Small update on this. I promoted 2 or 3 commanders to privateers by turn 50-60, worked fine, had no military tech other than War Machine. After that it bugged out like reported, you promote nothing happens. That lasted until about turn 100, at which point I finally researched kinetics and missiles fully, and now I can promote to privateer again.
Is nanite transmitter complex (level 3 artifact, 4 charges) supposed to be an upgrade or a project? Currently it is impossible to build it since it is neither, it seems, and just sits there in the list. In ArtifactImprovementDefs, it is configured as: Special Special Nanite transmitter center (level 2, 2 charges, upgrade building): <ImprovementTyp
I tested with pirate bases set to none (assumed thats what " Pirates are disabled in the options before the game starts." means). Everything still works the same.
From the other thread: Ship just after Privateer promotion. It does not work. Nothing is updated, neither t
Promotions become available once you research War Machine (the research after invasion optimization, the one that unlocks training commanders).