Comments - XPEHAS-2

WELL DONE, dear developer!
Recently I played via LAN with friend against Hard China AI and there was no mismatch, though the game crashed right after our victory.
However, when we were playing against two China bots, the desynchronization occured only once and after about 30 minutes of gameplay.
I saw those additional text lines on screen when the game detected mismatch but I couldn't read them all because they disappeared after 5 seconds.
So, please, could you write them here or tell me where to find them? (for example, some Changelog on Google Disc etc.)

Dear Author, I hope you at least read comments here...

Your launcher works great, and the mod as well.
Please, tell me, why China Faction still does not have the next things:

1. Anti-Air infantry (this is not fair because every other faction has it);
2. Airfield & aircraft (Repair/recon drone & battle helicopter-machinegunner are good but not enough);
3. Outpost unit;
4. Iron Curtain (this is not fair because KGB faction has it).

APC unit has a problem: it cannot use its Evacuate ability (F) anymore after the first usage of that (the button becomes just unactive).
Poor infantry inside it will stay there forever...

'EDA' is kind of European Union?
Yes or not, please tell how to decrypt the EDA.

Thank you.
I'll join Discord to follow announcements with pleasure.
I believe & hope this problem CAN be fixed in future (although I don't have the possibility to join testing it, I will watch how people do that).

You have made AI more stable, smarter, harder, more interesting in one word, so there's almost nothing impossible.

I still have only two questions to your mod:

1) Is it possible to optimize the game engine to use two or more processor cores? (I heard once it is so old and hard-coded, like this is impossible)

2) Could you add a button to disable infinite cash of for the bot inside the game interface (lobby)?

Greetings to everyone. Could someone help me?
Question is about the game, not actually about the greatest mod ever Contra 009.

Old-good 'Mismatch problem' in Multiplayer. Yeah, a large amount of things can cause it, that is known. But please, do not hurry to make conclusions.

In LAN multiplayer with friend (adding bots in 90% of games), we can play normally only against GLA. When we add China or USA, there is always a mismatch.

We have been playing together for over 10 years and here is what we definitely know now:

1) This mismatch never occured if there was no bots in the game;
2) It does not depend on game version [1.04] (license or repack);
3) It does not depend on map and number of AI players;
3) The higher AI difficulty is - the more often (earlier) mismatch occurs during the game;
4) It does not depend on Windows version (7, 8, 10, x86, x64, SP1, SP2, SP3)
5) It does not depend on LAN via cable or Wi-Fi (I have tried several routers);
6) It does not happen in vanilla Generals (not Zero Hour);
7) In other mods, it happens also with new factions which are based on classic ones (e.g. ECA, Russia);
8) In Contra 009, the mismatch began to appear after several successful battles 2x1 against Medium AI China. Like it had been adapting to human some time.

In particular, the AI modified by developers of Contra 009 is still one the most stable ones. The first one is mod 'Generals: Continue' (and this is because their AI plays very poorly in multiplayer, even Hard one).

'Options.ini' was modified once, this did not work.
The serial number in Registry was also changed after each reinstallation of the game - this did not help either.
'GenLauncher' also could not help.
Radmin VPN and Hamachi - they did not do better.

I have noticed two patterns:

1) The mismatch occurs the earlier, the more effectively I start playing against the bot (when I start to win, AI China or USA seems to be offended by me);
2) In mods where the AI does not have an infinite amount of money, the error almost never occurs if you deplete its resources and do not provoke it to sell all its buildings (when it just stops doing something).

I really envy those people who play online with China/USA bots and for some reason never complain about desynchronization...

There is still an small interesting 'bug' with AI GLA - in some cases it can buy 2 or 3 upgrades on Tunnel Network.

It happens mostly when this building was destroyed and automatically rebuilt from Hole in case AI had purchased one upgrade before.

I think the Tunnel Network just remembers the previously purchased upgrade. When structure is rebuilt, that upgrade for some reason still exists on it (human player cannot have this situation). And then AI somehow can install another upgrade over it.

It looks funny and not so unfair (several barrels stick out of the turret and rotate independently of each other, and their textures are mixed).
Just imagine: one defensive structure is equally effective against both infantry and tanks - a dream comes true)

That's a feature, not a bug...) I suppose it may be concerned with another, very old advantage of AI - in some maps GLA and USA can place many buildings in one place, like they have lack of space around.
Yes, I know that AI uses something like plan or scheme to build its base, and if the starting position is made slightly incorrect, AI doesn't care about that)))

Good ideas, man - all them are fully acceptable in my point of view (except RS-28 'Sarmat' - it is intercontinental, there is no need in it).
'Geran 2' also is not russian originally, so it should belong to GLA.

It seems strange that the author has not replied yet to your offer.

Maybe someone has already asked the author about adding European Union (including Ukraine, of course) as the fifth faction to the game...but I will ask him once, again :)

Гулять - так гулять, как говорится.

Thank you very much.
Yeah, I saw once GLA uses invisible helicopters and they do nothing at all even when they are attacked.
Now I understand why AI cheats sometimes with 'unlimited' money - you kind of had to do it to make AI more competitive. It is acceptable. Correct me if I'm wrong :-)

Dear Developer,

You keep bringing amazing innovations and brilliant ideas to this game. Flawless job!

Unfortunately, two problems concerned with AI have not been fixed yet.

1. AI (except GLA) can still use Long-range AA units (S-300, Thaad, HQ-9 SAM) without mobile radar. That is not fair.

2. AI GLA can buy camouflage upgrade in every building and even in several units. Human player no longer has this possibility.
This happens only when AI chooses Rapid Attack sub-faction, so it is alright in some sense :)

I know little about game files and how to extract INI files or modify them right inside the BIG file, so you can use any professional slang and I will understand it.

Could you share some details IN SHORT how & why it works if it is not secret, please? I wish I knew more... that's why I'm asking you, the real specialist.

Sorry for a comment out of a topic, but
I am still playing an old version of this BEST mod (it seems like 0.97.8 Patch 1)

I have only 2 questions:

1. Does AI really can have unlimited money or something like that?
2. Can AI change its 'sub-faction' after it bought one?

Yesterday I played with Hard Russia AI. It firstly chose Heavy Assault Forces and then somewhy & somehow it changed itself to Air Forces...

Thanks forward.