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#155881: "Bescod Planetary Institute effect should allow extra passive charging"

fixed: Bug has been fixed

What is this report about?

Gaia Project #623433400

What happened? Please select from below

Rules: a rule of the game has not been followed

What happened? Please select from below

Rules: a rule of the game has not been followed

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#	Status	Votes	Game	Type	Title	Last update

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Jan 31st 2025 17:43 • Thikon • Bug has not been reproduced by developers yet:

Problem recurred, see above

Jan 31st 2025 17:51 • Kayvon • This is not a bug:

This all looks good to me. No issues here.

I'm guessing you have a rules misunderstanding. Please refer to the rulebook and discuss in the forums where fellow players can clarify.

Jan 31st 2025 17:52 • Kayvon • This is not a bug:

Report short description
"Bescod Planetary Institute effect not followed, charging power with trade station on gray planet "
changed to
"Bescod Planetary Institute effect followed as described in rules"

Feb 2nd 2025 13:18 • Thikon • This is not a bug:

It's not a rules misunderstanding. All of those build and upgrade actions took place within 2 spaces of, or directly on top of, a Bescod trade station on a black planet with the Becsod PI in play. That trade station is a 3-power building. I do apologize for the inaccurate move numbers and descriptions in my original report. I'll clarify the move numbers from the replay.

I've also included a section below as our chat log. In it you'll see that the players disagree on the rules, true. But you'll also see that nwfalcon states he's declining 3 power for 2 VPs after previously accepting 2 power for 1 VP multiple times: "nwfalcon: LOL! Now that is 2-3", "nwfalcon: I'll decline, but thatnk you".

Either the trade station is a 3 power building for the purposes of charging power when another player builds nearby, or it's not. This game and chat log show an issue where 2 power for 1 VP is being offered, and 3 power for 2 VPs is being offered with the same buildings in proximity. For whatever reason, the code is not handling the power values consistently. In a way, that's irrelevant to my understanding of the rules.

By the way, my bug report duplicates a report from 3 months ago. #144901: "Bescods: power charge does not take PI into account". That report outlines a similar circumstance wherein the reporter suggests the code checks the research lab's power instead of the trade station, even though the trade station is on the black planet and therefore would be of higher power value. You rejected that as a federation power question, but that's not what the report outlines.

Move log, rules references, and chat log below.

****************
MOVES:
****************

Lantids builds a mine on a blue planet within 2 tiles of Bescod Trade Station on black planet. Bescods offered 2 charge for 1 VP (accepted).
Move 90 :9:01:18 AM
Thikon spends [ORE1][GOLD2] to build a [BUILDING4]
Move 91 :9:01:32 AM
nwfalcon charges [POWER2]
nwfalcon loses [VP1]

Lantids upgrades mine to trade station within 2 tiles of Bescod Trade Station on black planet. Bescods offered 2 charge for 1 VP (accepted).
Move 93 :9:02:09 AM
Thikon spends [GOLD3][ORE2] to upgrade to a [BUILDING5]
Move 94 :9:02:16 AM
nwfalcon charges [POWER2]
nwfalcon loses [VP1]

Lantids upgrades trade station to research lab within 2 tiles of Bescod Trade Station on black planet. Bescods offered 2 charge for 1 VP (accepted).
Move 96 :9:10:33 AM
Thikon spends [GOLD5][ORE3] to upgrade to a [BUILDING6]
Move 97 :9:10:40 AM
nwfalcon charges [POWER2]
nwfalcon loses [VP1]

Lantids builds a mine on the Trade Station in question. Bescods were offered 3 power for 2 VPs (Declined). Move 101 where nwfalcon (Bescods) chooses not to charge 3 power is not recorded in the log. Instead gameplay continues to move 102, where nwfalcon gains 3 charge by moving up to [RESEARCH3].

Move 100 :9:11:42 AM
Thikon spends [ORE1][GOLD2] to build a [BUILDING4]
Faction bonus: Thikon gains [KNOWLEDGE2]
Move 102 :9:13:16 AM
nwfalcon charges [POWER3]
nwfalcon pays [KNOWLEDGE4] to move up on [RESEARCH3]
nwfalcon gains [QIC2]

Move 103 :9:14:07 AM
Thikon spends [ORE1][GOLD2] to build a [BUILDING4]
Faction bonus: Thikon gains [KNOWLEDGE2]
nwfalcon charges [POWER1]

****************
RULES:
****************

Relevant rules and page numbers referenced below:

"Trading stations and research labs have a power value of 2." - Page 14

Bescod-
"Planetary Institute: The power value of your structures on gray planets (your home type) is increased by one (in addition to any other effects that increase their power value)." - Page 21

"Each time a player builds a mine or upgrades a structure, each other player with at least one structure in the neighboring area (within a range of 2 spaces) may spend VP to charge power." - Page 17

"If you own multiple structures in the neighboring area, you can charge power only for your structure with the highest power value (power value is explained on page 14). If you own multiple structures with the same power value, only charge power for one of them. " - Page 17

**************
CHAT LOG:
**************
thikon: why didn't that make you need 2 points for 3 power? 09:02 AM

nwfalcon: It does combine 09:03 AM
nwfalcon: I mean it doesn't 09:03 AM

thikon: you charged 2 for 1 point 09:03 AM
thikon: your trade station is on a black planet 09:03 AM

nwfalcon: right... I have three 2-1 buildings 09:03 AM

thikon: so it's a 3 point building 09:03 AM

nwfalcon: Nope 09:03 AM

thikon: that's the whole point of the bescods 09:04 AM

nwfalcon: Biscods doesn't work that way 09:04 AM

thikon: otherwise you couldn't have gotten a federation with those buildings 09:04 AM

nwfalcon: Bescods get the bonus for feds, but it's still just a 2-1 building for charges 09:04 AM

thikon: The text of your planetary institute is "The power value of your structures on gray planets (your home type) is increased by one (in addition to any other effects that increase their power value)." 09:05 AM
thikon: If you have the 4 pip for PI or Academy tech tile, it's possible to be asked to give up 4 points for 5 power charge 09:06 AM
thikon: I have had that multiple times 09:06 AM

nwfalcon: Yes... but the way charges are calculated is based on building type 09:06 AM

thikon: negative 09:06 AM
thikon it's based on the highest power of nearby structures 09:07 AM

nwfalcon: Well... just lucky I guess 09:07 AM

thikon: lol 09:07 AM
thikon: it's a bug, I'll report it 09:07 AM
thikon: move #94 09:07 AM
nwfalcon: Decisions decisions 09:09 AM
nwfalcon: Much better deal! 09:11 AM

thikon: annoying 09:11 AM
thikon: it's going to happen again two more times 09:11 AM
thikon: move #98 09:11 AM
thikon: move #100 09:12 AM

nwfalcon: LOL! Now that is 2-3 09:12 AM

thikon: what!? 09:12 AM
thikon: huh! 09:12 AM

nwfalcon: Hehe! 09:12 AM

thikon: yeah, definitely a bug 09:12 AM

nwfalcon: I'll decline, but thatnk you

Feb 2nd 2025 15:35 • Kayvon • Bug has not been reproduced by developers yet:

I appreciate the rules reference. Reopening for votes.

If this is feasible to fix, I'll do it based on votes. However, I'm not sure whether increasing hte number beyond 3 is compatible with the codeethat's already in place, especially the turn-based code and the automatic options. It's been like this for years without a remark until recently. If fixing it will massively break other stuff, we may have to let it be.

Feb 2nd 2025 15:35 • Kayvon • Bug has not been reproduced by developers yet:

Report short description
"Bescod Planetary Institute effect followed as described in rules"
changed to
"Bescod Planetary Institute effect should allow extra passive charging"

Feb 2nd 2025 15:51 • Thikon • Bug has not been reproduced by developers yet:

Thank you for reopening. Also, thank you for your work building this excellent adaptation!

Yeah, this is definitely an edge case. Only two reports since the game released. Understood if it's not worth the effort. I do have a couple thoughts that I hope may help.

1. In both reports, there was a research lab within 2 tiles of the boosted trade station.
2. In the game report above, when the mine was placed directly on the boosted trade station, the only other building nearby was another trade station. The research lab was 3 tiles away. This worked as intended.

It's possible the game logic compares available buildings (research lab and trade station) and assumes they are equal power value, which is valid in almost every case. The code may then use the research lab as a default order of operation.

If that's true, then the only way this bug could trigger would be a situation where an unboosted research lab and a boosted trade station are both within 2 tiles. A boosted research lab would not conflict with an unboosted trade station or research lab, just as the unboosted trade station did not conflict with the boosted trade station. The PI and Academy buildings would also work correctly.

Thanks again for the great work on this game!

Feb 2nd 2025 17:06 • Kayvon • Bug has not been reproduced by developers yet:

> It's possible the game logic compares available buildings
> (research lab and trade station) and assumes they are
> equal power value

I think you're exactly right. Let's look at the code for the charge handler

1..foreach ($hexes as $key=>$hex)
2....foreach ($hex["buildings"] as $key=>$building)
3......if ($building["playerId"] == $playerId &&
4........($building["buildingId"] > $biggestBuilding ||
5........($building["buildingId"] == $biggestBuilding && $hex["planetType"] == self::PLANET_BLACK)))

(Added numbering and dots because the autoformatting will remove leading spaces and this will all be ugly)

The "biggest building" is found by:
1. Looking at surrounding hexes
2. for buildings
3. owned by the player in question
4. that have a larger building ID than any we've found so for (trade station is 5; research lab is 6)
5. with ties broken in favor of black planets (because Bescods get an extra bonus there)

The charge handler looks for the "biggest building," as determined by building ID. A research lab (bldg6) is always considered bigger than a trading station (bldg5).

If I'm understanding the situation -- and please help me out here because there are 12 factions that I don't remember perfectly -- we need to have the charge handler *not* move up to the research station if it can find a Trading Station on a black planet. Is that correct?

Feb 2nd 2025 17:47 • Kayvon • Bug has been fixed:

I've modified the routine to evaluate the potential GAINS from the building rather than the building's ID or placement.

Thikon and I have looked over this to see that there are no immediate bugs. If anyone sees anything odd around the new implementation, please let me know.

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#155881: "Bescod Planetary Institute effect should allow extra passive charging"

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