This is a bug that involves any mod that adds a Promotion. It has been mentioned in the Mods section of the forum but I wanted to bring this bug up a bit more formally.
I have created a mod for the simple purpose of demonstrating this bug. Please don't just dismiss this as something that is a "fringe case" because it's a mod and the mod might just be doing something complicated and unusual. The mod attached here, itself is straightforward xml and is only a demonstration. The bug persists with ANY mod that tries to add ANY unit promotions. Some modders have tried to bypass this problem by not using promotions at all but not all mods can be this limited.
The Problem
The promotions bug occurs when a new unit Promotion is added by xml (or sql). The mod I have attached here copies the existing PROMOTION_COMBAT_BOOST_4 in <UnitPromotions> to make a 5th unit combat promotion. The problem is that when CivBE starts up for the first time with a mod game, the database does not properly upload the new unit promotions. This causes a corruption that manifests as the unit panel being missing or unusual icons being displayed when you click on any unit:
(Turn 0, started a new game with mod)
Current Workaround
One of the reasons why this is a bug that modders can't fix is because the work around is simply to "Return to the Main Menu, click Mods and start a new/reload a saved game" without quitting CivBE. The gamer must return to the Main Menu and not just load/reload the saved game because it doesn't reset the database.
You're probably wondering, if it's such an easy work around why am I bringing this up? For someone doing a lot of playtesting and modding this work around is very time consuming. From a modder's perspective, if you have to tell players to "Start a game, Return to the Main Menu, Start a game again" that can be very awkward to promote your mod. Adding up the number of minutes per game load and number of times that a tester or gamer might have to do this, you will find you're wasting a lot of time waiting.
Conclusion
From the way that the bug can be worked around there is something subtly different with how CivBE first loads a Mod game and the way it loads the second and subsequent Mod games. Is there a hidden read database error the first time a mod game is played? Or is the database cleaned properly at the end of the first mod game thus making subsequent mod games read a cleaned version database.
Failed Investigation Notes
I have tried to look into the problem from a modder's perspective and below are some notes that may or likely may not help.
I hope that this bug report can help fix this because I personally don't feel comfortable releasing a mod where players are forced to start a game + leave to main menu again before they can properly start or continue their game.
I have created a mod for the simple purpose of demonstrating this bug. Please don't just dismiss this as something that is a "fringe case" because it's a mod and the mod might just be doing something complicated and unusual. The mod attached here, itself is straightforward xml and is only a demonstration. The bug persists with ANY mod that tries to add ANY unit promotions. Some modders have tried to bypass this problem by not using promotions at all but not all mods can be this limited.
The Problem
The promotions bug occurs when a new unit Promotion is added by xml (or sql). The mod I have attached here copies the existing PROMOTION_COMBAT_BOOST_4 in <UnitPromotions> to make a 5th unit combat promotion. The problem is that when CivBE starts up for the first time with a mod game, the database does not properly upload the new unit promotions. This causes a corruption that manifests as the unit panel being missing or unusual icons being displayed when you click on any unit:
Spoiler :
(Turn 0, started a new game with mod)
Current Workaround
One of the reasons why this is a bug that modders can't fix is because the work around is simply to "Return to the Main Menu, click Mods and start a new/reload a saved game" without quitting CivBE. The gamer must return to the Main Menu and not just load/reload the saved game because it doesn't reset the database.
You're probably wondering, if it's such an easy work around why am I bringing this up? For someone doing a lot of playtesting and modding this work around is very time consuming. From a modder's perspective, if you have to tell players to "Start a game, Return to the Main Menu, Start a game again" that can be very awkward to promote your mod. Adding up the number of minutes per game load and number of times that a tester or gamer might have to do this, you will find you're wasting a lot of time waiting.
Conclusion
From the way that the bug can be worked around there is something subtly different with how CivBE first loads a Mod game and the way it loads the second and subsequent Mod games. Is there a hidden read database error the first time a mod game is played? Or is the database cleaned properly at the end of the first mod game thus making subsequent mod games read a cleaned version database.
Failed Investigation Notes
I have tried to look into the problem from a modder's perspective and below are some notes that may or likely may not help.
Spoiler :
I hope that this bug report can help fix this because I personally don't feel comfortable releasing a mod where players are forced to start a game + leave to main menu again before they can properly start or continue their game.
