal) players.

Joel Hunter: Fixed.

Joel Hunter: Marked as In Testing.

Lorcan Murphy: This is fixed, you weirdo inverted-player. :P

You want the player to have his custom options available everywhere :)

SEPT.4.2001 Item: 33586 From: Alex Plachowski to Dave Baranec

[Red Faction PC] The fusion rocket launcher will not disappear and will generate extra shells if the person firing it is the host and kills themselves with it before they autoswitch away to another weapon. It will also be left behind full (1/1) if a client fires it with while it is full (1/1).

1) As the host pick up the fusion rocket launcher (1/0 when it spawns) 2) Fire it at your feet Result: it will be left behind full (1/1), only for the host (with clients it vanishes). Because this weapon is so overpowering, this totally unbalances some of the MP levels (take DM18 or CTF07 for an example). I would think that it should not even be dropped with 1/1 if the client kills themselves with it.

Dave Baranec: Marked as In Testing.

Alex Plachowski: fixed in 8/27 debug

One of those wacky multiplayer bugs that get fixed quickly.

AUG.31.2001 Item: 33495 From: Matt Boynton to Jiovanie Velazquez

[Red Faction PC] The elite guard team skin needs to have the limbs (and the sunglasses wouldn't hurt) colorized so you can easily tell what team the player is on.

Jiovanie Velazquez: Ok, the arms and the legs are now team colored. I didn't do the shades (I think it will look silly) but if it is necessary to do so, let me know.

Adam Pletcher: I'm sure it's fine.

Adam Pletcher: Marked as In Testing.

Lorcan Murphy: checks out. Posting need for team FParms to be colored accordingly as a new item.

For team games, the character models had to be colorized for easy team notification. This one needed a little extra work.

AUG.30.2001 Item: 33243 From: Adam Pletcher to Jeff Farris

[Red Faction PC] Toss a " captured for the  team!" messagebox event for everyone when someone caps. Assuming it's a quick change, of course.

Mike Kulas: Put a message in the chatbox, perhaps colored. Also, as per discussion with Jeff, perhaps some more color to make messages standout would be good.

Adam Pletcher: If we add more color, please use the red & blue already used in the messagebox in some places. It's been balanced vs. the backgrounds already. I can dig those values up if needed.

Jeff Farris: Marked as In Testing.

Jeff Farris: Ok, lots of new messages thrown in. I colored it like this: messages pertaining to the player "you were killed by so-and-so" are in white, team messages "so and so captured" are in red/blue, normal obituary type stuff is in white. Let me know of any problems or messages that would be good to add.

Lorcan Murphy: messages are in.

Its nice to know what's going on during a team game, and this helps a great deal.

AUG.29.2001 Item: 33484 From: Matt Boynton to Mark Lewis

[Red Faction PC] this level needs to be brightened up. It's very difficult to see team colors in some areas (the dark spots). I did a test with the ambient at 64 and it was better but the dark spots were still too dark.

Alvan Monje: Yes, it definitely seemed too dark playing on this map yesterday. I had to go into the Video options and up the gamma settings because it was too tough to see people/items.

Mark Lewis: I bumped the ambient up to 80, and added a couple of lights.

Mark Lewis: Marked as In Testing.

Alvan Monje: better

You don't want the player to be struggling trying to see what's going on in the level. This is one of those cases where its a simple solution.

AUG.28.2001 Item: 32685 From: Julian Brummitt to John Slagel

[Red Faction PC] If a player presses esc. while in the mulitplayer mode, the following events occur upon re-entering the game: As soon as the player fires thier weapon once, they will no longer be able to shoot, they will still be able to walk through the game for about 20 seconds before they are officially kicked from the game. At this point, the player will be able to walk around the level, and all other characters will be frozen in position and if the player presses tab to view the current game info, it will appear that they are still in the game. The other players still using the server will not be affected by this. The message displayed will read "_____ disconnected because a reliable connection could not be formed." Steps: 1. Set up a server and have a player join.(for name's sake, we'll call him player 2). 2. Player 2 press esc. and join back into the game. 3. Upon reentering, player 2 fire a weapon. Results: (listed above) Should the server do this, all players will be kicked out.

Jeff Farris: This is bad. We should fix this ASAP.

John Slagel: Fixed. Thank you EricA!

Julian Brummitt: fixed.

This is one of those things where good QA comes in -- they try crazy nonsense, catalog exactly how its done, and then EricA fixes it.

AUG.27.2001 Item: 33114 From: Alex Plachowski to Eric Arnold

[Red Faction PC] The Heavy Machine Gun and Submachine Gun are not visible when picked up, to either the person holding them or other people. If the weapons are switched to another weapon, neither can be switched back to. They do fire, the sounds play and they inflict damage.

Alex Plachowski: Correction: all sounds play for the submachine gun, on the HMG only the sounds of impact can be heard and not the sounds of firing.

Jeff Farris: Neither of these weapons should be in CTF03. Eric, double check you have the correct map in the build.

Jeff Farris: Reassigned to Eric Arnold

Eric Arnold: fixed

Alex Plachowski: Fixed in 8/14

You generally want to see and hear the gun you're firing. Luckily, Eric shoots down bugs like an exterminator.

AUG.24.2001 Item: 32809 From: Brian McElroy to tim "cowboy tim" schroeder

[Red Faction PC] When quiting out of a Multiplayer game there is no confirmation request, the player after hitting "quit" is taken to the main menu.

Adam Pletcher: Add the same "Leave current game" popup (or whatever it says) used in single player. Also dump them to the serverlist screen instead of the main menu.

Mike Rubin: If you figure out how to go directly to the serverlist state, then also implement that for the popup where you lost contact with the server and are asked to quit or keep waiting.

Tim Schroeder: the prompt is in. still need to fix the menu location after quitting.

Brian McElroy: Well there is now a confirmation, however it doesnt wait for the players input to drop them back to the main menu. Pressing "no" as well as "yes" both end you up at the main menu.

Tim Schroeder: chalk that up to i == dumb. but not too dumb to fix it.

Brian McElroy: Ok Tim got it that time.

Don't want the player quitting unless they're sure they want to quit! Also don't want the player quitting regardless of hitting "Yes" or "No"!

AUG.23.2001 Item: 33039 From: Matt Boynton to Brad Johnson

[Red Faction PC] I checked all the ramps in this level and they all need invisible wedges placed underneath them. I'd guess they should be about 3-4 meters deep from the front edge of the ramp. I have attached a single screenshot for reference.

Brad Johnson: Wedges added.

Alvan Monje: jason, check to make sure that you don't cut through the ramp

Jason Tani: Fixed.

Level Design is fun! Even the invisible parts...

AUG.22.2001 Item: 33267 From: Dan Behrns to Jeff Farris

[Red Faction PC] The "alt-fire" on the driller the shows you the left side is not showing you anything more then a black screen. the first screenshot shows part of the electric fence which should have been visable in the second screenshot but was not there.

Jeff Farris: It appears the "view_left" prop point is somehow inside the mesh a bit. I can bump it out in code, or we can bump it out on the model, either one.

Jeff Farris: Reassigned to Adam Pletcher

Adam Pletcher: Reassigned to Frank Capezzuto

Adam Pletcher: giving to Frankie Cannoli

Frank Capezzuto: Ok, it's been fixed.

Dan Behrns: Moving to dun.

Game models are slightly off, and Frankie Cannoli fixes it. Everyone is happy.

AUG.21.2001 Item: 33138 From: Mike Kulas to Jeff Farris

[Red Faction PC] Of 15 people in a recent CTF game, apparently ~7 were kicked out after the level ended. Among those are MikeB (who is 4/4 of getting kicked this morning) and Brian, at least once.

Adam Pletcher: Yeah, most/all people are getting booted at level changes. Bad problem.

Mike Kulas: MikeB and I tried repeatedly to get this to happen in a two player game and could not. I suspect it has to do with having a bunch of players. Perhaps only 8 players can stay in? I'll try to organize a test.

Dan Behrns: We got this to happen with four people. Two were non-parker skins and the others were parker. Both parkers were kicked from the game. We got Jeff in and we repro'ed while he was in the debugger.

Mike Kulas: Just for the record, there have been Parkers who did not get kicked in other games.

Jeff Farris: fixed

Lorcan Murphy: chx

People getting kicked from a game during level transitions is a big problem. Luckily this was tracked down and fixed quickly -- and it had nothing to do with Parker.

AUG.20.2001 Item: 32227 From: Doug Nelson to Jeff Farris

[Red Faction PC] When you first enter the room with all the steam coming out of the floor, you can hear a looping sound of an airlock door.

Jeff Farris: Is this as designed?

Jeff Farris: Reassigned to Mark Lewis

Mark Lewis: Not as designed. Looks like one of the steam vents is playing pressure.wav instead of the steam sound that it should. Dan, can you take a listen and make sure this is right?

Mark Lewis: Reassigned to Dan Wentz

Mark Lewis: Clarification: I fixed the play sound that was playing pressure.wav to play the same sound as the others. If that's not what should happen there, let me know.

Dan Wentz: Thanks Mark. Marking as done.

Occasionally the wrong sound gets applied to specific areas in the level and it just doesn't fit :)