Best way to get around error spam (bug discussion)

[Journier (OP)]

Whats the best way to get around error spam issues?

 In most of my games so far i get major error spam in game eventually.  there is one game ive had going for 100 years in 4.91 that has had no error spam yet thankfully, but now turn speed is slowing down dramatically.

All of my other games ive had, have had bountiful amounts of Error spamming.

sometimes i think its related to difficulty %... ive had others on the steam group say the same for error spam occurring relating to the difficulty % if you change it at all.

Ways to get around the Error spam

1) Brute force try to go through it hold down enter and hope for the best. at the end of the turn, hoping it fixes itself... this worked for me once never again.

2) Recreate your game by creating a new game using SM mode to create same ships in fleets and hope the galaxy you generate is slightly similar as the last one, recreate resource distributions in Sol etc... I have had to do this twice now, On the same game im running. I have once again had error spam occurring in this game (5 errors in a row at end of turn generation for getfriendlypop stuff and such).

3) editing DB -  which i haven't done yet but I assume if i knew where all these errors were coming from i could delete the problem creating area and send steve a nice PM with what happened and where it happened... But i know DB checking/ password stuff is frowned upon here.

any other useful hints for getting around error spam issues.

[Shadow]

What kind of errors are you getting? I get a couple very occasionally, but nothing close to a frequent spam, and my current game's been going on for 75 years. This is on standard (100%) difficulty.

[Journier (OP)]

What kind of errors are you getting? I get a couple very occasionally, but nothing close to a frequent spam, and my current game's been going on for 75 years. This is on standard (100%) difficulty.

Here is the Database Files for the 2 posts below about errors.


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5151869/Aurora%20Succession.rar

Im pretty sure difficulty modification causes most of mine.

The one game ive had going for 100 years i never touched any of the default settings and never got a single one, yet i can modify difficulty on a new game to 200% and get all kinds of error spam within 1 month.

for example i started a game with 600% difficulty level and these are the errors that popped up within a month of play.

here are game settings



I get 3 of these in a row at end of turn



Then I get 15 of these?

But i dont have colony ships....



thats just with one game this happens all the time with difficulty changes  for me.

[Journier (OP)]

My seperate succession game from above, that I have actually had this happen multiple times in is the following. (note, I have remade this game VIA SM mode 2x before and im about to just call it quits because of the errors )

Game info screen



this Error happens 3x



This Error happens 2x




this error happens 1x


this error happens 1x

[Shadow]

Sounds like something is generating huge figures somewhere.

Let's see what Steve can make of this.

[sloanjh]

for example i started a game with 600% difficulty level and these are the errors that popped up within a month of play.

Note that (I'm pretty sure that) the difficulty setting only changes the size of alien populations/economies - it does NOT change the amount of minerals in the alien home world.  If you change NPR populations significantly, (my feel would be greater than 2x, i.e. 200%), then there's a good chance that you're going to break the game.  In other words, if you keep banging your head against the wall and it hurts, then stop banging your head against the wall.

If you want a more difficult game, then try a conventional start.  I would actually try it with 0 NPR (so that the initial NPR doesn't burn up all the precursors).  When you encounter an alien NPR that occurs through system generation, they'll be a LOT more technically advanced than you are.

You can also run the NPR empires yourself.  I realize that this takes away a lot of the "fog of war" stuff, but you're a lot smarter than the computer will ever be, and so you can give your empire a much tougher time (assuming you can role play well enough to get into the heads of the aliens and your race and compartmentalize information the other shouldn't know).

John

PS - Is there a particular reason you chose to post this in Bugs as opposed to The Academy (since it's phrased as a question rather than as a bug report)?  If you wanted to make a bug report, then you should make sure to save your DB regularly so that you can send Steve a DB and then make the report in the official thread.  I suspect you're right that things are broken when NPRs run out of minerals - this was a much worse problem when AI NPRs were first introduced - but the only way it's going to get fixed is to send Steve a DB where the error is happening and let him see the code fail.

[Journier (OP)]

Note that (I'm pretty sure that) the difficulty setting only changes the size of alien populations/economies - it does NOT change the amount of minerals in the alien home world.  If you change NPR populations significantly, (my feel would be greater than 2x, i.e. 200%), then there's a good chance that you're going to break the game.  In other words, if you keep banging your head against the wall and it hurts, then stop banging your head against the wall.

Thanks  

[sloanjh]

You can also run the NPR empires yourself.  I realize that this takes away a lot of the "fog of war" stuff, but you're a lot smarter than the computer will ever be, and so you can give your empire a much tougher time (assuming you can role play well enough to get into the heads of the aliens and your race and compartmentalize information the other shouldn't know).

I was actually looking to do this via cheating NPR's large fleets but i dont think this is possible??? I sorta just wanted to be able to give them huge bonus's without that damn difficulty modifier but couldnt figure out how.

Turn off computer-controlled empires.  This makes all NPR "player races", meaning that they're run by you, the player.  (Use the "choose default race" option to switch between races.)

If you wanted to make a bug report, then you should make sure to save your DB regularly so that you can send Steve a DB and then make the report in the official thread.

I did post a DB in the last bugs thread for 5.01? but got no response, I was hoping for more discussion on this issue anyways and to see who else was having it  :-) ), so we'll just have to be patient.

John

[Journier (OP)]

For NPR control/ turning them off -

Yea I could do that but currently i barely have enough time to handle 1 empire for 100 years, handling 4 empires for 20 years would probably make me pull all my hair out.

on the Steve is hobbiest-

yup im not making demands etc , i enjoy the game of course

[Steve Walmsley]

I have been checking on the difficulty modifier. I think the problem is that pop growth as well as starting pop is affected by the difficulty modifier, which creates a double-whammy and could quickly lead to very large NPR populations. I have removed the pop growth effect for v5.1

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

Note that (I'm pretty sure that) the difficulty setting only changes the size of alien populations/economies - it does NOT change the amount of minerals in the alien home world.

In v5.1, the starting minerals for all homeworlds are multiplied by Population/1000

Steve

[Journier (OP)]

is there any "safe" difficulty change steve?

[Steve Walmsley]

is there any "safe" difficulty change steve?

I don't know is the short answer

Steve

[Journier (OP)]

ooh!

good idea