Zero automation when running a pirate empire

[Son_of_Orion]

I'm posting this here instead of Tech Support because I honestly can't tell if this is a bug or not. Whenever I play as a pirate, there's no automation. Everything has to be done manually. Is this intended? I thought one of my mods had messed it up, but it's the same deal with the default theme too.

[Franky007]

Me to:
- Explorer don't move unless i turn automation OFF and ON again.
- Freighter don't do Smuggle missions.
- Constructor do nothing.

My research stay at 0%.

Pirate games are a NO GO...

[Raap]

I've been putting quite a few hours into pirate games since release.

My explorers have been working fine. My freighters do smuggling missions that I've accepted( maybe you just don't have any free freighters, i.e. they're busy delivering stuff elsewhere in your pirate empire? Build more?), and my automated constructors make mining stations, fix ships, etc. Research is slow, but progresses.

I do think I've noticed what you say about constructors. I think it's fixed by either giving them the first mission yourself( then turning on automation), or simply by waiting until your empire actually needs something.

[Mansen]

My construction ship worked just fine last night - all ships set to automate by policy before I started and I didn't give it manual orders till an hour in. It built mining stations just fine on its own that I had queued "on site"

[Son_of_Orion]

At least some of you have had some success. For me, NOTHING moves. No research, no ship/port building, no explorers, constructors or freighters work on their own. At all. It's really puzzling me, because everything works fine for normal empires.

[Breet]

Save game. Exit to menu.
Load savegame.
This SHOULD fix it, or rather, a bandaid walkaround.
You will know if this works as your research will jump randomly high, ships will move, empire screen will have values (and every time for me, I get spammed with about 20 advisor messages).
But that is what I have to do with my pirate game mode. Load, exit to menu, Load a second time, and it works (unsure if I have had to try multiple times).

Hope this works for others.

[Raap]

Yeah, I expect reloading restarts some of the behavior mechanisms. It's strange how random this issue is though. There are definitely bugs here that need to be looked at.

[Erik Rutins]

If you are experiencing this, it's not working as intended. Please upload a save file for us so that we can try to duplicate.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

For those of you having a significant problem with this - are you running 1.9.0.0 or 1.9.0.1? What processor does your computer have?

[Franky007]

Running 1.9.0.1
RAM: 4g
CPU: Intel 2 cores 2.13 ghz
Windows 7, 64 bits

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks. I believe the most likely cause has to do with the threads in the game somehow getting locked. For the time being, if saving and reloading helps, I would recommend keeping autosave on at 10 minute intervals while we investigate and fix.

[Son_of_Orion]

Well, I did what Breet said and it worked. Going back to the menu, then reloading fixes it. I'd upload the savegame if that didn't happen, because this only occurs when I start a pirate game for the first time.

Thanks for the assistance, guys. Hope the bug's fixed soon!

[Franky007]

Sadly reloading from a save game does nothing for me.

I even tried to kill unecessary process before loading the game,
and upping the priority of the program to high, but with no effect.

What worries me is: will the AI suffer from this also, if so that mean that
the AI will sit idly without exploring or constructing...

[Raap]

Your problem sounds slightly different though. What me and others experienced was newly constructed ships not being refueled, and because of not having any fuel, not doing what they're meant to.

I've no idea how it's possible that not even research progresses. Have you looked into your research screen, in your Research Bases window, and seen how much research points you have? What's your speed setting? Does anything work properly at all?

[Erik Rutins]

Francoy and everyone who is seeing a similar issue, can you please post a DxDiag file?

tm.asp?m=2413997

[Franky007]

Upon further investigation i have found that:

With the Warp Bubble drive the Explorer (and maybe the freighters),
will not go automatically to the limit of their range
unless i manually order them to do so.

But once i got the Gerax Hyperdrive, the retrofitted Explorer
started to explore again.

[Erik Rutins]

That's not a bug. If they went to the limit of their range, they would not have fuel to go back. In past versions of Distant Worlds, they might try to do that and then spend a very long time on the way back. Now they prefer to actually have fuel for the journey there and back again.

[Raap]

They would rarely go more than half-way of their limit though. After all, they want some fuel for the return trip to a refueling base.

[Franky007]

I have posted a save file: 'Francoy_20130525_NoSmuggling_NoResearch.dwg'

where no research, no passenger and no smuggling occurs.