Autopilot =loss of movement points?

If all ships not on autopilot are done making their moves, the ships on autopilot will then automatically make their moves. This happens before you hit the turn button. If you take a ship off autopilot before moving all ships not on autopilot, there should be the proper number of moves left (had to do that many times during wars )

Another thing that seems to confuse people is that when you put a ship on autopilot the ship moves its remaining moves immediately, then on the next turn it doesn't move until all of the ships NOT on autopilot have been handled by the player. People have, at times, confused this for ships on autopilot not moving.

There is, however, still a bug in the handling of ships on autopilot. If a ship's destination changes, sometimes the ship will no longer move. This becomes appearant if you send a number of constructors to a tile (particularly in a distant sector, such as a galactic resource or an enemy controled sector) and you build a star base with the first constructor that arrives. The other constructors with the same target will no longer move unless you take them off autopilot and redesignate the target. This has been reported a number of times, and I think Midnight Louie recently started a new thread specificying that the bug still exists on 4D.

Flemming,

Is it possible you have found a bug with autopilot movement or how autoturn acts when "skip ships with moves left" is on?

Intuitively, how it should work is: when all ships not on autopilot have been handled by the player ships on autopilot are supposed to be moved automatically. When all of the ships on autopilot have been moved the game goes into the next turn phase IF autoturn is on, otherwise it stops and waits for the player to press the "turn" button.

Ships on autopilot that reach their destination before expending all of their move points are supposed to be presented to the player. If autoturn is on they should be presented to the player BEFORE the game goes into the next turn phasen. The player is supposed to have an oportuninty to use the remaining move points at that time.

If the player presses the "turn" button at any time, ships not on autopilot with moves left are skipped if the option "skip ships with moves left" is on and proceed to the autopilot phase. If "skip ships with move points" is off, next turn is supposed to display each ship with move points left and change the "next" button to a "skip" button. If the player uses up the move points or uses up the ship (loses a battle, colonizes a planet, or conquers a planet) or presses the "skip" button then the game is supposed to look for the next ship with move points left.

If "skip ships with move points left" is on, then pressing the turn button at any time will do just that. Ships not on autopilot with moves left will e skipped, ships on autopilot will be moved but what happens to those reaching their destination I am unsure of. I would expect them to be presented to the player, but Cari or Brad may have to clarify that, and that may be where a bug is.

The interaction of all of these options and the multithreading of the game makes this rather coomplex. Hence, careful testing of all of these options and operations is needed to determine just what really is happening. I am certain that

Flemming,

Is it possible you have found a bug with autopilot movement or how autoturn acts when "skip ships with moves left" is on?

Intuitively, how it should work is: when all ships not on autopilot have been handled by the player ships on autopilot are supposed to be moved automatically. When all of the ships on autopilot have been moved the game goes into the next turn phase IF autoturn is on, otherwise it stops and waits for the player to press the "turn" button.

Ships on autopilot that reach their destination before expending all of their move points are supposed to be presented to the player. If autoturn is on they should be presented to the player BEFORE the game goes into the next turn phasen. The player is supposed to have an oportuninty to use the remaining move points at that time.

If the player presses the "turn" button at any time, ships not on autopilot with moves left are skipped if the option "skip ships with moves left" is on and proceed to the autopilot phase. If "skip ships with move points" is off, next turn is supposed to display each ship with move points left and change the "next" button to a "skip" button. If the player uses up the move points or uses up the ship (loses a battle, colonizes a planet, or conquers a planet) or presses the "skip" button then the game is supposed to look for the next ship with move points left.

If "skip ships with move points left" is on, then pressing the turn button at any time will do just that. Ships not on autopilot with moves left will e skipped, ships on autopilot will be moved but what happens to those reaching their destination I am unsure of. I would expect them to be presented to the player, but Cari or Brad may have to clarify that, and that may be where a bug is.

The interaction of all of these options and the multithreading of the game makes this rather coomplex. Hence, careful testing of all of these options and operations is needed to determine just what really is happening. I am fairly certain that the options autoturn off and "skip ships with moves left" off work correctly, as these are the options I use and I have been expecially watchful for cases where autopilot handling fails. I have been using these options mostly because these are the ones that makes it easier to detect other causes of autopilot failures to move ships.

Well, that worked out well. Somehow my single post got sent out before I had finished it.

Jack,
thats a very complex post But basically, what you describe could be the problem. I think the reason it's really difficult to follow, is that it seems like ships on autopilots "Skips" a turn as well, but basically they just wait, until the end of the turn, am I right here?

/Flemming

Usually. There are a couple of minor bugs that cause ships on autopilot not to move. The one mentioned above is the only one that actually causes lost turns of movement, though. The others only affect the next to last turn of ships that don't need a full turn's movement to reach their destination on their last turn (and thus effectively get the ship there at the same time it would have without the bug).

Flemming,

Autopilot ships are the last thing handled in a turn.

Lucky Jack,

That was me that pointed out that the autopilot bug still exists in 4D.

OK.