Galactic Civilizations II: 1.3A Change log

A genuine bug fix version

Published on September 9, 2006 By Draginol In GalCiv Journals

Most of our updates are essentially about adding new features. This is a bug fix update.

We broke some of the selection code which affects the turn button turning green, keyboard control of ships, auto-select next ship, etc. To say I'm disappointed in us for letting such a boo-boo get in is an understatement.

So how did this happen?

It's convoluted but for aspiring developers worth the tale:

Several users on our forum have been asking that we make it so that when you click on a ship that is on guard or on sentry that it would not activate the ships (i.e. take them off guard or sentry). It was decided to go ahead and make that change even though the behavior was working as intended.

That change in turn affected all kinds of other things that one would not have thought it would affect with regards to ship selection. While not that severe of a problem, that isn't the point -- these updates are supposed to improve the game experience, not detract. Anyway, the bug slipped through and went into release.

I felt that the problem was significant enough to roll the dice and put out this new update on a Friday night. We've been playing with it all evening and we like the results. Hopefully it will solve the problem.

It's only available right now via Stardock Central. We'll get a stand alone installer going soon.

(it should be up by 2am EST 9/9/06).

Comments (Page 2)

smjjames

on Sep 09, 2006

You guys are very kind.
I (we) still feel bad missing such obvious issues. There will also be a 1.31 since there's a couple of expoits we want to nix too sooner rather than later.

I didn't see the bug where the ships didn't autoselect a new one after the current ones moves are over during the beta and that bug is something that would be noticeable.

As far as the green turn button goes, I've never paid attention to it and so even if it had dissapeared during the beta, it's possible I just didn't notice it since I don't pay much attention to the color of the turn button.

Also, what are the exploits ya wanna fix?

cause I want to well... exploit them, lol j/k sorta, but I am curious about it.

Moosetek13

on Sep 10, 2006

The most obvious would be the farm bonus tiles.
Build a farm on a 100% bonus tile, when it upgrades it will be a 200% bonus, upgrade again to get it to 300%. Then replace the farm with any other building, but retain the food production.

You could get the planet to whatever food production, and hence population, you want, but with no farm present and the added production of the building now occupying the farm tile.

jpinard

on Sep 10, 2006

test...

Meglobob

on Sep 10, 2006

Cool, I am going to get the biggest metaverse score ever posted ever...

Nah...just kidding.

Bill Ko

on Sep 10, 2006

So, the moral of the story is... when they say "freeze the code," they really mean it.

Thanks for the late-night fix! (Both the late night update *and* for *my* late night fix!)

Bill

Jvstin

on Sep 10, 2006

You guys never cease to amaze me, if the rest of the software industry took your example all our lives would be less hassle, minimal grief and more enjoyable.

Agreed. Most game companies and designers (there are a few exceptions out there) would have long since stopped the patch process and gone on to other things, and let GalCivII go to the dustbin.

Would that more game companies would follow your lead!

Frogboy

on Sep 10, 2006

Yep. I wonder how long that's been there though since I don't think that code has changed in a long long time. But that's the exploit I was talking about that will require a 1.31.

Peace Phoenix

on Sep 11, 2006

In the grand scheme of things it's not a huge game-breaking bug,

True, but one huge game-breaking bug has been found when using the 1.3 retail patch on non-english versions: CTD when attacking a ship. It has been spotted on french speaking forums and reported here https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=274&aid=129932 and here https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=274&aid=130029

ignuss

on Sep 11, 2006

Yep. I wonder how long that's been there though since I don't think that code has changed in a long long time. But that's the exploit I was talking about that will require a 1.31.

Strange, that doesn't happen in my current game that I started with version 1.30
I very often use 100% farm-bonus tiles and I've never seen this. I always get the correct amount of food.

S1Genocide

on Sep 12, 2006

Adding my voice to the fact this bug should not exist and it broke every major combo mod in the metaverse library as well.

player1_fanatic

on Sep 14, 2006

Hmm...
Where exactly can 1.3A be downloaded?

Only 1.3 is here:
https://www.galciv2.com/Downloads.aspx

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