1.1beta frustrations: various fundamental issues seem just plain broken

from GalCiv2 Forums
I'm a veteran of GalCiv1, and I've recently started playing GalCiv2. While the game so far has been overall an enjoyable challenge, I've noted a few areas which seem horribly broken. Perhaps I'm missing something in each case, and the game is actually "working as intended" - so pleae enlighten me to relieve me from my mounting frustrations. If these issues have been discussed elsewhere in the forums, I overlooked it.

If anyone is looking to try to duplicate my issues, it's worth noting that my play style has been to have my sliders set to concentrate completely on one thing, on any given turn - so either my research, soc production, or mil production will tend to be at 100%. Perhaps that contributed to the issues in some of the cases, or perhaps that just made it more obvious to me than it would have been with a more 'normal' distribution. So with no further preamble:

Government bonuses:
They sound great. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, they don't exist. I note my income and my research, etc., then apply Star Republic. Everything stays at exactly the same level as it was under the default despotic government. Needless to say, I have stopped pursuing this tech branch.

Resources:
Similar to governments. The specific example I observed had to do with a research resource. It was along in a game, and I was generating 753 research points. I established a mining starbase - still 753. The following turn, I added another mining component… research still (you guessed it) 753.

The 1.1 social -> military production transfer:
This is a feature I look forward to, if/when it actually works. As it is, the production transfer *displayed* correctly, when I was at 100% social production and some of my planets had no current social improvements to build. Unfortunately, a quick glance at the shipyard box revealed that none of the displayed military production was actually being applied to the ship construction, which was estimated to be completed ‘never’.

Lost turn on restart:
When I restore a saved game, all production and income become zero for that turn. This is glaringly obvious on the timeline charts for production. Is this a bug, or by design, as some ill-advised attempt to discourage reloads? If my memory serves, the same issue was present in GalCiv1.

All in all, these problems seem so huge and fundamental, that I can’t see how they could have been missed during coding - even for a Beta release. So - please tell me what I’m missing, or give me some specific counterexamples of your own that demonstrate that some or all of these features are in fact working. On the off chance that some of my problems stemmed from upgrading to the latest beta mid-game, I've abandoned the game I had been playing (a huge galaxy that was going to take awhile) and I'm off to start one fresh. Any insight that anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated.
9,911 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
re: Governments and bonuses - Honestly I don't think its broken. To test this I went and started scenario, Battle of the Gods. All techs are available at the start. You can change your government type and see your income increase as you choose a better government type, or worsen if you pick a lesser one.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As for the Social => Military transfer. If you are under 100% social spending how on earth you expect your military to build anything. Try 99% social and 1% military and you'll see that the transfer happens. (that is if you are playing the beta)

Lost turn? Are you assuming that, or did you actually test it? I don't think you lose the production the game only doens't store the numbers. Could it be that for a smaller save file and quicker saving process the game doens't save this numbers but once you press the turn button they all get recalculated?

It might be just me but it seems that your huge problems aren't really problems are they?

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When I restore a saved game, all production and income become zero for that turn. This is glaringly obvious on the timeline charts for production.


I can confirm this. But it is even worse: Time is not advancing at all. After loading a game and finishing the turn, you stay at the same date. No production and no income, but all ships have movement points restored.

I found a thread about this (-> Link), but it didn't receive much attention yet (I guess).

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Governments are mislabeled. It should give you an economy bonus only(which is working btw), not research or production, this has been stated by the devs. I know that the +research from economy starbases are working, dunno about research resources, will test those out.

Social transfer only works if you have at least 1% into military. Which is hardly game breaking, very small bug and a very easy workaround.

Lost turns on saved games is annoying though, now that bug is pretty unacceptable to still be in the game.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As to the research resource, I'm curious, what was your research % at? Also, did any of your planets have a lot of labs, or did each only have one or two? I ask because upgrading a resource node once only gets you a 7% bonus in that particular stat. So if you didnt have any given planet that was producing a lot of research that 7% bonus may not have done anything for you. It takes that bonus and applies it to your planets, at least as I understand it, rather than your tech points in total. If I'm mistaken someone correct me. So if none of your planets were producing enough tech points for an extra 7% to make a difference, you wouldnt have seen a difference. If you had put your tech spending to 100% you probably would have noticed a difference. Also, upgrading the starbase again would have put it at 10%, and you should have seen a bonus for that. If not it must be a bug in your particular game because I know for a fact that a resource has indeed increased my research output before.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It was along in a game, and I was generating 753 research points. I established a mining starbase - still 753. The following turn, I added another mining component… research still (you guessed it) 753.

Stupid question, but how do you know that you were generating 753 RP?
If you are playing 1.1 beta 2, the research expense in the domestic screen dislay paid research BEFORE taking in account empire wide bonus. And there is a specific item for expense linked to empire wide bonuses.
And until 1.0X, empire wide research bonus would give you essentially free research, meaning that they won't appear in your budget
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Governments are mislabeled.

Yes. Hopefully the devs will actually change all the descriptions for the governments in the final 1.1
They are extremly good at fixing bugs and adding content, not so good at fixing bugged or incorrect text.
It's understandable that people are reporting it as a bug when the descriptions are all wrong.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I always thought the empty turn upon loading a saved game was meant to discourage frequent save/loading.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Save/load is always there, but the other problems don't happen to me, other than the government issue. The bonuses do work, I've seen them work, but for resources (as peace phoenix said) it's all done after the pay etc.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi all, and thanks for all the feedback. Between your responses and further investigations in-game, I’ve got most of it figured it out.

Regarding Governments, I overlooked the income boost of Republic, in that it was smaller than I expected --the 25% boost, being additive rather than multiplicative, was dwarfed by my races innate economic bonuses. I was primarily looking for the research/production bonus, which you all have pointed out no longer exists other than in the text. That’s the sort of thing that can be particularly frustrating for those trying to learn the game, so hopefully Stardock will make those corrections soon.

As for not being able to see the benefit of mining a research resource, Peace Phoenix was on the money there. I was looking at my base research *expenses*, which remained constant, rather than looking at the beakers on my planets. Doh!

As kaiapo pointed out (not very graciously IMO, but at least the data was good), the Social -> Military production transfer does work, as long as you have at least 1% on your global military production slider. But hey, Stardock - there’s really no reason why it shouldn’t work just as well with production set to 0/100/0. That looks like a classic “off by one” error to me.

The ‘lost’ turn thing is the single remaining significant annoyance. Thanks for the link to the other thread ChojinXYZ, and I hadn’t noticed that the date stays the same. Since everything (research, production, income *and* expenses) except fleet movement and actions stops for all players, this seems massively exploitable. There are other lost aspects of the “state of the galaxy” (and that’s not the speech they give before the UP council meeting) when restoring a saved game - enemy ships don’t remember their pursuit targets, the influence borders are reset, etc. Although I understand this will mean bigger save files and probably a decent amount of coding, I think this should be a priority for Stardock to address.

Thanks again all - and now, back to my previously-scheduled conquest of the galaxy by the Minions of Gozer.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You're welcome, metawolfe. May I also redirect you to the "Bug Reports"-section, where I created another thread about this 'lost' turn thing, in hope to make the Stardock developers aware of it. Maybe you can repeat your post there or add your observations. Thanks!

-> Link
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Hi!
there’s really no reason why it shouldn’t work just as well with production set to 0/100/0.

I see a perfect reason why with 0% mil spending the points from social shouldn't transfer: I want better tech, but my ship(s) is already 99% produced. This way I can wait indefinitelly, your way I'd need to upgrade my new ship in two turns.
BR, Iztok