Research screen having problems

from Stardock Forums
At the end of each turn I usually micromanage my research by moving sliders up & down on the Domestic Policy screen, switching over to the Research screen to see the effect, and switching back. I do this several times each turn to get the effect I want. After a few turns, I notice that the Research screen stops responding to any inputs on the Domestic Policy screen. The policies still take effect, but the Research screen does not display it so I have no way of knowing how long before the next tech is completed.

The workaround is to reload the game. If I reload from save game every turn, the Research screen remains accurate. After a few turns of not reloading, the Research screen gets less and less accurate until at some point it stops updating altogether and I am forced to save & reload.

What I mean by "accurate" is that let's say I start a new tech and move the Research slider on Domestic Policy down so that I'm only getting 1 bc to research. If I switch to the Research screen it should say something like "200 months", but instead it might say "next month" and stays there no matter how much I move the Domestic Policy sliders around to change it.

Is there any other way of forcing the Research screen to update when this happens, other than a save & reload?
159 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok it turns out that wasn't entirely accurate. The Research screen can change also depending on whether I use the mousewheel, click & drag the slider, or click on the arrows at either end of the slider. It also changes depending on whether I am moving up or down.

For instance, if I move the research slider from 27% up to 28% I might get say 57 bc to research. If I move it from 29% down to 28%, I get a different result. Both occasions I am at 28% yet I got two different numbers depending on the direction I was moving the slider in or even whether I used the mousewheel versus the arrows buttons. The other sliders (military/social) are in the same spots on both occasions.

I have no confidence at all in what the Research screen is telling me, which makes the game very very frustrating right now.

I don't care whether I need to use the mousewheel or the buttons or whatever, as long as I can get some kind of confidence in the numbers I see. I absolutely HATE it when the Research screen tells me I am getting a tech "next turn" and yet it does not come and I have to reload to try my hand again at the friggin "Domestic Policy roulette wheel". GRRRRRR!!!
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Maybe you should stop trying to tweak your research? I don't see the benefits outweighing the costs.

The reason the percentage changes are different is because of the bonuses given by your empire-wide stats and the research buildings. They add to your research capacity as well as give free research (only 2/3 of the empire stat and 1/3 of the buildings are free).
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
The benefits: If you have 50 bc left to research on a tech, and you decide to leave your research set to 75 bc, then you're just wasting 25 bc that could be going to your production or to your treasury. Keep on doing that the entire game and you're at a big disadvantage against the computer which does tweak. (Do some espionage and keep an eye on how the computer is allocating its resources from turn to turn, you will see.)

I'm just sick of two things in GalCiv:

1) Counting squares. (Separate issue.)

2) The Domestic Policy Roulette screen.

Otherwise I love this game. :)
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
There are two seperate problems with micromanaging research. The first is the sliders which allocate different amounts of cash depending how you arrived at that particular setting. This problem tends to fade away as you progress in the game and the size of your economy grows however. The other problem, and one of the premier time killers in this game, is the research progress indicator being stuck on "Next Turn" even if you set your research spending to 0%. I believe this bug is triggered if your previous research project was completed in one turn, but don't quote me on that. As you have noticed too, it can be fixed by saving and loading the game. The problem is game saving and loading can take several minutes towards the end game on larger maps. This becomes extremely annoying in combination with the undocumented research cost multiplier that makes it hard to predict how much you should invest in research to minimize waste. Aside from the infinite range AI colony ships, which is being fixed, the buggy research cost indicators are what I personally consider should demand the most attention.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Come to think of it, I think I remember just researching an old tech I had passed up and it only took me one turn to research it. That's what prompted me to come on here and rant about the buggy Research screen, but I'm not just ranting about that bug tho. There's a lot to be desired on that screen.

In fact I think I remember way back on version 1.0 there used to be a progress indicator that seemed to work OK on that Research screen. It hasn't worked in a long time though. Somebody broke it back around 1.02 and it hasn't worked since.

I guess the Research screen gets more and more broken with each patch, heh.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I'll see if I can figure out what's preventing it from refreshing properly.