1.5.1c - League and Church do not give votes in elections if they promised votes

[floralpond]

Description:

League and Church do not give votes in elections if they promised votes. It was originally reported by BlackKnight1916 on discord when he was playing EW3.1. Then I replicated the issue in 1.5.1c in controlled conditions so I knew where all votes were going and confirmed the issue.

Replication test is as follows:

• all houses are human players
• nobles were given -9999 credits so all players have tons of fb by the time election happens
• on turn 8 (league) or 18 (church), al malik gives request to league or church to exchange money for votes
• On turn 9, we get the notification that votes are cast next turn, and also that league or church accepts the deal.
• On turn 10, manually have each house vote for themselves only. This way we know that everyone is getting 5 votes from themself, but al malik should be getting another 5 votes from league or church, thus winning the election.
• On turn 11, we get a message that no one had majority votes.

Expected behavior: League and Church should give votes in elections if they promised votes

Actual behavior: League and Church do not give votes in elections if they promised votes bonus: I also noticed that if the league has promised votes for any previous election, they don't accept any promise for future votes no matter how much money is given (talking like 400,000fb at this point)

Game version:

Originally seen on 1.5 with EW3.1 by BlackKnight1916 Replicated on 1.5.1c by me

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open one of the attached save files
   • church_breaks_votes_promise.zip
   • guild_breaks_votes_promise.zip
2. end turn for al malik turn 8
3. end turn for all players turn 9 (observe league or church accepts)
4. have all players give themselves votes on turn 10
5. observe no one has majority votes on turn 11

Additional information:

Note 1: I also tested where al malik got a promise for votes from both league and church just in case they were voting for random houses or something, and still in this case, no one had majority votes Note 2: I know from personal experience that promising to give away human player votes works fine

Additional thought 3: I wonder if actually, any AI (house or league/church) does not actually give votes as promised. I didn't test this however. I figured it might be obvious that either it's all AI or just league/church since they are special, but if you need me to test this specifically I can)

[Matt-Caspermeyer]

Okay, I'm pretty sure I know what's going on here - it has to deal with the requirement for a voting player to have a Noble on Byzantium II.

I'm thinking that this requirement should just be limited to the Houses and that they League & Church should not have any restrictions here - thoughts?

[floralpond]

I don't know from a lore perspective, which might be the most important consideration on this one. My guess is that lore-wise they shouldn't need a noble on B2. From a gameplay perspective, I think it'd be cool if you could assassinate the church/league to take their votes out of the equation if you wanted. But you'd have to add some units to their B2 presence (maybe also add a city for each to ensure they aren't underdefended), so it might be too big of a change for the historical galaxy.

I think overall the best choice is they shouldn't need a noble on B2 to vote.

[Luxor70]

My vote is for Church/League not needing nobles on BYZ2.

[Matt-Caspermeyer]

I have an update for this issue:

I have a fix for this issue as well for the problem where the League & Church promised votes were not reset after an election. These changes are currently undergoing our testing, review, approval, and merge process.

We hope to have the changes in a future update (V1.51).

[HDIAndrew]

They certainly have reps on B2 with the power to vote in the ttrpg, and we do have both trader and clergy units on the planet. However, in EFS, these groups should be able to vote regardless of having a rep on the planet.