Refresh me on exploits for credits

[slickrcbd]

I'm seeing some conflicting information on some exploits in the game. I think some mod or the installer on the site had fixed some bug/exploit causing the confusion.

In any case, can you guys help confirm or deny the following:

1. You can earn more credits by building a ship with your industrial structures manned and then scrapping it at a shipyard, as you get the full industrial cost back in credits. This is more efficient than setting your colonies to produce trade goods as they only give you a tiny fraction (I can't recall) of the industrial output.
2. When you are making something, when it gets down to 1 turn remaining, or for something that costs less than your industrial output, you can click on the "buy" button and assuming you have sufficient credits, you will be refunded the excess industrial capacity in credits. Thus if you are producing a ship that costs 1100 and your industrial capacity is 500, if you wait 2 turns and have 100 to go on the ship and hit the "buy" button, you will get the ship and 400 credits.
   Does this also work if you choose to buy a 60 credit basic structure and your industrial output is 500, you get 440 credits as well?

[thunderchero]

I can not explain the technical aspects of the exploits, but as to the "all in one" installer I made no code changes to vanilla or any mods.

That being said the installer does have "options" to vanilla and some mod to reduce combat crashes such as the "hob fix"
Vanilla also has some option to fix a few GUI error and improved ship textures

And every install required editing code for "no CD patch".

but none of these options would effect any original exploits.

But many creators used the code to edit the % ship scrapping will give. Example most of my mods only give 50% build cost when a ship is scrapped. And ECM give nothing when scrapping ships

[slickrcbd]

I was just asking, was my memory correct on those exploits and how to use them?
There were two different exploits I mentioned, were they both correct, and thus it is to my advantage to always hit the "buy" button when only one turn remains when building things (structures, ships, etc)?
If I need money, should I have my high-industrial worlds (especially minor race members which have lots of high-tech industrial improvements that cost thousands of credits) build ships and scrap them instead of producing trade goods?
What was the formula again for trade goods monetization vs what % of scrapped ships you get in vanilla?

Those were what I was asking, and your post answers none of it.

[thunderchero]

I think some mod or the installer on the site had fixed some bug/exploit causing the confusion.

I did answer 1 of your questions.

but since now you have specified your question to vanilla

scrapping ships will yield 100% of build cost if scrapped in a system with a shipyard. If scrapped at a sector without a shipyard it will yield 0 credits.

As for your 2nd question.
in a quick test that took me 20 min with a turn 1 saved game.
I had no increase to credits when item was built with industry or bought when item was less then current industry.
Note; item type does not matter (ship or structure)

test 1
start of turn 2000 credits
item in build queue cost 165 credits
current industry 234
beginning of next turn credits 2070

test 2
start of turn 2000 credits
item in build queue cost 165 credits
after item was bought 1835 credits before turn
current industry 234
beginning of next turn credits 2070

in test 3 and 4
I removed population from industry and reallocated them to research and credits remained the same but got extra research.

test 3
start of turn 2000 credits
item in build queue cost 165 credits
current industry 171
beginning of next turn credits 2070

test 4
start of turn 2000 credits
item in build queue cost 165 credits
after item was bought 1835 credits before turn
current industry 171
beginning of next turn credits 2070

test 5 and 6
if I lowered industry below build cost and bought item I lost income

test 5
start of turn 2000 credits
item in build queue cost 165 credits
after item was bought 1835 credits before turn
current industry 5 (0 population assigned)
beginning of next turn credits 1910

test 6
start of turn 2000 credits
item in build queue cost 165 credits
after item was bought 1835 credits before turn
current industry 155
beginning of next turn credits 2060

test 6 and 7
if trade goods in build queue

test 6
start of turn 2000 credits
trade goods in build queue
current industry 5 (0 population assigned)
beginning of next turn credits 2073

test 7
start of turn 2000 credits
trade goods in build queue
current industry 234 (15 population assigned)
beginning of next turn credits 2086

so it looks like trade goods is based on population assigned to industry
trade goods give +1 credit per population assigned (with extra calculation for +2% tech level bonus?)

[Iceman]

Credits from TGs is sqrt(industry) (rounded up apparently). I thought that was common knowledge?

[slickrcbd]

Thank you for the info and tests.

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

can you guys help confirm or deny the following:

Hi slickrcbd,


1.) Yes scrapping ships returns the full build cost of the ship from shiplist.sst in credits (if executed in a sector with an inhabited star system controlled by the own empire) while trade goods return only square root of the current industry output.

The whole concept of converting industry into credits is broken/bugged at several points, with the missing shipyard check and square root calculation of the ship scrapping code just being a pinnacle of the failures (auto-upgrade & scrap exploit).

This includes an overview: viewtopic.php?f=158&t=1227#p34040


2.) No, buy when 2 production turns remain to avoid waste of surplus industry. The buy cost preview calculation does not substract your current industry output (might still change due to many aspects like morale). You get this refund added to total credits next turn, but no surplus. It is advised to keep always enough credits to buy your stuff that way.


Now you can humiliate that retarded AI and unaware noobs in multiplayer to death.