Can anyone tell me whats wrong with this picture.

Even after figuring out that your link was supposed to be
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/nmikey84/vwp?.dir=/Public&.src=ph&.dnm=colony.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/nmikey84/lst%3f%26.dir=/Public%26.src=ph%26.view=t
I can't read the text within the screenshot - try higher resolution (if you are worried about file size, only send the part of the screen you are interested in showing us)

~SDC~

Hmm, my attempt to pass the URL was no more successful... lets try again:


~SDC~

And again:
"http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/nmikey84/vwp?.dir=/Public&.src=ph&.dnm=colony.jpg&.view=t"

~SDC~

Hmmm - anyone know the syntax to force acceptance of the whole URL (or just display as text)? It is taking up to the question mark in the URL, and leaving the query string out. (I tried quotes, chevrons and brackets...)
(http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/nmikey84/vwp?.dir=/Public&.src=ph&.dnm=colony.jpg&.view=t)

~SDC~

See if this works, go here

http://photos.yahoo.com/nmikey84

Click the public folder icon
Click the picture.

They don't have unlimited range, but some bug is allowing them to occasionally end up way far away from where they should be. It's rare thankfully, but can be very disruptive when it happens. I have a save game where the Yor planeted a colony about 9 sectors west of their nearest planet, and had to theoretically bypass about 4 yellow suns to do so. I say 'theoretically' because I'm not sure the ships are actually travelling, this might be some sort of bug that is bypassing normal game mechanics.

I know the AI's don't have unlimited range colony ships in general, because being as they know where all the yellow stars are they'd make colony ships until all the yellow stars were taken. But I've seen small clusters with unclaimed yellow suns well into the end-game phase on a gigantic galaxy. No way that would happen if all the AI's had no range limit on their colony ships. I also see the AI putting down starbases as refueling centers.

This bug also effects the Hero-type ships of the AI, a couple of times I've seen a race's surveyor -way- away from it's home world, and in the first few turns of a game at that. So there is some bug here, and it's just especially annoying with colony ships.

In my experience, the first colony ship of any AI race will nearly always have unlimited range, so you just have to pray it's not being sent in your direction. Survey ships are a different matter as they often get caught up in wormholes.

But even going through a wormhole they don't get the out-of-range issue that a human would if sent that distance. And I don't think it's a wormhole doing it, I think the initial values for these first units aren't being set right by the code, including location and other things.

For me, I know that things are a bit weird-looking when I hit ctrl-n to create a new map, then straighten out once I start moving things. Could it be that that initial ships for the AI are created and given ranges based on the previous start? I've seen this bug, but I usually restart a few times before I am happy with my start. Just a thought.

One of the recent patches addressed a problem with Torians and massive early constructor production; could they have been using starbases to extend their range?

As for alien Hero-type ships being far from home, don't forget wormholes; I've had them take my Hero across a gigantic galaxy, so I'd think their ships will go a'travellin' too.

I was wondering this too, although I have only seen it woth the Yor.

In my last 3 games they have have one colony 3 sectors away from anything else of theirs.

I think Bralex might be on to something. I know that when I ctrl-N a game that when the new one pops up my range grid for the colony ship isn't in the current ship's location but instead is in the previous game's location. It didn't give it the ability to move there (I tried it), but it does indicate that not all data is being reset when you ctrl-N. It might be good then to exit to the main menu and restart from there and see if the range issue shows up under those circumstances.

Sorry I didn't make the link clearer (thanx Turtlewacks for doing so). I did "ctrl+n" to that map, so it could be the bug Bralex is talking about. Or like Vorlin Varelse said (and as I still believe), that it is a bug that gives the aliens first colony ship unlimited range. Whatever the case does anyone know if a future patch is on the way? Since my favorite type of map is one with a small/medium cluster of stars with a good distance put between me and everyone else. And this bug is obviously messing up those maps. Thank You.

Several people have suggested wormholes as the problem, remember that only survey-type ships can hit those, we are seeing colony ships doing it. I've seen this with the most recent patch (1.03.56 or whatever the exact decimal is!). The times I've seen it have been too early for starbases to be effective - remember that constructors move at 1 until impulse drive - the initial ship would have to wait until a starbase got built in a useful position, which a) would take a long time and represent a really messed up AI subroutine since the ship seems to pass other habitable planets on it's way...

~SDC~