1.7 Beta 2 Change Log

from JoeUser Forums

As you can see from the list below, we mostly concentrated on fixes for this build. As a reminder, if you get a crash that can be reproduced within a few turns, please zip and include the save game with the crash report and debug.err (which is located in My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar).  You may need to go to Tools->Settings->Internet->Refresh XML Data to get the new beta to show up.

+ NEW: Added code to delete multiple ships at once from the maintenance tab


+ NEW: Added code to put auto-survey ship on standby if it can't find any more anomalies - if this works out, I'll see about adding it for space miners too.

+ FIX: Restored missing recieving war or peace notifications

+ FIX: Made it so that if you update several planets, it should update all of them in the colony list

+ FIX: There was a bug where the treasury display on the main UI was being constantly updated during the end of turn, thus causing slowdown

+ FIX: There were rounding errors with bonus research production

+ FIX: Reduced some of the slowdown when moving a selected ship caused by updating the ship context area

+ FIX: Corrected the switched civ names for the event log when a race surrenders to you.

+ FIX: The Civ Manager Event list will scroll if you mousewheel over the entries now (wasn't before because they were disabled, thus blocking mouse messages)

+ FIX: I believe that I have finally fixed the 'weird minimap lines' bug

+ FIX: I changed it so that the resource manager won't flush during combat, which could cause slowdown

+ FIX: Tweaked planetary tile bonus distribution so that it gets more of an even distribution and is less likely to be unable to place all the tiles

+ FIX: Xml data saved at the end of a game was not saving campaign data if it wasn't a metaverse game

+ FIX: The screenshot key wasn't being detected correctly

+ FIX: Changed debug functions because they have been causing breaks even in release mode

+ FIX: Updated metaverse data (only the sandbox data was updated with the last update)

+ FIX: Crash in the rendering code related to alpha-blended graphics

+ FIX: The title bar of the event log should now stretch properly on resolutions higher than 1024x768

61,892 views 44 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
+ FIX: I believe that I have finally fixed the 'weird minimap lines' bug
+ FIX: The screenshot key wasn't being detected correctly
+ FIX: Changed debug functions because they have been causing breaks even in release mode
+ FIX: The Civ Manager Event list will scroll if you mousewheel over the entries now (wasn't before because they were disabled, thus blocking mouse messages)


All the issues that have been bugging me fixed. You're the best
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
The best work at Stardock, after all.
Curtains - Customize Windows with additional styles
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Three cheers for Stardock!

Thank you so much for listening to us.

You've now created a paradox - I want to spend more money on your games, but I must stop playing to go work and earn money for said games.

Evil has never left me feeling so happy to be a Stardock gamer. Go Stardock!

Cheers,

Scanner28
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
+ FIX: Updated metaverse data (only the sandbox data was updated with the last update)



Does this mean we can submit to the Metaverse without error now?

Thanks for all your hard work. The game has never run better
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have a problem when u click a ship than u click another ship the picture of the first ship appear on the second ship that I clicked. this happen alot for some reason.

btw I'm using GCII DA 1.7 bata
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
A little minor bug that just came up in my 1.7 beta 1 game:

The UP Event that forces Civs to give away a number of their techs passed in my game and I received both Psionic Beam and Sub-space Rebounder (I was neutral, fyi) amongst the many techs I received from the event. Psionic Beam ended up showing up underneath the Disruptors group on the tech tree and Subspace Rebounder was no where to be found on the tree (it was probably buried under another group). Again, just a minor bug, but a bug nonetheless.

Also, just out of curiosity, there seems to be a lot of tech groups that aren't actually collapsed into a group... for instance, why are Majesty and Supreme Majesty separated from the rest of the Diplomacy techs or, heck, not collapsed in their own group? Same with the Influence, Entertainment, Economic, Power Plants, etc? I dunno, it just bugs me seeing the the Diplomacy techs (minus Majesty/Supreme Majesty) grouped up nicely, but the entire Influence tree spread out...

And finally...

+ NEW: Added code to delete multiple ships at once from the maintenance tab


+ NEW: Added code to put auto-survey ship on standby if it can't find any more anomalies - if this works out, I'll see about adding it for space miners too.


Very nice. Hopefully it will be added for Space Miners too... then all we will need is a Hold Position'ish command and/or adding Starbases to fleets and all of the minor ship micro-management annoyances of mine will be fixed.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've got a save game that crashed Beta 1 in one turn. Should I try running this under Beta 2 or would the problem be already built into the save game (and thus running it wouldn't mean anything)?

I'm not sure if mine is this one, but is this fixed:

ASSERT ERROR in file .\Source\EndTurn.cpp at line 2121?
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
+ NEW: Added code to put auto-survey ship on standby if it can't find any more anomalies - if this works out, I'll see about adding it for space miners too.


At first I didn't realize standby took over automatically and was wondering why I couldn't control my surveyors, but I figured it out. This also seemed to keep the AIs rushing after them too now. I like the "mad dash" effect this creates, especially early when your speed is on par with the AIs.

I Have experienced a weird little glitch. Twice when a tech was done and I selected the next tech or clicked on any tech for that matter the screen abruptly closed without me hitting done. This also happened on turn one in a game and it also bypassed going to the colony screen on that one. Besides that I've only experienced a couple of little movement display errors that I'm sure will be ironed out during the beta process and I can't seem to reproduce them.

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
+ NEW: Added code to delete multiple ships at once from the maintenance tab

+ NEW: Added code to put auto-survey ship on standby if it can't find any more anomalies - if this works out, I'll see about adding it for space miners too.


Excellent! I'll be certain to give them a test.

If you don't mind me asking, how goes programming the fortify (or hold position) command?

when will 1.7 beta 2 be available for download because I don't see it on sdc?


You are going to have to do some looking.

You need to checkmark something at the bottom of the screen called "Show pre-release versions". Once that is done, you should be able to expand galciv 2 and download the DA update.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sweet stuff. Keep it going!

ps. About the space miners. They still seems to "know" all asteroid fields in the map, even if they are on fog of war zone. Is it possible to fix this? I just hate when my automated miners go on cruising to the furthest corner of map all the sudden.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

when will 1.7 beta 2 be available for download because I don't see it on sdc?


Along with checking the "show pre-release" at the bottom of Stardock Central (SDC), you might have to refresh SDC's metadata, too (I did): Tools->Settings->Internet->Refresh XML Data.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Does this mean we can submit to the Metaverse without error now?

Yes

I have a problem when u click a ship than u click another ship the picture of the first ship appear on the second ship that I clicked. this happen alot for some reason.

Hmm...I'll look into that. It might be calling the quick update function instead of the full update when you click on a ship.

I've got a save game that crashed Beta 1 in one turn. Should I try running this under Beta 2 or would the problem be already built into the save game (and thus running it wouldn't mean anything)?

Yes, try it in Beta 2.  I fixed all the bugs with the ASSERTs, and a lot of the crashes you sent in were ASSERTs from one place or another.

I Have experienced a weird little glitch. Twice when a tech was done and I selected the next tech or clicked on any tech for that matter the screen abruptly closed without me hitting done. This also happened on turn one in a game and it also bypassed going to the colony screen on that one. Besides that I've only experienced a couple of little movement display errors that I'm sure will be ironed out during the beta process and I can't seem to reproduce them.

Hmm...I didn't see anything like that while I was testing, and I didn't change anything on the tech screen.  Let me know if you can figure out any other info on this.

If you don't mind me asking, how goes programming the fortify (or hold position) command?

I haven't started yet.  My focus was mostly on bug fixing.  The two new features that I added this week I justified because it made two features we added with 1.7 better.

They still seems to "know" all asteroid fields in the map, even if they are on fog of war zone. Is it possible to fix this? I just hate when my automated miners go on cruising to the furthest corner of map all the sudden.

It's possible, but I would think that you're in the minority on this one.

Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

when will 1.7 beta 2 be available for download because I don't see it on sdc?


Along with checking the "show pre-release" at the bottom of Stardock Central (SDC), you might have to refresh SDC's metadata, too (I did): Tools->Settings->Internet->Refresh XML Data.


I tryied this and still did not show up. SDC shows that I have 1.70a[b] installed. Is that right?
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
1.70a[b].001 is beta 2 (odd naming scheme). Beta 1 was 1.70[b].003. Of course, I could be mistaken and something is very wrong on my end .

EDIT: No. I'm sure that's Beta 2. Starting up DA shows "V1.7 Dark Avatar beta 2" on the lower left of the main menu.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Cari,

I loaded up that save game that used to die after one turn under beta 1 (an assert error, I believe). It doesn't die any more. Thanks.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I got strange bug, too. I upgraded a Medium Ship to a better version but instead of getting it made a strange devolution to a defender (or better it looks like one) with the name of the class to which it should have upgraded to. Oh, and the Logistic points said something like 173...37 (a very big number). After that I clicked on the ship, because I thought that I had caused it (somehow) and I got a trip back to my desktop ...

They still seems to "know" all asteroid fields in the map, even if they are on fog of war zone. Is it possible to fix this? I just hate when my automated miners go on cruising to the furthest corner of map all the sudden.


I Agree this is very annoying, specially when you are at war with a race and the miner cross one of it's battlefleets.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I got strange bug, too. I upgraded a Medium Ship to a better version but instead of getting it made a strange devolution to a defender (or better it looks like one) with the name of the class to which it should have upgraded to. Oh, and the Logistic points said something like 173...37 (a very big number). After that I clicked on the ship, because I thought that I had caused it (somehow) and I got a trip back to my desktop ...

Do you have a save game from right before you tried to upgrade the ship?  If you do, please zip it and send it to me at [email protected] with detailed instructions on how to reproduce the bug.

 

Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have submitted several crash reports where the game crashes when I try to save. I have included a save game which is the latest one I could save, after that - boom.

I submitted the reports while running beta 1 but I get the same behaviour in beta 2. So the problem seems to remain.
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice. i see you guys are finally chipping away at the unnecessary little things that slow the game down. Keep chipping away at that rock and make it a work of art!  
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Amazingly good, and Amazingly quick work Cari & company.

all three games with the Assert errors i had are now running perfect at 50+ turns each.

Couple quick suggestions, while you are looking at multiple decommisions on the new lease tab - is there a way to set up upgrades from the same tab, and a step further, allow for "fleet" upgrades? (ie instead of upgrading one at a time, or all.. upgrade all ships of X type in this fleet?)

Govener's are nice, as i emailed though it would be a bit more useful if we had a govener based on planet construction to waypoint. ie all planets building X ship go to Y rally point.

AI work still needs to be done methinks with the cpu controled civ's not producing survey modules, and leaving resource mines untapped mid/late game, but Brad is mostlikly aware of this.

Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh, a suggestion. Can you add a super-slow tech tree? Or better yet, a multiplier you have for the tech speed. EX: You want a really slow tree, so you type in 5 and the techs are 5 times slower. Or if you're insane, 20 times! For the extremely patient. You could always customize how long it would take. User friendly too!

Since immense galaxies will be eventually implemented, the slow tech tree might be normal if you get enough planets, so i want to making GRUELING for anyone to fully complete a tech tree. (And make the "Tech Victory" tech actually matter in a conquest game. Make it give you different super powers depending on your tech tree, alignment, and super ability. Or make it a gateway to supertechs only the ascended energy beings can wield!)

Ofcourse with that speed getting to war would take a while. Could there be a way to give each race atleast one starting weapon?

PS: This question might not pertain to this thread, but about the Terrorstars. They can move around and blow up stars, but can they attack ships? I remember in Galciv1 it could blow up a sun, but it couldn't take out a chinsy fighter, how lame!
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
but it couldn't take out a chinsy fighter, how lame!


Ummm Death Star?? That too could not take out a snub nosed fighter hence why it had Tie Fighters I kinda like the idea that they are not overly tough, it means they are basically a super cargo ship with a big gun
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've just finished my first all-abundant gigantic game ever. 1.7 beta 2 seems rock-solid, definitely an improvement over the previous versions. Though I won't do another gigantic game anytime soon, so many planets

Anyhow, there are a few problems with beta 2:

Auto-survey vessels
I got quite a lot of them to make sure I really get every single anomaly.
I got _tons_ of "No more anomalies available, surveying disabled" messages. Furthermore, this message was misleading. Some survey vessels were indeed idle after that, while some others were in some sort of survey-standby mode, waiting for new anomalies to spawn. I couldn't see any pattern. Just fix the bugs and get rid of the "nothing to do" messages, then it'll be perfect.

Sitrep

...or what ever that small dialog is called you get on every turn with the list of improvements/ships built, amongst other things. I cannot scroll it with my mousewheel.

Diplomacy screen

Trading influence points needs some improvements. If I put all my BC as offer and then select influence points from the AI, it should automatically select the maximum possible amount of points.
Furthermore, the +/- 1 on scrollbar, +/- 10 on spincontrol. That's a little bit few if the AI has several million IP.
Suggestion: Let the small +/- buttons accelerate, the longer you click and hold them, the faster it scrolls

Diplomacy screen part 2

Trying to find the first planet AI is willing to trade with me.
1. Add all your BC to trade.
2. Select first two AI planets for and
3. untrade them in reverse order.
4. Goto 2 until the trade becomes green or no more untried planets.
Problem: During the adding steps, if you click too fast, the second click registers as doubleclick and three planets are added to the trade. Disable doubleclicks in these lists!
In addition, it would be best to just add some small "Give me the first damn planet AI is willing to trade me for my BC" button. Would save me a LOT of work.