Note, this wouldn't be the place to discuss potential design changes or disagreements about game mechanics, but solely a place to list things that are (probably) not working as designed, or which work poorly. If you've a bug or problem you want added to the list, just make a post in this thread about the exact nature of the bug/problem. If it's something more convoluted, please link to the thread where you've reported and explained it; try to reproduce the problem and upload a save game if possible.
It's best only to have bugs and issues here that everyone (can) experience, since some of the problems people have may be exclusive to them alone, in which case the issue is usually on their end. That's why I'd rather keep game crashes and such out of this, since the causes for those can be varied and different in each case.
Updated for 1.9.0.3
Gameplay-related bugs:
- Planets changing ownership will cause space ports to blow up. Thread. (Probably WAD from the old days, but maybe needs reconsidering now?)
Undesired ship behavior:
- Civilian - Civilian ships may not be checking if their destination is occupied by enemies, leading to large amounts of suicide runs. Thread.
- Ships will not always obey 'standoff vs stronger' stance, or have trouble calculating enemy strength. Thread. Thread.
- Ships with tractor beams will pull space monsters into melee-fights, leading to them needlessly taking damage. Thread.
- Resupply ships will sometimes get distracted and attack enemies. Thread. (Change default attack weaker stance to standoff?)
- Construction ships will flee upon seeing an enemy even if the danger is minuscule, making construction in busy star systems difficult. (Change default flee stance to when attacked?)
- Construction ships that flee from an enemy during a construction job will forget about that job entirely.
- Fleets or ships with a 'patrol' command will continue to do so until they automatically go to refuel and/or repair. The patrol command will then be lost. (Have them remember a player-given patrol command?)
- Fleets or ships with a 'patrol' command will circle their designated patrol target. While this is WAD, it wastes fuel and provides no real benefit from simply orbiting the target in a stationary fashion instead. (Have the patrol command act like a 'move to' order just with an extra condition that returns them to that spot after having engaged enemies?)
- It can be difficult to stop fighters from attacking potential boarding targets. Thread.
User interface problems:
- General - The game will respond to mouse clicks even when the game window is in the background, i.e. not 'active'.
- Design window - The entire design window could use a good workover. Perhaps most pressing is a single-click function to remove all components of a specific type from a design.
- Design window - Some components, such as the Railgun, have descriptions that continue on past the component info tab's limit.
- General - Sometimes it can be very difficult, or even impossible, to select or attack a small planet under a large space station.
- Pirate - Toolbar - Building regular, non-pirate planetary facilities through the lower-left toolbar does not appear to be possible once you've gained complete ownership over a planet. It's possible using the Colony window however.
- Mission list - The pirate mission list is very cumbersome and could use improvements; scrolling is a hassle when there are a lot of missions.
- Pirate - Diplomacy window - With a lot of pirate bases, your own page in the diplomacy window will become so crowded that the text will be cut off.
Gameplay balance issues:
- Pirate - Having a 'protection agreement' with a standard empire lets you build space stations in their territory at will. This can be exploited for financial gain. (Prevent pirate empires from being able to sell stations?)
- Pirate - Space ports above an empire's or an independent's colony do not appear to have any influence on control%. (Working as designed?)
Autodesigner issues:
- The autodesigner will sometimes prefer lower tech level weapons. Thread.
Diplomacy issues:
- The large number of pirate factions can lead to message spam about protection fees( when playing a normal empire) or truce agreements( when playing a pirate empire). Thread.
Sound and music issues:
- In-game sound volume does not affect sounds played relating to interface clicks. Thread.
Graphics issues:
- Planets/gas giants with rings will stop being drawn before they're "out of sight", leading to a pop-out and pop-in effect when panning.
Game issues:
- The game's autosave feature does not reset upon loading or starting a game. Thread.