Twilight of the Arnor Beta 6c

Final beta!

Published on April 16, 2008 By CariElf In GalCiv Journals

We've got a week to go and things are looking pretty good. Our list of bugs fixed since the last update is actually longer than this, but I had to cut off what was going into the update or we still wouldn't have it up. At this point, we are looking for game breakers and typos.

Brad has locked himself in a room with a large supply of Coke and junk food and is making the final changes to the AI. Well, I'm exaggerating, but he is in AI coding mode as we speak. We're doing internal testing on the campaign and the rest of the editors. Everything else is bug fixes.

It's particularly important that if you have a save game that reproduces a bug that you zip it and attach it with your report to gc2bugs@stardock.com so that we can quickly and easily reproduce it and fix it. Also include your debug.err and if applicable, a crash log from SmartException.

+ FIXED: Invisible ships bug!

+ FIXED: Bug where minor races other than special ones like the Dread Lords have no range, causing them to fill up their orbits with constructors they couldn't use and prevented them from using ships given to them.

+ FIXED: Bug where autolaunch stopped working after loading a game from within a game

+ FIXED: Bug where ascension starbase didn't create a thumbnail

+ FIXED: Bug where a ship stacked on a starbase that got destroyed got turned into a starbase

+ FIXED: Bug where the ascension crystal didn't show up in the starbase details screen

+ FIXED: Bug where the AI would design a defender with no weapons for the player. While this can be useful to the AI, it's more just annoying to the player.

+ FIXED: Bug where model view wnd tried to create a node with an empty filename

+ FIXED: Option for AI to design ships for player is now on by default since the core ships are disabled. However, you may need to turn it on manually if you've been playing the betas since this option was added.

+ FIXED: Made option for AI to design ships for player ON by default

+ FIXED: Added code so that if your orbit slots are full but you have auto launch on, it will build the ship anyway and auto launch it

+ FIXED: Made it so that ships that require the ImpossibleTech won't show up in the stuff that the tech unlocks

+ FIXED: Made it so that the survey ship has the tech requirement ImpossibleTech so it won't show up in the available ship list, but everyone including the Arceans will get a fully powered version of the survey ship at the beginning of the game.

+ FIXED: A logic error in the code that checks to see if the AI will go to war to defend its friends

+ FIXED: Added Plague Cure and Disease Cure to the Yor's tech tree, and set them as starting techs in the race config. The techs are also set as non-tradable and non-stealable and have robot-race specific displaynames and descriptions (ie. they are called "Antivirus Software" and "Firewalls"). This will prevent the Yor from spending money on researching the techs and allows us to removed the hard-coded check that previously checked to see if the race was the Yor in the code that referenced the Plague and Disease events.

+ FIXED: Graphical glitch where engine areas of ships would disappear after adding additional engines to the ship in the ship designer

+ TWEAK: If created in a random event, the Dread Lords now instant terraform their planet and start with a scout in orbit

+ TWEAK: Sped up the function that checks for first contact between civs which should help reduce the turn time in late game

Comments (Page 2)

DivineWrath

on Apr 16, 2008

I'm sure that Brad will be posting as he makes his changes since he likes to do that, but I'll mention it to him.

Thanks. He has already posted a new one. I'm reading the newest after I post this reply.

I've been having a lot of problems with minimizing the game and then it crashing when I try to return...anyone else had that problem? Chances of it being looked at...?

I've ran into that problem as well. I've been forgeting to report it in.

I just checked to see if I have a save file that causes the crash, and I noticed something. If you load a game 2 times, that is load 2 save files, the bug seems to cause the game to crash while returning from minimizing. My guess is this bug is somehow related to saving and loading a game.

It however doesn't seem to occur unless the game has been played long enough. New games on first turn doesn't appear to affect this bug. I'll send in my EndGameSave.sav file since it appears to do the job.

FireBender

on Apr 17, 2008

Could you give me a little more detailed instructions on how to reproduce this? I'm not exactly following you.

Sure thing.

Select any opponent AI's planet and go into the domestic policy screen without un-selecting that planet. Adjust any slider in the economic management window and if you look at the UI, you will see that that world's buildbar(little bar at the bottom that tells which ship is being built and how long) will show how many turns left until the next ship is built on that world. No espionage needed.

It isn't particularly game-breaking or even that advantageous but in certain situations(especially 13 turn zero year wins) it can help. I've known this to work in both DL and DA, just curious if it made it into TA.

CariElf

on Apr 17, 2008

I've been having a lot of problems with minimizing the game and then it crashing when I try to return...anyone else had that problem? Chances of it being looked at...?

Are you getting a little popup that says Invalid Call? If so, that means that the device was unable to reset itself after the alt-tab, which is usually due to a leaked resource. I've been having trouble with that as well when running in fullscreen and we've been trying to track it down, but the same steps that reproduce it on my system don't reproduce it on another one. What video card do you have? In the meantime, if you don't want to deal with it, run in a fullscreen window. Just uncheck fullscreen from the options menu and set the resolution to be the same as your desktop resolution.

pndrev

on Apr 17, 2008

Actually, I get crashes when I switch to a different app while TA is still loading. If I wait until loading of a savegame is complete, everything works fine.

I'll see if I can get a reliable crash log the next time it happens.

CariElf

on Apr 17, 2008

If you click an AI's planet and go into the domestic policy screen and adjust any slider, you can see that planet's buildbar and adjust your strategy accordingly.

I've fixed this, now that I understand what you were doing.

Actually, I get crashes when I switch to a different app while TA is still loading. If I wait until loading of a savegame is complete, everything works fine.I'll see if I can get a reliable crash log the next time it happens.

That happens because the 3D device gets messed up if it's trying to create a graphic when you Alt-Tab away and it has to reset the device. I'm not sure what to do to fix it, so I recommend not alt-tabbing away when you're loading unless you are running in windowed mode.

pndrev

on Apr 17, 2008

I know, I just forget that every once in a while. Mostly because GalCiv runs on one monitor and while loading I often start reading the forums on the other one.

A click on a link without thinking... -> Focus to browser -> GalCiv goes boom.

PS: Cari, do you know if boogiebac received my response to the email he sent yesterday? (cc to you) My mail client was acting strange yesterday and I don't want to spam you guys by resending the mail.

rls669

on Apr 17, 2008

I got one of those, no response here either yet. I wouldn't worry about it

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