Some late-game bugs and/or gripes (CC, 1.8b4)

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Alandra
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Good day/eve. I came across a smattering of things that seem to need tweaking in the late game. [SPOILERS BELOW. Avoid this post if you have not yet played past Jiang's Star.] These may not all be bugs, per se, but this seems like the best place on the forum to post them. Lmk if I ought to re-categorize some of this.

-Advanced analyzers are "not sophisticated enough" to read certain halo gems or field crystals. I can't tell if this is intentional or not. Are some items meant to be un-analyzeable?

-Certain shields seem to suffer from multiple regen periods, meaning that they recharge in arbitrary increments. My heavily enhanced Jotun deflector stops regenerating around 250 HP, waits another 12 seconds, continues regenerating to around 500 HP, waits another 12 seconds, and so forth. This feels unintentional. Perhaps it has to do with the coding for the multiple strength settings on this shield, or with its HP enhancements from diamond field crystals?

-If the player docks at the Antarctica before the Terra (which is made more likely in CC, because the Terra may spawn in the Gunsan branch of systems), the dialogue with the Antarctica captain triggers even though the player has not yet met or spoken to Decker. This happened to me and I made the choice to destroy the Antarctica on the spot, figuring that whenever I found the Terra this act would be acknowledged. However, after destroying the Antarctica and docking at the Terra, I found Decker perpetually wrapped up in talking to his XO. It appears that I've been locked out of both quest rewards and will receive neither the Lamplighter nor the halo gem.

-CHOC station missions can be a little buggy; one situation feels worth relating. I was defending a merchant, in this case a Makayev factory, against three waves of Dwarg attacks. I succeeded in destroying the last wave of Dwarg, but the Makayev station I was defending turned hostile to me because of some stray shots. Now I can't dock there to complete the mission. It appears that I have two choices: to destroy the Makayev station (becoming an outlaw and failing the mission) or leaving the mission incomplete for the rest of the game (and locking myself out of any future CHOC station missions). I think this mission should include some special scripting to make the merchant station more forgiving of stray shots. After all, they do expressly tell you to shoot without thinking in the preceding dialogue.

More generally, I think there should be a mechanism to make stations friendly again, such as communicating with them (by pressing "C" or "D") and offering to pay some amount of credits to repair the damage done by stray shots. But let me stop myself before I get too speculative. Thanks for reading!
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Ferdinand
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Well, As far as I know Halo gems and alien tech can be analyzed, but haven't tested that yet in the latest beta. Perhaps you haven't found all analyzer types yet?
The analyzers are a very recent addition though, a few versions back there was no way to analyze stuff, other than using or applying the unknown item. There even were times when a lot of weapons were unidentified and you could find or buy an (unidentified) ROM that turned out to be Rowena's Arms and armour part 1 (to 3) to identify items up to a certain level.

In my current game, the most basic analyzer hasn't turned up at all, the engineering analyzer being the first I found about 3 systems past st. Kats. So lots of unidentified items. The Tinkers Custom work list can be of help identifying items as well...

I remember shields behaving like that for quite a while now. Don't know if it is intentional.

The Antarctica mission has different outcomes, depending on how you enter or finish it. Some of those are not rewarding.....

The problem with friendly fire during missions (also problematic for Huari missions) is already ticketed on the ministry and being worked upon.
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Song
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It is possible to very rarely find a gem of sacrifice, which is a halo gem that can't be analysed. I've only seen it happen once though, and that was a random find in Heretic.
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relanat
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The advanced analyzer only identifies items up to level 10. There is one level 11 field crystal and, as Song says above, one halo gem, the Gem of Sacrifice, which is level 12.

Confusingly the analyzers use the identified level to determine whether they are sophisticated enough. All unidentified halo gems are level 8 and all unidentifed field crystals are level 7.

So you can have an unknown level 7 field crystal which can't be identified by an analyzer which says it can identify items up to level 10. That's worth a ministry ticket to say it is confusing for players.

Please keep posting any irregularities you see. It is very hard for people who have been playing for a while to see things from the point of view of a new player.


The Jotun cycling is probably worth a ministry ticket as well. All(?) shields take a while to start regenerating after they have collapsed. Although shields definitely aren't my area I think what is happening is the delay is occuring for every shield level set for the Jotun.
George might or might not like the idea of the Jotun recharging all in one go. Possibly it was intentional to help balance what is a very useful shield. One way to find out!



There is a mod called Station Anger Timeout or similar on xelerus. But the last time I tried it it didn't seem to work. It's a good idea. Howitzers in particular can make stations you can't even see angry!
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Derakon
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Song wrote:
Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:19 pm
It is possible to very rarely find a gem of sacrifice, which is a halo gem that can't be analysed. I've only seen it happen once though, and that was a random find in Heretic.
That happened to me in my last game! Then I got a second one from the Antarctica, and used neither of them. Oh well.
NMS
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Alandra wrote:
Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:36 pm
-Certain shields seem to suffer from multiple regen periods, meaning that they recharge in arbitrary increments. My heavily enhanced Jotun deflector stops regenerating around 250 HP, waits another 12 seconds, continues regenerating to around 500 HP, waits another 12 seconds, and so forth. This feels unintentional. Perhaps it has to do with the coding for the multiple strength settings on this shield, or with its HP enhancements from diamond field crystals?
Shields recharging in bursts is somewhat intended. I think it's to allow them to recharge the same integer amount of hp every tick they're recharging, and 0 otherwise. Many shields may do it, but have cycles so short you don't notice. When the regen rate lines up badly with the frame rate, the cycles become noticeable. This could be done better.

Alandra wrote:
Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:36 pm
-If the player docks at the Antarctica before the Terra (which is made more likely in CC, because the Terra may spawn in the Gunsan branch of systems), the dialogue with the Antarctica captain triggers even though the player has not yet met or spoken to Decker. This happened to me and I made the choice to destroy the Antarctica on the spot, figuring that whenever I found the Terra this act would be acknowledged. However, after destroying the Antarctica and docking at the Terra, I found Decker perpetually wrapped up in talking to his XO. It appears that I've been locked out of both quest rewards and will receive neither the Lamplighter nor the halo gem.
The first time I found the Antarctica, I hadn't found the Terra, so I (honestly) told Captain Helios I didn't know what she was talking about and that was the end of that. If the player's rank is low, she should probably have different dialog, or give them another chance to express interest. It also seems to me that if you listen to her story and then refuse to help when they detect the Aquilas, she should imprison you rather than let you go.
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Shield recharging was changed to what it is during the 1.08 days, I think. Before then, default did a better job smoothing out regen rates that did not synch with frame rates. For my mod shields, I use the Lazarus method if the regeneration will occur in bursts instead of steady. Armor regeneration can happen in bursts (and has been as long as I remember), but there is no Lazarus method to smooth it out.

Antarctica response for ignorance vary by fleet rank. If your rank is high enough, Helios may say something like you should know about Decker and proceed with the Antarctica plot (instead of leaving), even if you have not met Decker. (At least that was the case several versions ago, not sure if it changed since.)
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