The 7th Transcendence Succession game

[Toskin]

@TVR

Ok.
I revealed, that just one jump is enough for save to exceed its limit. So, I agree with halting until this bug will be corrected.

Few pointers about my play so far
Travelled that only non dead-end way, behaving as McLooter.
One good way to hold wingmans intact is to take them to edge of system and left them there, until I destroy every resistance.
Accidentaly attacked corporate station (their guards went pretty angry)
Some misfire problems with Ferians.

Captain Toskin to High Succession Command,
over and out.

[TVR]

I am relieved to announce that the Seventh Transcendence Succession has resumed.

By resuming from Turn 7 (Tshark9999) instead of Turn 8 (PM), it appears that the 53651300 byte limit can be broken, debugging efforts have pushed the Turn 7 save file beyond several more systems and to 90 MB - while remaining loadable.

@Toskin

Download and play on the Turn 7 save using the link in the first post.

@PM

My theory is that the file size bug in Turn 8 resulted from your hard drive, partition or file system running out of space while saving, which created a corrupted save file.

[PM]

My hard drive has over 400 GB left, and my computer has 8 GB RAM.

As for Turn #7, there are thieving pilgrim freighters nearby toward north. Watch out for them.

[FourFire]

I'm glad to see these problems resolved, carry on.

[PM]

Any news on save #8 from Toskin? I may be ready for a turn soon.

[TVR]

@Toskin

Are you ready?

@PM

If Toskin isn't available, I can substitute in on Turn 9, so that you won't have to restart from the same save file a third time.

[PM]

@ TVR: I will resume from Tshark's save #7 if Toskin fails to play. I planned on doing that today, but other things came up to block that plan. I will need to wait until next weekend before I can try to play again.

[george moromisato]

BTW, let me know what steps I need to reproduce the corrupt save file problem. If there is some kind of limit I might be able to fix it.

[PM]

@ George: Unfortunately, I do not know what caused the corruption, much less how.

Since we have not heard for Toskin recently, I decided to resume Tshark's save again. I will probably have a new save tomorrow or Monday.

So far, I am building up wealth by attacking a Corporate Trading Post until it is almost 100%, let the (Manticore) guards destroy it (trying to shoot me), loot the station, destroy the two Corporate Cruisers that spawn (second after station is rebuilt), sell items, order something good (portable shipwright if I cannot think of something more useful) and repeat. So far, I masterminded the destruction of the same Corporate Trading Post twice and took out four Corporate Cruisers. Now #3 is ready for farming.

Thanks to the 30% item destruction bug, I can sell Gothas for cash, destroy the station, loot most of the missiles back, kill the cruisers for more missiles, and repeat.

[TVR]

@PM

Heh, always finding new tricks?

Try out the Ansible installed on the Wyvera, it has some interesting features.

[PM]

Here is another "trick": Remember the Gauron station in the second system, with Gatling ROMs and other endgame merchandise? It belongs to Commonwealth, and it can be rebuilt as necessary. Since Commonwealth ban can be lifted 25% of the time, I can destroy and plunder that station as many times as I want! When I am done, I will go to court and roll the dice (resurrect as necessary) until the ban is broken. I am having too much fun looting high level goodies and making our ships overpowered. I will not be able to finish my save on time, but I will upload it later this week.

Tried the Ansible, but in the game I am playing, our ships are powerful enough to render it obsolete.

[PM]

I am in the middle of attempt #3 on Tshark's save due to infinite loop problems. After finishing attempt #2, I made the final save only to be struck by the infinite loop bug. The filesize is even smaller than my previous attempt, so that is not the problem.

In previous attempts, I have destroyed friendly stations for their vast loot many (20+) times. The loop is... I destroy the station, loot it, kill all avenging ships, wait until station gets rebuilt, sell loot, and repeat. I wonder if some limit for ships or items gets exceeded. I have jettisoned worthless items into shipwrecks before destroying the wrecks, but the filesize never shrinks. If anything, the filesize gets progressively bigger, implying that as more ships and items spawn, filesize ...and something else... gets bigger. I guess that there is a limit to this "something else".

[TVR]

@PM

Each time before you save, could you copy and log the F2 stats? Contained would be shots fired and ships and stations destroyed.

A debug log would be very helpful as well, but we are playing in non-debug mode, so one won't be available.

If Tshark's turn is getting too repetitive, I could substitute in and take us past the next few systems.

@GeorgeMoromisato

Is it possible to analyze the table structure of a save file directly?

It seems some variable in the save file is hitting a byte limit, and can take no further entries.

[FourFire]

And I haven't even touched the save yet... my being notorious for ending successions due to causing savebreaking bugs isn't needed here apparently...

[PM]

I finished my save, but it will be uploaded later, either today or tomorrow (I need to write-up some details first). It will break and be unloadable eventually (after visiting several more new systems), but I will upload the save anyway because the ships are extremely powerful and fun to zap ships with if you try to rush to Heretic.