Research bug?

Tenryu · #1 June 19th, 2002, 03:36 AM

I may have stumbled on a bug in R&D today. I have no idea whether or not it has been reported either. So, for what its worth, here it is. It should be easy to fix if it can be confirmed.

If you had previously selected a sequenced research target, and, since it was next in line after the completion of project Last turn, and, it is now the current project, and, an amount of R&D points had already been allocated to it from Last turn, AND, this turn, you discover Ruins that give you that tech, AND, you continue to reseach it. YOU WILL WASTE your R&D points, if you end your turn without changing goals, (thereby probobly losing(wasting) any points already spent on it I suspect), as the game continues to spend R&D on the project NOT CHECKING to see if it is ALREADY DISCOVERED.

I Think:
There needs to be a check AFTER discovering a random 'ruins' tech to see if that tech is in the R&D que, and if it is, delete it. Ideally, the spent R&D points might be dumped into the next thing in line, but I won't whine even if they just dissappear, (ok so we had a breakthrough)and lost a few points, but losing more, after, kinda sux.

I'll leave this to you Beta testers to confirm and pass on.

Who knows, Maybe, I Hallucinate!:
LOL!

Marvin Kosh · #2 June 19th, 2002, 04:23 AM

Hmmm, I *have* had this happen to me, but usually I've benefited because the reserach is automatically bumped up to the next level if I'm working on it at the moment. I can't say whether it preserves the number of research points you have accumulated for that project so far, because I've only come across it once or twice.

Sometimes I'll come across ruins and only realise ten turns later *what* exactly it has bumped up - sometimes it doesn't pick what's currently being researched (I usually have all the labs at work and make a whole bunch of discoveries in rapid succession). And sometimes you get more than one extra tech, I think. Depends how lucky you are.

Tenryu · #3 June 19th, 2002, 05:33 AM

"Bumped you to the next level?" Are you sure?

I was R&Ding "PD II". I had a few hundred R&D points in it already and was expecting it to complete the reseach at the end of the current turn. I colonized a planet with some ruins, not a unique one, one of those "get a random tech/techs" type. I got "PD II". Bad luck, good luck, who cares, but that's what I got. I know because I checked my R&D screen after I colonized. You know, of course, the game nevers tells you just which tech you recieved until the next turns Messages. You can go look in the R&D allocation screen to find it and use it right away in the turn you are in, however.

I upgraded a few ships to use the new PDs, forgot all about fact that I'd been researching it and therefore, didn't change targets. I ended my turn and read the Messages and went: "WHOA!!! it just spent my R&D points on that darn tech!!! "

It dumped the remaining overflow into my next project, but still, it gobbled the whole amount to finish the R&D for the PDII even though I knew it since the colonization of the ruins.

Bastardo!

Baron Munchausen · #4 June 19th, 2002, 05:45 AM

Well, it used to bump your research project to the next level if you found a tech in ruins that you were currently researching. I've seen that myself. But it's not impossible for known working features to get scrunched by a bug. Best report this to MM. It's hard to 'duplicate' a situation like that and test it. He'll have to setup a debugger test himself to check it.

Tenryu · #5 June 19th, 2002, 06:45 AM

When I have some time, I can mod the game to test this and confirm.

I was interested to see if anyone ever noticed this happen.

It isn't a biggy, as even if confirmed, you just need to manually switch the project to something else to not get burned.

capnq · #6 June 20th, 2002, 04:13 AM

Quote:

You know, of course, the game nevers tells you just which tech you recieved until the next turns Messages.

This is not correct in single player games. The Messages appear in the Log immediately; if you look at the Log after colonizing the planet, the new message(s) will be there. The Messages only wrap to the next turn if you don't look at the Log on the turn they arrived.

Combat reports behave the same way; you can look at the report immediately after the combat.

[ June 20, 2002, 03:16: Message edited by: capnq ]

Tenryu · #7 June 20th, 2002, 05:34 AM

Yes, you are correct. Other than the beginning of the turn pop up, I usually only look at the log to review an alien message. I didn't know it was adding that info there during the on going turn.

Some good news though, albeit, confounding to me. I ran a few tests this evening and it is 'bumping' your R&D to the next level in the current project as Marvin and Baron thought it was. And yet, I know what I saw.
I am left scratching my ...ah, head..

Baron Munchausen · #8 June 20th, 2002, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tenryu:
Yes, you are correct. Other than the beginning of the turn pop up, I usually only look at the log to review an alien message. I didn't know it was adding that info there during the on going turn.

Some good news though, albeit, confounding to me. I ran a few tests this evening and it is 'bumping' your R&D to the next level in the current project as Marvin and Baron thought it was. And yet, I know what I saw.
I am left scratching my ...ah, head..

Was the level currently being researched when you made that discovery the Last level for that tech field? It might have a bug when the tech level is the Last one in that field...

Tenryu · #9 June 20th, 2002, 02:58 PM

No, can't figure it. I had PD I, even had ships designed with them, and upgraded to PD IIs after I got the Ruins Tech. I even checked my components file to make sure I didn't have the PD III named PD II, but it was fine. The tests I ran all confirm it is working as it should be.

I can't replicate it, (which is good), so I'm going to assume it was a glitch native to my machine or caused by other software I might have been running in the background.