my empire vanishes

[bvanevery]

Once I hit End Turn, during the inter-turn my entire empire completely disappears!  I'm given 3 colonists and a handful of military units and formers elsewhere on the map.

Anyone seen this sort of thing?

I'm playing as the Cult of Planet with my SMACX AI Growth mod.  My mod is .txt changes only, so should not be introducing any instability.  I play with the stock binary from GOG.  It's a Huge map and I've been in a pretty big early naval battle with the Pirates.  Lotta ships killing each other.  I eliminated the Usurpers.  The Spartans eliminated the University.  The Caretakers and the Drones are still in the game, so it's a 5-way game at this point.

I think this bug has something to do with the already defeated factions.  I've occasionally seen this sort of thing in various games over the years.  This game, I'm doing well and do not want to just quit!

I cranked up the Scenario Editor and looked for a unit in the wrong city, which is the most frequent game crasher bug that I experience on a somewhat regular basis.  I know Scient's patch does not solve that particular bug.  The workaround is to find the offending unit and change it so that it's part of the city owner's faction, or else eliminate all the units in the base if that would disrupt play balance for some reason.  Sometimes jiggling what my units are doing elsewhere in the game, can change the sequence of events and the bug doesn't crash stuff.  Otherwise the Scenario Editor does have to be used, and one's game gets marked as Cheated! which is annoying.

This time around, I did not find such a unit, and that's a game crashing bug anyways.  This bug doesn't crash the game, it just restarts my faction.

I wonder if there's some corrupt unit or city in my empire, or elsewhere in the game, that is somehow imploding everything that belongs to me?  I'll try looking for such a thing in the Scenario Editor.  In some games I've seen corrupt squares with fungal towers, but those were typically eco-damage / chemical weapons / Planet vengeance / global warming games.  Nothing like that going on right now.  It's way too early.

I happened to have a save from the end of the previous year.  I haven't tried playing forwards from that year yet.

[bvanevery]

Interesting discovery: I tried playing from the MY 2228 save.  When I hit End Turn, MY 2229 begins.  It starts with a diplomatic dialog with the Caretakers.  They want me to betray my ally Domai, who is Seething and soon to abandon me anyways.

Usually I answer No to all suggestions that I backstab.  I prefer my Noble reputation.  When I do that, the Caretakers kills my Foil Probe Team.  If I do nothing else that turn and just hit End Turn, then my empire vanishes.  MY 2230 begins with me on some new part of the map, 3 colonists + military units + formers.

However, if I backstab and get a Truce out of the Caretakers, my Foil Probe Team survives.  If I do nothing for the year and hit End Turn, my empire survives!  So it either has something to do with the diplomatic relationship with the Caretakers, or with this particular Foil Probe Team unit.

If I start from the MY 2228 save, and self-destruct the Foil Probe Team unit, then hit End Turn, the diplomatic interaction with the Caretakers never happens.  A year later, doing nothing, my empire vanishes.  So the diplomatic interaction is the necessary workaround for getting out of this pickle.

[bvanevery]

I have found a workaround.  In MY 2228, talk to Domai.  Ask him for a tech.  Threaten that if he doesn't give it to me, I'll break our Pact.  Since our relationship is bad anyways, Domai gets in a huff and breaks our Pact for me.  I get to preserve my Noble reputation.

Details I demanded the Socialist give me Industrial Economics

I demanded the Socialist give me Industrial Economics

Then hit End Turn.  The diplomatic interaction happens with the Caretakers.  I tell them to shove off, they kill my Foil Probe Team.  I do nothing and hit End Turn.  My empire survives!

If I try having the Pact breaking conversation with Domai in MY 2229, after I've already spoken to the Caretakers, it doesn't work.  Once I'm done speaking with the Caretakers, I have to have broken my Pact with Domai.  Otherwise my empire will vanish.  That's quite a diplomatic threat, isn't it?  "Believe in the droids we're looking for, or your empire is gone..."

Having found the workaround, I've now replayed properly.  I've attached saves of my replayed turns.  Now I'm beginning in MY 2230 and I'm good to go.

[bvanevery]

And after all that, I ended up quitting the game because that naval battle with the Pirates was interminable.  Turn after turn after turn of pea shooter warfare.  I should have never have bothered.  The Pirates are less irritating in my mod than in the vanilla game, because they're Passive rather than Aggressive.  They sit back and collect the Wealth.  But if you do get on their bad side, or you decide to go to war with them, they're super spammy!