4294967 Billion Population Bug

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hello I just invaded a planet with 2000 Troops and did Information Warfare, I won barely against them only had 150 or so troops left. When I got control of the planet I noticed that it was 4294967 Billion Population. Funny thing is this bug occured during or immediately after the Invasion because the Planet did not show up as very big on the Mini-map. I have the Population selected, the biggest ones prior to the invasion were some of the Minor Race home worlds, and now after the Invasion this one planet shows up all Green for the entire Huge Galaxy. Its radius encompasses the entire Huge Galaxy, now I can use the Option to view the largest planets from the mini-map. And, I dont know what to do with such a large population, does it hurt my score if they all die? Should I reload the game and try to invade again or leave it?
10,936 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It will quickly die back down to the maximum supported population for that planet and the amount of food it's producing. It will take around 2-5 turns.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So now we know they are using an unsigned 32 bit integer for storing the planet population with each unit being 1 million people (i.e., 2 ^ 32 = 4,294,967,296).
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is caused by a calculation to figure out the population at the end of the invasion. The population variable is an unsigned 32-bit integer. (Maximum size = 4,294,967,295) What happens is that when you use information warfare, win the invasion, and have fewer troops left over than the amount that you converted with information warfare, then the game subtracts the amount of troops you gained in the invasion from the final population. (Or more likely, it just doesn't take them into account at all when figuring population.) This leaves you with a negative population, and since the variable is an unsigned integer, a negative number seems like a very large positive number. (4,294,967,295 minus the negative population amount.) The fix for this seems pretty simple when you know what the problem is, but I think that Stardock just didn't understand what the problem was yet. Hopefully they figure it out by the next patch.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You should win your game as soon as possbile. With that big a population you would have a score of almost equal size.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The population will generally return to normal fairly quickly, but I've heard of people winning instant influence victories, experiencing massive economic fluctuations, etc etc. I once had a rebellion take half of my empire the turn after this bug hit me.

A bit startling.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
yep me too.......and i won by influence victory. Then i reload at some point ahead of that bug and it didn't happened again
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This problem has been fixed. The next update will include this fix.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
This problem has been fixed. The next update will include this fix.


Good stuff. Thank you for fixing that!