[douglas]

When you create a new design, the game has to assign an internal ID for it. If two players create designs on the same turn, both designs will initially be assigned the same internal ID, and the conflict will be resolved when the turn is processed by changing one of them. Construction queues will be updated to the correct design ID, but any orders, including retrofits, that reference that ID will not be changed. For the player whose design gets its ID changed, any retrofit orders to that design will be interpreted as orders to retrofit to the other player's design and ignored as invalid. Since it is not supposed to be possible to even try to retrofit to someone else's design, there is no log message for this.

The Copy and Upgrade buttons create a new design in exactly the same manner as the Create New button. The only difference is that they automatically fill in what the original design had for you. As far as how internal ID's work, there is no difference.

When you Edit a preexisting design, the design already has its ID and all other players know this ID is already claimed. So, no matter what changes you make to the design, no other design will be created with the same ID, no conflict resolution will be needed, and no retrofit orders will end up referencing the wrong design. Editing can only be done on prototype designs that are not currently under construction anywhere.


One other thing you could try if you don't have a design free to edit into what you need for the retrofit is create a whole bunch of new designs, ending with the one you need to retrofit to. If you create 10 dummy designs and make the real design number 11, the first 10 designs anyone else makes in that same turn will have ID conflicts with the dummy designs, leaving your real design and its retrofits undisturbed.