Bug: Snipers becoming "nearsighted"

[planetfall]

Are the things riding the backs of the runners set to be sniper targetable?

Nope. They are immune to everything except the death of the runner (and, in the case of the shields, beams.)

[knucracker]

I'm having a heck of a time getting your 310-0 save to repro the problem.  If you have any more saves that repro the problem, don't be shy :)  I can't make progress until I can get a mission I can load and then wait N minutes to get the problem.  If I get that, I'll eventually be able to figure it out.

[planetfall]

I made runners spawn faster, so maybe it will be more easily visible now. Watch the third sniper from the bottom--it's very slight, but it will get to the point that it won't start turning its barrel until the runner is 2-3 cells into the range. Hopefully. It's hard to tell when the issue vanishes after reloading.

[planetfall]

OK, here's another update - I've got another save that has the issue, though whether it will again after loading is anyone's guess. Good candidate snipers to watch are the PZ one in the lower left and the one on a small pedestal near the middle.

But here's a question. When the sniper does its final check before shooting, if it finds a null, is it at all possible for the sniper to delete it from the array-hash-thingamajigger?

Sure, it'll probably make the sniper barrels wave around stupidly a bit, but it would (theoretically) work, right? (Of course that's if it's possible, and I know very little about Unity.)

[knucracker]

I've been off fiddling with other things (wandering in the figurative desert) and have not looked at this any more since last week.  I'll take a look at your new save, though.
In theory, there is no null in the array anymore in the latest beta.  I'll check for that... because if there is, then the old problem is still there.  I have a feeling I won't find any null's and there is something else at play.

[knucracker]

As usual, a few days away from the problem brought clarity when I returned.  I found another case where a crpl tower could manage to not properly clean up its entry in the spatial hashing data structures.  Very subtle and tricky, but it was there.  I redid the bookkeeping on how the towers are added and removed from the data structures and  this seems to make things much better.  Give the new build a shot and lets see...

https://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld3/publicbeta/CreeperWorld3-207.exe
https://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld3/publicbeta/CreeperWorld3-207-64bit.exe
https://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld3/publicbeta/CreeperWorld3-207-OSX.zip
https://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld3/publicbeta/CreeperWorld3-207-linux.tgz

[planetfall]

Well, I'm not beating my old time anytime soon, but this build seems to work perfectly.

This game just HAD to go and make a liar out of me...

[Flabort]

Wait, the bug is fixed?
A certain map is beatable by us common folk now?
Get this build to steam ASAP! :P

[knucracker]

Switch to "prerelease" in the steam beta tab on the game properties (within steam client).  I've just uploaded this build to steam.  Let me know if it works for you...