I'd guess you are most likely stuck with the game the way it is. GalCiv 3 has been out for 3 years already, and GalCiv 2 is over a decade old. As I understand it, the latest GalCiv 2 patch was put together by fans (then tested and approved by Stardock). Stardock is way past the point where working on this game is much more than a personal hobby, if that.

I have no idea why you are seeing the results you are seeing. My guesses would be along the lines of "Did an enemy ship blow up your mining ship? Did you have it set to auto, thus causing it to wander off to some other asteroid patch when it finished the one it was working on?"

Regardless, I strongly suggest answering Gaunathor's questions as best you can, because he has a lot of experience in digging around in the game files. If it turns out to be something in the XML's, then he might be able to provide you with a quick fix, if he is so inclined.

Okay thanks. Do you play space 4X games yourself? If so, what are some good ones? I've had some free time lately and thought I'd try a few out. GalCiv2:UE and Distant Worlds: Universe, so far. Both seems pretty interesting, but DW:U seems really complicated.

I've played a lot of 4x games over the years, but GC2 is the only one that springs to mind as specifically space themed. I really enjoyed it, and I played it lot for a period of time after I finally understood how to play (Thalans are my favorite race!), but GC2 hasn't come off the shelf for a long time now (too many other games and not enough time).

Mining ships can occasionally be hard to see on a mining base. Especially when the camera is fully zoomed out. However, it should still be listed in the Planet / Ship List. If it is not, then the only other option is that it got destroyed by an enemy ship. In that case, there should be entry in the Events tab of the Civilization Manager. If neither is the case, then I'm not sure what could have happened. I never had a ship simply vanish on me before, and I've been playing for over 12 years now. Okay, those were the only two possibilities I know of, that could have caused this through regular means. There is another one, but that would require that you activated cheat-codes. One of the codes allows you to "hail" yourself. Basically, start diplomatic interactions with yourself. You could have accidentally pressed the button-combination.

If that's not it either, then I'd really like to take a look at your save-game. I definitely can't promise a fix then, because it could only be a bug in the engine, and I don't have access to the code. However, there is still a slight possibility that I might figure out what caused either of these issues.
Hi Bookwyrm627! I only recently returned to GalCiv 2 actually, after having some rough years. Right now, I'm working on another version of my mod, Autumn Twilight. Should be out in the next couple of days. Just finished the documentation, but I still want to run some test-games before the release.

You're welcome. Though I wish I could've been of more help.