So is this a bug, or what am I missing!?

from PolMach Forums
I posted this image in the carter thread... but I htink it deserves its own thread as a possible bug.

What is going in this state...

http://www.applesnake.net/whatgives.png
16,660 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from PolMach Forums Top

I'm not following you, what do you think is a bug?

This is the screen that displays your position vs. your opponent's position along side how people in that state feel.

Reply #2 from PolMach Forums Top

Oh I see what you're saying. It seems like you should be winning the state.  I would need to see what's in that state. Smear merchants and that sort of thing.

The other possible thing which unfortunately we don't have a display for in the current version is how you're doing in your personal traits.  For instance, if you want on an interview and said something insane, it wouldn't show up in your issue stats.

I.e. credibility, integrity, charisma, judgment, etc. these things don't show up in the display but can be dramatically affected by what you say and do on the TV interviews.  This is something we can look at having a display for.  But if I had to guess, I would guess that something went terribly wrong on one of your interviews.

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Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
I think not, Frogboy.

I am experiencing the same problem as Dearmad playing as a Republican v. Carter and have only done one interview, after which the paper applauded my performance as boosting my status among independents (the interview took place in Conn).

There is something else at work here. The AI in the Campaign or on certain difficulty levels seems to have some kind of an ability to "steal" states in the last quarter of the campaign.

In the Carter thread I posted the stats on Texas in my game. Those stats are in a state with no political operatives. Despite losing badly on every major issue and being behind in awareness, Carter led the state by 9 points.
Reply #4 from PolMach Forums Top
I didn't mean to sound rude, Frogboy. I meant to say I think that's not it, rather than I think not. Sorry for seeming rude.
Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top
Additional notes and a screenie:

NORMAL level of play.

I gav eone interview after which the press said I was great!

Also this "bug" doesn't happen instantly... things will be going swimmingly and then as the game goes on it's like Bush ahs magical powers or something around turn 20+. It's like a bug that builds on itself or something.

Anyway in the image not all my advertising stuff doing NOTHING for me...

http://www.applesnake.net/huh.png How the heck do I embed links again...?
Reply #6 from PolMach Forums Top
Heh... maybe that little old lady story teller is working in EVERY State or something??

I can't be losing that badly!

And the other thing is that I was winning NORMAL level games handily awhile ago and then of late- WHAMMO, this happens to me everytime.

It's too annoying to play the game like this.
Reply #7 from PolMach Forums Top

I'm not sure.  We'll keep looking to see if we run across it but we had the same kinds of reports during the beta and we'd get saved games and sure enough, the player was just not considering something that would cause the problem.

However, I do believe there is a hot key (and I'll try to find it) that when you hit it gives a little spreadsheet to the file the shows all the numbers the underlying engine is using to multiply together.  I'll see about what that is.

But bear in mind, we've played this game for months and months and months and every time we've thought "Hmm, I thought I should have WON California! Damn game is cheatin!" I would take a look at the snapshot and it would turn out, no, it's something else.

Sometimes it was a matter of over concentrating on a particular issue.  I.e. sometimes it's better to be ahead in a bunch of issues than massively ahead in one issue.  Sometimes it's a matter of having a bad interview.  Othertimes it's because they've got smear merchants or something in the territory but there's always some reason for it.

I think though th ebest route is to find out that snapshot hot key so that you can see for yourselves.

Reply #8 from PolMach Forums Top
Excellent, let me know the keys and I'll be hitting them. Seriously, if the game is this deep that I'm having thinking problems like this about it, that will rock. I HOPE it's not a bug, just something I need to learn to do.
Reply #9 from PolMach Forums Top

I do think that it has to do with the personal traits.

For example, at week 20 you choose your VP.  Well, the AI is REALLY good about picking VPs that complement him.

So if you're finding yourself fall behind some in week 21 to 25, odds are that the AI did a better job picking a VP candidate. 

Reply #10 from PolMach Forums Top
But THIS screenshot is making me really hurt inside, Brad... if it's something internal it NEEDS to be brought out into the open or at least be a stat I can infer. A VP selection or something hurting me THIS bad?

BTW: It was not an interview I did GREAT in the oneI had.

http://www.applesnake.net/hurting.png
Reply #11 from PolMach Forums Top

Perhaps you should start using candidates that come with the game. It's hard to say what the issue is when you created your own character. For all I know, you created someone with a charisma of 0.

Reply #12 from PolMach Forums Top
Well, not 0, but... WHY would my support in the states drop so precipitously around turn 20-30. Wou;dn't the VP HELP me? Or are my characteristics being modded behind the scenes too by things that are NOT the interviews (since I only gace one).

Anyway- I sincerely hope you can get these stats to be shown in play somehow.

Any luck with that key combination for me!?!? The spreadsheet...???
Reply #13 from PolMach Forums Top
When you get something happening that dosent look right (like the above situation in FL) could you send a save game file to scott@stardock.com, cbegle@stardock.com, and joe@stardock.com. As a player that is also getting consistantly trounced in the game, I can understand the frustration of getting beat and not understanding why...hopefully we can shed some light on Carter's "late blooming"
Reply #14 from PolMach Forums Top
I think I may have found it. The CPU seems to have the entire candidate list to chose from for a VP. Carter seems to choose LBJ as a VP everytime, and although I have no idea what his stats are, the boost in texas and the in general political greatness and genius of Johnson would lead me to believe this contributes highly to the difficulty of beating carter.
Reply #15 from PolMach Forums Top
Well the AI chose Barbera freaking BUSH in my game where I things suddenly went south very fast.... and I had Clinton, who is VERY experienced. With my 10 charisma, etc... we should have managed to do fine. And even cheating with unlimited money and about 50+ TV adds running on all sorts of issues .. ther was nothing working.... Barbara Bush isn't THAT savvy. Icky incestuous ticket.
Reply #16 from PolMach Forums Top
Its not about the VP.
Reply #17 from PolMach Forums Top

Yea, I've had the guys dig into this issue deeper. It appears that in the 1.01 build (that's only available to TGN / pre-order people for now) that a lot of variables get set to 0 which is definitely non-ideal. In the retail box, those variables were set to 5 which allowed the multiplier factors to work.  So we're fixing that and putting it up tonight.

Great help guys! We need to implement the access ranks as I'd definitely promote you guys for your help and persistence on this.

Just so we're clear: The actual retail game doesn't have this problem, it was introduced with the preliminary 1.01 patch we're working on and will get fixed before the 1.01 patch is made publicly available outside SDC.

 

Reply #18 from PolMach Forums Top
Cool. Already a diplo with GalCiv, Brad. :o)

Now, how about my other idea about the random events occassionally bringing minor issues up to the fore to keep us candidates on our toes. :o)
Reply #19 from PolMach Forums Top

Well we have lots of ideas, but we don't want to overwhelm the QA guys at Ubi Soft with a bunch of changes. Let's wait a few weeks and see where we're at.

Personally, I would like to see 527s simulated. I.e. Special "Neutral" units appear and take out ads against players. 

Reply #20 from PolMach Forums Top
next time a bug is reported I would suggesst that the response not be "no, no, no, it can't be a bug! it must be your personal attributes or something that we can't see on your screenshot!" for several days straight
Reply #21 from PolMach Forums Top
Brad,
That's a GREAT idea too! Would be fairly simpl to implement too, I imagine... just a little hard to balance.

But I was making my suggestion in that other thread so early in the game only because I imagined it would be fairly simple to implement AND balance (since it could be a simple off thing too).

I look at it this way: the terrain of the game right now is modified by only two people- me and the enemy. It's a little flat. I want it to be changed a little bit outside of our control so we have to adapt to the situation and rethink through our larger strategies, not just the tactics. That's what makes a strategy game fun for me. And hey, it's not like my suggestion was really too unrealistic.

And why not overwhelm Ubisoft!

jrndenver- the particular circumstances to this bug make it pretty darn easy to understand why Brad would be thinking: "This guy is a nutcase- this bug doesn't exist. It's only in the d/l version I have afterall and was introduced in a pre release patch.

But don't worry, I once got Brad mad enough at me for him to scold me in personal email... I stuck it out and he caved, yes CAVED I tell you, and there were changes made to the GalCiv diplomatic engine.

Reply #22 from PolMach Forums Top
I think that the PM team and Brad handled this bug in completely the right way. They were skeptical at first, as they should be since most errors of this kind will be just player neglect, but they stayed with us all day, answering all our posts and emails.