Hannibal's Secret Weapon (Teleporting Elephants)

[Ludendorf]

This is the best bug I've ever seen.

Apparently, my opponent, NosyRat, had a unit of his skirmishers pursued by my elephants. My elephants promptly hit a unit of thureophoroi and engaged. For some reason, NosyRat found an 'undo' button available on the skirmishers. This prompted the elephants to swap places with the skirmishers, remain in melee with the thureophoroi, who were now a fair few tiles away and facing the wrong direction, and then break off when I tried to trigger melee the next turn.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the first ever case of teleporting elephants. (Apologies if this is not the first case.)

I've attached screenshots to show what happened.

[rbodleyscott]

What an interesting bug.

And it was definitely triggered by clicking an Undo order on the light infantry?

Were the light infantry evading or routing?

Were the elephants already pursuing someone when they charged the light infantry?

It seems to be your turn, so I am at something of a loss as to how Nosy Nat could issue any orders - including Undo.

The units have got swapped because the Undo moved the light foot to its original position. This happens to be where the elephants were, and the default behaviour of the script functions when placing a unit in the position of another unit is to swap them. This we can easily fix by not allowing an Undo if the original square is occupied. But it doesn't explain why he had an available Undo order in the first place, and would still allow him to Undo the move if the square was unoccupied.

[Nosy_Rat]

I have to add, that Ludendorf's elephants charged my skirmishers during my turn, due to routing my cavalry unit, and ended their move on the square, prevously occupied by those skirmishers.
Yes, I saw the "undo" button active on my skirmishers after they evaded elephant's charge and clicked it. No idea why it was active, though.

[Ludendorf]

What an interesting bug.

And it was definitely triggered by clicking an Undo order on the light infantry?

Were the light infantry evading or routing?

Were the elephants already pursuing someone when they charged the light infantry?

It seems to be your turn, so I am at something of a loss as to how Nosy Nat could issue any orders - including Undo.

I'll double check with NosyRat that he hit undo on the light infantry and not the engaged thureophoroi (or even my elephants somehow). Hopefully he'll find his own way here and report, otherwise I'll flag it up to him. (EDIT: nevermind, he posted as I posted this.) It was definitely a pursuit situation (you can see the intact banner on the skirmisher unit my elephants swap place with in the first and second screen shots). (EDIT: Third and second screenshots, sorry.)

The pursuit and elephant engagement happened on his turn; meandering pursuit situation. I took the shots during the replay of NosyRat's turn. So it was still his turn and he was able to hit undo. I then loaded up my turn and engaged with my scutarii (that's why my scutarii are engaged in the first picture.)

There's a fourth picture of the elephants having broken off after I tried to activate melee with them. I'll post it here.

[rbodleyscott]

Did the light foot pass through the thureophoroi?

If so I think I have figured out the fix for this bug, though god knows how I could set up a situation to test it.

[Ludendorf]

Did the light foot pass through the thureophoroi?

If so I think I have figured out the fix for this bug, though god knows how I could set up a situation to test it.

They must have; those skirmishers were standing right in front of the thureophoroi so there's no way they would have zigzagged their way to that position. To end up at that facing and position they must have gone back through the left-most thureophoroi and through the forest behind them.

[Nosy_Rat]

Pretty sure they did run away just in straight line, so yes.

[rbodleyscott]

Well in that case I know what caused the unit to get an Undo button, and the fix for that bug. But I can't see any way to set up a situation to test it, as it would only happen if a unit evaded through friends in their own turn, so I will put in the fix for the next update and we will just have to cross our fingers.

[Ludendorf]

Well in that case I know what caused the unit to get an Undo button, and the fix for that bug. But I can't see any way to set up a situation to test it, as it would only happen if a unit evaded through friends in their own turn, so I will put in the fix for the next update and we will just have to cross our fingers.

It might take a few tries, but it happened after a unit of NosyRat's lancers broke on his turn, triggering the pursuit. If you could arrange for a unit of lancers to break in that exact way (predictable as lancers seldom if ever beat elephants) and have thureophoroi and skirmishers in position to receive the charge, the situation could probably be replicated. The only gamble is the lancers breaking on the right turn.

[rbodleyscott]

Well in that case I know what caused the unit to get an Undo button, and the fix for that bug. But I can't see any way to set up a situation to test it, as it would only happen if a unit evaded through friends in their own turn, so I will put in the fix for the next update and we will just have to cross our fingers.

It might take a few tries, but it happened after a unit of NosyRat's lancers broke on his turn, triggering the pursuit. If you could arrange for a unit of lancers to break in that exact way (predictable as lancers seldom if ever beat elephants) and have thureophoroi and skirmishers in position to receive the charge, the situation could probably be replicated. The only gamble is the lancers breaking on the right turn.

I will try that, thanks.

[Ludendorf]

I will try that, thanks.

No problem.

[rbodleyscott]

That worked, thanks.

[rbodleyscott]

This bug is now fixed for the next update.

[Nosy_Rat]

Thanks!

[rbodleyscott]

Thanks to you both for discovering and reporting this arcane bug.

[Ludendorf]

No problem. Thank you.

(I feel slightly aggrieved to have helped put an end to the teleporting elephant. Maybe humanity was not meant to have such power.)

[Morbio]

I want to know what the point cost would be for a teleporting elephant... it seems very powerful to me!

[rbodleyscott]

I want to know what the point cost would be for a teleporting elephant... it seems very powerful to me!

One meeelion points