Stellaris - 2.7.2 (60bf) Federation member declaring offensive war despite unanimous vote war law

[atomanti]

Description
2.7.2 (60bf) Federation member declaring offensive war despite unanimous vote war law

Game Version
2.7.2 (60bf)

What version do you use?
Steam

What expansions do you have installed?
Synthetic Dawn, Utopia, Leviathans Story Pack, Apocalypse, Megacorp, Distant Stars, Ancient Relics, Lithoids, Federations

Do you have mods enabled?
No

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
I'm in a federation with another empire. Federation law requires unanimous vote to go to war. All of a sudden we are at war with another federation without me getting the war notification or the ability to vote. My vote should default to decline, not accept. It is an ironman game so cannot provide the save before the war declaration happens.

Steps to reproduce the issue.
Not quite sure.

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(DID NOT ANSWER QUESTION)

 

[hart30]

This bug is going on for a while now and one of the most reported of this patch. I am sure it will be fixed with the next update.

 

[atomanti]

This bug is going on for a while now and one of the most reported of this patch. I am sure it will be fixed with the next update.

Since then I saw the other reports from spring, but frankly it just seems like a " default_answer = yes" vs "default_answer = no' fix. Why does it take half a year? As a developer myself it is a bit sad. You can make frequent small patches. Release early release often. With some games there is a complaint on reddit and within a day there is a minor update to fix it.

Unanimous vote means jack shit if the war starts without having even seen the call for vote. If anything this is a false sense of safety. Therefore it is a game breaking bug, my overly active federation partner (who I _ONLY_ federated for the federation trade policy) starts a war and the enemy federation wrecks my undefended back empire. And I had nice nonagression treaties with them before so no reason I'd suspect an attack.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Hi, thanks for the report. I think this is caused by the federation war declaration treating abstaining (empires who do not vote) as not opposing the declaration of war and thus being included in the war declaration. I've checked our internal database and there is a report of the vote not generating a pop-up, but just a notification on the top bar which can be easily missed.

 

[atomanti]

Hi, thanks for the report. I think this is caused by the federation war declaration treating abstaining (empires who do not vote) as not opposing the declaration of war and thus being included in the war declaration. I've checked our internal database and there is a report of the vote not generating a pop-up, but just a notification on the top bar which can be easily missed.

Thank you. Yes that is probably it - I was hoping this can be patched, as it is quite annoying to get into wars when you specifically not expect to. As for the popups, the option to mute all the constant requests for commercial / migration / research pacts with certain empires would go a long way!

 

[yert527]

I too am having this issue, but in addition is looks like you don't even need to be a federation member, they just need to "invite" you to a war and you are forced (mutual rivals will do this). THIS BUG IS GAME BREAKING. It ruins emersion, careful planning, and throws player agency out the window. I know I'm only one person, but how are game breaking bugs surviving this long, how does this not get a hot-patch!

 

[atomanti]

Oh wow that's neat. I am usually playing peaceful (till the end) so I don't really rival anyone. But if that is the case it is indeed irritating. Hotfixes don't seem to be the cup of tea.

 

[buster8]

Hi, thanks for the report. I think this is caused by the federation war declaration treating abstaining (empires who do not vote) as not opposing the declaration of war and thus being included in the war declaration. I've checked our internal database and there is a report of the vote not generating a pop-up, but just a notification on the top bar which can be easily missed.

Hey, new to the forums so I'm not sure if you'll get a notif for getting quote replied, but just jumping in to say I also very consistently end up in wars I do not vote on because of 1) only getting an icon instead of the full popup or blinking notification for a proposed federation war declaration, and 2) an abstention being treated differently than a no. Haven't made a bug report because it seems like plenty of others already have and I only play on ironman and online so I don't keep intermittent save files, but my friends' and my most recent game was effectively ruined by this interaction, when two players ended up in a war despite the federation player not seeing the war vote. Really hoping this will get fixed in the next patch, and if you happen to see this and need another game file or bug report I'd be happy to try to recreate it myself.

 

[atomanti]

Well, another similar thread got shut down a few days ago for "getting unhinged". We complained about this issue being seemingly ignored. The mod said something like that if the notification doesn't show that's a bug, but otherwise things are working "as intended".

OK so then this is not a bug, but a design issue. Semantics aside, what matters is the negative player experience. Something that was surely not intended is breaking games in an extremely frustrating way. Maybe the notification shows but it doesn't pause, and let's not get started on the state of notifications in general - too much useless stuff is showing, without the ability to configure.

I'd argue that in a unanimous war declaration an abstention should count as no, and the default should be no. You can always declare war again if this was overlooked. Maybe this is implemented to stop spamming war declaration, or to erode cohesion. I understand - this is a complex game with a lot of interactions.

 

[nemvar]

This can also happen with "President Decides" while you are president. If there is a pop-up, I must have missed it 4 times in a row. It is also be really weird if not voting defaults to "yes", no other diplomacy interaction in the game does that.