Strange warring allies situation

possible bug?

I recently had an event in DA that may be a bug. If it wasn't, I'm still pretty confused. I (the Drath) had been watching relations between two of my allies, the Altarians and the Slug People (a custom civ), slowly deteriorate over the course of a number of turns. At the beginning of a turn I received a message from the Slug People: "As your ally, we shall come to your aid against the ruthless Altarian Resistance."

Clicking the "Speak To" button, I was informed by the Slug People leader that: "We are losing this war. But, make no mistake, we hate your civilization. Your pitiful 'strategy' of attacking us, making peace and then attacking us again disgusts us."

Clicking done brought a window with the Altarian symbol and the message: The Slug People have declared war on the Altarian Resistance. As a civilization with similar ethics to our own, will you help us fight this war?

Clicking "No" brought me back to the star map. The icons in the bottom right informed me that 1) The slug people declared war on the Altarian Resistance; and 2) We declared war on the Slug People.

Thus I went from having two allies, to having them at war with each other and me at war with one of them. I'm very confused how this happened. The issues here:

1) First, the initial message from the Slug People would seem to indicate that they were defending me against the Altarians. From what I could glean, the Slug People were the only aggressors. Moreover, this message gave me the impression the Slug People wanted to remain allied.
2) I have no idea what the Slug People were taking about when they informed me they were "losing this war."
3) The "Yes" or "No" option given to me wasn't exactly clear. Presumably the "us" in "will you help us fight this war" was the Altarians; they were leaning good while the Slug People were neutral. (I was aligned good.) Also, both "Yes" and "No" seemed to have the same effect. I reloaded from a prior save and was able to get the same events to occur; choosing either option resulted in me declaring war on the Slug People. The only difference - when I chose "Yes", I was told that "Word of our attack on a civilization that we had a special treaty with has gotten out. Our reputation has suffered."

What's also interesting is that in another replay of the same save the Altarians and Slug People went to war due to a superevent; in that case, I remained allied to both.

I wouldn't find this as odd if:

- The "Yes"/"No" option resulted in me remaining allied to one civ while at war with the other, or
- I remained allied to both civs while they fought it out, and
- The dialog reflected what was going on.

I've submitted my saves and debug.err. Any suggestions here?
2,551 views 3 replies
Reply #1 Top
Well, not sure about the dialog with the slug people. That sounds like it needs some tweaking. But I'm pretty sure the reason why you declared war on them - even though you said no to assisting the Alterians - is because of the Alterian's racial bonus. Their bonus is that if attacked, races with like alignments (i.e., Good like yourself) will come to the Alterians' aid if attacked. This has happened to me also.
Reply #2 Top
Well, that would make a bit more sense. The dialog would also make a bit more sense, presuming events occurred in the proper order:

1) S.P. declare war on the Altarians; they tell me this, but have no plans on attacking me.
2) After this occurs, I automatically go to war with the S.P. This (partially) explains the odd "We are losing this war" message, as I was already at war with the S.P. by the time I spoke with them.

Still, the dialog is a bit odd, and the order of events needs to be a bit clearer. What's also still interesting is the Yes/No option. Why was I given this if I have to come to the Altarians' aid no matter what? "Yes" also seemed to make me willingly go to war with the S.P.; that might explain why I got the broken-treaty antibonus.
Reply #3 Top
I agree, but keep in mind this is still in beta. You've submitted an email to GC, so let's hope this will be addressed by release or shortly after.