[AP] Main plot does not show in Mission Tracker - possible explanation?

[glenmcd]

The bug I'm referring to has been mentioned in the forums a few times over the years. For a non-Terran game start, you know that the main plot in Albion Prelude has started but for some reason it doesn't show in the mission tracker. I know of another situation where generic missions don't show in the Mission Tracker and it ultimately causes the player to fail generic missions due to not being able to track them.

To trigger the bug, simply have more than 30 generic missions active at the same time. Most players don't accept this many before they complete some and thus keep the total number active to below 30. I was an exception until I realised the limitation and avoid by changing my playing strategy to conform. But there's another situation that perhaps may lead to similar symptoms.

"Buy used ship" missions are automatically active until time runs out. The timeout I noticed is normally between around 15 and 30 minutes. If you swap sectors rapidly, it seems theoretically possible to have more than 30 used ships on offer at the same time. I hypothesise that this may lead the Mission Director to get into the same situation, where it fails to add a mission to those viewable in the tracker.

If this was the case, even if the player didn't accept generic missions, it may be possible just by swapping sectors quickly that if this coincides with a main plot mission spawning, that this would prevent it from being displayed in the mission tracker. Even if the number of ships for sale is below 30, maybe the number of active generic missions added to the number of ships for sale can breach the 30 mission limit?

I am one player that swaps sectors very quickly, and quite often notice that the main plot isn't in the mission tracker.

For those players that do notice this bug, do you tend to swap sectors many times within short periods of time? This often happens if you accept a bunch of taxi missions but can happen in any game in which you swap sectors often.

If you are aware of what you need to do for a mission that doesn't show, it's still possible to complete. So if the above hypothesis is accurate, simply flying to Argon Sector M148 would still trigger that main plot to proceed. If you are unaware of what to do for missions that are invisible, that would theoretically lead to a number of possible main plot situations in which it seems impossible to proceed.

For a developer looking to duplicate / fix this bug, it should be easy to do a workaround - simply increase the max missions for the tracker to something considerably higher, such as 50 or 100. To easily duplicate the bug, reduce number from thirty to say two and attempt to complete all main plots.

EDIT: max tracked missions is 30 not 20 as previously stated

[Nanook]

What part of the main plot are you at, and is it currently active, although not displayed in the mission tracker? There are some points in both the Argon and Terran main plots, as well as Final Fury, where the plot goes inactive for a period of time. During these times, no plot mission is shown in the tracker. Perhaps that's what you're seeing.

[glenmcd]

What part of the main plot are you at, and is it currently active, although not displayed in the mission tracker? There are some points in both the Argon and Terran main plots, as well as Final Fury, where the plot goes inactive for a period of time. During these times, no plot mission is shown in the tracker. Perhaps that's what you're seeing.

I don't think that's the case. I've got 6000+ Steam hours on Albion Prelude and same for TC, and started a new AP game at least a couple of thousand times. Although I play the main plots only in a minority of starts, I'm pretty much aware of the initial sequence, what triggers the next stage etc. For this thread I'm focussing on the first mission, which is simply to fly to Argon Sector M148 and remain stationary for a short time. This requires only an increase in Argon notoriety and the triggered main plot is spawned immediately on meeting this requirement in all non Terran starts.

The possibly associated bug where the mission tracker fails to show all accepted generic missions, I've duplicated many dozens of times, before finally changing the way I play as a workaround. That particularly one can be reproduced any time 100% reliably. This provides proof that "certain conditions" do definitely lead to the mission tracker incorrectly not displaying available missions.

I've played "Poisoned Paranid" start probably 300+ times, and not once have I ever had the initial mission (give $25M to be cured) not continue to be displayed in the mission tracker. This could possibly suggest that the requirements for the bug need to be met at the time the mission is spawned. This is consistent with the bug symptoms for generic missions - the first twenty accepted missions show in tracker just fine, anything after this doesn't show even after first missions accepted are completed.

[glenmcd]

I've just duplicated the original bug. In a new Poisoned Paranid AP game with "buy used ship" missions disabled, I increased my Argon notoriety to that just below necessary to trigger the first main plot. I then accepted 30 generic missions followed by increasing my Argon notoriety through completing a generic mission.

I found that while I had 30 missions being tracked AND at least one of them had "<no time limit>", the main plot ("fly to Argon sector M148") would get inserted to first in the "<no time limit>" group. I then aborted all missions with no time limit, and filled up the table with generic missions with a time limit. I then completed an Argon generic mission, raising my rank to "Accepted Advisor" but no entry was made in missions tracker and no special sound when mission is added to the tracker.

I then flew to Argon Sector M148 and sure enough, the main plot started without it being present in the mission tracker. By the time I got to Argon Sector M148, two missions being tracked had timed out and so there was only 28 remaining, allowing additional entries. Once the main plot started and I was asked to move to position (spawning another part of the main plot), this new mission was correctly added to the mission tracker as expected.

The above test proves that missions and plots not showing in the mission tracker is not always just the players imagination, ignorance or misunderstanding. There is a hard limit, it can be breached without difficulty and when it does confusion results. It is not limited to the start of the main plot. If at any time the mission tracker can't add another entry and any part of any plot spawns, it will do silently and thus the "symptoms" will be both wide ranging and misleading. I don't know for sure whether the number of used ships for sale throughout the universe are having an effect. It's easy enough for an ES dev to look at the source and find out. I'm guessing this bug has always existed in both Albion Prelude and Terran Conflict.

[RAVEN.myst]

It's good to know that the mission triggers appear to still work in this "stealth mode" (well, at least as far as you've been able to test.) Of course, that only really helps very experienced players who know exactly what to expect and what is required, and when.