My empire has a bunch of marauders to the east and a bunch of pipsqueaks to the west. Yesterday I declared war on the pipsqueaks and started wrecking them, but then lost a bunch of my fleet because half of the ships wandered away in the middle of a battle.
In order to buy time, I paid the marauders to raid my enemies. They passed through my space as a neutral fleet, then arrived in my enemies' space and went to a planet my fleet was bombarding. "How considerate," I thought, "They're helping me take over this planet." I ordered the ground assault to begin, and the planet's defences quickly collapsed.
As soon as I took the planet, the marauders who had been bombarding the planet turned hostile and destroyed half of my fleet. Then they decided that their job was done and returned home, carving a bloody swath through my empire along the way. I ended up doing a status quo peace with the pipsqueaks that released the planet I'd sacrificed half my fleet for as my tributary. That planet then instantly accepted vassalization from the pipsqueaks and stopped being my tributary, so I got exactly nothing.
All of this happens with my girlfriend laughing her ass off in the background.
Is this the intended behavior? I'm playing the beta patch. I know that the vassalization thing is a bug, and half my fleet wandering off in the middle of combat was also clearly a bug. (It happened after the enemy fleet retreated, and I think half my ships went looking for the enemy fleet while the other half focused on the space station that was still shooting at them.) For the raiders turning on me, though, I'm not sure if it's a bug or if they're specifically intended to be unreliable jerks.
In order to buy time, I paid the marauders to raid my enemies. They passed through my space as a neutral fleet, then arrived in my enemies' space and went to a planet my fleet was bombarding. "How considerate," I thought, "They're helping me take over this planet." I ordered the ground assault to begin, and the planet's defences quickly collapsed.
As soon as I took the planet, the marauders who had been bombarding the planet turned hostile and destroyed half of my fleet. Then they decided that their job was done and returned home, carving a bloody swath through my empire along the way. I ended up doing a status quo peace with the pipsqueaks that released the planet I'd sacrificed half my fleet for as my tributary. That planet then instantly accepted vassalization from the pipsqueaks and stopped being my tributary, so I got exactly nothing.
All of this happens with my girlfriend laughing her ass off in the background.
Is this the intended behavior? I'm playing the beta patch. I know that the vassalization thing is a bug, and half my fleet wandering off in the middle of combat was also clearly a bug. (It happened after the enemy fleet retreated, and I think half my ships went looking for the enemy fleet while the other half focused on the space station that was still shooting at them.) For the raiders turning on me, though, I'm not sure if it's a bug or if they're specifically intended to be unreliable jerks.
