Attack ground is broken in multiple situations (especially for Trebuchets)

Age of Empires II: DE II - Report a Bug
1

EDIT: Issue #1 has been fixed. Issue #2 has not.

:play_button: GAME INFORMATION

  • GAME BUILD #: Preview Version 101.103.20329.0 (#151401) 19271677
  • GAME PLATFORM: Steam
  • OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10

:play_button: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

Issue #1: If you tell a unit to Attack Ground when it is in its reload time, it turns in the direction to do that, but doesn’t actually attack ground, and simply goes back to attack the closest unit (unless it’s in no attack stance in which case it’ll just do nothing).
Issue #2: This is a legacy bug, which I assumed would be fixed in this PUP because it fixed the issue of Mangonel secondary projectiles not doing any damage when using Attack Ground, however that bug was actually fixed by simply giving the Projectile Mangonel a blast radius of 0.01.
Attack ground with units that do not have splash damage only works for “missed” shots and therefore fails for 15% of generic Trebuchet attack grounds, 50% of Hun trebuchet attack grounds, and 30% of Traction Trebuchet shots. This is due to the projectile hit mode being 0 instead of 1, and the attack ground function resulting in the unit not actually having a “target” that they are shooting at, meaning when a “true shot” is acquired (AKA a fully precise/accurate one that hits exactly where you told it to shoot), it simply hits the ground and does nothing, even if there is an enemy unit/building there. This is showcased much clearer in the video I have attached.

:play_button: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

  • This is consistent reproducible behavior, not a one-off glitch.

:play_button: REPRODUCTION STEPS

:backhand_index_pointing_down: List CLEAR and DETAILED STEPS we can take to reproduce the issue ourselves… Be descriptive!

Here’s the steps to reproduce the issue:

For Issue #1:
1. Attack something with a unit that has the attack ground function, such as a Mangonel, Onager, Siege Onager, Bombard Cannon, Trebuchet, Traction Trebuchet, Cannon Galleon etc.
2. After the unit has attacked but before it has reloaded, tell it to attack ground somewhere.
3. If the unit reaches the location where it is in range to perform the “ground attack” but the unit is still finishing its reload time from the previous attack, instead of simply waiting for the reload time to end and THEN doing the ground attack, it will instead just not bother to do the ground attack at all and will just go back to its “default” behavior, AKA attacking the nearest target (or doing nothing if in No Attack Stance).

For issue #2 (trebuchet attack ground doing no damage to anything unless it’s a “missed shot”):

  1. Pick Huns and make a Trebuchet (you can observe this bug with generic Trebuchets and with Traction Trebuchets too, but not as easily, since the frequency is only 15% for generic trebs, and 30% for Traction Trebuchets, whereas it’s 50% for Hun Trebuchets)
  2. Make it attack ground on top of an enemy object
  3. Watch as 50% of the time, even if the projectile clearly intersects a unit, it does 0 damage and just hits the ground uselessly

:play_button: EXPECTED RESULT

Issue #1: The units should simply wait for the reload time to finish and then go through with the attack ground command.
Issue #2: The treb projectile actually collides with any enemy object that its hitbox intersects… even just dealing 50% damage would be fine!

:play_button: IMAGE

:play_button: GAME FILES (SAVE / RECORDING)

rec.aoe2record (2.9 MB)
Note: this is not a rec that corresponds with the video that I sent, it is instead a rec of the same bug being showcased with Traction Trebuchets, and you start seeing the bug after the 1 minute mark

5 Likes
2

Commenting just because this is great information about how the game works.

Clearly, the Hun civ bonus should not be a penalty in this situation, just as the game is better when getting Fletching is not a disadvantage due to firing 1 fewer arrow in a tower war.

The rule of “missed projectiles do half damage if they hit a different unit” kind of fails here. What if all units that have the attack ground ability did full damage to any secondary target hit, just like Arambai?

Should all units with the attack ground ability do full damage if they hit a secondary target instead of primary?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Making a poll on a thread you didn’t create is rude
0 voters

(Also, do any proposed changes affect the situation of “using stone gates to block projectiles in a treb war” that no one ever does?)

3

Interestingly enough, Traction Trebuchets deal 100% damage even to non-target units.

4

really good report, i hope we get a dev comment soon

1 Like
5

Good afternoon,
we are now tracking the issue, thanks for the report
Have a nice day

1 Like
6

I have not proposed any changes, but one of the “easy” changes that would fix the bug with attack ground (changing the hit mode of treb projectiles from 0 to 1 so that they collide with anything they intersect no matter what) would indeed have an impact on the “using stone gates to block projectiles” tactic, and would in fact make it 100% effective, as even direct “precise” shots against opposing trebs would be able to be blocked by buildings. I’ve tested this and it would allow even palisade walls to do so, which would kind of break treb wars as palisade wall tiles only cost 3 wood, and losing 3 wood is way cheaper than having to repair 50 HP from a Trebuchet (which costs 33 wood and 33 gold). I’m hoping that, provided there is a fix for this, it does something with the source code, bypassing this potential meta-changing side effect.

7

Looks like the the terrible behavior in the PUP has been reverted, so the 1st part of this bug report was a success. The legacy bug mainly pertaining to Hun Trebuchets is still there, though. The PUP bug was the one that was urgent, so this is much better than nothing

1 Like