Maya Ceramics exploit for infinite gather rate buff

Age of Empires III: DE III - Report a Bug
1

:play_button: GAME INFORMATION

  • GAME BUILD #: Last build before abandonment
  • GAME PLATFORM: Steam
  • OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10

:play_button: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

When Maya Ceramics card fails due to restricted placement, the +15% Hacienda gather rate is applied but the card resets and can be sent again. This can be repeated infinitely for extreme gather rates. Each failed send also increments the shipment count, artificially inflating the number of crates received the next time.

:play_button: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

100% of the time when the shipment point is restricted.

:play_button: REPRODUCTION STEPS

Here’s the steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. Block economic shipment point (for example, build 2 rings of Houses around an Outpost)
  2. Send Maya Ceramics
  3. Shipment fails but applies +15% Hacienda gather rate anyways
  4. Shipment also increments the shipment count for the number of crates increases for each failed send
  5. Repeat for extreme gather rates

:play_button: EXPECTED RESULT

Failed shipments should not apply secondary effects if they can reset after failing. Or if there is no room for units, the shipment should give you no units and not reset (less ideal).

Failed shipments should not increment the shipments sent if they can reset after failing.

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2

The quick (and incomplete) fix to this would be to swap “ResourceAsCratesByShipmentCount” (resets when failing) with “FreeHomeCityUnitByShipmentCount” (places no crates when the shipment point is restricted and does not reset). Getting nothing for a blocked shipment point is punishing though, so the card resetting would be nice as long as it didn’t apply the other tech effects and increment the shipment count.

Incrementing the shipment count on failed shipments is a secondary exploit that also shows up for many other cards. For example, “DEHCREVMXUnlockFactory”, “DEHCShipStateMilitiaRepeat1”, etc will reset on failure and increment the shipment count which can be used to exploit any “FreeHomeCityUnitByShipmentCount”, “FreeHomeCityUnitByShipmentCountResource”, or “ResourceAsCratesByShipmentCount” techs.

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