100% Research Fail

[kidpython]

I got to 100% research in my latest game, but lost to the scientific faction who also hit 100% on the same turn and beat me by a couple hundred points. Sigh.

I didn't like the language of the failure notice as I was not dominated by the other faction. If scientific domination is the victory concept than I would think that requiring a clear cut lead of at least 900 points (or, better yet, some meaningful percentage such as a 3%) should also be part of the requirement for a scientific victory.

Much earlier I got the "news bulletin" warning that the scientific faction was dominiating in research but I decided to hold off on attacking until my blackhole missiles were ready for use. By the time that that happened howver there was a "news bulletin" saying that my faction was dominating in research and so I switched gears and went for the research win. Two moves before the final move there was a news bulletin that the military faction was dominating in research but that was ridiculous because I was already at over 95% of the scientific victory conditions. After the fact I see that the military faction was way behind when this news bulletin occurred. My guess is that the news bulletin is triggered whenever a faction reaches 75% of the victory condition. So when it went off for my faction saying that I was dominating in research I was probably not even in the lead for research.

BTW the "stars" for research on the diplomacy page were never adequate to judge the true situation in this game. My suggestion is that only the actual leader in research should ever be shown with 5 stars. That would make it clear that you are trailing even if you are close to 100% of the scientific victory conditions. The other approach is to leave the stars as is, but color highlight the stars for the faction that is leading. (This could be done for the other ratings besides research as well, but the other ratings are not as crucial as research given the design of the various victory conditions.)

[jamoecw]

i think changing it so that you need to get ahead by a certain amount (or a percentage) is the optimal fix over messing with what info is given to other players. it always sucks to lose when you think you are winning. i started to feel like i was losing if i wasn't massively dominating in the science department by half way into the game.