[Beta test versions of version 4 available in the download section]

Community bug fix patch v3

This is a modification for the PC game Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. The aim for this mod is to fix all the bugs and issues that are still in the game. It doesn't add any units or factions, nor does it add functionality.
Having said that, this mod does contain additional code that makes it easier for modders to create their own unit modifications based on the Community Bug Fix Patch. This release fixes a total of 45 bugs, exploits and issues. A list of fixed bugs can be found below.

This mod is a community effort. This means that the creators of this mod are in no way (directly) affiliated with either GPG or THQ. We're just regular Supreme Commander players who know a thing or 2 about modding the game. And we love to play Supreme Commander!
Many people have worked together to come up with the bug fixes in this mod. If you have a bug fix yourself come over to forum thread (address below) and post it. Why keep it to yourself if you can help the entire Community with your fix? If you find a bug in the game that isn't fixed yet in the most recent version of the COmmunity Bug Fix Patch feel free to let us know at the same internet address. We really want to know about all bugs you find!

Here's a list of people that helped creating this mod
- Gowerly
- Ragnarok_X
- Legion Darrath
- Ze_PilOt
- DeadMG
- Ornedan
- Moritz
- Combine
- Kirvesnaama
- Recon
- Pawz
- BulletMagnet
- Timberwolf
- Commander_Tobias (testing)
- CerusVI (testing)
and ofcourse me (Brute51)
Thanks everyone for your efforts!

Compatibility
- This is compatible only with Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. It is not compatible with the vanilla version of Supreme Commander.
- This is not an official patch. You cannot and will never be able to play ranked games with this mod enabled.
- All human players that you want to play with must have this mod installed.
- Much effort has gone into making this mod compatible with the vast majority of other mods. It is at least compatible with the other Community mods, Duncane's fixed AI mod, Sorians AI mod.

Requirements
- a legitimate Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance installation fully patched to version 1.5.3599
- about 400kb of free harddrive space (yes, that's a tiny bit!)

Download

CBFP v4 beta 3 (for testing only)
SCD file
Setup file

ZIP (CBFP v3)
mirror 1
mirror 2
mirror 3

SCD (CBFP v3)
mirror 1
mirror 2

Vault (CBFP v3)
Name: Community Bug Fix Patch V3
Created By: Brute51
Keywords: community, bug, fix, bugs, fixes

Installation
Before installing the mod please read this small disclaimer:

Every effort has gone into making this mod a quality mod. However, we can not guarantee nothing will go wrong. You know the drill: use this mod at your own risk. I'm not saying this mod will crash your computer or even blow it up, but if it does don't blame us. It should work perfectly, it does on our computers!

There are 2 versions of this mod. The only difference is the manner in which they are installed. If you downloaded this mod as a ZIP file please follow those instructions. If you have an SCD file instead follow the instructions for the SCD file. Both versions are compatible with each other!

ZIP file
1. Download the ZIP file

2. Navigate to
Windows XP: -> My Documents\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance
Windows Vista: -> Documents\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance

3. Check whether a folder called 'Mods' exist at the forementioned location. If it doesn't, create it.

4. Unzip all contents of the ZIP file that you downloaded earlier to the 'Mods' folder from step 3. Make sure you keep the folder layout intact.

5. Navigate to the 'Mods' folder (step 3). Check if a folder called 'CommunityBugFixPatchV3' exists. If it doesn't then repeat step 4 and make sure you keep the folder layout from the ZIP file intact.

Installation done! You can skip the next part but read on, there's more to do.

SCD file
1. Download the SCD file

2. Navigate to where you installed Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. The default location is:
Windows XP / Vista 32 bit: C:\Program Files\THQ\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance
Windows Vista 64 bit: C:\Program Files (x86)\THQ\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance

3. Navigate to the 'Gamedata' folder. You should now be at:
-> ...\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\Gamedata

4. Copy-paste or move the SCD file to this location

Installation done!


Now that the mod is installed, you still need to activate it in the game.

1. Start Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

2. In the main menu choose Extra, then Mod Manager

3. Find the 'Community Bug Fix Patch v3' in the list, you may have to scroll down a bit. Once you find it click on it to enable it.

You're now ready to play the game like you normally would!


Fixed bugs
Here's a list of bugs in Forged Alliance that're fixed with this mod:

NEW IN v3:
- Aeon Tactical Missile Defense build preview now shows correct range
- The T3 engineering suite enhancement for the ACU (all factions) now has correct HP regeneration rate increase
- Some units can no longer build units that they shouldn't be able to build
- It is no longer possible to get SCU enhancements for a lower cost
- The UEF T2 Cruiser can now simultaniously attack air units and launch it's cruise missiles
- The Aeon optics facility no longer draws energy when trying to scry an area while the Optics Facility is paused
- Strategic missiles won't collide with the satellites of the UEF Novax experimental
- The Cybran Scathis experimental no longer refuses to fire in some situations
- The Cybran hoplite now occupied the correct number of transport slots
- The Seraphim T2 assault bot now has the correct strategic icon
- The Seraphim T3 assault tank now follows the contours of the terrain
- Veteran HP regeneration buffs now stack with ACU and SCU enhancements
- This is a partial fix: units half in and half out of the water can now be hit easier
- Aeon T3 artillery units now have proper effects
- The Seraphim ACU now plays a sound when capturing something, like other engineer units do
- The Cybran and Aeon naval factories and Aeon Tactical Missile Defense can now be hit by torpedoes (properly)
V2:
- Torpedoes dropped by the Aeon T3 Torpedo Bomber can not be outrun by fast ships anymore
- Factories no longer destroy their last created unit upon their own destruction
- The strategic missile on the Seraphim T3 Battleship now has the proper warning and detonation sound.
Additionally, the strategic missile no longer has that very high altitude, it now behaves like all other strategic missiles.
- The Seraphim T1 mobile anti-air unit no longer shoots at the ground when attacking an aircraft while moving
- The Seraphim ACU can no longer be manipulated into getting a big area of effect weapon
- The UEF ACU has an enhancement that gives it 2 rover units. When a rover is destroyed the other rover is no longer reset.
- The 'No nukes' and 'No Game ender' unit restrictions now also remove strategic missile defenses and the Seraphim experimental strategic missile launcher. With either of these unit restrictions turned on the game won't allow mobile strategic missile launchers (like strategic subs) to build and launch a strategic missile (the build icons are still present though). The UEF advanced tactical missile enhancement (billy) will NOT be removed!
- Units captured or given by a friendly player now retain most of their statistical data like unit kills, veteran level, shield strength and missile ammunition.
- The Seraphim ACU now gets the correct HP increase from the T3 engineering suite enhancement
- Flak anti-air weapons can no longer damage the UEF T3 transport and it's cargo when it's shield is enabled and working
- All Seraphim naval factories now have their rolloff points correctly set
- Air staging units (including the fatboy) can no longer be hurt by anti-aircraft weapons fired by interceptors and air superiority fighters when a plane is docked
- Seraphim T1 mobile artillery no longer refuses to fire in some situations
- Some units can no longer be manipulated to fire at incredible ranges
- Shields no longer stay up in specific situations when there's no energy to feed the shields with
- Units with 0 HP now always die
V1:
- Mass extractors that are paused while upgrading now stop draining mass needed for the upgrade
- Beam weapons that do not use a continious beam (such as the Seraphim and Cybran T2 point defenses) now do the correct amount of damage
- All bomber aircraft are now more accurate
- The Restoration field enhancement on the Seraphim ACU no longer permanently buffs nearby units. If they leave the field the fields effect is removed.
- The nano-repair enhancement on Seraphim support commanders now increases the SCU's HP by the correct amount
- Seraphim support commanders can't be reclaimed anymore
- The Cybran strategic missile now detonates at ground level making it better against shields. It is now as good or bad against shields as the other strategic missiles.
- The shield on the Aeon T3 assault bot can no longer be damaged by nearby area of effect explosions
- The UEF T3 point defense now has it's thread level set correctly
- The defense satellite of the UEF Novax experimental no longer takes unit capacity. Additionally, the Novax ground station now launches it's satellite even when the unit capacity is reached.
- Seraphim strategic missiles can now damage the structure it was launched from aswell
- The Aeon optics facility no longer does weird with the adjacency bonus
- The Aeon rapid-fire artillery no longer does weird with the adjacency bonus


Changes in the mod itself:

V2 -> V3
- Removed T2 torpedo bomber from torpedo outrun bug. The T2 bomber has depth charges, the T3 bomber has torpedoes.
- Fixed Seraphim T1 mobile aa unit so it can now fire from both muzzles again
- Removed custom made event callback register function (using OnCreate() instead)
- Added the means to softcode file and mod paths (see docs)
- Added a couple more unit events (see docs)
- Added a buff field class and replaced Seraphim Restoration field with it (see docs)
- Added 2 parameters for in unit blueprints to the remote viewing class which can be used to tweak the Aeon Optics facility or similar units.
- Added a parameter to the factory class for in unit blueprints that can be used to give factories a (longer) rolloff time.
- Improved code for Beam weapon damage bug fix
- Improved code for unit restriction bug fix
- Improved code for UEF T3 transport and Aeon T3 assault bot bug fixes
- Improved code for unit retaining data when given to other person. Added fix for captured units aswell. Also fixed a bug that could be used to exploit this bug fix.
- Fixed bug that prevented airplane wreckages from damaging units
- Made all code as mod friendly as it possibly can be
- Added an icon for the mod (thanks Kirvesnaama!)
V1 -> V2
- Removed lots excess files and code (mod size went from megabytes to kilobytes!)
- Fixed some bugs that were said to be fixed but weren't really fixed
- Added custom event callback register function
- Added many new unit events (useful for unit modders!)

Thanks you for reading all this! Now download the mod and enjoy the game!

Bugs?

I'd like to know from you for each item in this list whether you feel it's a bug (needs fix) or intended (don't fix).

- The firebeetle is not very useful. I can make it more useful like the way I did it in the CBP. Some people call that a bug fix rather than a balance change. I think it falls in neither category which is why I haven't considered putting the firebeetle changes in the CBFP. But what do you think? Should the firebeetle be improved to 'fix' it?
- Interceptors, Fighter/bombers and ASFs have the tendency to roam the map and/or chase enemy aircraft even into the enemy base. These aircraft have 2 settings in their blueprints which are appearantly meant to limit this behaviour, but it's obviously not working. Needs fix?
- Area of effect (surface) weapons (from for example battleships) can hit anything submerged, like submarines or the Cybran T3 torpedo defense structure. The projectiles fired by AOE weapons explode on the water surface. Units like battleships are not meant to target submerged units or they would have torpedoes or similar weapons. Needs fix?


The following bugs will be fixed in the next version of this mod:

- Fixed some EMP weapons can stun walls
- Fixed T1 and T2 mass extractors get rebuild bonus on higher tier extractor wreckages
- Fixed Aeon absolver takes wrong amount of transport slots
- Fixed incorrect shield animations when hit by beam weapon
- Fixed Loyalist targetting other missiles than tactical missiles
- Fixed 3 new exploits
- Fixed some AOE weapons ignore shields (replaces Harbinger and Continental fixes)
- Fixed monkeylord collision beam range ring
- Fixed some bombers dropping bomb to early on first attack run
- Fixed UEF T2 shield counterdefense range overlay (added second range ring)
- Fixed Monkeylord laser doesn't have a range ring
- Fixed Seraphim T1 and T2 torpedo launcher projectiles can die to AOE damage
- Fixed another exploit
- Fixed stock AI being able to building restricted units
- Fixed upgraded kennel range ring size incorrect
- Fixed bubble unit restriction nullifying all unit restrictions
- Fixed bomber inaccuracy bug first bombing run after being idle
- Fixed animations for several units while exiting a transport
- Fixed walking animation for UEF T2 assault bot (Mongoose)
- Fixed the flash that happens when a Seraphim building is completed can be seen through the fog. Possibly removing the flash to fix.
- Fixed the overcharge shot of the Seraphim ACU, it didn't lead it's target but the overcharge shots of other ACU's do.
- Fixed the rover enhancement on the UEF SCU, it took 6 times longer to build compared to the equivalent ACU enhancement (the SCU enhancement has larger buildtime)


Here's a list of bugs still to fix:

- Some units can directly hurt units owned by the same player (and allies?). More info in this thread.
- Strategic missiles sometimes overshoot their target (set rotate ratio to 80 in missile script?)
- if you disable factional ui screen on interface options you cannot resize the in game chat.
- UEF T2 Gunship can land on water
- Attack move orders from factories give engineers ridiculous reclaim ranges
- The Cybran ACU sometimes completely refuses to use the maser (hard to reproduce)
- assisting an AI engineer can lead to you owning (a) structure(s) in the AI's base if your engineer is the first to start the construction
- Bumping a damaged ACU mid upgrade cases anything assisting it to repair it instead of help assist, which can drain all your energy instantly.



Won't fix bug list

These I can't reproduce, can't fix, or are design or balance decisions, or aren't even bugs at all. Therefor these items won't be fixed in future versions of this mod. Unless ofcourse you can convince us that they really are bugs.

- Support commanders (at least the Aeon one) continue to assist a unit even if's been destroyed (try a assisting a naval unit, then destroy it).
- When using buildings the size of a SMD or T2 Torpedo launcher in a build template the template does weird when you try to put down that template (make a 2x2 template, then let it be build).
- Airplane persuit range limit
- Fix engineers assisting ACU so that 'repair' is lowest priority or make engineers not repair ACU unless specifically ordered to do so. This should fix an annoyancy described in the other thread.
- SMDs sometimes have their intercept missile crash into a nearby hill. This results in the incoming nuke not getting shot down. This is most notable when building a TMD next to a very steep and high hill or wall.
- The Neptune (UEF T3 Naval) can't hit the broad side of a barn with it's beam weapons (thread)
- Strategic icons should indicate a units role (siege, assault, artillery, ...), not it's type (walking / bot, tracked / tank, ...)
- prevent ASF to fire on planes docked into ground
- Fix the unability for projectile to retarget another unit when the one they were targetting is dead, especially SAMS which do overkill damages
- fix the Omen bug where it randomly fires in a totally unwanted direction when microed around. Probably all units with charging weapons can waste shots like this, when microed.
- Sometimes, the Megalith seems invulnerable to torpedoes, the same way as it happens with the Tempest.
- fix the Tempest (and maybe other underwater units)not being hit by torpedoes properly.
- fix Aluminar carrying 2 T3 units that accepts 4 more T1 units but no T2 unit.
- fix ACU upgrade bug : "if you have engineers on assist on a commander and the commander has moved after the engineers got the assist order and you upgrade your Commander after that, the following happens : the Engineers spend as much energy (dont know exactly about mass) as if repairing your commander (-416 energy for t1 engy) instead of helping it to upgrade"(TBO).
- fix the Seraphim transports sometimes killing their loaded units, probably when they drop them on a slight slope.
- prevent any unit to be able to keep firing at a stealthed (+ cloaked) unit even after it manages to get out of omni / radar range.

eh, i just dled, and one thing i noticed right away, while revelling in seeing othuums move with the terrain properly, was that when an underwater amphibious unit (like the othuum) goes udnerwater, then returns to land, it continues to lave a trail of bubbles behind instead of dirt and dust.

so it seems as though the trail animation isn't being switched back to surface trail after being underwater.

this doesn't effect the functionality of the unit, just seems weird.

What was wrong with it?

Also, I get the feeling you've done a lot of technical work, but not solved many bugs. Far too many of your "changes" involve the word "code".

As for the Omen wasting shots, it happens because when the turret starts charging, it fires when it's done and there is no cancel/pause. When the Omen turns, the turret can't keep up to aim at it's current target OR the target cannot be aimed at right now (e.g. turret blindspot)

It used to check each tick whether it's shields were down or up. I changed it to use unit events instead so it's much cleaner and neater. That was in v2, the code got cleaned up a bit more in v3. The idea of making the Harbinger invulnerable when the shield is on isn't changed at all and I did the same to the T3 transport and it's cargo.

Yes, all charging weapons waste shots in that manner. I got this bug mention from ppipps mighty bug list thread which I first used to know which bugs to fix. The Omen 'bug' was mentioned in it and I've posted it here in the 'Won't fix bug list' so other people know it's probably not going to be fixed cause it's not a bug.

Are you sure you're looking in the right list? The last one just covers changes in the mod itself and not game bug fixes.
Yes a lot of technical work is done, mainly to make it more compatible with other mods and revised bug fixes.

As for "not solved many bugs", 17 new (game) bug fixes of which a couple can be exploited. That's not too bad is it? V1 has about 8 I think (only counting the working fixes), V2 has 28 total, so 20 new ones.
Anyway, I've looked around the forum and read many threads for bug reports. I've played many games and watched many AI games to find bugs. I really do think I did a lot to find bugs. I didn't get that many new bug reports either so.. yeah this is it. I wanted more bugs fixed aswell but I can't fix what I don't know of... (hint)
It was just time to release version 3; the code got changed much, some overal enhancements, 17 fixes and better compatibility with other mods. I think it's not a bad deal.

I love this patch, fixes quite a few bugs that have really irked me for a while, thanks!

Whatever changes you've made to improve efficiency are also appreciated.

Edit:

Also, much much <3 for fixing compatibility with total veterancy from the previous version.

Awesome work brute51!

There are a lot of new bug fixes and improving the code is important imo and you were right to do so. It would be a shame if the community patch wouldnt work with other mods if it can be helped.

Thanks for all the time and effort you invest to improve the patch. And thanks to all the other modders who have participated too of course!

I'd love to see this fixed, it's reall annoying when that happens...

You might want to put "unit icons" in your "Won't fix bug list" (you know, the Mantis using tank icon, the Ilshavoh using bot icon, etc that I raised the other day... good documentation is important in any group work...)

Nice work!

- Support commanders (at least the Aeon one) continue to assist a unit even if's been destroyed (try a assisting a naval unit, then destroy it). If the SCU is assisting a building it'll auto-rebuild it after it is destroyed.


Just in case you didnt know (as opposed to the sentence merely being poorly worded), SCUs are supposed to auto-rebuild structures they're assisting.

For units, though, that's a bug.

@Col. Jessep:
I'll do my best to fix that! Can't promise anythign though...

@wkz:
Thanks for the reminder, added it to the list.

@AdmiralZeech:
I've rephrased that line.
Are you sure that's how SCU's are supposed to work? I didn't check the other SCU's but regular engineers don't do that and I haven't seen this behaviour mentioned anywhere before (I haven't been looking for it).

@all:
I'm going to add list of controversial bugs that can change the gameplay. I'd like to know from you for each item whether you feel it's a bug (needs fix) or intended (don't fix).

Impresive; thanks and keep up the good work!

They are supposed to work like that yes
And only SCU's indeed not engineers. Its part of their function as being a Support Command Unit

lol LD is it just me or am I stalking you ^_^.

here I posted the balance patch on supcom files

Thats actually the bug fix patch I've added your link as a mirror. Thansk!

oh oops I was posting on both balance patch and the bug fix got a little mixed up

yes when shift-queded to assist buildings SCUs are supposed to rebuild them if they are destroyed. this was one of the interesting features touted before SupCom came out. That SCUs would be a sort of 'base manager' to reduce micromanagement. They are indeed meant to rebuild destroyed units they are told to assist

cool I was not wating for supcom vinnila I just found it on some site but I was playing with it once I found it

I created fixed unloading animations for Hoplite, Seraphim t1 scout, t2 assault bot and t3 mobile heavy artillery. The old animations leave their limbs in wrong positions. Is there a special place to give you these files or do I just upload them somewhere?

Upload to for example filefront and give me the download address via a PM or post it here. Thanks!

Here you go.

It also contains the lua script for building animations of the GC and the Seraphim T4 bot. Use them if you want. The scripts are exactly the same as they were in FA beta.

http://dodownload.filefront.com/11313888//03330720c638788c0ef5b99bad56fbe604da91c5cbb62f8a365bb0dca9b1e6d230422804038f125e

Ah, cool! You made it so I only have to copy-paste everything. Nice! Im gonna give it a short test to be sure it works. If it does then this will be included in the next version. Thanks, also for making my job a bit easier

By the way, can you also take a look at the UEF T2 assault bots (Mongoose) walking animation? The animation isn't done properly and to conceal that it's played at double speed.

Here is the new walking animation for Mongoose. Although I remade it from scratch, my main point was just to lenghten its steps. I found the old animation funny because Mongoose has so long legs but they barely move during walking.

This is just the first version so there is room for improvement but if the basics are fine then we are on the right track.

I set the animation rate back to 4.5 and didn't notice any sliding. If you do, just try fine tuning the rate multiplier.

Mongoose_walk.zip

Thanks! Yes the small steps is exactly the problems I had with the stock animation. Your animation looks a lot better! It does slide a tiny bit with one foot just before the other foot is put on the ground. You have to slow the game down to -10 to notice the sliding so it really is just a minor issue. Thanks, this is definately in the next version!

Hi,

The “bug” in question is associated with the UEF T2 shield boat, Bulwark (xes0205). When you turn on the countermeasures layer under the strategic overlay menu, the circle that is drawn is much larger than the actual shield. I have not seen this error with any other unit with shields.

I do not think it is due to the center of the sphere possibly being below the water level, thus yielding a smaller visual shield. It seems the center is correctly located in the center of the boat.

When testing with submarines, amphibious vehicles that crawl along the seabed, and ships, the impact on the shield occurs near the visual part of the shield and nowhere near the outline provided by the strategic overlay.

This bug was present before the community patches, so your work did not cause this. It has been present since retail.

Could this be looked into and see if a fix is needed in drawing the correct size circle for the countermeasures overlay.

Thanks, and great job so far on the bug fix and balance patches. I use them all the time.

Hi themak, thanks for reporting that bug. I'll have to confirm this but if I can recreate it I'll take a look at it and see what I can do. I had a quick peak through the units blueprint file and I didn't find any obvious bug(s). It's on the list!