Legacy bugs

Things that may have slipped through the cracks

I don't know if there is another thread like this but I was posting on another thread and ran across a bug that thas been there since the beginning as far as I can tell. I have never mentioned on this forum because I am so used to it that i had forgotten about it.

I was wanting to start a thread where we can talk about such bugs as we run across them and give the devs a list of issues that we have run across so often that we have gotten used to them.

The particular legacy bug that I ran across is the influence on reload bug. On the first turn of any game, your civilization has no influence area at all. The influence 'border' only appears on the second turn.

Unfortunately, this problem repeats itself every time you reload your game. The infulence is significantly smaller than it should be and stays reduced until you or another empire does something to change the influence level and all influence levels are recalculated.

As I said, this bug has been there since DL 1.0 and has never been addressed. Now to give the Devs their due, there used to be a lot more wrong values on reload, and all of them have been fixed, leaving only this little bug. The only reason it bothers me is because of my style of play. I like playing gigantic empire building games where I seldom get into combat and conquer the galaxy through economics and influence. Having the wrong (lower) inflence levels upon reload really slows culture flipping AI planets, especially later in the game where turns can take me an hour or more. At that point in the game I usually only have enough time for 1-3 turns at a time, which makes it nearly impossible to culture flip.

That brings me to another related bug. Upon reload, no planets are near revolt. The whole flipping process begins anew every time I reload. Just makes the whole influence conquest that much harder.

Scincerely,

Scintor@aol.com

PS: I really wanted the thread to be a list of legacy bugs, not just a discussion of the ones I brought up. Anyone else know of any others?

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

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The particular legacy bug that I ran across is the influence on reload bug. On the first turn of any game, your civilization has no influence area at all. The influence 'border' onlt appears on the second turn.

AFAIK, that's not a bug so much as the result of compromise between save file size and re-load speed. The game would either have to store a large array of coordinate data or take the time to do the calculations as part of a re-load.

On my older machine, I was ready to accept this even though I also like to try influence wins on gigantic maps. I admire the deep support for older machines Stardock attempts, but maybe it is time to revisit this one.

Also, I've never seen a game start with "no influence area at all." It is just way smaller than it ought to be for strong empires and perhaps a bit large in spots for weak neighbors.

Upon reload, no planets are near revolt.

I'm pretty sure this one is a graphics problem b/c I've seen culture flips on processing the first turn after a reload. I've both lost and gained worlds that way.

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As of DA, the lack of influence recalc on reload became a bug.

If you are going to have mechanics that rely on it, then a reload shouldn't affect it.

Example. I'm playing the Yor and I have a starbase with a few ships barely holding on. The 3 speed limit is slowing the waves of attackers enough that I can rotate ships in. On reload, I lose the influence area. Within a turn my few ships are completely swarmed and I lose the starbase.

And as far as saving file space... Come on. It's 2008 and it's a file that's less than 20 megs. Who cares?

Or if file space is so vital, why not recalculate it on the reload?

I swear it's like they're trying to support a pentium 1. Just do it. Same with redesigning ships. I'd gladly have the game take an extra 2-3 seconds per turn for a better game.

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I can't agree. The calculations are just off the first time for some reason. The influence is not saved, it is calculated. Every time it is calculated, it comes up the same, except for the first turn of a new game and upon reload. I know it only takes my computer about 5 seconds on a gigantic game to recalculate the influence borders (I have a really slow machine which takes about 20 minutes to load a game.)

Anyway, It has to make the calculation anyway, it just needs to make the right one.

Next time you start a new game, look closely before hitting the turn button. There is no influence border!

Scincerely,

Scintor@aol.com

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I'm pretty sure this one is a graphics problem b/c I've seen culture flips on processing the first turn after a reload. I've both lost and gained worlds that way.

Actually, there is a difference. When your cultural influence excedes 4.0 times it's own culture, it does not automatically gain the skull and crossbones. There is a percentage chance that it does. Once it does, there is a percentage chance that it will flip.
I have had planets flip on the first turn, but the chances are much lower than on subsequent turns. I have also had worlds that have 10+ cultural ratios not get the skull and cxrossbones for several turns after a reload.

Scincerely,

Scintor@aol.com

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