Loading saved game turn issues

mandatory bump for consideration

Known issue. Carielf has said it has been identified as a bug, not a deliberate feature, that was the developers were trying to fix by 1.2. It still exists in 1.2. They are aware of it and may fix it eventually. One observation is that all races suffer equally, in the no production round, and that if you look at the graphs it seems that only military production is affected, although no tech advances or social production alerts are created. Best advice now is to try to keep the game active by using windows mode. The current 1.2 version is stable for days on end on my system.

[link="https://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=274&AID=115670#888862"]https://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=274&AID=115670#888862">Link


If I know if it helps, but if I know that I might be doing others windows programs and might crash the game or be off for a while I try to create a save game with max tech spending or cash creation with no production scheduled. I don't know if this helps but it makes me feel better. LOL


from Tandis at Stardock

"It is on our list but it isn't at the top of the priority list. We understand why some people think this is a big deal but please remember that everyone has their favorite feature/pet peeve/whatever.

1.2 is scheduled for this Month. If one looks at the list of improvements we made in 1.1, I think the case can be made that we haven't been exactly sitting around."

Maybe fixed in the next beta?? Pretty please??

Well, given that memory issues are fixed now, I think SD should bump this to the top of the list. It effects everyone and it involves a central game mechanic. I'm not bent out of shape about it like the thread you linked to, but I do think fixing this should be of a higher rank than an example mod.

They could just disable ship movement during that time too, if re-enabling production is too hard. That would at least make things equitable.

I don't know if many people have "accepted" it, or if they have merely given up. I still have the feeling that many don't care.

I wouldn't put it in the same category as just another "favorite feature/pet peeve/whatever" (although I do admit it's a favourite topic of mine, because a real showstopper that prevents game enjoyment, and will keep me off from buying any new expansion until it is fixed), hey it's still a 100% reproductible and systematic bug with effects on gameplay mechanics, not just some "stuff I'd like to have" or graphical quirk. Maybe it's very hard to fix due to how the code has been made, maybe it's a highly unrewarding and dirty work compared to coding other stuff, but personally I wouldn't have put this lower priority than making mods easier and shipping one example. Unless it's really very, very hard to fix.

I think the point is it doesn't "hurt" anything... since it happens to all civilizations, you don't "lose" anything in comparison to anyone else. It's a bug, but since it won't put you or the computer at a disadvantage compared to any other civilization it in essence doesn't have an effect other than make you worried or irritated for no reason.

Yes, it needs to be fixed just because it is a bug, but personally, since it has no real effect on gameplay no matter what all the people up in arms are saying... it does not matter to me.

Actually, it has an enormous effect on gameplay if used as an exploit. Move your ships, save the game, load the game, hit "turn". No production, but your ships have movement points again. Now move them, save, load and hit "turn". In this manner you can explore the entire galaxy on turn 1.

It can also have a significant effect if you decide to save your game while an enemy fleet is moving toward one of your planets where you have a ship under construction. If you save your game, you're dead (no production=no defender). If you don't save, you can live. I don't consider it a total gamebreaker, but it's pretty freakin' annoying.

I just think it annoying as I have gotten used to having Galciv2 active on my system.

But I have a new system with plenty of memory and CPU firepower, so it doesn't affect me as much. If I had a more modest system and had to close down Galciv2 to do other things it would really bug me.

When it happens now and I have to reload , I just consider it a freakin galactic random event. If I know I have to leave and exit the game, I try to save a non-production high income turn

I don't know if only military production is affected or also income and social production or research. On the graphs, I can clearly see all empires military production going to zero, but not social or research.

Since it ususally occurs while I haev the speed advantage and production advantage, I guess I feel likes its an advantage to the AI.

If you want to cheese your way and reload reload reload, then why are you cheating yourself out of a experience in a single player game, that is the pure definition of cheese if you are deliberately taking advantage of a bug.

All in all though, I really would like them to fix this as it affects the game mechanics and in effect corrupts slightly the saved game. Not good.

i have the same expierence on my current game. however certain fleets (not all ) will get bonus movement points after a save. but only if i make an attack.i have had several instances where my 6 mp fleets end up making attacks on seven or eight worlds, upping thier HP into the 200's or so.

Hello, what about the casual gamer?

I'm right here!

I would like to play for 30 minutes to an hour without an artificial change to my game. I can do that with CIV4; why can't I do that with GCII. I also use the computer to do other things like video editing, so I really can't leave GCII running in the background.

Right now my game graphs look like a heart monitor!

This bug has a definitive effect on gameplay! Just a few days ago, I started a new game and was about 20 minutes into the game when the game crashed while I was designing a new faster colony ship. Once I got back to the game, I designed the ship and bought one, which should have appeared next turn but due to this bug, didn't. Once I got my ship, I sent it towards an uninhabited class 15 planet a few sectors away. When the ship got close to the planet, I saw a Torian colony ship with a movement of 3 sitting 1 square from the planet, while my ship with a movement of 5 was 3 squares away. The Torians of course got the planet, but since their ship was slower and the Torians were further away, I'm sure that the ship was already en route when the game crashed. So the extra turn of movement that ship got versus my lost turn in production caused me to lose a very important planet, because the game crashed!

After that, I got extremly angry with the game, quit, played a few rounds of One Must Fall 2097 ( a great stress reliever ), and started a new game of CIV4, which still holds the crown of Best Strategy Game Ever!

I've practially stopped playing GC2 because of this save game bug, I'll only play if I can spend at least 3-4 hours with it. Unfortunately the game still might crash every now and then, but most of the time I'll accept my losses and continue, but I have quit a few games because this bug caused me to lose a planet because that colony ship or defender wasn't there when it was supposed to be. I really have sometimes won a battle, have the game crash shortly after, and then lose that battle because the enemy got there one turn too soon...

So, are there any news on this ? I believe it's still on the bugs list, but put right at the bottom, and will never get fixed ?

Too bad for me, then. I guess I'll just have to keep away from playing the game, in order not to get angered by a bug that's been known since before day one, but hasn't yet and might never be fixed.

Anyone really believe this is a bug? -- Come on -- they just don't want you replaying turns to get an outcome you like. Problem is you cann't save/load a game without lossing game integrity and the game does crash occassionally. And a game can take me a week or so to play on Gigantic map --
so have to minimize using contoll-alt-delete and leave comp on.
Thanks developers! -- game is great -- otherwise wouldn't put up with it.

ps bug -- no way -- if it was, they would have it fixed in 5 minutes if they could do it in 5 minutes; 10 minutes if they could do it in 10 minutes ....
etc

The problem with the "they just don't want you taking advantage of saved turns" theory is that, as people have pointed out, the bug itself can be used as a player exploit. Want to make a planetary invasion go down a little easier? Just keep saving and reloading while your invasion fleet is on the way, so that the AI won't be able to complete that Orbital Fleet Manager it's building on the target planet. Want to get the drop on the AI in exploration? Rush-build a bunch of scouts early in the game and then keep saving and reloading to freeze everyone's production in place while you thoroughly explore everything in range.

It's a pretty fundamental feature of standard gameplay that "Save" and "Load" are supposed to be perfect mirrors of each other; the idea that saving a game should be a lossy operation is just crazy.

Anyone really believe this is a bug? -- Come on -- they just don't want you replaying turns to get an outcome you like. Problem is you cann't save/load a game without lossing game integrity and the game does crash occassionally. And a game can take me a week or so to play on Gigantic map -- so have to minimize using contoll-alt-delete and leave comp on. Thanks developers! -- game is great -- otherwise wouldn't put up with it. ps bug -- no way -- if it was, they would have it fixed in 5 minutes if they could do it in 5 minutes; 10 minutes if they could do it in 10 minutes .... etc

Kblore, you just might want to read response #2 by Kosty. Follow the link, too.

Of course your post has made the developers over at Civilization IV realize they need to incorporate a save game penalty like GalCiv2. In fact, every maker of turn based strategy games has come to the same conclusion:

"It is more important to punish those (few) who would use a functional load/save feature to exploit rather than to accomodate those (many) who can't play the game until completion or minimize the game while not playing."

I hope you have a good sense of humor. I do, and your post made me laugh. I hope my post makes you laugh, too.

I do have a sense of humor about this. I'm just an old man set in my ways. And this is just really an annoying issue to me. I'll probably mainly play suicidal games on gigantic maps with 9 opponents that'll take me a week or so to play. So not being able to save/load without affecting the integrity of the game is a real pain. During the last game, I had a power surge ( from power co ) that rebooted my comp. When i loaded my last save, the Dregin ( misspelled prob ), declared war on me when i loaded -- they hadn't declared war before i reloaded and I had been a turn or 2 pass where i had to reload. Of course no problem, just wiped em out.

Definitely agree with post# 15 by Ray too -- there are a lot of exploits that are possible with this feature.

Also i play on the couch with the keyboard in my lap and am constantly moving the keyboard around, I have accidentally hit a key which caused me to end a turn early.

There are other things they can put into the game to discourage reloading and replaying turns -- Albiet it takes a little imagination and hard work and a little bit of program space. Have noticed it in some other games i have played.

WOWwwwwwwww, Sid Meier's group has noticed me, I AM HONORED!

This bug has been fixed in our code for 1.3.

Yay!

This bug has been fixed in our code for 1.3.

The last major bug is dead. Long live Stardock!

When is 1.3 coming out?

Finally; but i wouldn't give em too many kudo's. They're probably reacting to players taking advantage of the feature. I can see where it would be really advantageous, especially for a strategy like I like to play. Notice i call it a feature not a bug -- and i wouldn't consider it cheating to use it to one's advantage. ( they've done 2 updates without changing it after all ).

Excellent! Now I can start playing again. Hopefully we'll get a beta soon

Thanks for having fixed it. Now, when will the next beta be released ?