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#4588787 - 01/07/22 03:52 PM Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug  
Joined: Jan 2022
Posts: 5
jas4500 Offline
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jas4500  Offline
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So I’m coming back to EECH after quite a long time. I had primarily played the vanilla version, but did play one of the mod versions around 2012.

I started playing the recent version and one thing I noticed, unlike vanilla no ground units except artillery did anything. No ground unit advancing, fighting, etc. I did some digging and found a few posts here discussing the issue and it seemed something happened around version 1.9.0 which seemed to be the last version where ground AI was working.

So I searched the source code on GitHub and got the 1.9.0 source code and compiled it. To my amazement ground AI worked fine. I noticed however that 1.9.0 defaulted to using gwut180. I changed it to gwut190 and ground AI was broken again. I tried gwut182 and ground AI was back to how it should be. I saw that gwut182 uses the 1.3 wut format, which appears to be used up to mod version 1.13.0, which uses wut 1.4 format. However gwut182 still seems to work at this format with working ground AI. However due to the version difference I haven’t tested extensively for any other bugs that could possibly arise from using a different versioned gwut.

What I’m stuck on now, is somehow converting gwut182 to the latest format. Unfortunately I don’t know what values changed that broke the ground AI in the first place. Was wondering if there were any modders left around here that could help, so a possible fix could be deployed for the latest version.

Edit: Wanted to clarify, but using gwut182 on EECH 1.15.2+ causes the game to crash on startup due to differences in wut format

Last edited by jas4500; 01/07/22 03:55 PM.
#4588908 - 01/09/22 05:00 PM Re: Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug [Re: jas4500]  
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jas4500 Offline
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jas4500  Offline
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So good news! Using a CSV diff tool I was able to track the changes from gwut182 to gwut190. The only changes were made were in the weapons section. The changes that seemed to break the AI was in the aiming mode column. Machine guns and APC weapons were changed from a 1 to 3, and tank weapons were changed from 2 to 3. As far as I can tell this "3" aiming mode is completely broken or useless. Using the stock 1.11.1 version included in the GOG release I was able to get ground units shooting at each other just by changing the aiming mode values back to gwut 182 values. However just changing these values alone didn't seem to be enough.

I noticed tanks wouldn't elevate their turrets like they did in the unmodded vanilla version of EECH. Looking at the changes again I noticed the muzzle velocity and cruise velocity values were changed. Most of the changes were very small, but for tanks (Abrams and T80U) the change was drastic, it was like 260 -> 1400. The changed value is definitely a realistic velocity for these, but when reverting them back to the smaller value I noticed tanks would actually elevate their turrets and hit targets. Also the behavior appeared to be consistent with the vanilla version behavior.

I should be able to fix the gwut files up to gwut1140 (also used by version 1.15.0), but I should be able to fix the gwut up to the current version. The new version has more ammo/weapon types, so its not a one to one copy paste of values.

I'll try to upload the fixed gwuts as I make them, but I don't have time for extensive testing, so please report any weird bugs or behaviors. I'm also curious if this fixes the artillery bug that has been mentioned in the past, but as far as I can tell artillery weapons weren't changed that much, so that might be a different issue.

Last edited by jas4500; 01/09/22 05:01 PM.
#4588910 - 01/09/22 05:50 PM Re: Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug [Re: jas4500]  
Joined: Nov 2018
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PatrykW Offline
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Gillingham
WOW, nice work! I need to get my arse in gear and start flying again.

#4588912 - 01/09/22 06:51 PM Re: Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug [Re: jas4500]  
Joined: Apr 2018
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Javelin Offline
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Javelin  Offline
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 300
Idaho Falls, Idaho USA
Awesome! I look forward to implementing your fix. Thanks!

#4588923 - 01/10/22 12:56 AM Re: Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug [Re: Javelin]  
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jas4500 Offline
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jas4500  Offline
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Alright, here are the files, it goes up to version 1.16.1. So I have 2 versions of each, version A uses the aiming values directly from gwut182 and B changes the aiming values so the weapon is fired in arc (similar to artillery and tanks), with version B you'll probably see IFVs and BMPs fighting when they are in range. For the muzzle and cruise velocity values, I kept them at their default values (depending on the version of the gwut), but I did change this value for tank munitions so they elevate their turret correctly. Even in vanilla version, tanks fire kind of unrealistically where they can lob shells over hills and stuff.

I only changed values for ground unit munitions/weapons, so there shouldn't be any weird bugs, but who knows. Also the gwut1160+ had some weird muzzle cruise velocities for BM21 grad missiles and ICM rockets, so I did revert them back to the gwut180 values.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Fx4MD_RfugfUFaqXTW3xO_E1i7P1Fkp_?usp=sharing

There's not many scenarios where the ground units start close enough to engage, but the default Lebanon campaign does, if anyone wants to test it out.

Edit: Updated with gwut190

Last edited by jas4500; 01/12/22 02:46 AM.
#4589004 - 01/10/22 11:38 PM Re: Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug [Re: jas4500]  
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jas4500 Offline
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jas4500  Offline
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So I hadn't really been able to test for versions 1152+ as far as I can tell the ground units do shoot at each other but their engagement radius seems pretty small. However the gwut values for these doesn't seems significantly different from the earlier versions. So you may not see as much ground fighting in these later versions.

#4589114 - 01/12/22 03:15 AM Re: Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug [Re: jas4500]  
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jas4500 Offline
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jas4500  Offline
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Posts: 5
I think the best option honestly is to stick to either version 1.9.0 or 1.10.2. Also feel like those versions are really stable and give a good vanilla plus experience. Coupled with the 1.9.0 gwut fixes I think those versions are the best imo.

Since you can't really find the official downloads for those versions anymore I recompiled them and added the allmod files from version 1.13 (earliest I could find online). I tried to remove the extraneous assets those versions don't use, but it is needlessly bloated by an extra 500mb with unused assets, but I didn't want to accidentally break anything. If anyone is interested in trying these old (unofficial build) versions you can find them here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TpzpvUF0Njmx4hhfqs9zGBK5KAKDuyXk?usp=sharing

I recommend using dgvoodoo wrapper since these older versions use DirectX 7 and don't have any fancy DirectX 9 features.

#4641537 - 01/23/24 06:54 PM Re: Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug [Re: jas4500]  
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 38
FlyinJ Offline
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FlyinJ  Offline
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Posts: 38
So I've done a bit of investigating of this, and it turns out that ground forces do still engage each other in 1.16.2. It seems that they need LOS on each other to engage now, whereas in the previous to 1.10 versions they didn't. I've seen quite a bit of fighting when frontline units are advancing and get closer and better LOS on enemy units. I'm not really sure what the exact parameters needed for them to engage each other is though

One of the side effects of this is that in the beginning of the Lebanon campaign frontline T80s will shoot and destroy one of the blue ships off the coast almost immediately, I assume because there is good LOS on the ship as its on the water.

Artillery is a mystery though. It seems in the beginning of a campaign artillery fires from both red and blue units. As the campaign goes on it seems that arty just stops firing altogether. I had an arty unit advance to a road junction that was right next to an enemy unit and it didn't shell it.



Last edited by FlyinJ; 01/24/24 04:29 AM.
#4641708 - 01/27/24 11:04 PM Re: Possible Fix for Long Standing Ground AI Bug [Re: jas4500]  
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 38
FlyinJ Offline
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FlyinJ  Offline
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 38
Originally Posted by jas4500
I think the best option honestly is to stick to either version 1.9.0 or 1.10.2. Also feel like those versions are really stable and give a good vanilla plus experience. Coupled with the 1.9.0 gwut fixes I think those versions are the best imo.

Since you can't really find the official downloads for those versions anymore I recompiled them and added the allmod files from version 1.13 (earliest I could find online). I tried to remove the extraneous assets those versions don't use, but it is needlessly bloated by an extra 500mb with unused assets, but I didn't want to accidentally break anything. If anyone is interested in trying these old (unofficial build) versions you can find them here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TpzpvUF0Njmx4hhfqs9zGBK5KAKDuyXk?usp=sharing

I recommend using dgvoodoo wrapper since these older versions use DirectX 7 and don't have any fancy DirectX 9 features.


What am I supposed to do with those two versions you posted? I copied them into my clean and empty Comanche Hokum directory and they were missing a ton of essential files to run, I get a lot of errors when I try to boot the exe. Am I supposed to put those over a clean install of 1.0?

Last edited by FlyinJ; 01/27/24 11:16 PM.

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