I made it to turn 121 in my game

from GalCiv4 Forums

At turn 121 I opened up a starbase build screen and the game crashed to an infinite End Of Turn because it tried to execute AI movement and turns with the starbase screen open. 50% of all game issues are caused by the game attempting to perform AI turns while the player is either in the starbase screen or the shipyard. It seems like a no brainer here but all game activity except for the selected operation should pause when the player opens one of those screens. AI turns and actions should only execute on the game's map screen. Not doing this is just begging for problems with the game. At least this is how the problem appears. When non map screens are opened the game seems to be looking at everything related and there is just too much overhead for the game mechanics to manage. I will note that I am disappointed in the game's AI. Playing godlike with hostile minor civs at the largest map size resulted in 90 turns before the AI managed to break through its hostile minor civs and reach my space bubble. Minor civs should probably be limited to something like 10 ships each. I fought hundreds of space monsters and hostile red ships in my bubble space. They swarm so much even a godlike AI barely manages to break through. It wouldn't be quite so bad if they killed each other instead of cooperating all the time. And why must white ships always be non-hostile to the player?? They become a massive resource drain eventually so I always have to use the console to remove them.

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2,909 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Are you trying to look at screens and change things while the AI is taking its turn, or is the game trying to do stuff while it is your turn?

If you are trying to do things while the AI is taking its turn you are doing something that the game does not support and never has thus the crash. 

If this is happening when it is your turn, and it happens every time you play send a save with instructions on how to reproduce it.

Again if this is happening during the AI turn it should not freeze the game but you should not be able to do anything as it is not your turn. You must remember this is not a Real Time Strategy game but Turned Based.

Reply #2 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

What Gypsy said, plus if you want to post a savegame, you can do so easily on the GC4 Discord sitrep channel. Devs, and sometimes users will check it out and try to see what's up.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Hello private1028.
It sounds like you tried opening stuff during the ai turn.

I acknowledge the temptation to give out orders, while AI is moving, and we did not lock human interactions completely exactly for that reason. But at the same time, it is not a behaviour to be encouraged. Your system is doing it's best, to speed AI's turn and when you try something major (like changing from galactic map to starbase build mode), it may (but does not have to) cause an overload and crash. 

Now, what I did not get, is why do you want the AI turn to stop, when you open a window? If you do not care for doing something, during the AI turn, then your issue can be resolved just by waiting through the ai turns. Or did you mean something different?

Reply #4 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

I think I know what the OP is talking about.  You'll be in some screen while it's still supposed to be your turn then suddenly everything slows down and you wonder why and then you see in the bottom right screen that the AI civs are taking their turns!

Reply #5 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Yeah I've run into this too.

Right now when you hit the end turn button then moves all the ships that having pending move orders. You then have an opportunity to move ships that have remaining movement and once you complete all the orders the turn will change without any further action. This has caught me off guard a few times.

Instead of the current behavior there should be a continue pending movement event prior to being able to hit end turn. Only after there is no actions to take, should the end turn button appear. This should always trigger the actual end turn. 

Reply #6 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

This is simple to repeat

Select a constructor. Give it a move order that will take 2 turns to complete but not travel the full distance. For instance, if the constructor can move 10 tiles in a turn, order it to move 15 tiles. The goal is to have movement points left over in the next turn.

Next turn, click the end turn button (it should say that it will move all ships with move orders). This will cause the game to try to move onto the AIs turn, but is forced to wait until the constructor is finished moving. Instead of finish moving, order it to construct a starbase. In this moment the starbase screen will be open. However since the last ship no longer has unused movement points left, the game determines that it must be the AIs turn and will try to move one while you are in the starbase screen picking starbase modules for your starbase.

/me grumbles that I've known about this problem since GalCiv 3 and it still hasn't been fixed.

Edit: I didn't expect the text to turn red. I did a //me. If this conflicts with the mod voice (often red), I'll change it when asked.

Reply #7 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting DivineWrath, reply 6

This is simple to repeat

Select a constructor. Give it a move order that will take 2 turns to complete but not travel the full distance. For instance, if the constructor can move 10 tiles in a turn, order it to move 15 tiles. The goal is to have movement points left over in the next turn.

Next turn, click the end turn button (it should say that it will move all ships with move orders). This will cause the game to try to move onto the AIs turn, but is forced to wait until the constructor is finished moving. Instead of finish moving, order it to construct a starbase. In this moment the starbase screen will be open. However since the last ship no longer has unused movement points left, the game determines that it must be the AIs turn and will try to move one while you are in the starbase screen picking starbase modules for your starbase.

DivineWrath grumbles that I've known about this problem since GalCiv 3 and it still hasn't been fixed.

Edit: I didn't expect the text to turn red. I did a //me. If this conflicts with the mod voice (often red), I'll change it when asked.
End of DivineWrath's quote


A little bit of color does not do any bad :)

I will bring this issue to the team, thanks for reminding us of it!