Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Bug/Patch Discussion => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on April 08, 2013, 05:51:49 AM

Title: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 08, 2013, 05:51:49 AM

A little exploit I discovered - it works especially well with the Mindworms with Minds custom faction.  Note the mission years in the screenies attached.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Geo on April 08, 2013, 07:12:32 PM

Scenario?

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 08, 2013, 07:43:00 PM

Nope.  Regular game.

Turns out that if building something or an event causes the base screen to open during the beginning of a turn, you can load a save from the end of the previous turn, and all bases built later will grow, build, and generate energy/research without the year advancing.  You have to save the turn at the end each time for this to work.  At best, your oldest base all, units, and all the all the other factions are in stasis. 

You can't terraform without building fresh formers for each move, so it works badly with the Gaians, better (I assume) with Planet Cult, and surely worse with any faction with no fungus-working bonus.  Under normal circumstances, it's unbearably dull to use for a lot of turns/advantage.

I never had the patience to go anything like all the way through the tech tree before, but it works crazy good with the Eighth Faction, which has ridiculous fungus bonuses...

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Geo on April 09, 2013, 04:29:13 PM

Sounds like alot of trouble/work.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 09, 2013, 05:23:26 PM

Yah; only recreational obsessive-compulsives need apply.  I'm a builder, and the competitive aspect means less to me than most.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Yitzi on April 09, 2013, 05:50:15 PM

What are the exact steps used to do this?  Are you loading the game from inside the base screen somehow, or are you letting all the bases finish their stuff and then loading the saved game (and still everything from after the base that opened progresses)?

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 09, 2013, 06:16:28 PM

Inside the base screen - you can do that, even during the beginning of a turn,  so the trick is to get your founding base to give a "Zoom to base screen" warning.  As long as it's going to finish building SOMEthing, easy enough to set your warning preferences to stop for whatever.  You load the save of the end of the previous turn before the other base process through their beginning-of-the-turn business, first thing in the turn.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Yitzi on April 09, 2013, 06:32:43 PM

Sounds like the "bases to be processed" queue is not being reset when you load a game.

Another thing to test: What if you load a different game?  If you loaded the game from base 1 (using the map-wide numbering), will all bases after base 1 (in the other game) then grow/build/produce in the same way?

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 09, 2013, 06:56:08 PM

I don't understand the question.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Yitzi on April 09, 2013, 07:02:57 PM

Quote from: BUncle on April 09, 2013, 06:56:08 PM

I don't understand the question.

Basically, what happens if instead of loading the same game, you load a different game?  Obviously it won't have the same bases, but (since what matters it the order in which bases were built) there is a natural equivalence by just matching the first base worldwide to the first base worldwide, the second to the second, etc.  So does the same phenomenon happen with a different game?

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 09, 2013, 07:14:29 PM

You get a different game, of course - I did try that much.  Let me go back and see if the same thing is happening with the other game, as you suggest.  Back in a minute or two to report...

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 09, 2013, 07:42:56 PM

Okay, this is interesting.  It took some searching through old saves to find one with plenty of still-growing bases, and a good deal of testing and remembering things from turn to turn, but on the first load, the effects are the same for the other game, except the oldest base advances a turn in growth and production, too.  Otherwise, everything's the same.  When I saved at the end of the urn, loaded the previous game, and did it again, there was no progress for the founding base, as if I hadn't switched games, but done it normally.  Something about the save, I guess.

Just as well - otherwise, I'd be tempted to use this technique to grow my original base, and that would be really unwieldy.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 14, 2013, 04:02:25 PM

It occurred to me yesterday to try saving during the beginning-of-turn processing -you can do that while you're zoomed into a base screen, just as you can load- --- the result, when loading said save, was the turn opening finished and the first active unit blinking as in a normal turn - but all bases in the process order after the base where I saved had not built any.  I did not think to compare the year with the previous turn or check for growth, but it stand to reason that the year had progressed and the bases in question had skipped all progress for the new turn; the opposite of the timewarp cheat.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Yitzi on April 14, 2013, 04:54:10 PM

Quote from: BUncle on April 14, 2013, 04:02:25 PM

It occurred to me yesterday to try saving during the beginning-of-turn processing -you can do that while you're zoomed into a base screen, just as you can load- --- the result, when loading said save, was the turn opening finished and the first active unit blinking as in a normal turn - but all bases in the process order after the base where I saved had not built any.  I did not think to compare the year with the previous turn or check for growth, but it stand to reason that the year had progressed and the bases in question had skipped all progress for the new turn; the opposite of the timewarp cheat.

This makes sense, though it may prove harder or impossible to fix.  Still, an exploit that weakens the user isn't really much of a concern.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 14, 2013, 04:56:04 PM

Yah; just being thorough.

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 11, 2022, 02:59:19 AM

Bumped for Tim - I never heard of anyone else discovering this one...

Title: Re: Let's do the Time Warp Again!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on July 27, 2023, 05:41:04 PM

FINALLY - something on the order of 14 years later, someone else has...

https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=22232.0