Bugz 'n peeves.

from Stardock Forums
Bugz:
Every time I exit the game I get the following VC++ debug error:

Damage: after Normal block #34780 at 0x0b71a080

Also, the estimate to completion time in the research screen is a bit over two times the actual amount it takes in turns (assuming one turn per game month). I lose 2 and occasionally 3 off the number of months to go with every turn.


Peeves:
With the Harmony Generator gone from the improvement list, it's impossible to get approval up over 50% without engaging on a meaningless war of conquest. This is just not kosher when you have a very successful trading empire. Moreover, the game bogs near the end, even in a 6x6 galaxy. You either spend all your time looking for the very rare tech-granting anomalies or take lots of time actually earning the techs. This needs to be balanced, either by more research-granting improvements or (lots) more points for research from some of the later techs (like Omnicomputers).

Maybe this could be adjusted somewhat for galaxy size, as its less of a problem in a really big one where you can build up a population in the trillions. The best I've been able to do in the 6x6 is just under .5 trillion (without starting a war of conquest).

And this is even with my ersatz low-maintenance Excalibur implemented! If my navy was all-Avatar, I'd be bogged RIGHT down.



245 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
For the specific issue of the approval rating, once you have a high trade income, you could drop taxes to (near) zero. That will increase your approval rating and all of your planets morale ratings.

The downside is that population growth is also tied to morale, and as your population goes up, your morale goes down, and as your morale goes down so does your approval rating.

Another solution: Load a bunch of troops up on transports or colonists on colony ships, then just don't move them anywhere. Population in transports/colony ships doesn't affect your approval rating, and it lowers population on the planest they came from, which increases your morale, and thus your approval rating.

(for reference, I've had populations approching 2 trillion without any conquest beyond what was nessisary to convince other civs to agree to peace.)
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Hmm...I'll take a look at the code that calculates the number of months remaining, but it could be simply that you are getting more research resources, which would affect how quickly you finish the research.

I'm fairly sure that the error message is caused by a resource leak that was in the load game code, which I have since fixed. Either that, or it just doesn't show up in the debugger because I haven't had any problems exiting Gal Civ since I fixed the resource leak.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
OK....a couple of comments here. I'm not getting approvals over 50% in the current beta with an empire (Star Federation gov.) that runs ENTIRELY on trade. I do not tax! All planets have built all possible improvements and my navy is 100% Excalibur class and pretty much invincible (I implemented the ship myself using the Dreadnought pics for it).

I do have Star Hawks posted in every quadrant so as to get at the anomalies quickly (except my Survey ship is in one of the quadrants).



Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
We probably need additional morale improving units.

But one of the reasons for the low morale is that one of the game elements isn't in that affects morale - trade goods. I mean, they're there but we haven't made those trade goods yet so that you can trade them back and forth.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Cari,

I looked at the months remaining problem and see a pattern. It looks like part of the problem is the calculation does not include the improvements to production, that is, when starting a new project that needs 500 shields with 7+4 shields being produced it will show 71 months instead of 45 months. The same is true for ships and may also be true for research (research is a bit harder to show with 250+ planets, but the research seems to consistantly finish in less time than shown with all the research improvements I have).

Cheers,
Jack
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
My exit problem is also happening when I go the menu and try to start a new game.