July 9, 2020 [4:40 PM] UTC+8
Bug: [Starcraft Remastered / Broodwar] Terran AI will have lots of idle SCVs due to an unfinished building
This bug first appeared in version 1.11b which is installed by patch installer “BW-111b.exe”. The bug affects version 1.11b onwards, even the latest version of Starcraft Remastered (version 1.23.5.8589 as of the date of reproducing the issue - July 9, 2020).
The Terran AI idle SCV bug might have something to do with the fix for the bug which allowed SCV’s to heal Marines since that’s what was changed from 1.11 to 1.11b. Please check the source code repository and generate a diff of the changes.
Steps to reproduce:
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Start a single player Starcraft Broodwar / Starcraft Remastered game.
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Wait until the Terran AI constructs a building.
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Kill the SCV constructing the building.
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Do not attack the AI. Do not destroy / don’t attack the unfinished building.
Bug: After a few minutes, the Terran AI will begin to have lots of idle SCVs. The AI will not send an SCV to continue the construction of the unfinished building. The AI can’t proceed executing its AI script.
Expected Result: The AI should send an SCV to continue construction of the building. There shouldn’t be any idle SCVs getting confused on how to finish the building. The AI should continue executing its AI script.
Broodwar patch 1.11b introduced this bug after the following changes:
- Fixed a bug that allowed SCV’s to heal Marines.
- Fixed a bug that allowed Zerg to build without the need for creep.
- Fixed a bug that allowed buildings to be stacked on top of each other.
- Fixed a Mac bug that prevented StarEdit from running.
- Fixed a Mac bug where background music stopped after the first piece.
Patch 1.11b was released on June 1, 2004 (16 years ago) so Blizzard, please fix this ancient bug!
Yours Truly,
snarkz
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Have you reproduced this on a variety of maps?
July 10, 2020 [12:08 AM] UTC+8
I tried reproducing this bug on different maps. I can confirm that this bug is reproducible in all maps.
This bug is easy to reproduce with single player using cheat codes: “show me the money”, “black sheep wall”, “modify the phase variance”, “medieval man”, “the gathering”, “operation cwal”.
Disable the “operation cwal” cheat code after making a Zerg Queen so the AI doesn’t construct buildings in an instant. Spawn broodling on an SCV constructing a building. The Terran AI SCVs will become idle and it won’t continue executing its AI script and gets stuck.
Please note that trying to watch replays that were recorded with previous versions of StarCraft often results in “corrupted” replays. Replays only record the commands given by the players, and if something was changed in the game engine, the same series of commands might not be valid or may result in a different game state, hence often resulting in what you experience.
To “fix” this, the previous version of the game engine would have to be made available and used when watching the replay, the same engine that was used to play the original game and save the replay.
July 10, 2020 [2:55 PM] UTC+8
Hi DakotaFannin,
If you’ve read my original post on this bug report, you’ll notice that I specifically indicated that the bug occurs in a live game (either single player or multiplayer). I’ve never mentioned anything about “watching replays” in the list of steps to reproduce this bug.
The reason I’m indicating the earliest patch that introduced this bug is to make it easier for the developers to check their source code control repository for the exact revision and the changes made with that particular version which introduced the unwanted behavior.
What I did was to install the old Starcraft Broodwar from my CDs and incrementally install each patch version (I have a complete archive of all the patches for historical purposes) from 1.01, 1.02, … 1.04, 1.08, 1.10, 1.11, 1.11b, … 1.16.0, 1.16.1, 1.18, 1.20, 1.23, etc. to determine which version introduced the bug. After finding out that 1.11b is the problematic patch version, I reproduced the bug from patch 1.11b onwards, up to and including the latest Starcraft Remastered patch version and found that the bug still exists even on the latest version of the game.
I work as a Sr. Software Engineer and I write code and reverse engineer executable binaries from machine code / assembly language (x86_32 / x86_64) back into C/C++ source code so I’m pretty sure I know what I’m talking about.
I’m not asking Blizzard to “fix” this in a previous version of the game engine. Instead, I’m asking Blizzard to fix this on the latest Starcraft Remastered version at the very least. Now if this were open source, I could have made the fix myself! I just want to relax and play a game when I get home, not fix more bugs on my free time. Is that too hard to ask?
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Apologies I didn’t read your post carefully enough. You’re right, no replays are involved. I just saw the old version numbers and I quickly jumped into the (wrong) conclusion that you’re talking about replays, I didn’t think you were actually trying it in all versions.
Good job on your part tracking it down. Hopefully Blizzard fixes it.
AFAIK the problem is that the AI tries ordering the SCVs to repair that unfinished building, which of course doesn’t work and wrecks the AI’s order train. Funny that it’s still there after all these years… 
Ok, i can confirm this…
But what about the Firebat bug ? Where the Ai keeps building firebats despite me attacking it with Mutalisks?
By the way Snarkz thx for your hard work in this matter…
Would you be willing to upload the patches / all the means so people can play/ experment and maybe find old “new” buggs and where they come from…
Since many like myself dont have access to these and like many other post suggest there are people intrested in this …
Here for you
mega.nz/megadrop/WCU0I1eqe7U
By the way for the people wondering this is also in Muliplayer…
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