3/27/14
Finished my first day messing around with Alpha. Was able to successfully find a consistent crash to desktop error. The error itself doesn't give any details. and simply kills the game and returns to desktop. Fairly easy to recreate though.
The crash seems to simply be an overcrowding error. I found it first while playing with the full load of current opponents. (3, plus me). My game was a strictly peaceful research one, in which I attacked nobody and simply worked through the research tree. On turn 228 the other 3 species had pretty much taken over the map, and then after ending my turn on 228 the game crashed.
At first I messed with several graphics functions and reloaded an autosave, however the crash continued. I tried resetting my computer to no avail. I then tried reloading to an earlier game. Doing this made the crash occur 2 turns later on 330.
After proceeding through an elimination round, I discovered that the crash occurred when there were simply no more room for expansion. All of the colonized planets had been occupied. The mass colonization occurred with A.I. leading the way, as I simply researched throughout the game, and let the computer expand.
I tested my theory by recreating a new game with just myself and another A.I. species. Because there was only 1 opponent the crash didn't occur until turn 301. However, just as expected, when there were no more worlds available to colonize the game crashed. It seems to be an A.I. error where the A.I. doesn't know what to do after colonizing everything, and because they weren't technically at war with me.
This keeps happening to me as well, the first time it happened I thought I'd just accidentally switched off (It was late and I just about to switch it off anyway) but it's happened to me twice so far, and as far s I can tell all the world are colonised. I've not begun invading yet, so perhaps it's the same problem you have with the AI not knowing what to do.
I was able to make a definite confirmation regarding this crash problem. After posting the original problem I started a new game, in which I found a habitable planet and surrounded it with scout vessels. By around turn 240, with the map beggining to fill up with colonized worlds, the A.I. started sending colony ships to my "blockade". Because the A.I. couldn't get through he just started stacking ships there, 40 at my last count.
I believe that since the A.I. still has some vague form of direction, I.E. keep stacking ships outside of blockade, the game HAS NOT crashed.
So yeah, the crash is an A.I. bug in which when all colonized worlds are taken up, the A.I. has nothing left to "accomplish".
I've gone through three games in which everything is colonized, but the AI just keeps kicking out colony ships, constructors, scouts, and military ships--leaving them in fleets just outside their planets.
In my current game, I'm playing a tiny map with one opponent--the AI has 3 planets and I have 13. All the planets are occupied. I was planning to just work through the tech tree all the way. I'm at turn 86.
Does this occur only if you haven't attacked any of their vessels and vice versa? Curious about whether or not the game will crash, since I've attacked the AI... I guess I'll find out
I had something similar to this but I was able to recreate it when I was almost to the end of the defense research tree. It happened every single time when I was researching Electronic Magnetic Defense. (it was pretty far down the tree if I recall)
The game wouldn't crash but it would simply stop working.
I have the autosave if you guys are interested in it.
I pushed a game through to 500 moves, completing the research and all available upgrades to my 15 colonies on a tiny map--the only planet not owned by me was the Drengin capital.
In the end, no crash--but no means for victory either.
The Drengins surrounded their last planet with stacks of 30 and 31 ships, and for some reason I could not attack them. I tried loading saves, using different attackers, etc., but decided not to worry about it too much.
I am curious, though, if it isn't an AI problem but something else. When I zoomed in on the Drengin homeworld surrounded by a total of 182 ships, I experienced my first and only considerable lag. The graphics were stuttering a bit and the zoom was very choppy.
Maybe the issue was less about the AI and more about the stack of ships?
When I have a few minutes, I might burn through a few hundred turns with a planet surrounded to see if the same crash happens to me, just for grins and to satisfy my curiosity--and my urge to cause the game to crash, which I haven't had happen yet! (I suppose that's a good thing, but I was anticipating at least some crashing . . . )
I'll post the results.
So I was able to get the game to crash! But I don't think it has anything to do with AI behavior--but maybe with quantity of AI CPU usage.
First, I was playing on a small map against three opponents.
The game first crashed at about the 175 turn mark when there were about 65 ships (in two stacks) next to the planet I quarantined.
I loaded the autosave and had one of my units attack the AI for the first time then move back into the blockade. I hit turn, and the game crashed to the desktop again.
Next I had my unit attack theirs and then moved the entire blockade from the planet. Crashed.
So I backed up the game to a previous save (only about 5 turns), removed the blockade, and proceeded. The planet was colonized (all planets were now occupied) and the game didn't crash. I moved my units out of sight and everything ran okay for a handful of turns (got to about 180). Then I moved my units back into sensor range of the ship stacks, and the instant they did (during a turn/auto-move), the game crashed to the desktop.
I also played with what I could see on the screen (zooming in very close to an unoccupied area of the galaxy), but the crash still occurred.
As I mentioned previously, this did not happen on a 1v1 tiny map, but I'm unsure of whether this is related to the map size or the number of players, both, or neither.
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