[1.1] issue on strategic map: invulnerable AI pioneers?

from Elemental Forums

I was going through a comp stomp and dropped an Arcane monolith to make life more difficult for a Magnar Pioneer that was searching for a place to make a city.  Monsters were roaming everywhere, so I figured there was a good chance it would get gobbled up.  While it skirted its way around my new territory, lo and behold a Ravenous Harridan's army (packing itself, two brood hunters, and two black widows) seemed to pounce on it.  Oddly enough, they've apparently decided to play nice together and they just show up as stacked armies: one with the completely healthy pioneer and the other the completely intact army of the Ravenous Harridan.  

 

Is this intentional behavior to perhaps give the AI a more sporting chance, or is this a bug like it appears to be?

4,170 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I saw this same problem prior to 1.1. Where the npc pioneers would be moving around the map and enemies were trying to attack them and just ending up on the same square as the pioneer unit after every turn, trying desperately to attack something that couldn't be killed. I don't think pioneers should ever be invincible, too cheesy.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

This bug has been around for at least a couple of versions (there are some posts about this bug for v1.0 at least), it's doesn't always happen, and it's not limited to pioneers.  Occasionally, an AI-player unit will be in the same tile as a monsters-and-ruffians unit (without any conflict taking place).  I've not yet been able to determine why this happens or if there are certain conditions under which it occurs, but it seems to be relatively rare.  Posting savegames and debug.err files when it happens might help the devs pinpoint and fix it faster, unless someone comes up with a reliable way to replicate it.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I believe the consensus for this bug is that the AI and Monsters move at the same time and sometimes choose the same tile. There is no post processing to determine if the occupation would lead to a conflict and thus you have that they lie on the same tile. Since at the beginning of the move the tile was empty and therefore they are both not trying to attack. The moves are allowed and the result is stacking units.

The bug would be if the tile is occupied before the monster move onto this tile while the tile is occupied and no conflict takes place. Then there is some issue, but as was mentioned it is a rare enough bug that they haven't tracked down the root cause.