More information about showstopper bug

[Borissimo]

I described here a bug that killed my progress through story mode. After hitting the bug again today with a new party, I took care to write down more information surrounding the bug, in the hopes that it will help quash it.

 

Short version: after encountering and acquiring an ally, the scenario gets stuck. Quitting and coming back reverts to the latest check, but no matter how the check goes, no further progress is possible and the save has to be abandoned.

 

Long version:

 

iPad Air, Facebook login, no pass 'n' play, no permadeath, 2-player storymode, Merisiel and Kyra

 

K & M finished 1.3, got their power feats, finish building decks (Kyra was missing an armor and took Chainmail), and go straight into 1.4.

 

Kyra goes to Treacherous Cave. M goes to Goblin fortress and uses Ilsoari, finding a Troubadour. Ilsoari's roll doesn't trigger. M encounters troubadour, rolls high, pick him up, and the game reaches the "dead state" -- I can examine things, but the "end turn" and "optional discard" buttons are greyed out, as are all my cards in hand. Hand is:

 

Staff of minor healing

Blessing of Calistria

Thieves' Tools

Blessing of Torag

and the newly acquired Troubadour

 

Here's where things get a bit more interesting. If I quit, come back, and use M's power to evade the check, I break out of the encounter and can continue play! Kyra's turn goes normally. On M's turn, she encounters and kills a Xulgath -- and the "dead state" is back. However, if I quit, come back, and fail the check against the Xulgath, the game proceeds! I moved M to the Woods and the problem followed her -- beating a barrier brought on the dead state. Unfortunately, I foolishly used a crowbar against the barrier, so when I quit and came back in the game, the check I was at was the recharge for the crowbar -- there was no way to evade or to fail the check against the barrier. Thus, my progress in that game was halted before I could check whether I would have been able to skip turns till I lost the scenario and thereby shake the dead state.

 

From encountering the dead state twice, here's what I've learned:

 

- It's not scenario or adventure dependent (I had it in 1.3 and 2.1)

- It's not character dependent (M and K both got it)

- It may be brought on by acquiring an ally (this was the same both times)

- It is "shaken" if the encountered card is shuffled back into the deck, but not if it's acquired or (as a boon) banished

- Once "shaken," the dead state sticks to the character who contracted it and will follow them to future explorations and even future locations

- Besides the absence of the optional discard and pass turn buttons, the game works perfectly normally

- If you can't shake the dead state, you lose your progress in that save file and the ability to use those characters permanently

 

I hope at least some of that was helpful in the eventual quashing of this bug!

[Sylvanta]

We've discovered (at least one) issue that is specific to Ilsoari's examine ability if you find a monster.  Once you encounter the monster, shenanigans occur (thanks to your original info, I might add!).  This should be resolved in the next build.

[Borissimo]

Wow, I didn't even think that Ilsoari might have anything to do with it, but yeah, now that I think about it, Ilsoari was present in both cases. In the first game, I resisted keeping him until I started 2.1; in the newer game, I started using him as soon as I got him.

 

Clearly, I should have known better than to trust that conniving jackal.

[nimoyfish]

Another case:

Harsk, Lini, Ezren, Merisiel, Seelah, Amiri

 

Quest Mode, 1 wild power: The difficult to defeat monsters that have the Goblin trait is increased by 1d4. The title is "Tutorial" (is this a bug?)

 

Seelah at Shrine to Lamashtu.

Used Crusade to scout location deck. Not sure if its the first or subsequent encounter, but I think its a secondary encounter.

Run into Goblin Raider (Scenario henchman) and game gets stuck. I don't even get to encounter the raider.

 

Other things:

1) No Ilsoari in anybody's deck, but Seelah's Crusade does something similar?

2) Both the movement and encounter lights are up.

3) Other characters can't help (Harsk, Merisiel with a blessing in hand)

4) Quest mode, so I can't even delete to get out of this. Quest mode is currently broken for me.

 

https://goo.gl/photos/6w5LMnEJ1bwuike69

[nimoyfish]

=(

Now I've lost all progress and can't even start a scenario because the game broke hard, I think my only recourse it to complete wipe the game since I now have no quest mode or story mode to play. Actually, I can't access the gallery or log out either, so the game is truly completely broke.

 

Goblin Warchanter again. (What a card..., it seems like there needs to be a thorough review on how "if <condition>, do <something>" events behave when dealing with both 1) undos and 2) characters other than the current character being forced to do the <something>.

 

Encountered with Valeros, wanted to see if Harsk's ability can be used without wisdom check (should it be allowed?).

Either way, it prompted for the wisdom check, so I hit cancel and game completely froze. It also put the "current character" marker on Harsk instead of Valeros if that helps with the debugging.

 

From memory:

Heroic 1-1 (Ezren, Lini, Merisiel, Harsk, Sajan, Valeros)

powers:

full packs (weapon/ally/something? requires a bury)

??? (all bane difficulties increased by 3)

        ^---- Don't remember the exact wording, but it definitely doesn't apply to all the bane checks, such as the goblin warchanter wisdom check.

 

Will probably pause playing for a little bit to mourn all the progress lost and then wipe the whole client and start again.

[Borissimo]

I wonder, for the Warchanter, if it wouldn't be better to change the text and implementation to, "Before you act, each character attempts a Wisdom X check. Characters who fail can't play weapons or use spells with the attack trait on this check." The game has a good handle on "before you act" checks with consequences. This would be annoying a lot of the time, say in a 6-player party where over 80% of the rolls are irrelevant ... but that might still be better than what the card is doing in its current state.

[nimoyfish]

I wonder, for the Warchanter, if it wouldn't be better to change the text and implementation to, "Before you act, each character attempts a Wisdom X check. Characters who fail can't play weapons or use spells with the attack trait on this check." The game has a good handle on "before you act" checks with consequences. This would be annoying a lot of the time, say in a 6-player party where over 80% of the rolls are irrelevant ... but that might still be better than what the card is doing in its current state.

 

I think the issue is a little deeper than just the Warchanter though. One thing is I don't want to roll all those checks per character if I don't have to, it's way more decisions I should need to work through. The other thing is that these type of cards will continue to exist. Nualia is another example that has been shown to behave poorly with undos. We also know of bugs for revealed cards not returning to hand properly which I suspect is in the same category of problems.

 

I think the developers decided to do something really helpful to players but hard to implement correctly with the seamless undo. I actually don't know how you do this properly, it seems incredibly difficult to account for all these possibilities. I think it's important to limit the damage of a "hung" turn though. An option to "forfeit" a turn and automatically fail at all checks but end your turn would be at least some way to get of these terrible game breaking situations.

[Sylvanta]

=(

Now I've lost all progress and can't even start a scenario because the game broke hard, I think my only recourse it to complete wipe the game since I now have no quest mode or story mode to play. Actually, I can't access the gallery or log out either, so the game is truly completely broke.

 

Goblin Warchanter again. (What a card..., it seems like there needs to be a thorough review on how "if <condition>, do <something>" events behave when dealing with both 1) undos and 2) characters other than the current character being forced to do the <something>.

 

Encountered with Valeros, wanted to see if Harsk's ability can be used without wisdom check (should it be allowed?).

Either way, it prompted for the wisdom check, so I hit cancel and game completely froze. It also put the "current character" marker on Harsk instead of Valeros if that helps with the debugging.

 

From memory:

Heroic 1-1 (Ezren, Lini, Merisiel, Harsk, Sajan, Valeros)

powers:

full packs (weapon/ally/something? requires a bury)

??? (all bane difficulties increased by 3)

        ^---- Don't remember the exact wording, but it definitely doesn't apply to all the bane checks, such as the goblin warchanter wisdom check.

 

Will probably pause playing for a little bit to mourn all the progress lost and then wipe the whole client and start again.

 

I've reproduced this when Harsk recharges a weapon for his Sniper Shot.  #WarchanterProblems

 

 

I wonder, for the Warchanter, if it wouldn't be better to change the text and implementation to, "Before you act, each character attempts a Wisdom X check. Characters who fail can't play weapons or use spells with the attack trait on this check." The game has a good handle on "before you act" checks with consequences. This would be annoying a lot of the time, say in a 6-player party where over 80% of the rolls are irrelevant ... but that might still be better than what the card is doing in its current state.

 

I think the issue is a little deeper than just the Warchanter though. One thing is I don't want to roll all those checks per character if I don't have to, it's way more decisions I should need to work through. The other thing is that these type of cards will continue to exist. Nualia is another example that has been shown to behave poorly with undos. We also know of bugs for revealed cards not returning to hand properly which I suspect is in the same category of problems.

 

I think the developers decided to do something really helpful to players but hard to implement correctly with the seamless undo. I actually don't know how you do this properly, it seems incredibly difficult to account for all these possibilities. I think it's important to limit the damage of a "hung" turn though. An option to "forfeit" a turn and automatically fail at all checks but end your turn would be at least some way to get of these terrible game breaking situations.

 

 

Forfeit is coming!