I looked around a bit and couldn't find this issue being reported, but sorry if this is a repeat.
I'm running the latest version of Starfarer without any mods on Mac OS X (10.6.
. It's the lowest end iMac of the most recent iteration of iMacs.
The issue: For some reason, the four different kinds of crew available for purchase read 'zero' for their stack size(see attached pic) on Hidden Base. Moving the stack of 'zero' elite crew, for example (it's true of all zero stacks), into an empty slot in my cargo reduces the number of elite crew to zero and causes other problems relating to crew. I can enumerate them if necessary, but I haven't fully explored the bug so it would take me a while to get back to you with details if they're required. I do know that shift-clicking the zero stack produces one of the clicked item while having no other perceivable effects. The crew produced from shift-clicking the zero stack cost as much as normal, and stacks of crew produced from the zero stack behave normally. This allows you to, for example, buy as many elite crew as you can afford with no ill effects beside unbalancing the game.
Also, if I notice that the bug has occurred, if I hit 'Reset' on that screen it usually returns everything to normal, but the Cargo meter displays 0 regardless of whether a zero stack is in my inventory or not. Keeping a zero stack in my inventory seems to make the condition permanent, or possibly as long as I have a zero stack. Putting a zero stack on top of an existing stack sometimes fixes itself with no apparent ill effect, but sometimes it doesn't. It's weird. I think it's related to a bug that sometimes only lets me stack 499 crew instead of 500. Sorting the inventory with 1 extra crew member in another slot seems to fix THAT problem, or at least shift the bug to an unseen slot.
Sorry if these thoughts are a bit haphazard, but my memories of it aren't completely fresh and it's just a weird bug.
Probable cause: I first noticed the issue when using the sort button. Using it has occasionally caused, and fixed, other crew stacking problems before. What seems to trigger it is when I purchase or sell something (I can't remember), then hit sort on the station's inventory. Sometimes, this causes the crew stack to change value, and sometimes this value is zero. My best guess is that the algorithm that sorts the items fails to clean up some data properly, and this garbage data gets used by the crew stack. I've had issues with sorting both the station inventory and my inventory on the station screen, so it seems to be a problem with the sort function.
How to reproduce the bug: Will add soon-ish, if I can. It's happened to me multiple times, so I think I have the general idea of how to reproduce it, but I'll let you know.
UPDATE 1: I haven't been able to reproduce it yet, but in testing I transferred a stack of 272 supply into the Hegemony station's inventory. The station had a partial stack of 308 supply. Putting them together produced a full stack of 500, and stack of 81 supply. Last I checked, 308 + 272 = 580, not 581. I'm positive it's related to the zero stack bug, since it seems to involve an empty slot with a value. That, and I've noticed it happen in conjunction with crew stack size changing in the past.
Would it help if I sent you my save file? Both the Hegemony's station and Hidden Base have buggy inventories, so it might be worth poking at.
[attachment deleted by admin]
Author
Topic: Purchasable crew on station reads '0' (zero) (Read 2189 times)