Cluster Flak and Flak Artillery Array bug

doomlord · Post by **doomlord** » Fri, 31. Oct 08, 17:56

Ok, so I was doing the Khaak escort through unkown system to M148 mission for the Final Fury campaign and bought myself a Thresher.

It all went real fine untill suddenly the Flak didn't hit shit anymore....and still they don't. I was able to finish this mission since the flaks started to bug only at the end but they remained that way....Before that I set the turret to "attack my target" and just switched to the closest enemy while hanging out next to the convoy ships and each Khaak died in a matter of 1-2 secs (corvettes and destroyer excluded but for those the PPCs are still doing their jobs).

Now...what is this bug? It really sucks having flaks bugged and useless now as I like the explosions around my ship:). I was eager to do the xenon patrol missions at crusader level with M1/M2 floating around but without the flaks the threasher alone can't deal with the fighters buzzing around me...instead witht he flaks working this would be good fun.

Does anyone know how to fix this or is a new patch needed for this?

LazerX · Post by **LazerX** » Fri, 31. Oct 08, 18:03

Jumping out to non-hostile sector and saving then reload game fix it for me sometime. It is very annoying when that happen.

jimhsu77479 · Post by **jimhsu77479** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 03:07

This was (and still is) annoying until I knew how to fix it.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 0bb8bad1f6

The fix was outlined above:
1. When not in combat, jump the ship out to another sector
2. Save and exit
3. Load and hopefully it works.

It's caused by saving the game while flaks are firing, apparantly. So don't do that.

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Mon, 3. Nov 08, 12:07

Nope.

Bug:
Flak Artillery Arrays are not hitting. No collision detection is registering for the "bullets"

Related Issues:
FAA will work fine, then after firing at a large target such as a capital ship, will cease hitting anything once it is destroyed.
FAA work fine until you save game. Upon continuing, FAA no longer hit.

Tested:
Switching weapon load outs in turrets has no effect.
Switching the orders for turrets has no effect. (none, attack enemies, missile defence, protect ship, attack target)
Switching turret weapon groups has no effect.
Reloading an earlier save - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.
Same sector jumpdrive use - has no effect.
Jumpdrive to different sector - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Additionally useless as will often end Patrol and Defend missions as well as causing massive damage in now OOS combat.
Using different ships has no effect (not tested all ships)
GFX settings has no effect - tried everything from Low/Low/all off to High/High/8xAA/16xAF at various resolutions.

Possible Fixes:
One thing that seems to work is docking at a station. This is problematic in that M7 and larger craft may well not be able to dock anywhere and in addition you cannot save your game once you undock so potentially have to face a long and very difficult fight in one go.
There is some suggestion that the bullet speed of FAA is to blame at 7000m/s is too fast for framerates to keep up even at 90+fps. Some suggestion a tBullets mod dropping the bullet speed to 4000m/s fixed this in X3:R, but unconfirmed.

I'm running clean install X3:TC with no scripts mods or changes except update 1.2 and now 1.2.1

Please, please fix FAAs they're pretty much essential against Xenon and Khaak when you're in M7s.

Anything else I can help with?

Save? DXdiag?

Cyrus777 · Post by **Cyrus777** » Mon, 3. Nov 08, 16:46

GFX settings has no effect - tried everything from Low/Low/all off to High/High/8xAA/16xAF at various resolutions.

Just covering all the bases - Did you try turning AQC off? That fixed it for me.

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Tue, 4. Nov 08, 04:49

AQC on/off - tried both.

Thanks though.

Shimrod · Post by **Shimrod** » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 01:56

I think I've got the same problem. My panther's flaks seem to fire at their max range well beyond their target. I ran into a xenon Q and my flaks are firing like warning shots over its bows.

I've tried docking at stations, reloading, jumping to other sectors, quitting to menu, to windows, uninstalling/reinstalling weapons, changing turret commands, manually firing each turret.

I can't shake it off, my panther has gone gaga.

The issue seems rare. This is my 3rd game, previously flying a boreas and a cerberus with flaks, first time it happened to me.

Anyone with a reliable workaround please let me know.

Creston · Post by **Creston** » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 08:20

You know, I think I noticed the same thing with my Starbursts. Eventually my Osaka stopped killing Xenon fighters. Hmmmm...

As for docking at a station, an M7 (even M2) can always dock at a shipyard or equipment dock.

Creston

3D_Master · Post by **3D_Master** » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 12:34

Creston wrote:As for docking at a station, an M7 (even M2) can always dock at a shipyard or equipment dock.

Yes, but there is not always one in the sector where you are doing your mission, and leaving the sector, flying across another to the EQ Dock (in a slow M2), docking, jumping back...

The mission is over.... you failed it.

This has just started happening to me in my M2, was a single sector patrol, Pirates and Yaki, around 70 Centaurs of both races, and pages of fighters.

The game became a slideshow at one point, as the pirates and Yaki where blasting each other too, all my turrets stopped working, and I had to take over.

Once the turrets where working again, my FAA's opened up on a Centaur or two that had gotten behind me.

Now I have no working Flaks

error404 · Post by **error404** » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 21:50

Hi,

I have maybe a workaround for the flak cannons bug.

I had this bug 3 or 4 times and i failed at a base defense mission because i couldn't kill the small fighters with the flak cannons.

I tried something kinda weird at my last fight : i equiped all the turrets with flak cannons and then i saved the game. I engaged the enemies, managed to kill some of them with the flaks but i died.
Also i reloaded the game and uhoh the cannons don't do any damage ! They are firing but it seems that they don't hit anything.

So i changed the weapon loadout : at the back turret i put 4 CIGs (i have a Thresher), saved the game and then loaded again : the flaks worked correctly !!!

I don't know exactly what's going on : it looks like that the flak cannons and the save system don't work together properly...

Error404Pagenotfound

doomlord · Post by **doomlord** » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 23:07

By now I just turn all turret commands to "none" then save in the middle of a battle just to make sure flaks won't bug again.