[BUG] Melee Skirmish Issues

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[BUG] Melee Skirmish Issues

LivewareCascade
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Post by LivewareCascade » Sun May 07, 2023 10:55 pm

I have upgraded from 5.5 to 5.6 in the last couple of days. 5.5 was installed on the base version of the GOG X Wing Alliance.

I usually fly a lot of single player skirmishes to practice, but I have noticed two things:
a) melee skirmish (unlimited waves, time limit) does not actually produce unlimited waves. Previously, you couldn't change the number of enemy waves from anything other than unlimited - melee skirmish automatically disabled the selection of waves.
However, after installing update 5.6, I can only set between 1-19 waves, no more.

b) skirmish points are no longer contributing to pilot ranking. At least I was an Ace 2nd level (85%) prior to updating to 5.6, and it seems like my ranking is no longer affected. I still get points, but it doesn't shift. I think in vanilla XWA You couldn't get higher than expert for campaign, ace 1st level for SP skirmish, and only in MP were ranks truly uncapped.

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Sun May 07, 2023 11:03 pm

There have been no changes to the way it works.
You can only set up to 19 waves depending on the mission type that is loaded.
For example I loaded up and it was set to Unlimited. I changed to a 2P Pirate Raid and the maximum was 19.

I didn't believe you could gain ranks in Skirmish? Otherwise that's like cheating almost? But I maybe wrong.
Again nothing we've done should have altered ranking systems. I have no idea how to even!
Chief XWAU Team annoying nitpicker.
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LivewareCascade
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Post by LivewareCascade » Sun May 07, 2023 11:15 pm

I didn't thinkyou did either, but I have no idea why it's stopped.

You definitely can gain pilot rank in skirmish, but only up to Ace. There are several ranks above ace, but for those you need to fly multiplayer, so no not cheating - just gated. In any case, this was definitely working prior to the update.

LivewareCascade
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Post by LivewareCascade » Mon May 08, 2023 12:50 pm

Ok so i did a bit more testing yestersay night which may help. I backed up my pilot file and joystick config and then deleted the entire inatall directory. Dod a fresh clean install of xwa from gog, then the 2020 patch, then 5.0, then 5.5, then tested with a new skirmish. While the pilot file still didn't record any change in pilot ranking, melee skirmishes definitely work correctly for me in 5.5. Loading a melee or creating a new one from scratch definitel changes the "no of waves" settting from whatever it was set at for a flight group engagement to unlimited waves. This is also shown in the main skirmish window (it is shown as "UL" where you would normally find the number of waves. Playing through a melee works as expected too.

Then, upgeading again to 5.6, behaviour immediately went back to what i had reported previously. Flight group engagements work as expected, but melees still only support between 1-19 waves. So something is definitely wrong. Its also not juat a ui discrepancy either - if you start a melee, ot really does just spawn the selected number of waves and no more. Trying to load previously saved melee scenarios is no different.

I can provide screenshots if needed later tongiht to confirm my report.

Out of interest, re: pilot ranking, does somebody know where the thresholds are actually defined? I have no interest in modifying rank - you can easily do that with a pilot editor if you're that sort of person. But i am curious about it, since there's very little information available online or in the manual.

Thanks, and don't think im complaining. 5.6 is SO much better for performance too, so im very happy with the uodate.

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