BtS: v3.02 customs house money bug(?) / moai statues hammer report bug

[windmilltilter]

1. At the end of the July 1943 turn I have +27 gold/turn. I have a few cities that will complete things giving me more money next turn, such as a Customs House in Diyarbakir. However, when Jan 1944 arrives, I only have +6 gold/turn, and the Customs House in Diyarbakir doesn't seem to do anything.

2. While I was doing screenshots for this possible bug, I noticed another bug that I'll bundle here. This same city has the Moai Statues, giving it a total of 81 production (see the Jan 1944 turns) shown in the city screen and on the city detail (if you hover the mouse over the city production label), but if you do F1 in the city only shows 55 production.

After letting it go to Jan 1944, I reloaded July 1943 to investigate the Customs House bug, and now the July 1943 city screen shows only 55 hammers in Diyarbakir instead of 81. So it's flaky.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/87342/Jeffbo_AD-1943-July_.CivBeyondSwordSave

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/87342/Jeffbo_AD-1944-January.CivBeyondSwordSave

This is the end of July 1943 turn, after reloading:
Note +27gold/turn, and 55 hammers (which is wrong I think, probably something to do with the reload???):

Start of Jan 1944 turn, +6 gold/turn with new customs house, 81 hammers in detailed city info:

Jan 1944 start of turn, CITY VIEW, 81 hammers, +6 gold/turn:

Jan 1944 start of turn, F1 view, 55 hammers:

 

[lroumen]

It's called hammer overflow. If you require less than 55 hammers to complete the customs house, those extra hammers are made available the next turn for the creation of the next building/unit. This is so that no hammers go to waste.

I guess you only needed 29 hammers to complete the customs house, giving an overflow of 26 for the next turn (81-55). So when you start the next building it'll show 81 hammers, which is only for the first turn, the turn after you'll produce the normal 55 again.


Customs houses only provide bonuses to the gold received from trade routes (i.e. the gold values noted after the names of the cities Hippo, Ulundi, Guimares and Evora). A customs house only increases those numbers and if effective, it'll increase the gold/turn (and culture/turn, research/turn and espionage/turn if those sliders are up).

Customs houses are special... they only provide a money bonus if the city has a trade route to a city on a different island/continent (overseas trade route)... if there is no trade route going to a different island, then the customs house does nothing (sadly). The not functioning customs house is probably related to your trade routes. The city apparently has no overseas trade route, hence you get no extra gold from trading with those cities. Are Hippo, Ulundi, Guimares and Evora connected to Diyarbakir by land? If not then something is awry there.


EDIT: further explained the mechanics as best I could.

 

[Commander Bello]

The problem with your income and the customs house is based on many reasons:
Have a look at the city's view from turn 537 and 538. You will see that there are different intercontinental trade partners contributing to the city's trade routes.
In turn 537 it have been Moscow and Hadrumetum, while in 538 it have been Ulundi and Hippo.

Hard to tell, why the cities changed. Might be due to an external or own war of yours, blocking the previous trade routes. Might be due to the actions of Privateers as well.

In total, those reasons may have changed your national income as well, since you may have lost international trade routes in other cities as well.
The only chance to find out about the real reasons would be to have a save file from the end of turn 537.

 

[lroumen]

Oh, I didn't notice the different trade routes.

I guess that the switch occured when the customs house was built. It could be that the four previous cities were land trades and when the customs house was built it searches for the best cities available with the new building. If Hippo, Guimares, Evora and Ulundi are on different continents/islands, than that may explain it.
Apparently the new cities (Guimares, Evora, Ulundi and Hippo) provide the same gold bonuses with the customs house as the original four cities without the customs house (bad luck I suppose).

 

[windmilltilter]

1. Custom house trade routes:
All the cities listed as a trade route partner are on another continent/island. (See the save files for turn 537/538). Nobody is at war with anyone. I don't think there's much/any privateer activity, other than my own -- I can see several of the other civ's cities through espionage and I have only seen 2 computer privateers in the whole game, and I killed those already.

The thing is, this is about the third production house I've built in this game (which is my first BtS game), and it seems as if my gold/turn goes DOWN with each one. I thought I was imagining it until it dropped 21 from turn 537 to 538.

So is this a bug? I would not expect building a building that's supposed to increase my money to decrease my money under any circumstances.

2. Hammer overflow : Doh! I know how that works; I guess I should stop playing this game after 11PM. Maybe they should display production as a fraction, such as:
"55" or maybe "55/55" for normal production
"81/55" for 1 turn hammer overflow
"110/55" for temporary double production for bldg X
"32/55" for temporary production setback due to whatever
"1/55" for anarchy turns


Thanks!

Jeff

 

[MrCynical]

The thing is, this is about the third production house I've built in this game (which is my first BtS game), and it seems as if my gold/turn goes DOWN with each one. I thought I was imagining it until it dropped 21 from turn 537 to 538.

So is this a bug? I would not expect building a building that's supposed to increase my money to decrease my money under any circumstances.

Definitely not. Look at the gold/science output (customs houses generate commerce, not gold) of the actual city in the screenshots, not your overall empire's gold output, as there are a hundred other things which could affect that. In all the screenshots the gold/science output is exactly the same; 30.97 gold and 80.48 science. Since the trade routs have changed though, this suggests something has disrupted the more profitable ones you had in 1943, but the customs house boost has perfectly counterbalanced the change.

There are, as I've said, literally hundreds of possible reasons your overall civ gold profit has changed. The shift in trade routes suggests though that something has disrupted your trade. The customs house perfectly counterbalanced it in this city, but this won't be the case elsewhere.

 

[lroumen]

It couldn't just be trade route disruption. The chance that all 4 cities are blocked in the same turn is very small. It's probably something else but I don't know enough about trade routes (just the basic ideas) to explain this behaviour.

I do know that there is some rounding bug currently involved with trade route gain. It's in the "consolidated bug reports list" thread pinned in this forum. Maybe this occurrence you're seeing is related to the same problem.


I cannot check your savegame at the moment since I don't have BTS available. My personal guess is that it calculates the new best trade routes, but that the numbers are the same after rounding them.

As for your gold/turn going down... I can think of several things but I'm afraid I cannot check.
- it could be that a city has grown and has become 1 citizen unhappy or unhealthy and it stopped working a tile
- it could be that you created too many units meaning you have to pay extra for unit upkeep.
- it could be that the citizens in one city were drastically changed from income to production or growth
- it could indeed be that a city has been blocked by a ship (doesn't have to be privateer) and you lose all trade routes to that city, resulting in an overall loss of gold in all cities that used to trade with that city
- etcetera, etcetera.

 

[sdwillie]

1. Custom house trade routes:
All the cities listed as a trade route partner are on another continent/island. (See the save files for turn 537/538). Nobody is at war with anyone. I don't think there's much/any privateer activity, other than my own -- I can see several of the other civ's cities through espionage and I have only seen 2 computer privateers in the whole game, and I killed those already.

Did any other civs switch to mercantilism? It's the easiest way to stop from being corp spammed.

And your gold going down could also be (in addition to the four suggestions above) due to a 'we love the dictator day' (or any other leader but that's my favorite). The zero maintenance cost that gives for one turn can be more of a pain than a benefit.