[0.915] bug, Pillar of Flame reducing enemies to zero hit points but not killing them

from Elemental Forums

Typically it's impossible to have troops stationed near all Outposts or Cities for that matter. Hence when enemies or monsters cross the border, it's sometimes necessary to (ab)use Pillar of Flame and reduce those stacks to ashes. At least that's the theory.

However in 0.915 some of the units from these stacks manage to live on despite being reduced to zero hit points. These miraculously surviving units then obviously see no problem trashing my Outposts, shrines and so on. It really takes a regular unit to mop these troops up. This feels really awkward though, as you'll see a bunch of 0 hit points hoarder spiders run at your unit and after expending their first move in combat they will drop dead since they had 0 hit points when the battle started.

Did anyone else run into this bug ?!

5,783 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

one devil died of "pillar of flame", however a stack of spiders didn't, I hit next turn, these 0 life points monsters disappeared from the stack, and the surviving one had the correct amount of life points - I was too far to attack them

after some shots Pillar of Flame was greyed out, I wonder if there is a limit to the number of times you can cast it, the amount of damage it produces in .915 varies wildly, that is, more than in .914, still it's one of the most useful spells of the game along with Freeze

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

yes ran into the exact same bug but in my case it was an army from tarth that ran around with 5 units that collectively had 3 hitpoints between them and then trashed my mines. I don´t mind the mine thrashing but they could have the good grace to die when they are supposed to ;)

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Had the same prob. with pilar of flame.

 

Just a question... Did you try freeze? Did it work? I had the feeling that freeze is buggy too.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

freeze works and is great, only problem the units are frozen the following turn and then resume moving in .914 - haven't waited more in .915 yet

you expect it to freeze an army for the following 2 turns from its description, it appears that the AI counts the running turn as "one"

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting lhetre, reply 4
freeze works and is great, only problem the units are frozen the following turn and then resume moving in .914 - haven't waited more in .915 yet

you expect it to freeze an army for the following 2 turns from its description, it appears that the AI counts the running turn as "one"
End of lhetre's quote

ahh...now i understand it. Thx! :)

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Ive had lots of instances where a bad guy would go to zero but not die until I hit them again. I've never used pillar.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

must be linked with the way the game uses numbers, for example one horse breeding ground gives you 0.3 horses a turn, two breeding grounds give you 0.5 horses a turn

there must be instances in which hitting a unit leaves it 0.00001 life points, it shows 0 but it is not, looks like rounding down numbers is not done properly

WOM had already this issue with the "heal" spell, and some mods using different stats incurred in the same issue AND damage indications during combat (forgot this one - stopped looking for damage indication because so useless, is there one in FE? must find it)

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting lhetre, reply 7
here must be instances in which hitting a unit leaves it 0.00001 life points, it shows 0 but it is not, looks like rounding down numbers is not done properly
End of lhetre's quote

Indeed this was a known bug that was supposed to be fixed a few patches ago, it must have reemerged.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top
In a recent game I followed up Pillar of Flame with Tremor and then the enemy stack will be wiped out, as it's supposed to.
Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top


nice to know, thanks circuitbreaker.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

That's actually very useful to know Circuitbreaker.  Now I don't have to tremor 3 times in a row before sending in a relief army (a pioneer who just watches the monsters fall over from having 0 hp upon entering battle)