Logistical strike bug

[Mr_B0narpte]

Started playing Italy and noticed that logistical strike on a single province is impossible. Planes don't leave their bases. However if I load up as SU or Germany and Dow another country I am able to logistically bomb selected provinces. Anyone else has this problem.
I installed 1.08 over clean AOD, checksum is SUBR.

As you know, I and several others have had this problem on multi-player. I was the USA but could not specifically bomb a province with American bombers but I could with French units. It was very strange, and annoying!

I'm the Japan's emperor!


Anyway, i send my bombers for a logistical strike in nationalist china but the bombers don't effect the mission if i select "logistical strike to a province".
If i choose area or region, the logistical strike works as expected.

Confirmed and reported as bug #833.

Has anyone found a solution to this issue?

I realise this does not impact every game, I just want to know if there's a solution for when it does happen.

 

[Zsar1]

Mmh... this ought to affect other kinds of mission as well. - Does it not?

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Apparently not. Air superiority and interdiction (amongst other missions) work fine in specific provinces, even when logistical strike does not.

 

[Titan79]

...but then there's the TAC bombers' convoy bombing mission, which drains all of their supplies in just a single flight. Hopefully going to be fixed!

 

[Fu.Th.Sy.]

AI not escorting transport ships (division transport) should also get fixed . It's a game-breaking bug.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Well now EDIT: We should all post any bugs or issues in separate threads in the Bug Reports section. And use the below post for any issues specifically related to 1.10

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/1-10-pre-alpha.888005/

 

[Pang Bingxun]

I am not sure how to interpret you last post, but i assume it is not very convenient to "spam" all issues into one thread. A seperate thread for each issue in this subforum is preferable.

Also it might be required to confirm that the respective problem of such threads is reproduceable in the current 1.10 version.

 

[Zsar1]

Well, if it's not in the changelog, it's probably not fixed. ... Which reminds me that I forgot a line in the current one (AI no longer rotating its build list - created too large delays on units with individually large build time); will be present on the next RC.

That written, although I am not a moderator and have no forum authority whatsoever, let me ask you to

• keep one thread to one issue in this subforum,
• concentrate on current (that is: freshly introduced) issues in the RC thread,
• keep suggestions/requests separate from problem reports.

If you deem it conductive to point out possible connections between problems and/or requests, feel free to link between threads (and best link to individual posts, where viable).

As to this particular issue: I am doing a bit of investigation on the side, because I but it's nothing immediately visible.
- My current assumption is that this ought to affect all mission types which target province developments (bases, infra, factories, ...; essentially any buildings). If you could try and see whether a different mission type of this kind works in a province where Logistical Strike does not, that would be helpful.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

@Zsar1, I'd recommend you post the above in the 1.10 forum, or get Lennartos to edit his original post. Primarily to avoid players like me spamming it with long standing AoD issues (sorry!)

 

[Zsar1]

Mmh.

... Something else that comes to mind while investigating this bug: When a unit does not fly its mission over the single province - will it ever target that province once set to area scope?

 

[Zsar1]

Alright, I figured it out.

No matter how large the target is, the following AI calculation happens:

• Procure list of valid provinces.
• Simulate the mission heuristically on each province and assign a fitness called "check".
• If a province's check is larger than a score starting at zero, that province is the new target and the score is set to its check.
• If no target has been selected after trying all valid provinces, the province at position ((<random> modulo <#provinces>) - 1) is selected.

The simulation happens like this:

• A random enemy force is chosen as the opponent defending the province.
• Fitness f of the province is calculated as (<our ability to damage them> - <their ability to damage us> / <willingness to take losses>).
• The amount of damage done to <mission target> is added to f.

This happens for all mission types. As you can see, there are several issues here:

• The fitness of all checked provinces may be negative - but this is not a reason not to choose the "least awful one".
• The province first in the list (so: the only one, if targeting exactly one) can never be randomly chosen - so if the above case hits, single-province targetted missions will not be flown.

Why does this usually not also happen to other mission types? Because they target more than one part of the province (e.g. AA and forts or IC and all resources), so the fitness is increased more (unless a province with only Infrastructure is selected - but why would a player do so to begin with, so it does not show by virtue of not being tested) and has a greater chance to flip over to non-negative - which guarantees that a province does become the target.

--

Now, there are two ways to fix this:

1. Fix the random selection to include the first valid province.
2. Remove the random selection and instead let the score start at the smallest representable number.

Obviously, these would affect all air missions and differently so.

Personally, I prefer variant 2, as there is still a random component in the check heuristic. Nested random components are unconductive here. But this would mean a possibly larger deviation from pre-fix mission behaviour in all the cases. Not worse, not really better, but different.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Is there a way to instead make the mechanics ignore all these variants when a player want to bomb a specific province? It makes no sense these calculations are made when the player has effectively made them already.

 

[Zsar1]

Of course possible, but I am not convinced. Personally, I always assign missions somewhat longterm (over months) and expect the unit to act on it as good as it's able.
... In the specific case of exactly one province targeted, there is no difference anyway: After the fix, the unit will target the province as there is no other option.

Admittedly, the current way of checking the danger of flight is effectively worthless, as most of the targets are always adjacent to each other (unless targeting whole regions, that is).

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Ok, I'm glad you're fixing the way air missions work. Thank you again for helping develop 1.10!

 

[Zsar1]

Fixed in 1.10 RC7. Still need to rework it later.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Fantastic! You tempt me to spam the Bug Reports section with all the problems with AoD's game mechanics

 

[Zsar1]

Hrr. By all means, do go ahead.
One topic per issue, a nice " @Zsar1 " in the OP (or any other post if reviving an already existing topic), as good a description of the issue as possible, including steps to reproduce (if more than trivial) and "expected" vs. "observed" outcomes.