Enemy Empire Reserved All My Steel

[weblife]

Hello

I think I have discovered a bug.

I had a neighboring empire that I was trading with, however due to his proximity we ended up going to war.

However, the resources that his freighters had reserved in my colonies were not "released" when the war broke out. They remained reserved.

I then went to Empire Policies and tried to turn off "Trade with other empires", with no effect.

I would suggest the following:

1. Make a check upon any declaration of war or trade embargo, and cancel any inbound freighters of the opposing party and remove any reservations by that empire.

2. When the toggle "Trade with other empires" is turned off, all reserved goods should be released and foreign freighters sent packing.

I am not sure if "Trade with other empires" is for controlling outbound cargo only, or if it is both directions. - If it is both directions, toggling it off should also make Free Trade agreements break I suppose.

Finally I want to express how great a game I think this is! [:)]

I have never before seen a game that manages to both be very advanced while not bogging down in details.

If I could change anything it would be a few quirks in the interface and AI priority logging. [:)]

It would be nice if the dropdown for dispatching an Ambassador showed the Empire Name instead of the colony name he is sent to.

It would also be nice if it was possible to assign Ambassadors directly from the diplomacy list.

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: weblife

It would be nice if the dropdown for dispatching an Ambassador showed the Empire Name instead of the colony name he is sent to.

It would also be nice if it was possible to assign Ambassadors directly from the diplomacy list.

Hello Weblife, and welcome to the forums! [:)]

Very good suggestions you have made. I suggest your place them in the Master Wishlist thread.

Currently, in the drop-down for assigning a location for the Ambassador, the race's flag is shown to reserve space for the location's name and that is what most players use to identify the intended races' homeworld. But there might be something Elliot can do in the next beta that adds the homeworld's name.

[weblife]

Thank you for the reply.

Where do I find the Master Wishlist? - I have not been able to locate it by using the search feature or browsing the forums. - Of course I may have overlooked it.

I did notice the little flag icons, but unless the Ambassador can actually risk dying if the actual colony he is sent to is invaded (perhaps by a third party enemy empire), then it seems kinda irrelevant to know where he is compared to just knowing which Empire he is visiting.

I'm collecting a little scrapbook of quirks that I'll be sure to format and post at some time, so you'll see me around.

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: weblife

Thank you for the reply.

Where do I find the Master Wishlist? - I have not been able to locate it by using the search feature or browsing the forums. - Of course I may have overlooked it.

You're welcome!

You'll find it here --> http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2418281

[weblife]

Oh bugger. I completely missed the *main* forum, I just needed to scroll down! [:'(]

Thanks!

[Kayoz]

I'm not sure what ehsumrell1 is on about. He is misleading or misinforming you.

Erik quite specifically stated that the "master wishlist thread" is not for bug reports.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

...any kind of improvement or new feature request, not bug reports

(emphasis mine)

This is a defect. A bug. It does not belong on that list. It belongs here.

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: Kayoz

I'm not sure what ehsumrell1 is on about. He is misleading or misinforming you.

Erik quite specifically stated that the "master wishlist thread" is not for bug reports.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

...any kind of improvement or new feature request, not bug reports

(emphasis mine)

This is a defect. A bug. It does not belong on that list. It belongs here.

Kayoz, this is the part of Weblife's post that my suggestion referred to.

"I would suggest the following:

1. Make a check upon any declaration of war or trade embargo, and cancel any inbound freighters of the opposing party and remove any reservations by that empire.

2. When the toggle "Trade with other empires" is turned off, all reserved goods should be released and foreign freighters sent packing.

It would be nice if the dropdown for dispatching an Ambassador showed the Empire Name instead of the colony name he is sent to.

It would also be nice if it was possible to assign Ambassadors directly from the diplomacy list."

It is my belief that those statements fit better in the Master Wishlist thread than the Tech Support
one. They would be game improvements, wouldn't they? So how am I 'misleading' him? Oh, wait a second, nevermind, I forgot who I was dealing with.
I'm not going to be a catalyst for you to start another flame war. Sorry, find someone else. [:-]

[Kayoz]

ehsumrell1 -

ORIGINAL: weblife
1. Make a check upon any declaration of war or trade embargo, and cancel any inbound freighters of the opposing party and remove any reservations by that empire.

2. When the toggle "Trade with other empires" is turned off, all reserved goods should be released and foreign freighters sent packing.

His suggestion is that the trade system properly reflect trade between warring nations or those nations that are dealing with a nation under embargo. When an oil embargo was placed against Iraq, they did not allow ships in transit to load up and sail on. They did not allow those trading with Iraq to complete their contracts before honouring the embargo. When at war, trade between warring nations ceases - they don't allow merchants to complete their shipping contracts, or ships in transit to pick up their goods, nor do they let goods of the other nation to gather dust on the docks - they're seized by the state or otherwise sold on.

What weblife suggests is simply that the trade mechanics accurately reflect what "normal" conflicts do. That is called a "bug report" - unexpected or unintended behaviour. Unless, or course, your position is that the current system is sensible and that you agree with it (that may be, of course, your perception).

As for the ambassador assignment giving the empire name, I believe that is also a defect with the current implementation. The ambassador assignment interface shows you the planet name and race flag. The planet name is rather useless to a player, since there can be only one capital and it is clearly shown on the map - and the player has no choice as to where to send the ambassador; so displaying this information gives no useful information to the player. weblife is correct in stating that it should display the race name instead of the planet name. That makes it a bug report as well.

What Erik wants in that thread, are suggestions that expand on or improve on the game. While fixing a bug may be deemed an improvement, I'll leave it to you to figure out the difference - a task you could clearly benefit from.

[weblife]

A followup on the original problem:

My own freighters also maintain reserved materials in the enemy empire, and they happily throw themselves into the enemy's waiting guns in the vain hope that they can get to and grab the reserved resources in the now enemy bases.

Being that most of my trade is with that empire, I fear I may lose an entire generation's worth of freighters, and they are being rebuilt in droves, taking up my shipyards and materials that should be building warships!

All of these follow-on effects would be nullified if a state of war correctly removed all existing reservations between the warring parties.

[Fishers of Men]

+1 to this improvement. I thought this situation was happening but did not do all the investigation you did, Weblife.