Units Wander around Aimlessly

[Iustinus]

Hey everybody
I'm been doing some heavy duty modding and testing of the unitprod files, I have been modding MTW for over a year and so I know the causes of most errors in startpos and unitprod files. However, for some reason, suddenly many of my units begin wandering when given orders. About half a unit will turn around and wanders erratically in the opposite direction, and they are uncontrollable, slow, and get exhausted quickly. Does anybody know what the cause of this could be? I am assuming it has something to do with unit size/shape, but I have searched extensively and can not find a problem. Basically they just go crazy.
I would appreciate any help, as this is a very great annoyance.
Laus Deo,
Justin

[Aenarion]

Is this happening for a long time? I mean have u changed something in particular in the UnitProd? or has it happened instantly during a game?

[Iustinus]

Hey Aenarion,
It's been happening for about a week now, after I changed all of the units numbers (I know the limit so it's probably not because of that,) and after I changed the Unit class labels and the wierd ones that supposedly don't work under column 53.
I'm going to keep figuring this out but you probably have to see what they're doing to understand- for example, I start a battle with a line of 3 units of Celticwarriors. They look find, (in formation) but when I order them to march the generals go way ahead, the middle guys wander around in circles and get behind, and the guys in the back go in the opposite direction half way across the map, then return. When they are ordered to charge only the ones nearby will do so, the rest wandering around and eventually attacking. Thus they get destroyed pretty quickly- and all the wandering makes them exhausted. It looks pretty crappy.
Thanks for your help,
Justin

[Aenarion]

Hmmm...well, using the Gnome Editor for UnitProd, there's a function on how the formation of the unit will be during the game. It has settings like this I guess, ORDERED and SCATTERED. So i guess maybe that has been accidentally changed...might not, but it's still a good chance.

Though I will keep on looking about this...

Hope it helps,
Aenarion

[EatYerGreens]

I know there are a few columns in there which affect unit turning speeds (col 30-33 inclusive). If a tab character got accidentally deleted somehow (or one got inserted) and made all the columns after it slip out of register, so what was a combat stat value is now in the turnspeed column, then that would mess up their marching behaviour.

Obviously, if these columns have been left blank, then they're bound to not work, so simply clone the entries from a default unit type.

If you've logged all the various changes you've made in the past week, then maybe restore the last known UNIT_PROD where units behaved properly, comfirm it still works properly in battle mode (and, if not, then you know some other file is causing the problem) and then incrementally add the past weeks changes until the problem recurs.

Re: Column 53

I forget where I read this but there was a note of caution about editing entries in this column because of a non-standard ASCII character (it looks like a black rectangle, in Gnome) which can't be directly identified and thus is tricky to replicate, other than cut'n'paste from another unit's entry. It affects the parsing of columns and accidental deletion will affect all unit entries downstream of the error.

In other words, the majority of units still behave normally but some of the custom-made units which you tacked on to the end of the file (as per Gnome instructions) go wrong, indicating the error is somewhere in or near their entries.

[Iustinus]

Thanks for your help.
I'll have to check the turnspeed, even though I never mod it.
On column 53 (does this even do anything for the game anymore?) I shall see whether this is the problem. I have never heard of anything for scattered or ordered in Gnome; do you mean the column for making units formed or unformed, etc.?
Thanks!
Laus Deo,
Justin