100 Million dollar bug

[francium]

Well they should be using 32-bit integers I think (that's the default integer length in my Linux, I don't program in Windows ), so overflow shouldn't happen so early

[Dire Wolf]

francium, under Win32 integers (int) are considered 32-bit as well as variables of type long and float.

[Zizka]

A couple of points

1) I was not looking to cheat when i discovered the bug. I noticed the Americans had 99 gold. Seeing them over the pork barrel i figured i might as well demand it all yet i accidenatlly typed 999 and they accepted.. WTF.. I reloaded to see if it was a bug or just my game and entered 99999999. And presto!!

2) sorry about the lack of spoiler warning.. LOL I know how you feel bummed me out to find such a stooopid bug too!

3) Cause.. Actually i dont think its overflow at all I think its just somtheing soo basic.. lack of a valid input test. Ive seen beginner programmers and or programmers in a hurry forget simple error trapping liek thsi all the time.
the solution is simple
if (demand_cash > AI_civ_cash + AI_civ_revenue+AI_civ_improvements_value)
{
blurbbox("Are you friggin' nuts!!!!");
}

LOL .. Just check if the civ can basically cough up the cash (incl. selling improvements..etc)

Z

[civ-n00b]

bah... i thought that such things couldn't happen. thats some public debt that the gov't will have

as long as i can trust my short term memory to forget this, i'm ok


btw, kudos on the spelling. and i thought my spelling suced ass

[fluxcapacitor]

God we can only hope this is fixed in the first patch.......

[Jeff George]

I don't see the problem. No one is making you ask for 1 million gold. Don't do it. I don't see how people can shout, "This ruins the game." Don't ask the enemy for obscene and unrealistic amounts of money and you won't have the problem!

[Stretch]

Except it sounds like the AI CIV's may pay too much, even within their means, for no good reason. Like perhaps the entire concept is broken.

So a CIV with 20 per turn will pay all 20 to you even though it (usually) should not. How do we know if the CIV determined it really should pay it based on the amount asked and if it can make up for the loss (by decreasing science or luxury expenses, for example) ....or if its just auto accepting whatever we ask for because of the bug?

[Farmer]

Fair point, but it's not all that important. We all know the AI cheats, so it doesn't matter if it might be cheating here, as long as it isn't outrageous. The fact that people can beat it shows that the cheating obviously isn't outrageous, even if it cheats at all in this manner. That means we are left with the possibility of using a cheat like this actually ruins the game, and that is simply idiocy because all games come with single player cheats. You have cheat modes in earlier civs, and they didn't ruin the game, so neither should this bug. If you don't like the cheat don't use it, it's easily avoided, unlike corruption.

[Timeline]

Well, I think this cheat is alot different from cheats in previous civs, like Civ 2.

In Civ 2, if you cheated, it said so right on your score. With this bug, if someone wins on deity and is all proud of it , there will always be doubt that he may have cheated.

I know that isn't important to some people, but I just think things would be better off if they just got rid of the thing.

[hexagonian]

Originally posted by Jeff George
I don't see the problem. No one is making you ask for 1 million gold. Don't do it. I don't see how people can shout, "This ruins the game." Don't ask the enemy for obscene and unrealistic amounts of money and you won't have the problem!

...out come the spin doctors.

And Grumbold's statement is of even more concern, because if the AI is not even losing any gold from any request, then that nullifies the whole concept of gold trading hands - now it may appear that the AI does not lose any gold if it does end up giving you some.

Of couse that can be justified as another help for the AI, so some players might be comfortable with letting the AI have that bonus.

But it does raise the question what are the other unadvertised cheats.

[CapTVK]

This bug kind of reminds of the debt turnover bug in the original Railroad Tycoon. If you timed it right you could take over an AI company by getting a shareholders majority. The moment the AI lost control you could plunder his assets, dump all the shares and leave the AI with a major debt from which it could never recover.

The funny thing is that once the AI reached a level so far in debt (-30 mil or so) it would jump to +100 mil! So if you took over that company again just before it happened you would jump straight to the top of the list!


You should note this bug is over 10 years old, some people never learn...

[tmarcl]

Originally posted by MonarchyMajor
I think this guy is lieing cause I cannot understand what the heck he is saying. His grammer is of a 11 year old.

ROTFL!!!!! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Marc

[Dida]

I just found that, that if you asks the AI for 99999999999999 gold, and at the same time, the AI would accept all demand from you.
I tried this in my game, I asked the Japanese for 99999999999 golds, and all of his cities, all of his techs, all of his maps, and my god, he accepted.

[Hakkapeliitta]

Originally posted by Dida
I just found that, that if you asks the AI for 99999999999999 gold, and at the same time, the AI would accept all demand from you.
I tried this in my game, I asked the Japanese for 99999999999 golds, and all of his cities, all of his techs, all of his maps, and my god, he accepted.

Oh my. I *really* hope that they get a patch out before the european release.

[IBNobody]

The bug doesn't seem to affect me...

I can demand 99999999 gold per turn from someone, but they just get all pissed off.

- Nobody

[smellymummy]

i was sceptical about this, but it's true, and it works on regent

Probably works on all levels.

However, after asking ~ 99999999 / turn from 4 civs (and they all agreed), my income was no long in the +millions / turn ... I was deep in the red at -millions per turn.

Obviously it's buggy territory having too much money... My solution: I won't ask for that much

[Yossarian]

Originally posted by tmarcl

ROTFL!!!!! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Marc

Hey where did I see that comment before??

[BigLupu]

Originally posted by Hakkapeliitta

Oh my. I *really* hope that they get a patch out before the european release.

The game will be available in Finland this friday

[Dimension]

Originally posted by MonarchyMajor
I think this guy is lieing cause I cannot understand what the heck he is saying. His grammer is of a 11 year old.

The original poster made a mistake or two, but it was easy to understand. You, on the other hand, are in no position to accuse anyone of having the "grammer of a 11 year old." He certainly didn't make as many mistakes as you did in a single sentence.

If you would like to criticize, I suggest you do so in the following manner:

I think this guy is lying 'cause I cannot understand what the heck he is saying. His grammar is like that of an 11-year-old.

[joer]

Originally posted by francium
Well they should be using 32-bit integers I think (that's the default integer length in my Linux, I don't program in Windows ), so overflow shouldn't happen so early

I believe that Soren confirmed in the chat that it is an overflow bug and that they were looking at it, and (hopefully) fixing it in the next patch. To be sure, look at the Soren chat log once it comes out.

Not that this does me any good, since the game still isn't out in Germany. Grrrrrr!