Construction Queuing Glitch

[Starke]

Hello to the forums, I've been meaning to post here for some time, and I think I'll start with a bug I have to report.

During a game of DW as a Classic Empire in the Classic Age one of my Mining Stations was destroyed by a spy from an empire I was at war with. (EDIT2: this is incorrect! I tried loading the save again and this time it happened several days before the sabotage. It appears the timing varies, and I can't tie it to any specific event)From this point onward, clicking on any planet/moon/etc. where I should be able to queue a Mining Station has that button (second button from left) greyed out, displaying the message NOT ENOUGH MONEY, despite abundant funds in the bank.

I had planned to continue the game using the Expansion Planner to build Mining Stations, but I encountered another bug, likely caused by the same thing, that makes my constructors unable to finish construction: most of the way through building, they hit a shortage of Steel. This has happened very sporadically to me in other games, and I found stopped them and right-clicking on the partially completed station to issue a Repair order would snap the Constructor out of it, sending it to pick up the needed Steel. However, when I tried this the Constructor stayed and continued trying to fruitlessly repair. This occurred with both construction tasks already started at the time of the sabotage and newly initiated ones.

I can provide a save file if you tell me the best method to do so. Also, this occurred with the stock release version of the game - from the forums I just learned there is a patch out. I will edit/reply once I've tried to reproduce the bug with the patch.

EDIT: It looks like old saves cannot be played using the new patch. (right? i see the old saved games folder as well, but I assume there's a new one for a reason) Please tell me if this bug has already been reported/fixed, otherwise I'll report back if I encounter this again.

EDIT3: Running the old save file with the patch does not fix the issue - as I guessed old saves are not effected by new patches.

[Erik Rutins]

Hello, thanks for the report.

Do you have a save file that shows the first issue you reported? Did you check to see if your private sector had enough money as well, or only your state?

The issue with the shortage of steel is not a bug based on your report, unless it happens when the constructor still has Steel. If clicking repair sends it to get Steel, that it not a bug. If you had not interrupted it, a freighter would have brought more Steel to it eventually.

Please upload a save file per the instructions here and let us know what the file name is.

tm.asp?m=2415085

Old files will work fine in the new update, it's just that each version has its own save file folder.

Regards,

- Erik

[elliotg]

Hi Starke

It sounds like all of these issues are actually working as designed.

The message about not having enough money to build a mining station is due to your *private* economy not having enough funds. For normal empires (not pirates) your private economy pays for mining stations.

As pointed out by Erik, your second issue where a constructor had a Steel shortage would have been alleviated by a freighter delivering the steel.

Thanks
Elliot

[zonks]

I'm not sure if it's working as intended, last night I had a planet screaming for gold, this planet was in the same system as my capitol, my capitol had so much gold it would have been worthless on the market, yet not a single ship would deliver it, and I had many private and independent ships just sitting around my capitol with no mission.

[Starke]

Apologies for up and disappearing, RL demanded I focus on less time-intensive games that DW for awhile. =P

Firstly elliotg was completely correct, upon re-inspection my inability to build mining stations was due to my private economy being in debt. I still find what happened rather odd - I continued the game for another 2 years, and despite consistently showing a cashflow in the black to the tune of ~100k over that period, not once did it rise out of debt to even the 5k needed for a mining station. (in case you're wondering, I made frequent new saves of the game because I wanted to be able to view snapshots of the game history, possibly for an AAR. =) All of them show the high private cashflow and persistent debt)

About the constructor Steel shortage, I am now more confused. Why in blazes would a constructor leave without the required materials in the first place? =/ Anyway, I investigated my saves files and found that one constructor with a Steel shortage had tried to build a mining station for over a year and a half. One of the saves actually showed a freighter on course to the constructor, but instead of carrying Steel, it had Terallion Down and Vodkol.

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pseudo-EDIT: Disregard that last sentence. I just loaded that save and watched the freighter, and it was able to pick up a load of Terallion Down and Vodkol from supposedly incomplete mining station. I looked to see what components on the station were incomplete, and all that's left are 5 Standard Cargo Bays. Er, are mining stations supposed to be usable when technically "incomplete" but with all the core functionality online?

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I'll try and figure out how to upload to the FTP server. I'd also like to upload it elsewhere so that regular users can take a look at it, assuming the FTP server is upload-only. Also, I don't think I should upload until I actually know what oddities I've hit are actually bugs, assuming there are any. =P Any comments?