The ports! They disappear!

[dominique]

I don't know if it's a feature or a bug. There these large beautiful eleutheroi towns with nice budding ports with blue dots crossing the azure seas to the great beyond... Massalia, Kallatis by example.

So, it happens that my armies accidentally eat these ripe fruits. Ah well, I'll have to manage them and collect the taxes, I think. So I double click in the city and Shazzalam! There is no port anymore and that sickly yellow blue building Icon nagging me: wanna build a port? Click on me first!

Is it part of the "AI cheating" to stay competitive, or is it a bug?

[different_13]

I've never had buildings spontaneously combust, and ports only ever disappear when you raze them (possibly if you sack the city also).

So unless you're razing cities when you capture them, it's a bug.

[Zaknafien]

a picture would be nice. I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

[Pharnakes]

Youc ant destroy ports anyway, I thought.

[different_13]

You can. Destroy any level of port, and the entire tree will disappear - you'd have to build a coastal clearing before benefiting from sea-trade etc again.

[dominique]

To Different_13

No I didn't raze them, I need them for their round/supple/firm body of tax payers.



To Zaknafien

I'll try to get a printscreen the next time it happens. I assumed it was normal . I'll also try to spy the city to spot if there's a port before hand.

If there's no port, and there's blue dots indicating sea trade, I'll have caught the AI red handed!

It's gonna be funny!


Ok I speculate now.

I had several CTDs when I took towns on the eleutheroi turn (when they make sorties in a siege and I win). I had to reload games a lot. So I saved just after battles and before giving an answer on the menu occupy-enslave-raze (when the CTDs happened usually).

If I didn't activate the script (since it was not my turn yet and I didn't have the opportunity to click on the advisor and etc...) and occupied the town, is it possible that it flushed my ports there?

I'm not even sure I get it myself. aaaargh.
Forget this part.

[Zaknafien]

how would you be in the middle of a turn without activating the script? thats always the first thing you do whenever you load up a game..or bad things happen otherwise.

[Conqueror]

It is not possible to activate the script when there is a pre-battle or post-battle screen up. Which is the case if you load a game that was saved during any AI faction's turn (ie the AI attacks you during it's turn -> you save game before entering the battle or withdrawing. You can also save right after the battle, IF it was a siege that led to you capturing a settlement)

[Zaknafien]

insanity..saving during an AI turn? WTF?

[dominique]

Thanks Conqueror, you explain clearly what I wanted to say!

[Watchman]

insanity..saving during an AI turn? WTF?

You can quicksave in the pre-battle and similar interactive screens AFAIK. Kinda exploity of course and bound to cause some difficulties with script activation...

[Underhand]

insanity..saving during an AI turn? WTF?

I do that sometimes. If I have to fight multiple large battles in one sitting, my computer might crash. It's not very good

[dominique]

In my case, it wasn't to exploit. I was just tired to fight the same battle 2-3 times in a row, win it exactly the same manner 2-3 times and having the game CTD on me when I went to get the town.

On the positive side, I'm an expert in sorties battles now.

[dominique]

After extensive testing this week end, I can tell with certitude that it's a code 14 bug. It doesn't happens when the script is activated. I'm sorry about the oulabaloo.

The story's lesson: Don't buy ATI video cards. They suck and they make you do stupid things like loading games during an eleutheroi turn so your script isn't activated when you take a town.

[Thaatu]

Don't blame the ATI card for saving during an AI turn...


On the other note, he's right. Don't buy ATI cards, they suck.

[bovi]

I'm quite satisfied with my ATI Radeon X1900 Crossfire. I haven't had to buy a slave card for it yet either, it can take whatever I throw at it now (which is mostly EB and Sins of a Solar Empire right now). Stable as a rock.