[NFP] 1.0.9.9 Free Cities missing

[pokiehl]

This is a really, really bad bug. Hope the team can get this fixed.

 

[Guynemer]

After about 2 hours of testing, I think I've potentially figured out the issue here. From what I can tell:
If the number of civ slots + the number of AVAILABLE city-states is greater than 62, the game no longer reserves the 62nd player slot for free cities.

There are 48 city-states in the unmodded game (with all DLC).

A game with 14 civ slots (aka default Huge +2 civ slots) will run properly (48+14 = 62).
A game with 15 civ slots (aka default Huge +3 civ slots) will not run properly (48+15 = 63).

If you add modded city-states the math still follows the same pattern. The easiest way to test would be to download some of Gedemo's excellent city-state mods. I ran tests with the following parameters:

A game with 2 civ slots (aka Duel) and 12 modded city-states will run properly (48+12+2 = 62).
A game with 2 civ slots (aka Duel) and 13 modded city-states will not run properly (48+13+2 = 63).
A game with 3 civ slots (aka Duel +1 civ slot) and 12 modded city-states will not run properly (48+12+3 = 63).

Increasing the number of full-fledged civilizations via mods does not seem to impact this at all (tested with my Tongva mod).

Has this been brought to Firaxis's attention yet? I'm not entirely sure where bug reports for them are supposed to be filed

 

[SeelingCat]

Has this been brought to Firaxis's attention yet? I'm not entirely sure where bug reports for them are supposed to be filed

I submitted a ticket on 2K's support page as well, with a short description and linking back here.

 

[Cram]

Would just like to add I am facing the same issue.

Huge map, 20 civs with 18 city states. I am using the Ynamp and Got Lakes mods but this bug hasn't appeared until after the Vietnam update and even the Ynamp modder is directing users here from his Steam workshop page.

 

[Jebio]

After about 2 hours of testing, I think I've potentially figured out the issue here. From what I can tell:
If the number of civ slots + the number of AVAILABLE city-states is greater than 62, the game no longer reserves the 62nd player slot for free cities.

EDIT: Thankfully, it looks as though the 'number of available city-states' refers to the number of city-states activated in the picker, so one can avoid the issue by making sure to only activate a number of city-states that would keep the total under 63.

That's so bizarre but it appears you are correct, thank you so much SeelingCat, you are a star.

With Civitas City States on:
12 civs+24 city sates selected- 50 city states in the states picker.OK
12 civs+24 city sates selected- 51 city states in the states picker.FAIL

With YNAMP on (no City States mods like Civitas)
16+24- 46 city states in picker (2 unselected) . OK
16+24- 47 city states in picker (1 unselected) . FAIL

This is bollocks but at least there's a workaround. That's why FXS needs to release beta branches, it's a really nasty bug that's almost impossible to spot in house but we users could have found this and the trade glitch and delayed the patch.

 

[the_method7]

There are 48 city-states in the unmodded game (with all DLC).

A game with 14 civ slots (aka default Huge +2 civ slots) will run properly (48+14 = 62).
A game with 15 civ slots (aka default Huge +3 civ slots) will not run properly (48+15 = 63).

So it is possible to encounter this bug with no mods enabled, which means it's on Firaxis to fix ASAP since they can't point to user created content as the culprit. Purely speculation since I'm not able to inspect their code for any unforeseen or unintended consequences, but I'd think this could be patched simply by increasing the number of civ/city state combinations from 64 to 128 and instead of reserving the 63rd/64th spot for Free Cities/Barbarians, reserve the 127th/128th.

 

[pokiehl]

So it is possible to encounter this bug with no mods enabled, which means it's on Firaxis to fix ASAP since they can't point to user created content as the culprit. Purely speculation since I'm not able to inspect their code for any unforeseen or unintended consequences, but I'd think this could be patched simply by increasing the number of civ/city state combinations from 64 to 128 and instead of reserving the 63rd/64th spot for Free Cities/Barbarians, reserve the 127th/128th.

While it is possible to encounter the bug with no mods (as others have confirmed in this thread many times), unfortunately, encountering the bug means you are going outside of Firaxis' officially supported game parameters. The game doesn't "officially" support more than 12 major civs in any game, so if you follow that suggestion, you'd never come across it. Nevertheless, I hope this bug gets fixed ASAP

 

[Jebio]

So it is possible to encounter this bug with no mods enabled, which means it's on Firaxis to fix ASAP since they can't point to user created content as the culprit. Purely speculation since I'm not able to inspect their code for any unforeseen or unintended consequences, but I'd think this could be patched simply by increasing the number of civ/city state combinations from 64 to 128 and instead of reserving the 63rd/64th spot for Free Cities/Barbarians, reserve the 127th/128th.

I just don't get why they are passing all the city states to whatever list they are creating when they clearly are only passing the right amount of civs. I think there is a weird bug there. Bear in mind it was working last month.

Edit: in fact all the people I've seen on reddit saying they have all city states in their game may have a point. It's basically the same bug.

Like this one

https://old.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/l9evz7/somehow_all_48_citystates_were_in_my_game/

or this one

https://old.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/l987x6/this_is_new_12_citystates_all_a_stones_throw_from/

 

[Guynemer]

While it is possible to encounter the bug with no mods (as others have confirmed in this thread many times), unfortunately, encountering the bug means you are going outside of Firaxis' officially supported game parameters. The game doesn't "officially" support more than 12 major civs in any game, so if you follow that suggestion, you'd never come across it. Nevertheless, I hope this bug gets fixed ASAP

What I don't understand is why this popped up with this new update, which to my knowledge touches absolutely nothing about city-states or free cities at all.

 

[the_method7]

What I don't understand is why this popped up with this new update, which to my knowledge touches absolutely nothing about (insert literally any feature here)

Ahhhh you've just struck at the heart of one of the many joys of software development...

 

[pokiehl]

What I don't understand is why this popped up with this new update, which to my knowledge touches absolutely nothing about city-states or free cities at all.

I wager it has something to do with behind-the-scenes changes to the game in preparation for upcoming content.

 

[Cram]

So I see a potential fix for new games. Is there anything we can do for existing games? Perhaps something we can do in Firetuner manually?

 

[Gedemon]

Next version of YnAMP may include a workaround

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

The most plausible reason for this bug to pop up is likely to do with next month's Barbarians Update, or an update to the way the game initializes (could be an optimization).

We also know this bug exists umodded (I tested it repetively), the "picker" is probably the most plausible possibility as the source.

So I see a potential fix for new games. Is there anything we can do for existing games? Perhaps something we can do in Firetuner manually?

Nothing you can do for existing games, you can't respawn a player via Firetuner/LUA (Sadly), and even so, Free Cities is likely never spawned in. The player slots are assigned at the start of the game and if Free Cities is left out there is no way to actually bring it back, because it was never assigned to a slot in the first place.

 

[Cram]

So I can't be creative, remove a city state off the map, and see a free state appear?

 

[pokiehl]

So I can't be creative, remove a city state off the map, and see a free state appear?

Nope. There's no way to resolve this for an ongoing game.

 

[Cram]

That's sad. I am in like one of those perfect games I am loving as Vietnam. Guess I'll wait and see what happens.

 

[Guynemer]

I wonder if this background change is perhaps setting the stage for free cities to potentially become new City States under certain conditions

 

[Cram]

YnAMP updated with a potential fix.

 

[Jebio]

That's excellent, going to try this tonight. Hooking on the state picker and creating a random selection of states before passing that list to the game then? Unpicking half of the city states before starting a game wasn't appealing to me at all.

Thanks god this game has modders like you guys.