Culuria belongs to Arpia, Vella and Dani

While trying to spot a possible bug my brother was encountering, I was skimming through an Arpian storyline, and there's a mission which is set as the following:

- initial planet: random planet from Arpia, gövt 196 (because that's one of the only two ways I could get the "multiple Culurias" "hack" to work)
- destination planet: random planet from House Vella, gövt 133
- return planet: random planet from House Dani, gövt 134

For some strange reason, Nova decided that Culuria was the answer to all three equations.

Now, after I aborted the mission and started it again, no problem. I tested a further three times, and each time got a Vella destination planet.

Unfortunately, I have the presence of mind to take a look at the debuglog, and reloaded Nova a couple of times, so the error isn't there anymore.

Has anyone ever encountered this kind of problem?

Check the government class and allies fields, and make sure the planet is the right government (I'm assuming there are multiple Aripan govt resources like for the other evn govs)

Nope, just the one, 196.

Did Culuria "switch" as you were there? I know there's a bug in Nova where if you're on a planet (I think only Aurora in the stock scenario) and the system changes to a version with a different planet (perhaps it has to be the one you're on that changes?) then all missions, even random missions, from that planet for that day have that same planet as their destination.

That might be it. It would explain it, even if it's a Nova bug. An unfortunate bug then.
I'll test next time I open Nova.

Interesting, I'll add this to my bug list. Let us know if you find any more info on it, Pace.

Tested again, and yes, it is indeed the planet change. Strange.
What happens is that if you accept the mission on the last day of a Culuria cycle (i.e. the next day, Culuria will be different), the random destination AND random return planet are both set to Culuria.
I tried with a random destination but a fixed return planet, and that works as it should.

I still have to try with only a random destination and with only a random return planet, but I now know it is indeed a real bug.

Okay, after more testing, I have found exactly what works and what doesn't.

No matter where you start the mission, if the system is about to change the next day (so Nova actually calculates that as soon as you land), the following settings will cause a random destination or return planet to become the same as the planet whence you accept the mission. As regards the starting planet, there is no requirement. This can be anything from a specific planet to any inhabited planet. The important thing to know about this starting planet is that it's about to change (or rather, the system is about to change).
So, without further ado, the settings:
- random destination planet and random return planet
- random destination planet and no return planet
- no destination planet and random return planet
- fixed destination planet and random return planet
All other settings avoid causing the bug (at least, I think I've tested all the possibilities).

This means that a random return planet always causes the bug (if the initial system condition ("about to change") is met), while a random destination planet will only cause the bug if there is no return planet.
Basically, the end planet determines whether there is a bug.

The debuglog will show this kind of message:
"warning: mission XXX failed to find a valid nontransient random stellar of govt YYY or other "random" kind of setting , using insert starting planet name instead"

This post has been edited by Pace : 04 October 2007 - 01:11 PM

Ah, some good information. So you could just make the return stellar fixed and it would be okay?

This post has been edited by Guy : 05 October 2007 - 02:50 AM

Well, another idea is don't change Culuria to Vella. Change it to another gov. named Vella, that gets along with the real vella perfectly, but is not the same gov, you just think it is.

@0101181920, on Oct 5 2007, 06:50 AM, said in Arpian encounter: random gövt planet problem?:

Well, another idea is don't change Culuria to Vella. Change it to another gov. named Vella, that gets along with the real vella perfectly, but is not the same gov, you just think it is.

I'm sorry to say so, but you completely missed the point and don't understand what's happening.

And yes, Guy, changing the destination to a fixed one will fix it.

This post has been edited by Pace : 05 October 2007 - 10:29 AM

I'm very skilled at that. Do I get a medal?

That is very good to know, thanks for doing the legwork Pace. That debuglog line makes me curious: if a gövt has only two planets and their systems connect to each other, will a mission with a random planet of that government as its destination ever be offered from either one? And if so, will it require going to the other planet or to the same one where it started, or randomly either one?