The majority of bugs in this game I consider cosmetic. There's a way to mod around the problem and "fix" the game to my enjoyment. Except for these two, and they've been around for a long time. Like a splinter, I'd like to see them removed, so again I'm bringing them to the attention of the folks at Stardock.
Bug #1: The Save Game bug where no production happens after the first turn when saving. This sucker has been around since I started playing, and numerous patches later seems to be largely ignored. Maybe stardock doesn't think it's worth the time to figure this one out, but it's very noticeable, and annoying. It's gotten so that if I HAVE to save a game in the middle of a war I don't particularly feel like going back to that game again because now it's "screwed up". Kinda like playing a game of pool in the bar and your opponent keeps "accidentally" knocking the balls around the table with his hand while taking a shot. For those who play long games that take a while to complete each turn, I feel for you, though I don't have that kind of patience myself. My workaround for this has always been to save the game when ship movement doesn't matter that much, and I'm not involved in any wars.
Bug #2: The Lost Production bug that occurs if you gain a technology for an improvement upgrade the turn before the more basic improvement is built. When this happens, the new improvement will automatically finish and NO production or research boosts occur. If you destroy that building, you will lose the industry points it gave, making you now have LESS industry than what you started with. This is not cosmetic, and I understand the economy system completely. It is repeatable. Take a new planet, build a basic factory. The turn before it finishes, research or trade for Xeno Industry. You had 12 industry points before, and guess what, you now have a new factory and still have 12 industry points. Now, upgrade that building into something else, or just decommision it. You now have 2 count em, 2 industry points to work with. Even if you don't destroy the building you still have only the basic 12 points you started with and now 1 less tile to use after all that building time, AND you still pay the maintenance for the factory, what a slap in the face.
In practice, once I became aware of this bug I'm now pretty careful to check what buildings I have that are going to be finished soon before I finish research on the upgrade, and I'll switch research momentarily if I think this bug might hit me. I'm guessing though, that the ai doesn't do this, and it might affect them as well, which means I'm getting an advantage by NOT letting new research nerf my planets. Sigh, whatever. I'd just like to see it gone, and there's no way for me to mod this one out except by removing the auto-upgrade tags from the improvements, and that's a nice feature I'd rather keep.
These aren't game breaking, they won't crash my computer, but that doesn't mean it's ok to leave these in. They've been around way too long to still be here when the new expansion comes out, and it'd be nice to see them addressed within the next patch or two. Thanks.
