Free GotN (bug?)

[Emptiness]

I just ran across something strange. Turn 829 of a marathon 0.41a game and suddenly the message "Decius has completed the Guild of the Nine" pops up in the event log. I was confused, because I'm Decius and I wasn't building the Guild...

Spoiler details hidden just in case this isn't a bug :

I reloaded the turn 828 autosave and checked Midgar, which showed the Guild 1 turn from completion:

Midgar was supposed to be building a Temple of the Empyrean, and indeed that Temple was in second place of the build queue and 3 turns from completion. That's about where I expected the Temple to be in terms of progress, so where did the production for the Guild come from? Very fishy.

There was no mention in the event log of any special event, nor was there any event popup.

I reloaded the turn 824 autosave and the Temple is 7 turns from completion:

I opened up Midgar and checked Guild of the Nine; as of turn 824 there was no production accumulated on it:

Spoiler turn 824 Midgar City Detail :

This makes no sense to me. I had no great engineers, slaves, or soldiers of kilmorph to sacrifice for production. I was not running Slavery, or any of the Civics that allow production to be purchased for gold. I'm sure I didn't add the Guild to Midgar's queue, and even if I accidentally added it while doing something else it would have taken Midgar 58 turns to complete it.

I tried continuing the game from a reload of turn 824, and the free Guild did not happen. No Guild in Midgar's queue on turn 828, no Guild completion on turn 829. Maybe a random number generator or AI action was involved? I tried to play the intervening turns identically (I'm at peace, so was involved in no combat), but of course the first time through I wasn't taking notes - so I can't be completely certain.

Is there some sort of special condition that will give a player the Guild for free? Or am I missing some other way in which this could have occurred?

If this is a bug, it's certainly a strange one. I can't think of any other explanation, however.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Was there an AI engineer on the city tile on the turn before you found the wonder nearly completed?

 

[cIV_khanh93]

if you were in a permanent alliance...

 

[Emptiness]

I wasn't in an alliance with anyone. Amelanchier had recently gotten a great engineer, and I do have open borders with him. I didn't happen to notice who or what was in Midgar on turn 827, and I don't have a save from that turn. Is it possible to use a GE to boost production of a wonder in a non-allied civ?

 

[Earthling]

Yes, sounds like it was an AI. This was (is?) also a bug in vanilla civ4, could probably find a thread there. With the AI finishing your wonders for you I think you should consider yourself blessed for this rare occurence. I believe you as the player can do this too if you want and have a great engineer (better if you know what they're producing I guess); the problem I believe is that they can create a work in any city, and if the AI has to end turn/run out of movement there or something it will do it for another player.

Also, I figure it's kinda pertinent here, just to share something I learned in an MP game once - you can notuse a prophet or other GP to create a shrine for another player, and of course can't gift them as with any other unit.

 

[Breunor]

When I first saw this, I thought it was the funniest bug I've seen!

Here is the original analysis:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=287128

DanF figured out how to fix it -- it is in the 0.23 unoffical patch; I'm not sure if putting that patch in applies to FfH?

Best wishes,

Breunor

 

[Emptiness]

Ahh, excellent - I am lucky then. I was sure I hadn't put it in the queue. So a bug then, but not specifically a FfH2 bug. Thanks for finding that Breunor, and thank you all for your responses.