So, uh, hi.

Anyone else noticed this? Able to confirm? It's pretty game breaking.

For some reason, I assumed there would be stardock staff monitoring the thread called GalCiv III Support. I've submitted a ticket to let them know of the issue.

So I got a response back on my ticket asking me to do a bunch of work for them. What kind of BS is this? I'm not asking for help, I'm just trying to be a nice guy and report a bug. Can't a guy do that without being the primary investigator into why it's happening?

No, I do not want to send you computer files or save games. I've now experimented with this on multiple computers. It happens on all of them. You don't need my files. I have a full time job and multiple people's bills to pay. Handle your business, I'll handle mine.

I wish I could turn off surrenders by sending a game save

Yes, it's quite unthinkable that the results from a diagnostics tool might be useful in a troubleshooting exercise, or the a snap-shoted example displaying the issue at hand to run through verbose logging tools would help isolate the location of the bug. How ludicrous of me to think so. Truly, I'm the one who's clueless about the bug hunting process here.

See, the obvious thing that would cause this is an error in the xml value for the trait. But there isn't anything wrong with the trait, so the answer's not as simple as you seem to believe. You say 'considering what the issue is' as if you have the slightest idea what's causing it. You don't. You're seeing the effect, nothing more. Actually finding out what's causing it requires a bit more effort. If you want it fixed quickly, provide them with as much information as possible.

Download an app?.. daym the nerve... must be hell having to download that sub 1 meg file on your 2400 baud modem connected to your ISP's inbound RFC1149 line...  especially with the well known feline problems involved there   

I don't have a saved game. I completed the game I was playing and saved over it after I was done. So the only way for me to send a save game would be to make a new game and do it all over again, which you can just as easily do, and are the ones getting paid for it. I've tried this on multiple systems, and know it works on them all, so the only settings that matter are the ones I described in my original post. It happens with all system loadouts.

I'm pretty sure it's a problem in the XML file. Is there a potential value for -1, -2, and -3 diplomacy? If not, is it not somehow rolling over to the other end of the chart because of the fact that there is no potential value for it?

I don't really understand how the responsibility for investing time and effort into a bug falls on my shoulders. I was just reporting it to you. Fix it or don't, but it's not really my responsibility. I've always supported Stardock because I believe they treat their customers right. That's why I reported the bug: To help out. But there is zero reason I should be asked to start a new game and put in the time necessary to get said game to a point where you can see the diplomatic bonuses with other factions, then make a new save and send it in. To me, this kind of time is exactly what game developers and other employees are being paid for. I understand putting bug investigations on the shoulders of your players in betas, or when your players are young, unemployed students who WANT to participate in the bugfix process. None of those are the case here.

I don't want this post to sound snarky. I really do respect stardock's work. I just have no interest in spending time investigating this, but I hope you fix it, for your own sake. It makes your game poorer, as do all bugs.

It's pretty easy to replicate - just create a civ with the bonus and do FoW. After you get UT, suddenly you're +3 with everyone 'because of your great skill in diplomacy'.

And no, it's not an xml thing. The -3 works fine in other modifiers, and moreover you can change the 'size' of the setting to 100+ and it still occurs. I suspect a negative is being multiplied by another negative somewhere. 

Willing to believe that's a typo. You get +3 with everyone for having it, which makes it easy to confuse.

And there's nothing wrong with the xml that I can see. One thing that occurs is that it might be better using it with a triggered diplo modifier - like the ones that Ancient races get from relics. There, you have [traitnamecharacteristic]1[/traitnamecharacteristic], and then defines the effect elsewhere rather than it directly acting upon a stat; the xml for the trait currently uses the same code structure as the Embassy does. Having an [isunpopular] flag, which triggers a diplo mod of -2 might fix the issue.

Here you go. I've submitted 6 screenshots demonstrating that 3 seperate races have higher diplomacy tech than me, yet I have the highest possible diplomacy bonus against all 3 of them, as well as a screenshot of my current tech level of diplomacy, or lack thereof. I've included the zip file from your tool, and ensured it grabbed the proper save file. I also THINK I sent you the correct file for my custom faction, but I'm not 100% sure. Just for curiousity's sake, I'd appreciate it if you could keep us posted on what you guys determine to be the problem.

Thanks!