The Political Machine Beta 3 available

On Drengin..

from JoeUser Forums
Lots of changes. Hopefully very stable now. Let us know!
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18,591 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
I still suffer from the corrupted display of the main map. It shows triangles in the center of the map.
See thread on the previous beta for a screenshot and more details.
Any idea where this may come from?
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Had a crash.

--Aaron

Stardock SmartException Logging Information
-------------------------------------------

OS Version : Windows XP
Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200
Application Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Crash Addr: 064AF5CB 01:0002E5CB C:\PROGRA~1\Adobe\ACROBA~1.0\Reader\ActiveX\pdf.ocx

Processor Registers (x86):
EAX:00000000
EBX:04DA6EC8
ECX:00EE05E8
EDX:00000002
ESI:00000008
EDI:00000000
CS:EIP:001B:064AF5CB
SS:ESP:0023:062AFCEC EBP:062AFD3C
DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:0038 GS:0000
Flags:00010283


Current Application Call Stack:

Addr Frame Logical addr Module Name
---------------------------------------------
064AF5CB 062AFD3C 0001:0002E5CB C:\PROGRA~1\Adobe\ACROBA~1.0\Reader\ActiveX\pdf.ocx
064AF7E1 062AFD58 0001:0002E7E1 C:\PROGRA~1\Adobe\ACROBA~1.0\Reader\ActiveX\pdf.ocx
77D43A50 062AFD84 0001:00002A50 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D43B1F 062AFDEC 0001:00002B1F C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D444F5 062AFE40 0001:000034F5 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D44525 062AFE68 0001:00003525 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77F75DA3 062AFEC8 0001:00024DA3 C:\WINDOWS\System32\ntdll.dll
63649134 062AFEE0 0001:000C8134 C:\WINDOWS\System32\mshtml.dll
77F5B42C 062AFF00 0001:0000A42C C:\WINDOWS\System32\ntdll.dll
77F629DF 062AFF7C 0001:000119DF C:\WINDOWS\System32\ntdll.dll
77E74ACD 062AFFB4 0001:00013ACD C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
77E7D341 062AFFEC 0001:0001C341 C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll


Debug information for each stardock app follows ....

Siege of Centauri
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Just played my third game. Was interrupted halfway through when a virus warning window popped up in windows. Since Political Machine can't be resumed, the program ended.

I did find a few new bugs for you though...

- The chat window doesn't automatically scroll as new information appears.

- When you click on West Virginia, the state name doesn't seem to have a space in it.

- Randomize issues seems to have no effect. Wealth, population, and party affiliation seems to randomize just fine. Jobs still stayed at the top of the list though. Maybe it did randomize but still came out at the top.

- At one point I noticed that when building capital, it didn't use up the last three stamina I had left. As a result, I could build unlimited political capital in a single turn.

--Aaron
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

Just a reminder:

If it crashes, we need to have the crash data and it would help if you tell us WHERE exactly it crashed (what was happening).

Secondly, we need to know hardware. StrategicA, we need to know some information on your computer.

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Beta 3 is overall much more stable than the earlier versions. But I found the following bugs:

If you get an endorsement, then after the game is over if you play again without quitting, the same endorsement is unavailable.

The very bottom of the screen in the middle of the turn button is cut off.

On the news boxes that come up periodically, it referred to my custom candidate as CANDIDATELNAME.

After the election, the newspaper that comes up didn’t have my candidate’s name; it just said, “WINS!”

The Random issues option doesn’t work.

I have two suggestions:

It would make the game much more fun for me if in the Fantasy mode setup, you could change how long the game goes on for. Maybe 10-100 weeks?

I preferred the way that in the earlier betas, in the Popular Vote view, the borders between the states were black instead of blue or red.

P4 3GHz, XP Pro, DirectX 9, Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Aaron, that crash is for Adobe Acrobat. Are you sure that you posted the right file?
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
WoW the newest build is greatly improved, compared to the 0.8ers

In a game i just played (difficulty simple) i reconed some thing realy strange: Without any visible reason (no Ad or article) my "votes" just turned around 180°.
One week i had nearly all states in blue (since i play democrats) and next week absolutely all came under Bushes "control". That was not funny since it was week 33 and i no real chance to counter that.
Is that a bug or is something like that supposed to happen (like the rendom events in GC that could kill a good game)?
If it is supposed to be, it would be good to have a hint, like a popup showing a drastical change in public opinion
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Oh, hehe! It was the only crash in the crash file. Didn't realize it wasn't for Political Machine.

Dimwit me, eh? Will keep playing and submit you only relevant crash reports. : )

--Aaron
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Found an amusing bug. On turn 41, if you go to polls it doesn't give you an option to resume game. It only gives you an option to exit to the main menu. Fortunately you can resume the game if you go back to options and click on "resume game", but one shouldn't have to do that.

--Aaron
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
Brad, can you give an email address to manually send the .cra file? Smart Exception isn't sending it, and I would rather not post it here since I don't know exactly what information is in it.

Thanks
Cheers
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
I had a game where I was ahead by a large margin in all states. Then, for some reason, SC went to my opponent. When I checked, I had 0% awareness, while I had close to or had 100% in all the other states. I sent my canidate there, ran TV ads, bought political consultants, gave speeches... Nothing could raise my awareness above 0. As far as South Carolina was concerned, I just ceased to exist. Happened to me in an earlier build in RI, too. Both games spoiled what would have otherwise been a complete sweep of all 50 states. Bug or by design?
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
"Found an amusing bug. On turn 41, if you go to polls it doesn't give you an option to resume game. It only gives you an option to exit to the main menu. Fortunately you can resume the game if you go back to options and click on "resume game", but one shouldn't have to do that."

I didn't find that so amusing when it happened to me on that turn, but then, I didn't realize there was a way to return to the game (there should probably be a continue game button on the main menu). Of course, the polls indicated I would win in a landslide. Maybe the computer was just trying to cheat me out of a victory.

I also had trouble several times checking the box for my opponent when creating a game - I did a number of things (including going out to the main menu and back, and going out and through the fantasy play button and choosing a different opponent) before I could check the button.

"Then, for some reason, SC went to my opponent. When I checked, I had 0% awareness, while I had close to or had 100% in all the other states."

Sounds like your opponent put a special interest "intimidator" in that state, lowering awareness of you.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
Random -

I've encountered that 0% bug a number of times. It has nothing to do with an intimidator. It's just a bug that crops up. Sometimes one can't get any awareness in a state.

--Aaron
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
Just a reminder:
If it crashes, we need to have the crash data and it would help if you tell us WHERE exactly it crashed (what was happening).
Secondly, we need to know hardware. StrategicA, we need to know some information on your computer.


What information do you need and where can I send it to?
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm sending the *.cra file from Smartexception to their support address:

support@stardock.com

Cheers
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
We've found a fix for the 0% awareness bug. It will be in the next beta.