FreeOrion

I’m playing V3.17. I just encountered a situation where the starlanes/resource supply lines to a previously colonized star system have simply vanished.

A starlane was found to exist between my homeworld and the nearby, soon to be colonized, star system at the end of Turn # 9.

Much later in the game, on Turn # 160, all of the starlanes/resource supply lines connecting the colonized star system to the rest of the empire simply vanished. (As all of the colonies had had their focus set on priorities other than farming, they all starved to death.)

I did a search of the forum and did not find any other references to this particular situation. Should I formally report this as a “bug”?

Did an enemy fleet move into the system, and did you not have any fleets there? If so, the enemy fleet is blockading the system, blocking resource supply connections in or out.

Also, i believe if a colony gets attacked, it can be damaged, and the construction meter go down below the threshold where supply lines are created.

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I played a couple of more turns and discovered that’s exactly what had had happened. That is, an enemy fleet had sneaked past what I had thought were guarded starlanes.

Sorry for the false alarm.

I didn’t see any evidence of an attack on any of the colonies, or that an enemy fleet had entered the star system, on the SitRep. The starlanes/resource supply lines and colonies simply vanished.

As I didn’t have a fleet in the star system, the SitRep could not, of course, report that a battle had taken place. The SitRep messages I did receive were as follows:

The population of Caebeth I was lost to famine.
The population of Caebeth II was lost to famine.
The population of Caebeth III was lost to famine.

Would you consider adding a message to the SitRep to the effect that a star system, in this case a previously occupied star system, is under blockade?

Thanks.

That's a bit tricky to do well... Being blockaded can mean a few things; if there's an enemy armed ship in the system, then nothing can come in or out, so that's fine. But, there could also be an enemy ship between a system and the rest of your empire, which would effectively blockade it, without actually having a local, or perhaps visible, cause. A system could also be blockaded from some of your other systems, but not others, or a locally blocked system could split your empire in half without having any noticeable local effects. As well, if a system is blockaded but doesn't starve itself for an extended period, would you want blockade sitreps every turn? Most sitreps are presently about single events, not ongoing situations, and a lot of the latter could quickly clutter the list.

It does sound like a ‘star system blockade’ message in the SitRep is unpractical and undesirable.

On the other hand, would it be possible to add a ‘one time only’ message to the SitRep something like as follows?

“The population of _________ was lost to famine induced by blockage.”

As the sequence of events was:

1. An enemy ship(s) entered a populated unprotected star system.
2. The enemy ship(s) blockaded the populated unprotected star system.
3. Population(s) with insufficient farming in the unprotected star system were lost to famine.

And, as all of those events are recorded, could they easily and practically be used to trigger such a message?

(Remember, such a message ‘might’ have the benefit of keeping newbies like me from asking you experts the same questions over and over again. )

BTW, after playing a few more turns, I was pleased to find the Basic Shipyard and Orbital Drydock, that I had previously built on one of my starved colonies, still intact when I re-colonized the planet.

Thank you.

Deciding whether a particular famine is caused by a particular blockade isn't so easy; just knowing that there is a blockade and there is a famine in a system doesn't prove that one caused the other.

The messages about a system being blockaded each turn that it happens are doable, though as before, potentially annoying. Then again, we already have messages each turn about battles in systems lasting several turns, so it might not be so different to do so for blockading ships being in a system.

Maybe a SitRep report "hostile forces entered <system>" for owned systems would be a good way to foresee blockades?

Alternatively a "supply network disrupted" message that shows any time that some colonies become separated (probably done by comparing supply routes in previous and current turn).

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Seconded em3's suggestion.

"Supply network disrupted" sounds good.

and a "Colony undergoing famine" might also work.

That is, IMHO the most important notification that doesn't currently exist. It covers the most urgent consequence of blockades, and a problem that can arise from focus mis-management.

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Speaking of famines; I just lost another colony to famine. This time, however, I do not believe that I made any rookie mistakes.

What occurred was as follows:

I had researched Orbital Farming.

I had established a new colony on Melissa III (tiny swamp), with an outpost ship, and set the colony’s focus to Farming. The star system is deep within my empire’s territory and located on a dead end starlane. I left both the star system and the solitary void leading to the star system guarded by Mark I’s. (I have stationed a Mark I in every one of my star systems and every void leading to the center of my empire.)

After Turn # 148, the population of the colony was down to 0.05 while Farming was 2.00.

After Turn # 149, the population of the colony was 0.00 while Farming was still 2.00.

After Turn # 150, the SitRep reported “The population of Melissa III was lost to famine.

The SitRep did not report that any battles occurred at the Melissa star system.
The starlane/resource supply line to the Melissa star system was not disrupted.
None of my empire’s starlanes/resource supply lines were disrupted.
My empire’s Farming resource was/is running a surplus.

I don’t think that this famine should have happened.

What was the health of the colony?

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The planet was colonized during Turn # 136. The initial listings were as follows:

Population: 0.10
Food Consumption: 0:10
Health: 18.0
Farming: 2:10

After Turn # 149 the listings were as follows:

Population: 0.00
Food Consumption: 0.00
Health: 15:0
Farming: 2.00