Having problems with automated ships getting stuck

[EnderBeta]

The path finding for ships in beta 7 for version 6 seems to have regressed from beta 6. My mining and trading ships keep getting stuck when trying to dock and/or undock. Compounding the issue is the order is critical and I am unable to cancel the order to give the ship another set of orders. I also cannot take control of the ship because the Capitan is busy.

I think the easiest solution for this for now is to allow players to cancel these orders and issue new orders to get the ships unstuck.

[CBJ]

Please provide a savegame showing a ship that is having this problem

[EnderBeta]

I apologize. I no longer have the save file but I can provide the steps that caused the issue for me.

I landed my frigate in the wharf's dock.
I purchased a fighter (probably could just land a small ship after the fact)
I docked the fighter onto my frigate.
I issued orders for the fighter and the frigate to defend my mining ship which was also docked.

What happened:

The frigate and fighter immediately launched. The frigate went out of the dock, but the fighter kept trying to go up. It never got out of the undock state.

[EnderBeta]

Here is a similar situation where a trade ship is stuck because the captain just wants to fly up without regard to anything and is stuck. He cannot be pushed out of the way to help him on his way. The dock task cannot be canceled because it is critical. %The order never completes and the ship is now worthless. When boarding the ship through the spacesuit you cannot even take over control because the captain is busy.

While pathfinding would be awesome in truth simply allowing the critical task to be canceled would at least avoid the game breaking issue.

Link https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlJYFxMvWM61g7JcWbU ... Q?e=qRp79q

[EnderBeta]

This is a significant issue. If I send ships in from my destroyer to do trades with a station there is a very high chance that one or more ships will get stuck in the critical undocking task. While in this state they will not allow any order to supersede the undocking order. They captain will not give up control of the ship. If the game is saved in this state the ships will not be available for use again until they manage to get unstuck which is likely never. This seems to happen when there are battles at the current station and the ship in question is running an automated task. It also happens when issuing orders for subordinate ships if other ai controlled ships are in the area and the ships collide and get stuck as there seems to be no queueing system in place for ships to yield to each other in stations.

The easiest resolution is to allow the critical undocking order to be canceled and to set the ship in a holding state so new orders can be issued or direct control can be initiated.

[CBJ]

The easiest resolution is to allow the critical undocking order to be canceled...

No, it isn't. There is a reason it's a critical order. Being able to cancel it would cause other problems.

[EnderBeta]

The easiest resolution is to allow the critical undocking order to be canceled...

No, it isn't. There is a reason it's a critical order. Being able to cancel it would cause other problems.

It couldn't possibly be bigger then the ship being useless from that point forward. It's a big problem having a ship get effectively stuck. I cannot cancel the order. I cannot fire the captain. I cannot take control. The captain just endlessly smacks into whatever it is stuck with.

The below link is a video of my station's trader trying to sell my station's refined metals. He never will though because he is stuck with another trader of another faction who happened to be trying to give my station Claytronics for my build order. Because neither yields and my captain is stuck in a critical order I have to roll back on my game save and hope that the ships do something else and don't get stuck.

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlJYFxMvWM61g7NrLfO ... Q?e=x3NI4k

[EnderBeta]

Here is a copy of the game save from the video. If you let it play out longer eventually more trader ships get stuck and the entire station grinds to a halt because the undock critical order cannot be canceled. This is taking place in Silent Witness XI by Silent Witness XI High Tech Factory I.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlJYFxMvWM61g7NsB_R ... Q?e=PZquQU

[EnderBeta]

Also please do not take this thread as me railing against the game. I absolutely am loving this game so far. It's just jarring when my subordinate ships are getting stuck for a most profoundly simple issue.

If you cannot cancel the order another possible solution could be to not rubber band back into place and instead look for the path to turn away from the obstruction. If both ai's could somehow communicate with each other they might even be able to coordinate their movements through narrow spaces. Maybe even some kind of traffic light right of way system.

Anything other than what is currently in place please.

[EnderBeta]

I managed to record the issue happening and it is interesting. The ship is docking and is sent straight into the under dock area. Then the transport is starting the undocking state but is now under the docking station and unable to proceed because it is trying to go up thinking it is in the garage not under it.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlJYFxMvWM61g7NtYlS ... A?e=OyN3Uf

[CBJ]

Unfortunately videos don't tell us why something is happening, and don't give us any means to track it down.

[EnderBeta]

Unfortunately videos don't tell us why something is happening, and don't give us any means to track it down.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlJYFxMvWM61g7NvQGs ... w?e=xJqQVh

Linked is another game save from later on where my gas ship which is heading to my station will dock and go straight into the internal storage. Watching the live stream I can see that the mining ship ends up under the bottom of the dock floor. It then tries and fails to undock because it is under the dock and not in the dock and the captain is trying to go up.

Point of reference this is very easily reproduceable in this game save if you send a bunch of ships to that station at once and make it busy. I have seen three ships stuck under there at once several times now.

[EnderBeta]

Unfortunately videos don't tell us why something is happening, and don't give us any means to track it down.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlJYFxMvWM61g7NvQGs ... w?e=xJqQVh

Linked is another game save from later on where my gas ship which is heading to my station will dock and go straight into the internal storage. Watching the live stream I can see that the mining ship ends up under the bottom of the dock floor. It then tries and fails to undock because it is under the dock and not in the dock and the captain is trying to go up.

Point of reference this is very easily reproduceable in this game save if you send a bunch of ships to that station at once and make it busy. I have seen three ships stuck under there at once several times now.

Correction it is a mineral mining ship that lands and gets stuck at the station. QVW-640. Playing through it again I believe it is because the trade ship LDT-958 is heading in to dock at the same time. This triggers the station dock to send the mining ship into the internal storage so the trade ship can do it's thing and go and then the mining ship can leave. The problem is the sending to the internal storage sends the ship past the internal area where the ship should be stored which then conflicts with the undock logic of going up resulting in a ship that is stuck in a critical undocking error.

[Halpog]

many AI ships.. espacaly miners and traders stucking in each other. some are even drifting apart for hours ( u can see near HQ when u zoom out )
magnetars stucking inside each other and spinning arround and drifting endless away....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JQYtMC ... share_link

[Halpog]

question regarding the stucking ships.. is there any way to let them take dmg when they stuck ? so they get destroyed and the problem solve itselfs ?

[Alan Phipps]

Please keep to reporting and supplying evidence of the issues with the betas here so that the devs can hopefully fix and prevent them, rather than suggesting workarounds requiring need new and different game changes that the devs would probably have no intention of doing.

[Halpog]

fresh game and more stucking ships mostly L ships near docking area

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18cdqSq ... share_link

i watched how they get stuck ... they all try to dock at the same time
after arround 20 mins 1 ship was able to cut loose the other2 or 3 are still stucking

[EnderBeta]

question regarding the stucking ships.. is there any way to let them take dmg when they stuck ? so they get destroyed and the problem solve itselfs ?

I have since found that if you don't look at them they eventually fix themselves but then they can and will get stuck again.

My work around in my station was to buy the blueprint for a 3 medium ship dock to go along with my 1 medium ship dock so that the traffic is significantly less likely to end up getting put into internal storage. Additionally, I moved my mining to large mining ships since they are within a few sectors for Helium, Hydrogen and Methane so the travel time isn't too bad.

Ultimately though I am only working around the issue to mask it. I have noticed that my automated trade ships will get stuck at stations that are under attack when they are in the area.

[EnderBeta]

question regarding the stucking ships.. is there any way to let them take dmg when they stuck ? so they get destroyed and the problem solve itselfs ?

Unknown but you can sell them to a chump faction.