Research Bug

from Sins Forums
First let me start by saying the organizational structure of this forum and the developer feedback are awesome. Please keep up the good work!

Now for what you entered the thread for.

Let me set the stage: Single star, me and one other empire remaining, he is my ally. I have agreed to all the diplomacy options except for Intel. He won't share that. Of course, I had to turn on him because I don't like sharing my star with anyone. As I am wreaking havoc on his worlds I notice 2 things. One is the instant recapture bug involving culture. The second is my research seem to have stopped progressing. I can't figure out why for a minute or so till I happen upon the relics tab. The current research I am doing involves a relic. I notive I only have 2 relics instead of the 3 I did have. The research on one of the remaining relics is no longer progressing. I right-click cancel the research and suddenly it greys out. It would seem that I lost access to the relic but the game did not cancel research on it for me, it just froze it and as a result, ALL my research.

What I think should have happened was it should have been canceled. This would have allowed all my queued (sp) research to continue.

If this isn't a bug I aplogize.

Thanks in advance for looking into this matter, I think I might have a save somewhere that you can use to recreate the problem, just don't know where to send it.

-Dave

Edit: I will be trying some other things to break the research tree, please check back with this thread in a bit... I should have the results of my other test momentarily.
5,496 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Thats a good find, and indeed would be a game ender. Anyone else notice this?
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Bug update #1

Ok, I checked out what would happen if a research station was destroyed in the middle of researching a tech that required that station in order to access that tier. Basically, I built a second station, queued a bunch of tier 2 tech, then some tier 1 after it. When the research station was scuttled, it froze the research on the tier 2 tech, no research could be done until I canceled ALL the tier 2 techs queued before the first tier 1. Once I had done that, it started researching the tier 1s.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Bug update #2

Ok, so I wanted to try one more thing, just to make sure it is really and truly broken.

1. Built second research station
2. Started to scuttle station
3. Queued techs in this order 2,2,1,2,1
4. Station blew before first tech completed.
5. Cancelled the first 2 tier 2's
6. First tier one completed, then reasearch halted again.
7. Killed last tier 2.
8. Final tech finished without a problem.

So the final result of my tests are that any event which prevents a queued tech from being completed halts all research at that point until that block is manually removed by the player. This all unaffected techs proceed normally until another block is reached which again causes all research to halt again.

I have one more test to do. Will be completed shortly.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Bug update #3

Ok I came up with 2 more tests while writing the last report, I was able to complete one, but the other one requires a bit more play time and I wont have time to complete it before I have to go to work.

Completed test:

1. Built second station
2. Set it to scuttle.
3. Queued 2 tier 2 techs.
4. It blew, no research completed.
5. Rebuilt the station
6. All research resumed and completed without a problem.

So, final result restated...

So the final result of my tests are that any event which prevents a queued tech from being completed halts all research at that point until that block is manually CORRECTED by the player. This can be done gaining access to the tech again (meeting lab requirements or sharing tech again) or cancelling the research. All unaffected techs proceed normally until another block is reached which again causes all research to halt again.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I'm feeling kind of...um... neglected...

Can anyone confirm this as a real bug or did I waste a couple hours testing a "feature"?
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
The culture is working as intended, but the research stuff sounds like it's not working quite right.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Even if it's not a bug, I'd personally think that the player should at least get a notification that there's a problem. Adding it to the roundup.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Even if it's not a bug, I'd personally think that the player should at least get a notification that there's a problem. Adding it to the roundup.



I completely agree with this. We need at least a notification. However, I would rather see it say a notification that it cannot research certain queued techs because the requirements can no longer be met, but research will continue on technologies that still meet the requirements in the order they were queued. In other words, when the second station was scuttled, you should get a notification as I just stated. Then, research should continue with the level 1 techs so that they can finish while you are working on rebuilding the station. When the station is rebuilt, as soon as the currently researching tech is finished, it should continue with the first tech in the queue. If no tech is currently researching when you rebuild the station, it should continue with the first tech in the queue when the station is rebuilt. Also, it may make it more strategic if you loose the research that was done on that tech when you lost the station or the relic needed to research the tech. In other words, the research was destroyed or lost due to the destruction or loss of control over the station or relic. Make sense?
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Imagine my suprise when I looked at the hotfix notes and saw this:

Research now makes upgrade progress on the first subject in the queue that is not stalled by lack of artifact ownership, lab tier requirements or any other reason.

*Does a little dance O' joy*

Thanks guys, you made my whole week. Going to do some testing!
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Hey, it was your detailed analysis that allowed us to fix it so quickly! Most of the time, the delay in getting a fix done is determining the cases where the problem occurs and not the fix itself so you guys save us a boatload of time when you make posts like these