[Vanilla] First envoy to each city state count as 2 not working.

[soulsprit]

I'm playing the Steam deluxe version.

I know how this policy card works as I used it very often. In fact, I already used this policy card during the same game on Antananarivo city state if I remember correctly. I'm playing China by the way.

You only get 2 envoys when you use this card if the target city state has 0 of your envoys to begin with. In other words, you can only use it once on city states that you haven't send envoys to before. Once you have 1 or more envoys at the target city state this policy card becomes useless and I often switch to this policy card 1 or 2 turns before getting a envoy if I have a city state without any envoys.

This time something weird has happened. I switched to this policy card after creating a wonder in a apadana city that granted me 2 envoys.

I send one of them to both "Muscat" and "Bandar Bruney" city state that had 0 of my envoys. I checked whether the policy card was actually added to the diplomatic policy slot and it was.

However, I only ended up with 1 envoy in both of the city states.

What the freak is going on here? I can't remember I had this issue before, and AFAIK this has always worked out for me.

Tips, clues or straightforward solutions?

Thanks!!!!!

 

[Kryxal]

I'd try sending them one at a time, I had the policy card fail when I sent two to the same CS (figuring it would go straight to 3)

 

[soulsprit]

That is very strange. I got 3 envoys past mid game and still had 3 city states without any envoys, namely, nan madol, la venta and Jerusalem.
They all got 2 envoys each thus 6 total for the 3 envoys spend. It is the exact same game with China and specifically saved my 1st envoys on the religious city states as I'm not targeting religion and found Nan madol later on in the game hence why they still had zero.

I in contrast to your reported case didn't and actually almost never tried to send 2 envoys and expected 3. But I did do this a few times where I had more envoys to spend and only a single leftover city state in the game without envoys. Whenever I spend 2 or even 3 of them I would always end up with a third or fourth envoy, so it should still work that way. You don't have to necessarily spend one on them, just saying.
The fact you reported the same issue means you might suffer the exact same thing and something else is causing this.

I also want to clarify that I didn't ever started a war with any of the city state that caused me to lose initial envoys. Because when one does start a war and you lose those initial envoys it still counts as having them spend a first time. That is because the first envoy simply means whether you ever spend one on them in the game or not, regardless if you lost them through war. So it's not that either, just saying in case someone is going to ask me. I ran into this before and forgot I ever had war with that city state. In this case I clearly didn't, it is and should have been the 1st envoy I've ever send there. Apparently the game thought otherwise.

Is there some hidden mechanic that may contribute for not earning the 2nd envoy even if you meet all the conditions? It must simply be the case or this is some bug. Maybe in the latest Steam deluxe version? I'm not jumping the gun here but am merely speculating, which is all I can do at this point.

 

[UWHabs]

One thing to pay attention to is that if you have the policy card active, but you just had another card expire, sometimes they don't count any of them. So I've had a case where one of the cards with an immediate effect was around, but when I researched a new civic it expired one of the cards I had active, so none of the other selected ones were working until I confirmed the new set.

 

[Brutus2]

This time something weird has happened. I switched to this policy card after creating a wonder in a apadana city that granted me 2 envoys.

Sometimes a policy card does not take effect immediately when you slot it. You have to end turn and it will become active on the next turn. So, if you already had the 2 envoys from the wonder, slotted the card and immediately tried to send the envoys it might not work. Instead you have to wait a turn after slotting the card, then send the envoys.

 

[soulsprit]

Ok, so you guys are right. I reproduced the steps after building the wonder and then put the policy card in without ending the turn and it failed to work like it did.

Not exactly sure what to think of this. But in my opinion it should count right from the start, as soon as I use the card it should work right away IMO. I like to micromanage and if I can change a policy card during the same turn while already having unspent envoys I shouldn't have to skip a turn first before using it.

At least that seems logical to me, I'll see whether people agree to that or not.

Thanks!

 

[liv]

I did it and it worked fine for me to get two envoys just making the policy in the same turn with envoys from the wonder so I am not sure what happened with you

 

[soulsprit]

Wuuut. Maybe it was the specific savegame or something as I reloaded the same turn to reproduce the step. Maybe there is something else specific to that instance that triggers the issue. Maybe I should try in a different game to see how that works out.

 

[Maledict]

There’s a number of policy cards that don’t work. The 50% discount on settler building costs hasn’t worked in my last two games at all.

 

[liv]

There’s a number of policy cards that don’t work. The 50% discount on settler building costs hasn’t worked in my last two games at all.

Maybe post a save?

 

[Kryxal]

The settler card isn't 50% off costs, it's 50% extra to cog input. You might not notice because it happens automatically when something's being built.