Gems of War PC 2.1.5 - Ship Cannon Shoots Wrong # Times

What you were expecting to happen, and what actually happened?
Used the Ship Cannon spell with three foes on the AI side. Expected three shots from the Cannon as the spell card indicates, but only two shots are fired.

What are the steps to make it happen again?
I doubt I could. This happened after maybe 30 fights with this team.

Do you have any screenshots or video you want to share with us so we can see the problem? Attach them to your post!
See this video which is a snippet from a greater 20 minute gaming session. Available upon request.


edit: About a week later, and after probably 200 Explores, I have never once seen this bug with 2 troops, ONLY with 3 troops. Were this functioning “as intended” I would expect with 2 enemies alive that 1 in 8 casts would result 1 troop being hit all 3 times. Never once has that happened to me.

I wonder if this is a bug where it accidentally targeted the dead troop? Might be worth trying to see if it happens more often when there is a dead troop on the enemy side?

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It fired three times, but the third shot aimed at an empty slot. The “firing” animation did play for the third time, and it looked like it tried to target slot four.

This happens because targets are selected on cast for each shot and not after each shot resolves, similar to this one:

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Just adding a note to my edit above:

After probably 200 Explores, I have never once seen this bug with two troops. ONLY with 3 troops.

I’m not sure if we have the same bug, but:

Normally I see this bug when one of the first two shots kills a troop. The third shot was already targeted for the now dead troop.

It’s been a while since I played with the Ships Cannon, because this weakens it as you get close to killing the troops.

Thanks - It keeps getting said but I doubt if it has anything to do with the underlying nature of this bug though :slight_smile:

The fact that it happens with 3 troops but apparently not with 2 troop illustrates there is some kind of bug. I don’t know what the exact nature of it is but something isn’t working consistently. Calling @Nimhain so us players aren’t speculating wildly.

Second, it is up to the devs to explain this or fix it, not players to justify it or try to explain it away… I’m not saying this in a mean way… I hope that makes senses :slight_smile:

I took a look at the Ship Cannon, currently it’s working as intended.

What happens in the spell, is the Ship Cannon chooses it targets before it launches the damage. In your video it means that it chose one of the 2 troops that died twice.

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So if that is the case, a Ship Cannon that could insta-kill both remaining troops should appear to fire once, one time out of every eight. I just ran three trials on Divinion Fields’s first challenge, using the following team

Fortress Gate
Ship Cannon
Humility
Mercy

Priority is to be firing Humility until it increases the Ship Cannon’s magic. Normally, by the time Humility finally increases my Cannon’s magic above 18, the Fortress Gate has knocked out the first two AI troops just from random skull matches.

Of the three trials, both remaining troops were killed all three times. Super small sample size, and well within expectations, but if someone has more free time and a need for Arcane Plains stones, they can goof around with this team to see if the cannon ever seems to fire only once.

Without a word of a lie, now I am up to over 400 Explores and I have never once seen the behavior with 2 troops, ONLY 3 troops.

So to be clear, in over 400 fights I have seen the Ship Cannon “select a dead troop” multiple times, but only when there are 3 troops. With 2 troops I have never, ever, ever, ever seen this happen (despite that with 2 troops left it should happen 1 in 8 times)

I am prepared to let this go, but I’m pretty sure I’m not wrong. The problem is that I can’t prove a negative.

Can you get a video of you fight 2 troops, so I can compare the 2 videos?

What I’m seeing in the video in the OP is that the Ship Cannon selected 1 troop twice, but as it died after the first hit, it never fires the extra shot.

In order for me to test/capture this phenomenon, I need to end up with exactly 2 troops alive before casting SC. As a player without dedicated testing tools, this proves extremely difficult.

All I can tell you at this time, is that after multiple hundred explores over recent weeks, I have seen this behavior dozens of times with 3 troops, but not ever once with 2. As you know you can’t prove a negative so that doesn’t really show anything conclusive. I would need an automated way to run 1,000 trials quickly.

I just tested it in explore, and it did happen with 2 troops left. One of them died from 1st hit, the second was damaged by the next hit and was left with 1 life, then the last hit did not do a thing (as it hit the alreadt dead troop.)

Well there you have it

Thank you for that comment and thank you for testing it I will update this thread should I ever see this phenomenon myself which to this date I have never once seen