Hired TL absconding with my station

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direvus
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Joined: Sun, 29. Dec 13, 17:23

Hired TL absconding with my station

Post by direvus » Sun, 28. Jan 18, 07:32

I hired a Boron Orca in Ocean of Fantasy, loaded it up with a station and a 'plex kit, and told it to fly to sector Hila's Joy. I just assumed that it would follow orders and got on with some other business. When I checked back in, it was showing as still in Ocean of Fantasy, but couldn't see it anywhere on my sector scan. So I target it from my property list, to find out that it's 80km away, flying towards nothing at top speed way out past the south gate.

I can tell the captain to stop engines, and he will obey, but if I give any navigation instruction (follow me, fly to sector, fly to shipyard, move to position) it just accelerates to full speed in the same idiotic direction.

Anybody seen this before? Is there any way I can get this lunatic captain to fly his ship properly? Suspect he may be drinking while on duty. Pity there's no "Mutiny and take control of ship" option when comming the navigational officer.

Thanks in advance.

direvus
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun, 29. Dec 13, 17:23

Post by direvus » Sun, 28. Jan 18, 07:48

Update: I loaded a save from when the Orca was still docked at shipyard, told it to fly out, and it flew off in the exact same direction as last time. The interesting part is that it departed from the shipyard and just kept flying straight ahead, as though it had no ability to steer.

So weird.

Alan Phipps
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Post by Alan Phipps » Sun, 28. Jan 18, 12:04

I have no real idea, but some probably lame theories to explore:

1. What was the TL doing before you hired it and did it ever finish what it was doing then?

2. Have you actually 'discovered' the gate to Hila's Joy in OOF (ie is it shown on your Sector map)?

3. What orders does the TL show as active?

4. Does the TL have a jumpdrive but no e-cells and might it be thinking it needs to refuel?

5. Can you pay the per-gate charge for the delivery service?

In short, I wonder if your order to 'fly to' is competing with a previous order the TL had before you hired it and so confusing it. (Such a situation for capitals used to crash the game or freeze the UI before an update prevented such a response). A possible way to avoid this is if you load to before or just as you hire it and your first order to it being 'none' - if that is available for hired ships.

An alternative is that the TL is just plain 'broken' and you need to hire a different one ... :(

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direvus
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun, 29. Dec 13, 17:23

Post by direvus » Sun, 28. Jan 18, 13:31

Thanks for your reply Alan, good ideas here but unfortunately none that applied to my situation.
Alan Phipps wrote: 1. What was the TL doing before you hired it and did it ever finish what it was doing then?
Just wandering around the sector waiting for a hire
Alan Phipps wrote: 2. Have you actually 'discovered' the gate to Hila's Joy in OOF (ie is it shown on your Sector map)?
Oh my yes. I have flown between the two sectors several times, and the relevant gates are identified on the map.
Alan Phipps wrote: 3. What orders does the TL show as active?
Active order shows correctly as you'd expect.
Alan Phipps wrote: 4. Does the TL have a jumpdrive but no e-cells and might it be thinking it needs to refuel?
I don't believe that standard NPC TLs have a jumpdrive equipped, which is a shame because that would have completed solved my issue.
Alan Phipps wrote: 5. Can you pay the per-gate charge for the delivery service?
Yes indeed.

I actually did manage to work around my issue, by ordering it to depart the shipyard and then immediately (while it was stopped waiting for its fighter escort to dock) ordered it to re-dock with the same shipyard. It re-docked facing in the opposite direction, and then when I told it to depart again, it behaved more normally ...

Until it got to the West gate, where it spasmodically weaved and spun around the gate without ever actually going through, and that's when I realised that there were stationary NPC ships right in front of the gate, preventing the TL from being able to path through it. I can't say for sure, but maybe the lack of any available path through the gate is why the TL shot straight out from the shipyard and bugged out in the first place? Who knows.

I managed to get the gate-squatters to move by very gently bumping my M5 into one of them at 4 m/s. He then docked with his TM, and the whole irresponsible lot of them continued on their way, and my TL finally got through the gate.

Alan Phipps
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Post by Alan Phipps » Sun, 28. Jan 18, 14:25

Ah, once you have a TL hired, do your orders etc from OOS to the TL. That solves all its docking/undocking, turrning and gate queue issues (there is no collision detection OOS). You just need to be IS with it again to drop the station itself.

That was the general advice in that thread I linked too.
A dog has a master; a cat has domestic staff.

direvus
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Joined: Sun, 29. Dec 13, 17:23

Post by direvus » Sun, 28. Jan 18, 14:43

Thanks Alan, yes that probably would have been smart, pity I didn't think of it at the time.

It's a real shame that TLs in particular are so badly behaved IS, since I think it's quite natural that a player will want to "tag along" with the TL when it's transporting a precious station. Especially for the player's first few builds, escorting the TL into place before dropping the station is pretty cool and exciting. Leaving the sector just so the TL won't spaz out feels like a dodgy workaround for something that shouldn't be an issue in the first place.

It would be great if traffic in X3 followed the law of the sea -- smaller vessels must give way to larger ones. I'd have loved to see the TL line up on the gate and then just plough through those dumb fighters that were blocking it!

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