Dynatech - 30th Anniversary Edition - Bug?

[DrkStarr]

While taking a break from BB2, I booted up Dynatech again. It's a great game once you get the hang of it.

But I think I found a bug. I'm not sure if it was in the original game or not, but if you try to fulfil a contract of oil, sending your ship out to that planet to wait for it to fill up, the game doesn't wait. It takes what oil is there and leaves, but it counts as fulfilling the contract. The tanker is full of oil.

Maybe this doesn't come up in the late game because you have so much stuff, but in the early game it's an exploit for sure.

Just thought I'd report it since I noticed it - D

[epithetic]

From your own refinery? If so, what should happen is that it takes whatever is available and you pay a fine for what's missing. Your ships don't wait around for stock to be available so you should only send them once you have enough in storage (or know that you will by the time they arrive).

Are you getting the full payout despite not delivering the correct amount?

[DrkStarr]

Well. I tried it again, and I'm getting fined for sure. When the ship picked up the oil I was hit for 100k or so. But the ship was full of oil, 10k. Which is odd, because I understand the fine, but there was never that much oil on the planet in the first place. That's why I thought it was a bug.

[epithetic]

Ah, I see what you mean.

It is a little immersion breaking that the wares just poof into existence after paying the fine, but they probably thought most people will never notice unless paying very close attention to corporate stocks. I think it's likely implemented that way to help out AI factions and prevent economic deadlock. Maybe the lore/in-universe explanation is that wares are sourced from Terra in the interim (since you still get docked the credits even if it's an internal demand)?

Certainly exploitable on the player side though if you want to kickstart tier 2/3 production and don't mind 'overpaying' for resources. I wonder if it's a viable strategy.