Hunting down the "renewal bug"

[Admin]

Guys, I need your help to figure out this renewal bug, because if i stare at the code any longer I'll throw my pc out the window. So, anyone who encountered this bug (you show getting canceled mid-production when it was already renewed) I need as much information from you as possible. The next time it happen to you, look for the following things:

- did the show have a multi-season contract
- if yes, did the contract actually run out when the show got renewed or where there season left?
- was this show part of a franchise?
- how many seasons did the show have?
- did you at any point back out of the production menu before finishing a production phase (like starting the process, going to another menu, restarting the process?)
- at what point the the show got canceled? Writing? Production?
- did the renewed contract have better, same or worse conditions?
- anything else you can think of?

[miniemark]

I hope this can help

I played 3 different saves
1 doesn't have a franchise
2 have a franchise
3 created franchise in game

They all have similar pattern. When the contract is ending you're gonna get the repeated contract bug where every week you'll get an offer for new installment of the show. You won't get it at your first contract but the second. It's either for 1 season or multiple at the end of the contract the bug will appear. It often appears after season 4. I didnt get the other bug where your show get cancelled but i did get it on my previous save and iirc i have multiple shows being produced and written and it only get cancelled while producing not writing. It also have a franchise. Later I'll try to play with multiple shows.

[pbjtyme]

1. Did the show have a multi-season contract?
- No. 

2. Was this show part of a franchise?
- Yes.

3. How many seasons did the show have?
- Two, got the bug in the third season.

4. Did you at any point back out of the production menu before finishing a production phase (like starting the process, going to another menu, restarting the process?)
- Pretty frequently, yeah. I like to cast over time instead of in one month. Doing this has seem to be where most of the bugs occur for me cause I would advance to the next week, re-accept the contract, do some casting, and repeat this for a while.

5. At what point the the show got canceled? Writing? Production?
- The renewal message usually appeared on the first episode of the season, upon accepting it, and then advancing, the show would get deleted from the notebook. I don't think it was cancelled cause I remember going back and being having the option to add a season.

6. Did the renewed contract have better, same or worse conditions?
- Always the same conditions. I did another save and changed up my pattern and went without the casting over time and not restarting the process and everything was pretty good and even got an offer with a better timeslot and increased budget. 

7. Anything else you can think of?
- I think it's mainly an issue with the code not recognizing the user input. To narrow it down, I would suggest starting with the process reset bug. If you could code that into a way where even if the player backed out of the production phase and have it save their deal without having to keep re-accepting it and confusing the code, that should do a couple of tricks.

[Admin]

I think it's mainly an issue with the code not recognizing the user input. To narrow it down, I would suggest starting with the process reset bug. If you could code that into a way where even if the player backed out of the production phase and have it save their deal without having to keep re-accepting it and confusing the code, that should do a couple of tricks.

The thing is: This shouldn't influence the code at all.
Here is how it works right now: When the last episode of a season airs the season phase gets set to "completed". When you advance to the next week the code will make a list of all shows who's latest seasons have the phase "completed" and checks if the network wants to renew the show. If not or the player refuses the contract the season phase gets set to "canceled", if the player signs a new contract it gets set to "renewed." When you start production of a new season it has the phase "production". The point being. The game should only offer a contract if there is currently a season with the phase "completed". The only time that is the case is after the last episode of a season aired. As soon as the contract renewal pop up shows up the phase changes to either canceled or renewed. At least in theory. But apparently there must be a bug that causes seasons to falsely get the "completed" state which triggers the contract offer/cancelation. I just can't find it. I literally auto-searched the entire code for the word "completed" and it only shows up where it should show up.

Anyways... I can't figure out why this is happening but I implemented a fail safe of sorts. Before offering a contract or canceling the code now also checks if there are currently any season of that show in production or on air. Hopefully that should prevent the issue.