Bug in GalCiv makes enemy hand half the galaxy over to me for NOTHING

[Thoughtbot360]

Well, this story might have more of a place on the Galciv forums, but I can't log onto those right now because the website is being stupid.

So, I was playing Galactic Civilizations 2: Ultimate Edition. Immense Galaxy, loads of Habitable planets, 9 rival civilzations (widdled down to three, whereas the most powerful is the Thalan empire, and the second most powerful is the Terrain Empire, and I am neither of those guys), had all the makings of an epic game.

Of course, while I had the biggest ships in the galaxy, I mostly got tied up on the much less crowded eastern side. It was just me, the Terrans, and the Iconians. I tried to chase the Terrans out of my territory and make peace with them later, but my mighty Battle cry of "Get out of my space, HUMANITY!" was met with my sectors being swarmed with Terran fleets which destroyed all my crap (even widdling down some of my large-scale battleships), but since they couldn't invade my heavily populated worlds successfully, it all ended in a messy stalemate. Meanwhile, the insect-like Thalans conquered more or less the entire WESTERN side of the Galaxy.

So, to make a long story short, I was able to get the humans off my back just in time for the bugs to declare war on me. I tried to broker a peace with them (I *did* have as much diplomacy ability as I was going to get with the race I was playing), but ended in failure.

In frustration, I decided to take a page out of Tom Francis' (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/161570/blog/galciv-2-war-report-final-entry/) book and demand everything they had for the privilege of being spared by the weakest civilization in the galaxy (well, technically the Iconians were the weakest, but they were in some little corner of the Galaxy and they barely were even present.)

I demanded world after world after world from their list (I was getting SO tired of clicking just for intention of fruitlessly annoying a game AI), and the text remained red, revealing that (surprise, surprise) this deal wasn't something they were going to go for.

Not to do a job part-way, I even asked for all of their influence, the last thing before I "offer" them 1 bc in exchange for their entire civilization.

And this is where things got weird.


http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5015/whatng.gif

...what? Acceptable proposal? YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT! You've been staring here telling me "No. No. No. No." and now its okay? (note: you might notice the scroll bar under the "Starships" section in the right hand inventory. I didn't ask for any ships yet. Or after -I didn't want to "fix" what just happened- but all they have left are their ships and no way to pay for them!)

Talk about a glitch! Did the deal just become so bad that it went all the way around and become okay? Was the boredom of watching me click their entire civilization away tearing them apart?

This was obviously a glitch. It would ruin the entire game if I decided to actually take this deal. I didn't have to think about it twice.

I sent it.

They accepted.

So, the galaxy was then filled with the entire Thalan armada (now all pirates) and the Terrans are swamped with them, getting all of their fleets and starbases destroyed (HA! Payback!) while I had more planets than I knew what to do with. I even got Massive sized Hulls from the deal.

But seriously...wow. I got the entire "western" galaxy from one glitch. That's one for the history books.

No backsies! :smallamused:

[Douglas]

Talk about a glitch! Did the deal just become so bad that it went all the way around and become okay?
Sounds like it. If the game calculates the value of a deal as a normal-size (on a 32-bit system) integer, all it would take is a deal with negative value beyond about two billion. Planets are presumably high value objects, and on a scale where money can even register, the sheer number of planets they had could plausibly add up that far.

[Thoughtbot360]

Sounds like it. If the game calculates the value of a deal as a normal-size (on a 32-bit system) integer, all it would take is a deal with negative value beyond about two billion. Planets are presumably high value objects, and on a scale where money can even register, the sheer number of planets they had could plausibly add up that far.

So being the biggest possible jerk you can be makes you a super-diplomat? (there's also the fact that there was a heck of a lot of planets to NOT bargain over. Of course, I had maxed out Diplomacy-based research. Think that helped me or hurt me, an in required me to demand more before the ineger flip around?)

[DigoDragon]

Yeah, sounds like whatever bit held the value of the bug's side it passed the maximum integer possible and screen-wrapped back to the bottom. That's hilarious. I'm playing a game of GalCiv2 as well, so I'm going to try this to see if I can duplicate that bug.


As an asside, I find that the value of the planets in the trade screen seems somewhat dependant on what's on them. Productive planets that can turn profits are worth more than plants that are money pits (I attempted to use that as a tactic to bankrupt a race but they refused to trade for the planets).
Might be useful in trying to duplicate the bug.

[factotum]

It wouldn't surprise me if a bug like that were never caught, because the natural reaction to an offer being rejected is to LOWER what you're asking from the other side, not increase it to insane levels!

[Thoughtbot360]

It wouldn't surprise me if a bug like that were never caught, because the natural reaction to an offer being rejected is to LOWER what you're asking from the other side, not increase it to insane levels!

Well, you see...you know that guy who I linked to?

I was playing his custom race (or my approximation of it since the only thing I knew about them was that they reproduced really, really fast), the Spectres of Agony!

They were kind of an Easter Joke since he started the game on that holiday, made some evil Space Rabbits with an overcompensation scary name, gave all of his planets emo names (Blood, Death, Carnage, etc.), and responded to all threats, requests for treaties, and offers of alliances with epic levels of hostility, even though they didn't have any military built up yet!



Nevertheless I had to sit back and breathe deeply for a while before I could trust myself to touch the diplomatic relations window without demanding every penny in their coffers for the privelege of being incinerated by the glorious ionised fire of the majestic Spectres of Agony military - which I would be building any day now. Instead, to vent my anger, I made a counter offer of their entire civilisation - their treasury, every planet they owned, their fleet, all of their technology - for 1bc. They ceased talks in a huff.

The custom race I was playing was inspired by that blog. Actually a pretty good advertisement (and rundown of a lot of mechanics) for the game.Part of the point was to be as obnoxious as possible.

Technically speaking, if they just started coughing up loot and maybe researching diplomacy skills, they might've been able to join the other three civilizations in there alliance an score a Diplomatic victory without any further bloodshed. (Although, from what I know of the aliens in that alliance, if they were acting like real people then the Terrans and the Yor would've probably asked the powerful-but-weak-to-missile-weapons-the-Terrans-researched-the-heck-out-of Drengin to stop military production and accept some other sanctions that made them less of a threat. The Drengin would never accept this and have to fight, and when the Drengin went down, the Terrans would be no more use to the Yor so they would attack...so forget what I said about preventing bloodshed.)

Of course, the way all of his attack plans kept turning up meaningless and how the Spectres end up huddled on their planets, fending off invasion after invasion and "Super Breeding" the loses away. What's interesting is that their combination of unlike-ability and helplessness actually played an interest roll in the super-alliance of all three remaining superpowers that controlled the Galaxy. The Violent warlike Drengin who wish to conquer or destroy everybody and who really despised the Spectres by the end of it...voted "yes" on a United Planets bill to end all wars, all of which were solely against the Spectres. And in the new peace, they were the first ones to attack the Spectres' ships (but not invade. Never invade. What's going on?)

Well...I recommend reading the blog if you want the answer, but let me just say, I sort of wondered if their civilization and odd position in the political makeup of their galaxy wouldn't be a handy backdrop for some kind of Sci-fi tabletop roleplaying game.

Think about it: the Spectres of Agony, naming themselves and all their planets in a grimdark, overcompensating fashion, are actually a race of sentient, fast-breeding, long-eared rodent people. Oddly similar to the Terran animal known as a "rrha-bit", to no end of amusement to any alien that caught the connection...or humilation to the Spectres' pride.

Maybe they had a proud warrior culture on their planet, or maybe they were trying to mask their relative weakness with bravado. Whatever. They begin trying to out-tech their enemies, saving up their resources for better ships than anyone else in the galaxy, but it all backfired, and they were surrounded by enemies with space armadas much more powerful than they could ever hope to overcome. So, they end up beaten and playing whipped dogs, long after they've offended the all-powerful Drengin. Everytime they try to mount an offensive, the Drengin armada shoots them down. Now, their military is reduced to the mass-produced and laughably cheap "Bongolian Ultraprawn" fighters, made solely to deter or at least slow down troop transports. But mostly? All their resources, every single one of their (many, many, many, many did I mention the fast breeding, perhaps?) brains, are all devoted to researching a technological victory, the last window open them in a galaxy where all the other civilizations are united, powerful, and hostile.

Their culture has been reduced to most the young being drafted into a militia of some sort, while at the same time they have gone from being a cocky to a bunch of cowering nerds always staring up at the skies in terror. Their lives are filled with drafts, drills, heart-pounding terror and unbelievable amounts of homework on the nature of reality.

[DigoDragon]

Just to let you all know, I tried duplicating this bug on my copy of GalCiv2, but no luck yet. It could be that my game isn't far enough along for all the trade items to stack up and screen wrap the numbers so I may try again in late game.

[Thoughtbot360]

Just to let you all know, I tried duplicating this bug on my copy of GalCiv2, but no luck yet. It could be that my game isn't far enough along for all the trade items to stack up and screen wrap the numbers so I may try again in late game.

this was an empire with NEARLY. THREE. HUNDRED. PLANETS.

just to give you a reference of the sheer scope and enormity of this glitch.:eek:

[Grif]

this was an empire with NEARLY. THREE. HUNDRED. PLANETS.

just to give you a reference of the sheer scope and enormity of this glitch.:eek:

Considering I myself never actually played a game this big before, it's even easier to believe why this bug was never caught before.

[DigoDragon]

Considering I myself never actually played a game this big before, it's even easier to believe why this bug was never caught before.

Yeah, I can see that.
Well, I suppose I can try a couple cheat codes to give a race that much stuff and THEN try to recreate the bug...