Trade ship keeps getting stuck "waiting for drones"

[Lord Crc]

Hi,

so I have a Rahanas which keeps getting stuck performing trades or transfers, "waiting for drones".

I've saved and reloaded. I've waited over an hour in game and it has not resolved itself. I've tried being in the zone when the bugged trade/transfer happens, I've tried being in another sector when the bugged trade/transfer happens.

The common theme is that it only seems to happen to this Rahanas. I have two Scaldis and some Gigurums, as well as mining ships, and none of the other ships are affected.

Also, if I load my game from after I've queued the trade/transfer, but before the Rahanas has started the action (ie still travelling to destination), then it will invariably still end up in the "waiting for drones" state.

The only thing that seems to work is to load from before the trade/transfer is executed, and simply cancel it.

However it often takes me quite a while to notice that it is stuck like this, and I lose quite a lot of play time due to this.

Anyone got any other ideas?

Mods:

Code: Select all

TAF!
Trade Menu Cargo Hold Filter
Yet Another Trader v2.03c (XR 4.00)
Galaxy Station Range v1.4 (for XR v4.00+)
AutoTrain
NPCs on your stations!
Sensible Miners
Build Titurel
Scaldis Cargo Fix
Titurel Engine Fix
Miscellaneous Combat Tweaks
Repair Docks For Capital Ship Bridge Mod
Capital Ship Bridge

Note, the trades/transfers that are buggy are done manually, not by Yet Another Trader.

[birdtable]

Hi Lord Crc, I have the same problem, the quickest solution I found was to clear trades, shrug annoyingly and move on... The only mod we share is NPC's on your station ... how that effects "waiting for drones" I do not know other than the possibility of using crew hired from your station ... Also I find it usually happens if I have maxed out the number of trades ..5 out of 5 or 7 out of 7....and usually and very annoyingly is also buying and supplying materials for an architect.

[nalim27]

Hi,
problem is caused by mods - it happens for completely unmodded game too. It was caused in version 4.0 probably when someone attack your trade ships during trade and they flee. After it captain will wait for drones indefinitely.

Real solution must come from Ego developers. I'm disappointed that after 5 weeks from 4.0 release developers did not fix this bug (and some other reported bugs) yet.

[RAVEN.myst]

Incidentally, to the two users of "NPCs on your stations" mod - 4.0 added NPCs to player stations, featuring a complete suite of ship services and potential hirelings. I don't know whether the mod you are using offers anything extra - if not, then it might be a good idea to make your games leaner by cutting away that bit of fat. (Also, there may conceivably be a potential for conflicts between two softwares doing the same thing.)

On a different note: I really wish they'd (they=Egosoft) change the "clear all" for planned trips to "delete selected", or at the very least "delete last" - having to clear the whole schedule and start from scratch whenever any (potentially small) adjustment is needed... well, it's absurd.

[Lord Crc]

I don't know whether the mod you are using offers anything extra

It gives me that warm fuzzy feeling that my managers are not all alone on that giant station.

On a different note: I really wish they'd (they=Egosoft) change the "clear all" for planned trips to "delete selected", or at the very least "delete last" - having to clear the whole schedule and start from scratch whenever any (potentially small) adjustment is needed... well, it's absurd.

SO MUCH THIS! Absolutely ridiculous that is.

[1muvwndr]

Simple solution: Sell the ship and go capture a new one. There are tons of pirate Rahannas everywhere. Or Titurels which are 10x better.

[RAVEN.myst]

It gives me that warm fuzzy feeling that my managers are not all alone on that giant station.

I think you missed my point: 4.0 gives you that without need of a mod - tons of NPCs around to chat with, to buy/sell stuff from/to, or to hire - no more player "ghost stations". So if the mod offers nothing beyond all that (and it sounds to me like all it's doing is reinventing the wheel), then it's redundant. But, not knowing the mod itself, I don't know whether it offers anything over and above what the vanilla game now does in this regard.

Or Titurels which are 10x better.

That, from a station management point of view, at least, is VERY debatable - the universal cargo-space is very versatile for a manual trading ship, granted - but for something like station provisioning/exports it's often better to have multiple specialised vessels, so that you know that ALL your ware classes are being attended to, instead of your universal-cargo Titurel or Lyranea constantly going to buy 300 anitmatter cells and ignoring other stuff. Even for manual trading, running a couple of specialists can be advantageous, with the new best deals trading computer (not to mention that you get more transaction queues.) And the extra armaments on the Tit are no longer as important either, in light of 4.0's enhancements to ship captains' sense of self-preservation.

As for "sell the ship and go capture a new one" - that's not a SOLUTION, it's a WORKAROUND. One shouldn't have to resort to such measures to get around bugs - the bugs need to be fixed. When your microwave oven doesn't work properly after a few days, you don't try to sell it and go buy a new one - you send it in for warranty repair (and even then thinking "I shouldn't be having to do this"!) And if the bug keeps recurring, then what? Keep selling off and capturing news ones ad nauseam instead of doing whatever it is the player WANTS to be doing? Hardly.

PS: I like the SG-1 Ori Doci portrait

[Snafu_X3]

Swap that ship's captain with another one. The original captain should forget about their 'waiting for drones' order & the new one won't be bothered

It's not as drastic a workaround as capping another ship, but it's an alternative..

[captaincelt]

Was the stuck Rahanas a YAT ship? I just ran in to that issue with a YAT Titurel over the weekend that was running as a galaxy-wide trader. She ran in to a pirate Olmekron and I told her to withdraw from battle before she got toasted.
She was in the middle of a trade at the time and was stuck waiting on drones after she fled. Nothing I did would get her moving again (even with the Olmekron closing in on her new location) until I told her to stop acting as a trader, then reassigned her home sector and started her up again.
She is happily trading away again, and I have a shiny new Olmekron.

[RAVEN.myst]

Swap that ship's captain with another one. The original captain should forget about their 'waiting for drones' order & the new one won't be bothered

It's not as drastic a workaround as capping another ship, but it's an alternative..

Assuming the captain-swap is allowed (sometimes the option is greyed out while a captain is busy with another order, such as refuelling, or escorting a superior) that seems like the simplest solution - damn, didn't think of it when I had a similar problem after one partner of a cargo-transfer was killed, leaving the other one in such a stuck state.

[RAVEN.myst]

(stuff) ...and I have a shiny new Olmekron.

Hahahah! So she wasn't being useless - she was being bait!

[Snafu_X3]

Assuming the captain-swap is allowed (sometimes the option is greyed out while a captain is busy with another order, such as refuelling, or escorting a superior)

Don't talk to the original captain: simply enter the backroom, tell the new captain to "Work at.." & the swap should occur automatically (the original ship may need to be unsquadded first; can't remember ATM). Obviously this will delete any shipyard-provided captain, but the chances of getting one with even 1 decent skill is so rare as to be negligible IME (although it /can/ happen)

I did have a problem with one captain refusing to un-grey their order set after reassignment once, but I swapped her with a station trader's captain & she's now happily trading for that station instead. I haven't swapped her back yet to see if the greyed commands problem persists, but it's another option..

[Lord Crc]

Swap that ship's captain with another one. The original captain should forget about their 'waiting for drones' order & the new one won't be bothered

I forgot to mention that I tried this, and it did not work.

[Lord Crc]

Was the stuck Rahanas a YAT ship?

Nope, YAT has behaved so far, except buying fusion reactions when I weren't paying attention and selling it to someone else!

[Lord Crc]

I think you missed my point: 4.0 gives you that without need of a mod - tons of NPCs around to chat with, to buy/sell stuff from/to, or to hire - no more player "ghost stations". So if the mod offers nothing beyond all that (and it sounds to me like all it's doing is reinventing the wheel), then it's redundant.

Ok, I must have missed that in the 4.0 changelogs, I did not know they added this. If so I'll remove the mod if possible.

[RAVEN.myst]

Don't talk to the original captain: simply enter the backroom, tell the new captain to "Work at.." & the swap should occur automatically

I never do (talk to the original captain), except to cancel an existing order that's blocking the replacement - the greyed out "work here" option is on the new captain's side - though I never tried it straight from the rear compartment, that may be different, and worth keeping in mind, ta.

Lord Crc: yes, I'm very much enjoying the fact that Egosoft finally opened my stations to the public I've even, on a couple of occasions, interviewed for the manager's position for a new station... at that very same station!

[Snafu_X3]

the greyed out "work here" option is on the new captain's side - though I never tried it straight from the rear compartment

Hmm.. mod artefacts (ie leftover code from disabled mods persisting in savefiles), possibly? Other than the irritation in having to perform the dance in the first place I've not (yet!) had a problem using these methods.. if you can come up with a prior & post situation saveset it would be very helpful over in in /beta.. although I do appreciate the difficulties in getting the circumstances to coincide!

[RAVEN.myst]

Mod artefacts are not possible, as I'm a rabid vanilla fanatic Sadly, I don't have a suitable save file (that I know of, lol!) but should the issue rear its head again, I'll be sure to make one - but the window of opportunity for this is closing rapidly, as I've been hearing the call of X3AP for a couple of days now, have abandoned my 5billion-credits-and-rising plot/post-plot playthrough, and am now trying one thing in Home of Neon Light (probably take me a couple of days), before I heed the aforementioned call ^^

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

I think what is needed is two new commands.

The first one is cancel all current actions and hold position.

The second is cancel all current actions and move to.

In the both commands the first part forces command none on the captain, clears all trades, discards any in flight drones etc. (Any in flight drones to self destruct.)

This may cost you some cash (for drones) but gives you back instant control of the ship, and may probably save its skin if it is being stalked.

[Lord Crc]

Happened again, same Rahanas. Thought it was proper stuck, but it turns out I was just a bit impatient.

Cleared the orders and made it join my squad, and after 15-20 minutes it came following me.