posted 08-10-99 07:28 PM ET        

1) Very little whining and/or socializing

This shoots JKMs (and all the "vets") arguments to shreds

2) posting to the list stopped after v4.0 came out

Probably because v4.0 was so limited in scope. Why bother reporting what you know will never be fixed?

3) no response from FurXs to this list - EVER

Unless you count the JKM article and the interview by Tim "No Bugs" Train

Here's the list as it stood in early July (in two parts):

>>>> Alkis

There were many debates as to how many bugs are still left in the game after patch3 so I had this idea to list them down. I think this list can help us come to a conclusion.

Whoever finds one that is not listed (please read the list first!) he can just pick the next number and give a short description; something like a tittle, one or two lines long. This way we can actually see how many bugs/cheats are there and also which things have to be fixed. It will be helpfull to Firaxis as well because they can read it very easily. If there is something they don't know already, they can ask the player to explain a little more.

Oh yes, if you find a mistake, ie something that is not really a bug/cheat please point it out.

Bugs/Cheats/Things to be fixed.

1. AI terraforms the volcano.
2. Infinite range missile/PB.
3. AI completes SP without a warning (sometimes).
4. Calling the council makes the game crush in MP.
5. Sea borders.
6. Mindworm's cycle increased when you order patrol with way-points.
7. Paradrop cheat.
8. AI uses a stored up production.
9. AI corners the global market with ridiculous funds.
10. When you try to lower terrain to sink an enemy base the AI asks for an incredible amount of money.
11. Golden age doesn't work properly (the +2 growth)
12. Bug when you upgrade your needlejets to a higher reactor type (they run out of fuel).
13. Probe teams attack a faction even if it has the HS algorithm.
14. Workshop not user friendly.
15. Misleading display when you look at other factions' research.
16. Urgent message bug.
17. Auto-formers just move around (more than sometimes).
18. Factions' leaders sometimes declare war even on magnanimous mood.
19. Omniscient AI
20. AI sometimes builds bases with no usefull squares (ocean, surrounded by ocean).
21. Social engineering cheat (you change it for one turn, then back again)
22. Dierdre does not behave like a pacifistic leader (I heard from others the same about Morgan)
23. There is no option to separate factions' starting locations. CMNs have to devote some time to do it manually.
24. Scenario Editor turned on (suddenly) in PBEM games.
25. About the Editor, it's not user friendly to say the least.
26. Interceptors scramble even when damaged, even when the unit they try to protect is stronger.
27. AI builds bases on fungus.
28. AI builds bunkers before discovering the needed technology.

>>>> VictorK

29. Energy calculation bug - you get free "stockpile energy" bonus when production in a base is completed, if its build queue is empty.

See my other post. IMO the most inexcusable bug of all. It is something that should have been done right from the very beginning, if the programmers were competent enough.

>>>> Darkstar

Oh, LOTS of known bugs missed. However, here's a few more...

30. AI builds bases on LAVA MOUTH of Volcano.
31. AI raises and lowers land without the prerequisite tech.
32. AI missiles have unlimited range. - Supposed to be fixed completely in version 4.
33. AI can design AAA transports, Human can't.
34. AI can design Clean Missile (Conv. and Planet Busters). Human can't.

Some of your bugs Alkis I don't think are bugs. Just stupid decisions made too often. (AI uses probes on Faction with HSA.) Would be nice if changed though...

>>>> tfs99

Some more ...

35. <Esc> acts like <Enter> on numerous dialog boxes with cancel option
36. Doesn't offer the same location to save a PBEM game as where it was loaded from
37. Can't set more than 4 waypoints (3?)
38. Setting 4 waypoints ==> WPs hosed unit goes off to strange location
39. Sometimes game will center on unobservable AI unit movement
40. (Obscure) Tries to open directories with .SAV extension as a .SAV file
41. Black triangles drawn on map
42. Up and down arrow buttons in Build Selection screen cause movement by too many rows
43. Can't "attack" neutral (alien) non-combat pieces and capture them (ala artifacts). Treats them like mindworms instead!

>>>> Zonker

44. Orbital Defense Pods don't always work when they say they do.
45. Battle odds are calculated incorrectly for mind worms attacking anything with a fusion reactor or better.

And two I'm not sure about:

(46.) Mind worms in the early game are sometimes too weak (attack with strength of 1, instead of 3).
(47.) Sea psi battles are always 1:1, instead of 3:2.

On the other hand, I think #3 might not be a bug, but just the computer choosing to hurry production on a SP, and #10 might be a design choice.

>>>> Thue

ad 45. I think you get cheated by the fact that better reactor doesn't help against mind worms. There is however a bug with singularity reactor when the hitpoints decrease with 4 instead of 3 at a time.

ad 47. Intentional.

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48. Space elevator doesn't work.

49. AI can be goated into war infinetly many times by just demanding stuff, even when you are far superiour. I never have reputation below noble

50. Bulk matter transmitter doesn't work as adverticed. You should update the help file.

51. The odds calculated before a battle does not represent your actual chance of winning. In reality you allmost never lose a battle estimated to 4-1.(you should lose 1 in 5 times)

52. The odds sometimes are very large numbers. For an imperfect estimation you should round it off.

53. Smarter auto-defence figthers that don't fly of in a random direction.

54. Stopping text in blurbs (like when you discover something) from constantly resizeing(when scrooling), making it a pain to read.

55. If you have probeteam tech but not doctrine:mobility you can use the autocreated probeteam design to create units using the speeder chassis.

>>>> dkl

56. "Secrets of (anything)" discoveries all present the "Secrets of the Human Mind" monument all over again.

57. Setting a former to Autoimprove often makes it go sit in one place and do nothing for as many turns as you are willing to leave it alone. I guess some of them are shy?

58. Setting a former to autoremove fungus often sends it running across the continent/seven seas when there's plenty of fungus right nearby.

59. Manual BADLY needs an index.

>>>> VictorK

ad 51. I think the odds shown before a battle are not meant to represent the chance of winning the battle; they only represent the relative strengths of the two units. If the two units have equal hit points, the odds represents the chance of inflicting damage in each round of battle. Or taking hit points into account, you might interpret it this way: if the odds is 4-1, you can expect to win the battle, and take a damage of 1/4 of your unit's remaining hit points.

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60. Formers can drill to aquifer in adjacent squares (similar to the borehole bug in previous versions).

61. Soil enrichers and condensers do not work as advertised (they give 50% nutrient bonus instead of +1); should update the help file.

>>>> smod

62. Self-Aware colony ha no effect on your maintenance payments.
63. One of my Needlejets just winked out of exitence on its first turn out of base! it jus, and #10 might be a design choice.

>>>> Thue

ad 45. I think you get cheated by the fact that better reactor doesn't help against mind worms. There is however a bug with singularity reactor when the hitpoints decrease with 4 instead of 3 at a time.

ad 47. Intentional.

-------

48. Space elevator doesn't work.

49. AI can be goated into war infinetly many times by just demanding stuff, even when you are far superiour. I never have reputation below noble

50. Bulk matter transmitter doesn't work as adverticed. You should update the help file.

51. The odds calculated before a battle does not represent your actual chance of winning. In reality you allmost never lose a battle estimated to 4-1.(you should lose 1 in 5 times)

52. The odds sometimes are very large numbers. For an imperfect estimation you should round it off.

53. Smarter auto-defence figthers that don't fly of in a random direction.

54. Stopping text in blurbs (like when you discover something) from constantly resizeing(when scrooling), making it ants.

With the Scenario Editor you can place neutral pieces like artifacts, colony pods, supply crawlers and such. I did this as part of a scenario I was building so that players could stumble onto the "goodies", capture them, and put them to use.

I assumed that all non-combatants could be captured like artifacts can. But it turns out that they can only be captured as if they were mindworms. Otherwise you just attack and destroy them.

A minor problem, I know, but one that would be fun to have corrected. As it stands, you can only create artifact "goodies" or you can pre-assign goodies to the closest faction, but that means only they can find and capture them.

>>>> VictorK

ad 62. Self-aware colony does halve your maintenance payments as advertised; the effect is just not shown in the F3 report screen.

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66. Alien artifacts within a base are not always captured when the last defender of the base falls (as mentioned in p.107 of manual). Sometimes it reappears in a far-away square and falls into control of a third faction.

>>>> Perryn

I don't know if you've heard me whine about this before, but:

67. Music doesn't play under V3.0, but it did from V1.0.

68. Crashes from fault in sound.dll

>>>> Rackam

69. Planet buster wont destroy an empty base. After all, it's there to blow it to hell, not capture it.

>>>> TheScientist

70. Bases can't reach a population above 127, they turn into negative! (This is very problematic, because every city can have a pop of 184, max is 266)

71. If you negotiate with a AI-player during your partner's turn in a non-simultan multiplayer game, and your partner ends his/her turn, you can't exit the diplomacy screen

72. Sometimes the AI offers you the same tech twice, even if you got it already the first time

>>>> Arjuna

73. Here's a doozy in 3.0 version. Apparently when they made the human hive immune to efficiency loss due to social engineering they also made Hive immune ot efficiency gain! It really stinks to be stuck with 0 efficiency for the whole game.

>>>> TheScientist

I have a suggestion for an enchantment:

(74.) Add a scripting language for scenarios and formers (so that I can fit auto-terraforming to my strategy)

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ad 73: You can have positive rates. "Immune" means, that the RESULT can't be lower than 0, not that each negative modifier is set to 0. If the Hive chooses, for example, a green police state, the two efficency bonus from "green" will be eliminatet by the -2 from "police state". If you now add "knowledge", it should be +1.

ad 70: I have to correct myself: Normal cities can only reach a pop of 123 (without supply crawlers). A city with a pop of 184 has to be in the jungle.

>>>> carlos

75. Top arrow of scrollbar of F4 screen is shifted to the left compared to the scrollbar.
76. Humane Genome Project doesn't always work correctly. I had cities (with the hive, transcend, ironman, UK version) that didn't have at least one talent.
77. In an ironman game the load option in the menu has desapeared (intentionally?) but the combination Ctrl+L still works.
78. AI production of planet busters can easily be sabotaged by attacking with a missile, this way it's possible to prevent the enemy factions of ever building a PB (as long as you're Governor or have infiltrators everywhere). This is more a cheat. It should be changed for Transcend at least.

>>>> TheScientist

79. If the last single player game was ironman, a multiplayer game will be ironman, too (at least in network). If one player saves the game, (s)he will be dropped.

80. In multi-player, the "auto-design units" option can't be properly turned off (the computer designed my units, although I disabled it).

81. The computer also ignores this setting and designs units in single-player, when a new reactor is discovered.

82. Some units (especially PBs) can't sometimes be selected in the workshop and edited/deleted/upgraded.

83. The "Yes to All" button doesn't work.

84. In German translation, some buttons have been divided into two seperate ones!

>>>> Fizban666

This may be because of my low end system but....

85> Sometimes the sound echos when you kill a mind worm
86> When you tell a unit to auto explore while it is in a base it wont leave.
87> On various occasions you can see the terrian under a unit through a unit.
88> (suggestion) A non combat unit souldn't get the negative mod. while being attacked by mindworms.
89> I can hear the videos but i can not see them(see posted note)
90> Units on auto explore keep going around in circles.
91> When telling a unit to go somewhere it will avoid fungus at all cost even if the fastest way is strait through it.
92> Computer opponents call a vandetta you first time you talk to them even if you haven't done anything wrong. (miriam mainly)

Oh yeah and onopped.

80. In multi-player, the "auto-design units" option can't be properly turned off (the computer designed my units, although I disabled it).

81. The computer also ignores this setting and designs units in single-player, when a new reactor is discovered.

82. Some units (especially PBs) can't sometimes be selected in the workshop and edited/deleted/upgraded.

83. The "Yes to All" button doesn't work.

84. In German translation, some buttons have been divided into two seperate ones!

>>>> Fizban666

This may be because of my low end system but....

85> Sometimes the sound echos when you kill a mind worm
86> When you tell a unit to auto explore while it is in a base it wont leave.
87> On various occasions you can see the terrian under a unit through a unit.
88> (suggestion) A non combat unit souldn't get the negative mod. while being attacked by mindworms.
89> I can hear the videos but i can not see them(see posted note)
90> Units on auto explore keep going around in circles.
91> When telling a unit to go somewhere it will avoid fungus at all cost even if the fastest way is strait through it.
92> Computer opponents call a vandetta you first time you talk to them even if you haven't done anything wrong. (miriam mainly)

Oh yeah and one more thing. Some additional town names in the hopefully upcoming patch. I'm tired of seeing the same names pop up.

>>>> 1212

In note to the efficency with the HIve. Would IT BE FAIR TO GIVE THEM EFFICENCY. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-2 economy. oh yeah like thats a problem. I think this was implimented on purpose.

>>>> Arjuna

I did some playing around with the hive and see how it works now. Oh well, so much for the super-faction

93. In the Audio/visual preferences, accessed from the "Start" button (forget what it's called) the sliders for sound effects/music volume are all out of whack.

>>>> Igor

ad76. On the huge map on Transcend with 0 effic you can have only 12 (not sure) bases without problems with bereaucracy and, as result, with Drones. If you have more than 12 bases, Talent-Drone=Worker. If you have >24 bases, Talent-Drone-Drone=Drone. Human Genome always works, but Drones are random generated, and could be in any base, if amount of bases was overrun.

94. Automated sffenders.

Question: Is the commerce income included with the gross in the econ scan? If not we have a seriious bug on our hands.

>>>> Mergle

The commerce thing confused me too, at first. The point is, say you have 50 commerce, with a 50% labs/50%energy soc. setting. Then your *income* will only increase by 25 from commerce. Hence the apparent disparity.

>>>> VictorK

Re: #95 the upgrade bug was in earlier versions, but fixed in v3.

As to whether you should buy the game or not, I would have said yes, despite all the bugs and flaws, before I discovered bug #96. But now I am inclined to say no, unless they fix this. I have been playing mostly exclusively at Transcend (supposedly the hardest level), and I'm disgusted to realize that a bug has been giving me a significant advantage at that level.

------

99. If you station a unit in a pact brother's base, from the base screen you can switch home base of your unit to that base, so that it doesn't require support (your pact brother's base doesn't have to pay for it either). It is clearly not intended, since the normal Ctrl-H command doesn't work in this case.

100. You can't normally build farms on volcanoes, but you can do this with the Ctrl-Shift-S/Ctrl-Shift-M command.

>>>> Pat79

101) An aqua-probe team, upon completing it's mission, will be returned to the nearest city even if nearest city has no access to water. Probe team is now stuck.

>>>> Darkstar

re: 95 - Upgrade bug. It is NOT fixed in version 3. Indeed, sometimes I go into the Unit Workshop to build something with a new Component, and having yet to ever DESIGN something, let alone upgrade a prototype to something else Newer, and its already prototype complete.

>>>> adw

Completed first game with quick start features out of v1.0e box. Upgraded to v3.0 during play.

os - win 95 4.00.950 B
computer - Pentium Pro, 128M RAM

102 - Fungus behaves like forest (as advertised). But, there is an advance (maybe centauri psi) that let's you build improvements in fungus. However these improvements do not modify the resources for that square. (Nor does fungus let you have the nutrients/energy/minerals bonuses.)

103 - Units appear to move to the base that produced them rather than their home base with the action return to home base command.

>>>> DanceR

Unit Workshop Bugs.

-I play with auto prune off, but it's getting really annoying when...

104. Auto Design units keeps suggesting new units based on retired designs. Once you retire a design, the auto-design is suppose to base it off existing types.

105. Auto Design should not suggest units you have already upgraded. example 13-1-*2 copter gets upgrade to same w/ clean. Next discovery occurs, same copter appears and again requires upgrade to clean. Repeat every discovery. Even if you find a new tech, it suggests units not involving that tech.

106. Cannot upgrade/modify transports. Some ship types (even cruisers) when upgraded default to land units.

107. If you enter workshop from Queue menu, units removed via RETIRE or Upgrade from a workshop is not reflected in the list when you exit workshop. You need to close Queue window and re-open to see pruned list.

MONSTER BUG!!!!! Annoys the living hell out of me..

108. You have overridden a Governor and told it to build a SP. (Base governer setting is cannot build projects) If another faction builds it first and Governor is active, he will select something from the build list remaining and dump all production into that item. SP should never be re-configured to another project or building type without asking the player. I have many time been 2 turns away from completing a SP when the AI finishes before me and my 30 turns of building gets me a wonderful "perimeter defense".

109. SP next turn bug.. If you build a base, turn off governer and tell it to build a SP, the same time as another base. When first base is done, it will ask you change to a new project. Just ignore it.

Production will continue until you see a project you want to use, convert to that project and complete it the very next turn.

>>>> VictorK

ad 102: Intended. Enhancements in a fungus square are useful for improving resources output in adjacent squares, not the fungus square itself.

>>>> Bashi Bazouk

110. The yellow event text on the map is erased after Pop up warning menus have been dealt with. Giving you only moments to read sometimes critical information. (like the first energy crash I noticed. 11,000 to 2500...what the..)

111. With all possible victory conditions selected in the starting prefs and each victory condition completed in the game, no victory is ever given. No option to corner the energy market or get elected supreme leader. Every faction destroyed or surrenders no victory screen given. Built the ascent to transcendence with the same effect. (this has happend with only one game...but after many, many hours this was quite anoying.)

>>>> JarJarStinx

Re: #3. AI completes SP without warning.

I thought this was a bug, too, but after further thought, it's not. Consider this:

The AI has completed enough of an SP to fall just short of the point where a warning message is sent. In other words, 2 or more rounds until it's finished the SP. The AI then changes its social engineering so that it's industry rating is improved to the point where it can complete the SP next turn. That's not really cheating. It seems reasonable to me. You just have to be prepared for this possibility....

>>>> ZRand007

112. AI players attack about 95% of the time on the turn after a peace treaty was signed after a cease fire. Wouldn't it be less damaging to their rep to betray during a cease fire?

113. Urgent message boxes don't work correctly.( Repeats the message several times, but never gives you the message!)

>>>> smod

114. If you upgrade a class of air unit in the Workshop screen while a plane is out of a base its remaining moves go down to 1 even if it is on its first turn out.

115. The famous movement near border bug.

Other factions often spend AGES turning the same unit round in circles near to your border or inside if Pact. this can last for quite a while if the unit is on mag-tubes.

The same thing happens if you give go orders to your own units: the green line you get when you click the go order goes to the right place, but then the unit starts moving in a triangle when it reaches the border.

Surely the AI could check if it has a unit caught in a loop...

>>>> drako

116. Secrets Bug - If u get a secret tech from an alien artifact, u do not get the bonus tech despite the fact that u are the first to discover it.

117. Surrender Bug - If u get the last faction to surrender through diplomacy (ie threthen a faction with friendship treaty to submissive pact brother), conquest victory not achieved.

118. Home Bug - U can home your units in pact brother cities using the right click menu & thus dont pay support for the unit.

>>>> cousLee

why this list is just too short! (S>A>:save available)

119. Pact faction probe bug. (prober gets to pick own punishment if caught) S>A>

120. AI jets that don't run out of fuel.S>A>

121. AI mineral cheat. (AI carrys over more than 10 minerals, MUCH more)S>A>

122. (related to 104,105,others) Workshop/unit design. The problem, is the game auto-designs units when you discover a new reactor. turning off auto design is ignored on this unit component.

123. PBEM reload screw-up. not a bug, a screw-up. When you reload a PBEM game, you get a warning "if you continue, notification will be sent to the other players". This is fine, but WHERE IS the cancel option? IF(?) you continue!? only option is "ok".

124. Graphics bug. unit icon disappears, but the unit is still there. (talking about my own unit)S>A>

RE#30: Humans can also build on the volcano cap.

RE#56: It gives proper credit at the end of the sentance on the pyramid badge for secrets. otherwise, you would have to have 3 seperate badges, or only for the first (S of human brain)

RE#59: What, you want them to patch a book???

RE#60: Drill to aquifer can not be started next to a river. you can start a river in adjacent tiles, but when the second former completes the job, it re-routes the first river. You can get 2 rivers, if started on neighboring slopes, but IMHO you should be able to.

RE#114: Upgrading to a new reactor gives you the extra movement points. Since the jet have already used up it's allotment, it only has the 2 new movements point available. Not enough to make it to a base (most of the time). This can be avoided by not upgrading in the design workshop. IMHO, the upgrade all units in the workshop should only be available at the start of your turn, or removed alltogether. I also think you should only be able to upgrade units when their in one of your bases.

RE#66: I have a save file on that bug also.

>>>> smod

Re: Re: 114

sorry to re-thrash: it went like this:
turn 1.: plane goes to attack. end turn.
turn 2.: get new reactor / weapon /whatever.
upgrade all planes. carry on playing. get to plane waiting outside enemy city which hasn't yet moved this turn: it has one move left.

I agree with the previous poster about how it would be fairer... perhaps... if you couldn't get round the whole-turn upgrade by using the workshop... although it's something i do all the time and i would miss it if it wasnt there

>>>> cousLee

I see. My experience was:

Turn 1: flew out and attacked (emptying the base) then upgrade the needlejet to a new reactor type, and used the 1 move pnt to move the same attacker into the base after capture.

Turn 2: fresh and ready to go on a first run.

Obviously a related bug. And a cheat IMHO.

>>>> Rackam

Watch out for this one boys and girls.

125. If 'edit unit' is selected in the scenario editor and no unit is inside the curser, the game hangs.

re#116: I've been testing this one and you do get an extra tech but not until your next turn if a 'secret' tech is discovered with artifact/UT. If blind is off, you get the tech you were researching. If blind is on, the tech is in one of the areas you were researching.

>>>> Defiler

126. Formers set to "Auto-Improve Home Base" will eventually get stuck in an infinite movement loop when using mag-tubes.. It's possible that the loop ends eventually, but it was still going after 20 minutes on my P3-560. This only seems to occur when there are large numbers of Formers working on the same area.

127. Formers built on the "Gunpod" chassis (I forget the correct name) are totally useless, when they ought to be the most capable type available. All they will do is fly back and forth between your bases. They seem to think that they can run out of fuel, even though that chassis type doesn't need to refuel.

>>>> Psimanic

128. The battle odds are SERIOUSLY wrong. On many occasions, I have experimented with a battle, only to find that I will ALWAYS without exception lose the first round. I'm not sure why, and it only happens a few times, but the odds were something like 4.5 to 3 in my favour.

129. Why can't I find a way to stop the workshop from designing lots of new units when I discover a new reactor, it's very annoying.

130. Why does the computer never offer peace if its the very last city on the map, and its surrounded by 8 sinularity hover-tanks, and contains no defenders. I carried on a game for 20 years when the computer had one city only, and the Morganites would not recievce transmissions ( I know, I'm nitpicking! )

>>>> kcmagee

131: When an undefended Hive base is attacked by mindworms, the pop is reduced and one improvement is destroyed (as usual), but the improvement which is destroyed is often the perimiter defense. As the presence of the perimiter is due to the fact that the base is underground and not because of an actual defense, this doesn't seem like it should be possible.

re 56: Not really a bug. Read the text carefully; It should list when you discovered "other secrets".

>>>> jklame

132: Capturing the enemy capitol does not prevent them from cornering the global energy market after 20 turns. 20 turns passed and Morgan had no capitol but he won an economic victory anyway.

133: FUNGNUTRIENT, FUNGENERGY, and FUNGMINERALS settings in the faction.txt files will add at most 1 resource to a fungus square. Perhaps this is intentional but I see no reason why "FUNGMINERALS, 2" shouldn't work (for instance).

Re 120: I just wanted to confirm that AI jets do not run out of fuel. I verified this by surrounding an AI needlejet with 8 of my own. It didn't (couldn't) attack me but it didn't run out of fuel either. I held it in place for a few turns and then it flew home when I finally gave it a way out.

>>>> jklame

The following were reported to me by VYWood@cs.com (who is apparently unable to obtain a password to this forum). I'm just playing the messenger here.

134. Singularity Inductor does not reduce your Eco damage like it is supposed to.

135. Some infantry units appear shrunk on the screen.

In addition, the following suggestions were made.

**Another base facility besides CC that improves efficiency.
**Conventional missles need to have their price reduced because you can build a singularity needlejet for the same price.

Note: I disagree with both of these. I don't see the need for the first and I think that it is reasonable that superior technology allows you to build better weapons for the same price. (Sorry about that)

>>>> VictorK

posted 08-10-99 07:30 PM ET            

RE: Auto-design off but new units designed.

Actually, the only "new" units created when you have auto-design off and discover a new reactor type are those you already have. THe rub is that your existing units have been modified to use the new reactor type. That's it. At least that's how it works in my games. No new units and the flag is not toggled either.

>>>> jdmartin

I'm running NT 4.0 sp4
64 megs
K6/2-300
800x600
Creative Labs 3d Blaster Banshee

Base Operation Status menu:

136. pg-up/pg-down works before zooming into a city, but not after zooming out from a city.

137. {click -> shift-click} works, but {click -> scroll down -> shift-click} causes the game to crash

Unit Design menu:

138. Occasionally a slot will be corrupted (containing a design which shows up as three different things depending where you look) which can't be upgraded, retired, or made obsolete. Unfortunately this is very sporadic and I can't readily reproduce it.

Audio-Visual preferences menu:

139. [Main Off] doesn't actually stay that way after save/reload (although the button still says off). Workaround - toggle [main] on and off after every reload.

140. Clicking an [X] blanks out the top 2/3 of the sound on/off buttons.

Final replay map:

141. The ocean is black - and so are the Spartans.

Base Names:

142. After all the factions names and generic names are used, all new bases are given the same name (i.e. I have a dozen bases called University 58). At least go '58 '59 '60...

143. Imported factions from custom faction files don't use the generic base names at all.

Suggestions.

Secret Project Data:

144. I'd like to zoom into the bases or hurry production (or at least locate enemy bases on the map for targeting purposes).

Automation AI:

145. The last combat/defense unit should NEVER leave the base (on transports or by any other means

146. Air colony pod and air transport AI added

147. More auto options (auto forest/kelp, auto raise/lower, etc.)

Unit Movement:

148. Aircraft should NOT always park in the first city they enter (particularly gravships, but planes and choppers too)

Group Control:

149. In the base operations menu, set groups of cities (that are capable) to produce the same item (i.e. pressure dome) or add an item to their queues (i.e. planet-busters mwahhah hah)

150. The ability to establish a standard initial production queue (w/ initial orders) for each city (i.e. plasma sentinels on HOLD, CTRL-SHFT-A former, a colony pod...). Might need to have three (sea base, coastal base, inland base).

151. In the military command nexus, set all selected unit types to same orders (as appropriate) - useful for staging invasions or breaking up those darn sea former caravans

Miscellaneous:

152. Option for NO native lifeforms
153. Option to prevent my bases from building native lifeforms
154. In the Governer menu, detailed pulldown menus of'land combat', 'land defense', 'air combat', 'air defense' , etc. with individual yes/no options (default all yes for the benifit of newbies/lazy veterans)
155. Button/hotkey to pause automated troop movement (230+ cities worth of stuff moving when a thunderstorm came through wasn't fun)
156. no automatic {upgrade production/make unit obsolete} because of designes based on different chassis (and no, I don't want to upgrade all future singularity deathspheres to fusion needlejets - thank you for asking)

posted 08-10-99 07:31 PM ET            

157. punishment sphere bug. the time until you complete your research is based on the total tech per turn before it is modified by the punishment sphere and it's saying you'll finish researching tech faster than what you really are. the punishment spheres work as advertised but the F2 screen isn't taking that into account when it tells you when you will make your next discovery. in fact there is no place that the punishment sphere shows what it is doing the only way you know they are working like they are supposed to is to look at the actual number that is added to the tech accumulated. it is lower than what the tech per turn says it is. save game available

>>>> VictorK

158. Artillery fire never does more than 1 point of damage in total (collectively) against units in open ground (IOW, all damaged units in open ground are immune to artillery). Against units in bases and bunkers, it works as expected.

>>>> Thork

159. Towards the end of the game, especially if you play beyond the terminal year the AI will go mindworm/Isle of the deep crazy. Its just about the only units they build. It really made for a very boring conquest. They were easily destroyed with a chopper that I designed that had very good PSI combat abilities. Something that gives the AI more balance in this matter would be very nice.

>>>> SniperX

160. When you give your governor the ability to hurry production, he buys the stuff at outrageous costs. If you are just building a colony pod and it would normally cost only 6 credits to finish, the governor will buy the colony pod, give you overproduction (i think equal to the largest thing that you can build), and drain your energy reserves.

>>>> amesius

160. Economic Victory Bug. If you win by an economic victory, the game states that all other factions have capitulated and united under your control. If you continue the game, it is back to business as usual. What should happen is that all cities and bases are converted to your faction as if you had mind controlled them like it says it does.

>>>> jdmartin

162. Singularity Reactor 30!=40

>>>> Jezibi

This list should be split into "bug fixes" and "game improvement wish list." And comments regarding other suggestions should be listed under the suggestions to which they refer. In theory, each rule change suggestion could be a separate thread, but that would probably be too much. This list crawls like Jabba when it should jump like a Jedi.

>>>> jschwab

Re. 67: Sound and music fine under V3.0
Re. 68: This is related to #67 and is most likely a sound card incompatibility. I have a friend experience the same problem and it was fixed by updating his drivers.

>>>> jdmartin

163. When you manually build a base in SP, you zoom into the base screen. In MP, you don't - automated units just jump you all over the map and it takes time to find the base again to hurry the first defense unit.

>>>> Ambro2000

164. When you set nedlejet interceptors to alert *shift-L* they go out and try to attack your own interceptors as well and your allies. Stupid bug!

165. Don't know if this is a bug but in my last game I had won a diplomatic victory the only problem was that The Believers didn't aprove with this and all other factions united behind me and started Vendetta on Believers. (All according to the manual) The problem however is that I can't talk to anyone of the other factions anymore! And only a few turns later the Gaians started a war against me!

Is this supposed to happen??

>>>> Tweed

166: Echelon Mirrors does not seem to work as stated in manual. As far as I can tell, they give NO energy bonus what so ever.

167: In multiplayer the "alert" command (shift-L) does not work. I had a borehole destroyed by the Spartans and my needlejet on alert just sat there doing nothing.

The strange thing (considering the length of this buglist) is that I think SMAC is one of the best games I have played, ever....

>>>> The Ascender

posted 08-11-99 05:20 AM ET            

OK, then big mouths what do you have to say in reponse to that.

posted 08-12-99 10:41 PM ET            

> 3. AI completes SP without a warning (sometimes).

They're hurrying production.

> 5. Sea borders.

What about them?

> 7. Paradrop cheat.

Which is what?

> 8. AI uses a stored up production.

I'm not sure what this means.

> 10. When you try to lower terrain to sink an enemy base the AI asks for an incredible
> amount of money.

What's wrong with this? You make it sound like you're paying the enemy faction to let you drown them. Why shouldn't it cost more to sink an area that is full of human development?

> 12. Bug when you upgrade your needlejets to a higher reactor type (they run out of fuel).

Upgrading takes one turn (hence the fuel).

> 13. Probe teams attack a faction even if it has the HS algorithm.

Hoping for a miracle. You're probably right about it being a bug, though.

> 14. Workshop not user friendly.

Not a bug.

> 15. Misleading display when you look at other factions' research.

In what way?

> 18. Factions' leaders sometimes declare war even on magnanimous mood.

What did the Bioscan say? I recall BR saying somewhere that the magnanimous -> seething ratings might just be a front, and you should check the bioscan to be sure.

> 19. Omniscient AI
In what way? (Besides the pre-v4 social engineering settings.)

> 20. AI sometimes builds bases with no usefull squares (ocean, surrounded by ocean).

That can be developed to be pretty productive. Minor AI deficiency.

> 21. Social engineering cheat (you change it for one turn, then back again)

I agree, there should either be a longer waiting period (anarchy) or a much higher cost (and no refunds). However, I think this could sort of be explained by saying that you're only pretending to be a democracic/green/etc. It's not foolproof, because if they're the ones who call you up, you're busted.
I'd say it was a poor design decision (not bug).

> 22. Dierdre does not behave like a pacifistic leader (I heard from others the
> same about Morgan)

They're just the normal tendencies, not hard-and-fast rules that they'll never go on the offensive. It's probably a percentage thing (eg.- chance of declaring war = 75% aggressive, 50% erratic, 25% passive).

> 23. There is no option to separate factions' starting locations. CMNs have to
> devote some time to do it manually.

Not sure what this means. What's a CMN?

> 25. About the Editor, it's not user friendly to say the least.

Again, not a bug.

> 26. Interceptors scramble even when damaged, even when the unit they try to
> protect is stronger.

You're the one who told them to scramble. It's not the soldiers' fault if their commander is stupid.

> 29. Energy calculation bug - you get free "stockpile energy" bonus when production in a
> base is completed, if its build queue is empty.

I asked about this before, and didn't really understand the answer. My explanation was that it's simply the leftover minerals from the completion turn being converted into energy. If there's something in the queue, it goes into the next production instead. Are you saying that you'll get (leftover minerals converted to energy) + (full turn's worth of minerals converted to energy)?

> 30. AI builds bases on LAVA MOUTH of Volcano.

I thought players could too. Could be wrong...

> 31. AI raises and lowers land without the prerequisite tech.

Weather Paradigm?

> 37. Can't set more than 4 waypoints (3?)

Limitation on the player, not a bug.

> 38. Setting 4 waypoints ==> WPs hosed unit goes off to strange location

Not really a bug, well, yeah I guess it is.

> 39. Sometimes game will center on unobservable AI unit movement

Your scouts know something is going on, but can't figure out what...

> 40. (Obscure) Tries to open directories with .SAV extension as a .SAV file

That would be a deliberate attempt to screw up the game.

> 43. Can't "attack" neutral (alien) non-combat pieces and capture them (ala
> artifacts). Treats them like mindworms instead!

There's obviously some humans "driving" it. They'd rather die and destroy the artifact than let it fall into enemy hands.

> (47.) Sea psi battles are always 1:1, instead of 3:2.

This is design. It states this rule all the documentation.

> 45. Battle odds are calculated incorrectly for mind worms attacking anything with a
> fusion reactor or better.

No, it's just that a stronger reactor doesn't help in a fight with mindworms (makes sense). There was a bug with singularity reactors only having 30 HP and so getting a disadvantage, but this was fixed in v4.

> 48. Space elevator doesn't work.

Fixed in v4.

> 49. AI can be goated into war infinetly many times by just demanding stuff, even when
> you are far superiour. I never have reputation below noble

Who said war was logical? AI deficiency, not bug.

> 50. Bulk matter transmitter doesn't work as adverticed. You should update the help file.

What exactly is it supposed to do? +2 Industry, or +2 minerals in every base?

> 51. The odds calculated before a battle does not represent your actual chance of
> winning. In reality you allmost never lose a battle estimated to 4-1.(you should lose 1
> in 5 times)

My experience has been that I win/lose at around the stated ratio. Probability is just that, a probability, not "it will always be this way."

> 52. The odds sometimes are very large numbers. For an imperfect estimation you
> should round it off.

Design choice, and one that I agree with.

> 54. Stopping text in blurbs (like when you discover something) from constantly
> resizeing(when scrooling), making it a pain to read.

I'm not sure what this means. Sounds like a design issue, not a bug.

> 56. "Secrets of (anything)" discoveries all present the "Secrets of the Human Mind"
> monument all over again.

No, it adds to it. There is a "Secrets of..." monument, which will read like "FactionA discover Secrets of Human Brain in 2117, YourFaction did it in 2120. YourFaction discovered additional secrets in 2298 and 2345." It's supposed to be this way.

> 59. Manual BADLY needs an index.

Not a bug. Doesn't even have anything to do with the game itself.

> 62. Self-Aware colony ha no effect on your maintenance payments.

Fixed in v4, I believe.

> ad 62. Self-aware colony does halve your maintenance payments as advertised; the
> effect is just not shown in the F3 report screen.

Ah, I see.

> 70. Bases can't reach a population above 127, they turn into negative! (This is very
> problematic, because every city can have a pop of 184, max is 266)

Uh, how many times have you made a city that big? Does this mess up your faction's total population/council votes?

> 75. Top arrow of scrollbar of F4 screen is shifted to the left compared to the
> scrollbar.

We're *really* scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't we?

> 76. Humane Genome Project doesn't always work correctly. I had cities (with the hive,
> transcend, ironman, UK version) that didn't have at least one talent.

I think that a really unhappy city can turn talents into workers/drones if there's no workers left to convert. Design decision, I suspect.

> 78. AI production of planet busters can easily be sabotaged by attacking with a
> missile, this way it's possible to prevent the enemy factions of ever building a PB (as
> long as you're Governor or have infiltrators everywhere). This is more a
> cheat. It should be changed for Transcend at least.

What's wrong with this? Why shouldn't blowing up a city with a missile trash its factories?

> 81. The computer also ignores this setting and designs units in single-player, when a
> new reactor is discovered.

No, it just switches all your units to the new reactor (I think it asks you for confirmation on this).

> 83. The "Yes to All" button doesn't work.

Did for me.

> 88> (suggestion) A non combat unit souldn't get the negative mod. while being attacked by
> mindworms.

Why not? I doubt civilians are less (scared of)/(ill-equipped against) mindworms than they are of troops.

> 91> When telling a unit to go somewhere it will avoid fungus at all cost even if the
> fastest way is strait through it.

Because they don't know if they will bounce back or not, making the trip longer. Design decision.

> 92> Computer opponents call a vandetta you first time you talk to them even if you
> haven't done anything wrong. (miriam mainly)

Notice the little tag that said "Personality: Aggressive"?

> Oh yeah and one more thing. Some additional town names in the hopefully upcoming patch.
> I'm tired of seeing the same names pop up.

Not a bug...

> 93. In the Audio/visual preferences, acessed from the "Start" button (forget what
> it's called) the sliders for sound effects/music volume are all out of whack.

Not sure what this means.

> 94. Automated sffenders.

Huh?

> Question: Is the commerce income included with the gross in the econ scan? If not we
> have a seriious bug on our hands.

I forget which way around it is, but I remember looking at that and comparing it with the actual amount of energy I between turns, and it works fine.

Okay, "bugs" 95-98 were missing from the list. I gathered that 95 had something to do with upgrades, and 96 was the "lower maintanance on Transcend." What where these four?

> 104. Auto Design units keeps suggesting new units based on retired designs. Once you
> retire a design, the auto-design is suppose to base it off existing types.

No, I think it just creates new units from its own library of designs. It doesn't "learn" the designs that you like. I guess it would be nice if it did, but I would hardly expect this in a game. (This relates to #105 as well.)

> MONSTER BUG!!!!! Annoys the living hell out of me..
> 108. You have overridden a Governor and told it to build a SP. (snip)

AI flaw, not really a bug.

> 112. AI players attack about 95% of the time on the turn after a peace treaty was
> signed after a cease fire. Wouldn't it be less damaging to their rep to betray during a
> cease fire?

Uh, I don't follow. Sounds like an AI thing, though.

> 114. If you upgrade a class of air unit in the Workshop screen while a plane is out of a
> base its remaining moves go down to 1 even if it is on its first turn out.

Don't see how that's possible. How can a plane be ugraded while outside a base on its first turn? (You can't upgrade unless the unit still has all its movement points.)

> 115. The famous movement near border bug.

I forget what this is.

> 122. (related to 104,105,others) Workshop/unit design. The problem, is the
> game auto-designs units when you discover a new reactor. turning off auto design is
> ignored on this unit component.

No, it just puts the new reactor on all your old designs.

> 128. The battle odds are SERIOUSLY wrong. On many occasions, I have experimented with a
> battle, only to find that I will ALWAYS without exception lose the first round. I'm not sure why, and it only happens a few
> times, but the odds were something like 4.5 to 3 in my favour.

There seem to be "stored results" for battles. Numerous people have said that if they fight a battle and then reload that turn, the battle will always go exactly the same way. I assume that this was done to prevent reload cheating, even without Ironman.

> 129. Why can't I find a way to stop the workshop from designing lots of new units
> when I discover a new reactor, it's very annoying.

Been said. Been refuted.

> 130. Why does the computer never offer peace if its the very last city on the map,
> and its surrounded by 8 sinularity hover-tanks, and contains no defenders. I
> carried on a game for 20 years when the computer had one city only, and the
> Morganites would not recievce transmissions ( I know, I'm nitpicking! )

The AI is just extremely stubborn. Nazi Germany should have surrendered the instant the U.S. entered the war. AI issue, not a bug.

> Final replay map:
> 141. The ocean is black - and so are the Spartans.

Huh? I've always seen it as blue (slightly lighter than Hive blue).

> Suggestions.
> #144-156

Not bugs (although I agree with a lot of them).

> #159, 160

AI issues, not bugs.

> 162. Singularity Reactor 30!=40

Been covered. Fixed in either v3 or v4.

> 163. When you manually build a base in SP, you zoom into the base screen. In MP, you
> don't - automated units just jump you all over the map and it takes time to find the
> base again to hurry the first defense unit.

Design issue (might not want to waste time when your timer is ticking), not bug.

Finally, I couldn't help but notice these:

> 2. Infinite range missile/PB.
> 32. AI missiles have unlimited range. - Supposed to be fixed completely in version 4.

> 16. Urgent message bug.
> 113. Urgent message boxes don't work correctly.( Repeats the message several
> times, but never gives you the message!)

> 99. If you station a unit in a pact brother's base, from the base screen you can
> switch home base of your unit to that base, so that it doesn't require support (your pact brother's base doesn't have to pay for it
> either). It is clearly not intended, since the normal Ctrl-H command doesn't work in
> this case.
> 118. Home Bug - U can home your units in pact brother cities using the right click
> menu & thus dont pay support for the unit.

I'll assume these weren't repeated on purpose...

Now, here's one of my own:

posted 09-16-99 02:24 AM ET            

There are LOTS of bugs. There are lots of enhancement wishes. Too bad people couldn't tell the difference. Then Firaxis would have a better list for what to hunt for while they are making Civ3 out of SMAC code.