View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0005513AI War 1 / ClassicBug - OtherFeb 4, 2012 12:47 pm
ReporterCyborg Assigned Tokeith.lamothe  
Status resolvedResolutionfixed 
Product Version5.022 
Fixed in Version5.024 
Summary0005513: starship showing as draining resources, not doing anything
DescriptionThere are a few issues here:

1) there was an issue with all of my constructors randomly pausing, you can find that here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,9729.msg90460.html#new

2) I have attached a pair of images that show my starship constructor as draining resources, and then another image showing the starship constructor is actually doing nothing

3) I am missing a spire starship. And it will not let me build another one. I think that my starship constructor may have gotten stuck on this ship, or otherwise put into motion this chain of events.
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal WeightMajor Problem

Activities

Cyborg

Jan 28, 2012 7:47 pm

reporter   ~0018344

I have tried pausing and unpausing, closing the game, trying to toggle the starship constructor

Cyborg

Jan 28, 2012 7:57 pm

reporter   ~0018345

Observation: if you delete that one spire starship, both of the starship constructors will try to rebuild the same ship simultaneously. Only one completes before the other, and the ship is released. The 2nd ship never gets produced.

Cyborg

Jan 29, 2012 11:18 pm

reporter   ~0018363

I was victorious in this campaign today, but I'm unable to lower the priority. I did find that missing ship after reloading, although there is still the question of why a starship constructor competes to build the same unit.

TechSY730

Jan 30, 2012 3:32 pm

reporter   ~0018402

See http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=1523
and the post right after that.

The current behavior may be awkward, but it is only a bug if somehow resources are being spent for nothing. Two ways that can happen. Either the current ship gets canceled by the system and no refund given; or the constructor continues to consume resources when the ship that is done but cannot be spawned due to ship caps is finished building, once done, it should just sit in the queue and come out the moment ship caps allow

keith.lamothe

Feb 4, 2012 11:21 am

administrator   ~0018608

Last edited: Feb 4, 2012 11:32 am

Glad you were able to keep playing and win the game; I just loaded up the save, let it run for a bit and looked at the quick list -> constructors -> starship constructors and it shows me both of them but it doesn't say that either is consuming resources. Also checked the Stats -> Resource Flows screen and it didn't show either starship constructor.

Then I tried again and scrapped a spire starship and had the two constructors race for it. The result was that one was done and the other said it was still pulling the 120/72 m/c, both on the quick list and the resource flows window. But when I stabilized m/c flows by switching everything except the errant starship constructor into low power (not using pause-all) and then paused that last starship constructor, the m/c flows didn't change at all. Then I scrapped the starship constructor and m/c flows still didn't change.

So I'm pretty sure this is just a display bug where a constructor that's in the middle of trying to build something but can't because the cap was reached mid-build is just continuing to display that its resource consumption but isn't actually consuming those resources. I'll try to track down the display bug but wanted to let you know that it wasn't actually continuing to burn those resources.

On the issue of the constructor-race itself: I do agree that it would be nice to change the system so that constructors don't start things they can't finish (because someone else will finish it first), but this is how the system has worked since... well, since before I started working here. So I'll poke around and see if there's a sufficiently simple fix, but it may be beyond what we can do right now to change something like that.

keith.lamothe

Feb 4, 2012 11:45 am

administrator   ~0018609

Another note from my investigation: the second constructor (the one that "lost the race") will continue to hold the resources spent on the spire starship in local storage; if for whatever reason that build item is cancelled or it starts building something else that locally stored amount will be refunded to the player. If you're already at 999,999 m and 999,999 c that won't help you, but in general you're not losing anything (other than the time the constructor spent on the ship that it wasn't able to complete).

keith.lamothe

Feb 4, 2012 12:30 pm

administrator   ~0018610

Last edited: Feb 4, 2012 12:30 pm

For 5.024:

* Fixed a display bug where a constructor that had to stop building would sometimes still show in some places as continuing to spend resources. They were not actually continuing to spend resources while unable to build, but it looked like it.

* Fixed a bug where a constructor that had to stop a build in mid-construction due to the ship cap for that type becoming full (another constructor "won the race", so to speak) would usually fail to refund the resources it had already spent on the ship being built.


On that last point: turns out I was wrong in thinking it was refunding. It was in fact holding on to those stored resources but it was just dumping them (how, I don't know, maybe a bag of holding with a self-clean setting) as soon as it resumed construction on anything. But now it will immediately refund resources once it's unable to finish construction due to ship cap being hit.

That leaves the issue of the "constructor race" being possible in the first place, which I think is going to need to wait until later. For one thing, it's not possible to stop the basic idea: if someone gifts you a ship while you're building one, and you've only got room for one more, the constructor's going to get the short end. Well, I guess we could stop the gifting in that case, but how many bug reports do we want to generate on that end?


Anyway, thanks for bringing this stuff to our attention :)

Cyborg

Feb 4, 2012 12:38 pm

reporter   ~0018611

Just curious, does this mean that these constructors are, effectively, a banking system? Where I can build that ship in multiple areas, pause it near completion, finish it on another constructor and then unpause when I feel like it?

TechSY730

Feb 4, 2012 12:47 pm

reporter   ~0018612

@Cyborg

Yep, you could do that if you felt like microing that.
Not that big a deal though, as you basically pay the ship's cost N times, but then get N-M times (where M is the number of ships you actually allow to finish) the cost back later when you finally decide to . You still gotta have plenty of resources to begin with, and you won't be saving any resources unless you do clever stuff near resource cap.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Jan 28, 2012 7:44 pm Cyborg New Issue
Jan 28, 2012 7:44 pm Cyborg File Added: AIWar 2012-01-28 19-39-42-27.jpg
Jan 28, 2012 7:45 pm Cyborg File Added: AIWar 2012-01-28 19-39-34-21.jpg
Jan 28, 2012 7:46 pm Cyborg File Added: 5021_7.sav
Jan 28, 2012 7:47 pm Cyborg Note Added: 0018344
Jan 28, 2012 7:57 pm Cyborg Note Added: 0018345
Jan 29, 2012 11:18 pm Cyborg Note Added: 0018363
Jan 30, 2012 8:38 am tigersfan Internal Weight => Major Problem
Jan 30, 2012 8:38 am tigersfan Assigned To => keith.lamothe
Jan 30, 2012 8:38 am tigersfan Status new => assigned
Jan 30, 2012 3:32 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0018402
Feb 4, 2012 11:21 am keith.lamothe Note Added: 0018608
Feb 4, 2012 11:32 am keith.lamothe Note Edited: 0018608
Feb 4, 2012 11:45 am keith.lamothe Note Added: 0018609
Feb 4, 2012 12:30 pm keith.lamothe Note Added: 0018610
Feb 4, 2012 12:30 pm keith.lamothe Status assigned => resolved
Feb 4, 2012 12:30 pm keith.lamothe Fixed in Version => 5.024
Feb 4, 2012 12:30 pm keith.lamothe Resolution open => fixed
Feb 4, 2012 12:30 pm keith.lamothe Note Edited: 0018610
Feb 4, 2012 12:38 pm Cyborg Note Added: 0018611
Feb 4, 2012 12:47 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0018612