Oribtal Terraform

eliminates terraformable tiles on captured planets

from GalCiv2 Forums
I haven't been playing GalCiv2 very long and have only had an occasion to use Orbital Terraforming twice. However both times, it seems to have broken the program. What I mean is, it terraforms all my planets just fine. However, any planet that I capture after building the orbital terraforming loses all its un-terraformed squares. (for example, I click on a planet before I invade, I see that the Torians haven't built Soil Enhancers or anything to increase the number of available squares, yet they have built on all of the normally available squares.



After I invade that planet and capture it, or more often win it over due to influence, those extra un-developed squares disappear. When I take over a class 15 planet that still has undeveloped yellow and orange squares (I don't see the red ones, but I know the torians don't have terraforming) I should have between 3 and 6 extra new green squares. Instead, those squares disappear entirely. only the squares that were developed (or undeveloped but green on the planet viewer the turn before takeover) show up on the planet, the yellow and orange squares disappear entirely.

This only happens after I build the orbital terraforming "achievement". Before the achievement those additional squares are there for me to terraform by hand. I tried saving the game when that happened so I could provide you screenshots, but I accidentally saved over it.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This has been a problem for quite some time. I know it's been present since v1.2 and is still broken in v1.4 which is the latest version that I've played. What version of the game are you playing?

Actually the Orbital Terraformer (or Orbital Tile Destroyer as I call it) works the same as being neutral. They both work just fine on planets that you colonize but on any planet that you didn't colonize you lose any tile that could be terraformed (or otherwise improved). However, you do seem to gain the tiles that have previously been terraformed or are currently in process of being terraformed.

The simple solution is to not build the Orbital Terraformer. Also I make an effort to not conquer the planet it's on until late in the game and pretty much everything's already terraformed. If you're neutral then there's not much you can do about it.


Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It works properly in the latest DA version (1.5X3, build .072).
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It works properly in the latest DA version (1.5X3, build .072).

Good to know. Thanks.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Interestingly, it's still broken in DL 1.5. Or, at least, the part of the bug that fails to upgrade the PQ of a planet on your own planets when you build the Terra Destroyer. I find it very odd that it works in DA and doesn't in DL.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I didn't even consider the fact that the PQ of conquered planets don't jive with the number of buildable tiles on the planet as part of this same issue. AFAIK I've seen the PQ be far off (as much as 50%) in both directions. I don't think this is totally the fault of the terraformable tiles issues, because AFAIK this also regularly occurs even when I'm not playing neutral and I don't have the Orbital Tile Destroyer. I had always thought that this was related to having a different PQ racial bonus than whoever first colonized the planet.

It's certainly annoying to have a planet with 16 buildable tiles only counted as a PQ10 and not get the 10% high PQ planet morale bonus, but it's certainly far more annoying to have a planet that's listed as a PQ16 (and does get the high PQ morale bonus) but only has 8 buildable tiles. There really doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have never noticed that it did that. That blows big hairy ones. By the time I have researched the thing my current planets have been mostly terraformed anyway. I have found it to be a waste of time.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I didn't even consider the fact that the PQ of conquered planets don't jive with the number of buildable tiles on the planet as part of this same issue. AFAIK I've seen the PQ be far off (as much as 50%) in both directions. I don't think this is totally the fault of the terraformable tiles issues, because AFAIK this also regularly occurs even when I'm not playing neutral and I don't have the Orbital Tile Destroyer. I had always thought that this was related to having a different PQ racial bonus than whoever first colonized the planet.

It's certainly annoying to have a planet with 16 buildable tiles only counted as a PQ10 and not get the 10% high PQ planet morale bonus, but it's certainly far more annoying to have a planet that's listed as a PQ16 (and does get the high PQ morale bonus) but only has 8 buildable tiles. There really doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason.


I did check out this one in my last DL 1.5 game. I wrote down the PQ of several planets before building the Orbital Terraformer. Bought it, next turn and back to the planets. All the tiles were converted, none of the planets had their PQ change. Reload the game, buy the tile terraform upgrade, and the PQs instantly changed. I did the same check in DA. I didn't check a huge list of planets, but the handful I checked appeared to be working correctly. Since this got fixed at the same time as the DA fix for losing tiles, I assumed they were tied together.

I haven't noticed any planets being significantly off on the PQ vs tiles like I used to see regularly in DL.

The new cute DA bug on tiles I have found though...Sometimes planets have terraformable tiles that you can't see. If you put a build on every visible tile and pick a tile to upgrade, it will swap you over to the next "buildable" square which will be one of the normal non-buildable tiles with a terraforming upgrade option. I'm not sure exactly what triggers this, but I think it's triggered when you jump a terraforming upgrade (like getting terraforming before habitat improvement)

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think it's sad that bugs like these, old and documented, didn't get fixed. The team being so solicit and all. Of course, new features are more fun to implement, and give more visibility and profit, but still. I guess it's part of the "release now, patch later" doctrine. Or maybe it was just reported in the wrong place, the Bug Reports forum...