The problem with Ray's guns - Fix in a build after HF5.

[bassted89]

The guns fire for a while after loading the save, or after deleting the order and assigning the order to attack again. But the situation repeats itself every time - the guns stop firing.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0N6VBTxiiU
Save:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19g5VZc ... share_link

[j.harshaw]

Excellent report. Thank you.

Fixed. Should be in a future update.

[Admiral Sausage]

In the save quicksave.xml.gz, you are standing on the bridge of one of four Rays attacking the Xenon wharf in Matrix #79B. They are close anough for their turrets to fire on the station, but none of the captains are using their Ray Ion Projectors.

* I tried reloading the save a few times, and occasionally one of the ships will fire the ray some time in the first minute or so, but only once.

* I know they are capable of using their weapons fully, because they used their rays on a whole bunch on Xenon ships and a couple of small stations on the way through Xenon-infested space to the wharf, though they dont fire anywhere near as fast as they could. I can also take command and fire it myself without any trouble.

* The reason the Rays are so close to the station is that after originally issuing the attack command, they stopped what looked like slightly too far away, and I thought that might have been why they weren't firing. I moved them closer and closer until they were within turret range, but they still won't fire the ray.

[alt3rn1ty]

Its a known issue with all big ships and their main guns, AI Pilot is just crap at using them. Big ships are also really bad at positioning themselves for an attack especially on stations, even when using Coordinated attack, if they manage to take out a station module and they need to reposition (really bad if they would need to go around the other side of the station). The Asgards main beam weapon in one of my fleets the AI tries to use it like a machine gun spray as it turns left and right adjusting its position, so never gets a good shot at one module.

Something else which complicates their use .. Dont use the in game weapon modifications on main weapons, they cause timing problems for main guns and the AI is even worse at trying to fire them when modded.
They are good in player hands, but the AI can't really use them effectively.
Its something everyone wishes Egosoft would fix (for quite a few years now, there have been loads of posts on the subject), but so far they haven't got round to it.

Edit: Egosoft know about such problems - See j.harshaw response here

[Admiral Sausage]

An observation that may or may not be helpful: Later, I flew in another ship in myself to add some firepower to try to overcome the Xenon stations absurdly fast hull regen, and happened to be positioned roughly in front of one of the Sharks. I started getting regular audible "Danger" warnings, which I presume happen when a Shark is about to fire close by, and indeed after some of the warnings, it fired, narrowly missing me. I switched to an external view so I could hear the Shark, and sometimes after the "Danger" warning I could hear it charging and then stopping without firing. However most of the time there was no charging sound at all, it just did nothing. So it seems like the AI wants to fire, but something it stopping it from following through.

Its a known issue with all big ships and their main guns, AI Pilot is just crap at using them.

[...]

Edit: Egosoft know about such problems - See j.harshaw response here

This doesn't look like the same sort of thing reported in that thread. I know the AI has all sorts of problems using weapons, but I've not seen an entire group of destroyers completely unable to fire at the same time. The only other similar bug I've seen is the AI not being able to properly fire the Asgard's giant beam of death (not sure if that's completely fixed in 6.0, but I have see an Asgard fire a few times).

[CBJ]

We've just released 6.00 Hotfix 5 which should hopefully solve this. Please have a go and let us know how you get on.

[Admiral Sausage]

Thanks! It could take a while, given how slow GOG is providing offline patches (they just did HF4 today).

[bassted89]

The problem is not solved! Ships still don't fire, tested in different situations. Is it really so difficult to fix it?

Video:
https://youtu.be/G4lB5SmggNM

Save:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V0Cx89 ... share_link

[Admiral Sausage]

GOG surprised me by having HF5 ready today, and I just happened to be attacking Xenon stations again, so I've been able to test. Unfortunately Rays can still end up not firing. Here's an example: quicksave.xml.gz

You are at the helm of a Ray, with a good view of 4 AI-controlled Rays that have been given orders to attack a Xenon station. None of them are firing, even after waiting for a few minutes.

They were firing after initially giving them the order, which is why the station only has 88% hull now. After giving the order I flew to a different sector. I looked at the map and saw that the station was not vibrating like it should when taking damage. I used the Live Stream View to check, and they appeared to be firing normally. I flew back and checked in-person, and they are stuck as they are now.

This all happened after patching to HF5, so it's not a case of an order given in HF4 remaining broken after patching.

[nemo1887]

the boron ray still has the problem of delay to shoot, the delay to shoot and much too long?

[Admiral Sausage]

the boron ray still has the problem of delay to shoot, the delay to shoot and much too long?

I assume you're referring to your "boron ray beam probleme" thread. I can't be sure because I have to rely on automatic translation, but I've had two problems which might be what you have experienced:

1) Sometimes the Ray's beam fires apparently normally, but does no damage. I've definitely seen this happen when firing on M-sized Xenon ships. It's hard to be sure if it happens when firing on stations because there's no visible health bar. Usually this is temporary, and it will start working again after moving around or switching targets. Unfortunately this is completely unreproducible, so I can't provide a save game.

2) If you apply a weapon mod that increases cooling, the firing sound and beam effect become desynchronized. I think this might be the same bug as one that has been reported already.

[j.harshaw]

New issue introduced with hotfix 5.

Fixed here now. Should be out to you in a future update.

[j.harshaw]

In the save quicksave.xml.gz, you are standing on the bridge of one of four Rays attacking the Xenon wharf in Matrix #79B. They are close anough for their turrets to fire on the station, but none of the captains are using their Ray Ion Projectors.

Improved. Issue was unrelated to anything else stated in this thread. Improvement should be in a future update.

Thanks for the report and the save.

[j.harshaw]

GOG surprised me by having HF5 ready today, and I just happened to be attacking Xenon stations again, so I've been able to test. Unfortunately Rays can still end up not firing. Here's an example: quicksave.xml.gz

Issue here was identical to the second report in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=180&t=455303

Also already fixed here. Should be in a future update. Thanks for the report and the save.

[Admiral Sausage]

Thank you for your tireless debugging efforts.

[jojorne]

Thanks for this one! Almost lost a Ray today, that was when I noticed that