[Softlock] Clicking planet icon on Xeloxi probe ship info card freezes/breaks UI (Altarians, Turn 166)

from GalCiv4 Forums

Windows Version Number: Fedora KDE 44 / GE-Proton11-6
App Version: 4.1

Summary:
Encountered a softlock while playing as the Altarians. Clicking a small planet-shaped icon displayed above a Xeloxi probe ship's info card — apparently intended to open the Diplomacy screen — caused the game to become unresponsive/stuck instead of opening diplomacy.

Game version / Build: 4.1

System: Fedora KDE 44 / GE-Proton11-6

Game settings:

  • Race: Altarians
  • Turn: 166
  • Map: Default settings (standard generated map, not custom)
  • Tech Trading: Disabled
  • Victory Conditions: Influence Victory enabled

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Play as Altarians on a default-settings map with Tech Trading off and Influence Victory on.
  2. Progress to roughly turn 166 (unclear if turn number matters, or if it's tied to a specific game state/encounter).
  3. Encounter a Xeloxi probe ship and open its ship info card.
  4. On the info card, click the planet-shaped icon located above it (this button appears intended to open the Diplomacy screen for the Xeloxi).

Expected behavior:
The Diplomacy screen with the Xeloxi should open.

Actual behavior:
The game softlocks — I do have a blurred screen showing the space area where the Xeloxi Probe is and that's all.

Additional notes:

  • Not sure yet if this is specific to the Xeloxi race, to probe ships specifically, or to some diplomatic state (e.g., first contact, at war, etc.) — will update if I find a narrower trigger.

Workaround found: none so far

Galactic Civilizations IV GalCiv IV Bug Reports Type: Bug Report
605 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

That icon does open diplomacy with them, so what you are hitting is the diplomacy scene starting and then never arriving.

Nothing about it looks Xeloxi specific. They are a standard major civ with a complete set of diplomacy animations like everyone else, so the probe and the race are probably both incidental.

The diplomacy screen is its own 3D scene with its own post processing rather than a flat UI panel, so it is one of the few spots where a Proton build can fall over while the rest of the game looks fine.

Worth trying the Xeloxi from the main Diplomacy screen, and then any other civ. If they all fail the same way it is the scene and not the ship card.

Reply #2 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Hi

Small edit: that wasn't the Xeloxi. That was a minor faction . In GC3 you couldn't contact them but in GC4, in that game,  the button was here and since I think, there isn't a diplomacy screen for minor factions, that explains the bug. I have noticed since that pushing escape and saving /reloading the game fixed the issue . 

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Good catch on the faction, that changes what we are looking at. Minor factions do have their own interaction screen, the one with their portrait and the policy options, so that button belongs there and it should have opened something.

That screen is built around the faction's home planet. If the minor you clicked had already lost its homeworld by turn 166, there is very little left for it to fill in, and that is the first thing I would want to rule out.

It also opens layered over the map rather than replacing it, so a blurred map underneath with nothing on top of it fits what you saw.