[X3AP] Excessive & passive escort ships left behind (convoy mission script bug?)

[Datalinks]

After three days of playing with extremely bad luck trying to get pilots to bail, I have to vent a little I'm looking for potential targets in the Pirate Alley. Brennan's Triumph is currently a no-go, so I focus on Hatikvah's Faith. Now, here the annoying issue:

There are 50+ Split escort ships sitting near the Massom Mill and the Rastar Refinery doing absolutely nothing, but clogging up the in-sector ship list, making it a pain to scroll through the list for ships to attack.

Every time there's a convoy mission in Nopileos Memorial heading for Hatikvah's Faith, the convoy escorts get stuck near the destination station. So, the number of stuck escorts just keeps growing. I've been playing for more than 40 hours. Almost every sector I visit has stuck escorts near stations and docked in stations. They never disappear, and they never get the attention of pirates It is as if whatever these escort ships were escorting is missing, and the ships hang around cluelessly wondering why they are there.

Anyone else having this issue?

[Tormbo]

Just toss in a couple of hammerheads and watch your combat rating fly

(and your race reputation plummet)

[Alan Phipps]

Anyone else seeing the OP's issue in (vanilla) X3AP 1.1 (or X3TC 3.2)? If those escorts are not being removed after a mission or job has completed then that is a serious game issue and its effects will get worse over time.

[Tormbo]

Actually, yes. I have seen some escort ships floating around doing absolutely nothing. I didn't really pay attention because there were only a few, they were Paranid and I killed them anyway.

This was in Hatikvah's as well.

[Datalinks]

To clarify a little:

I am playing the DiD start exclusively (but disabled the DiD feature). I've had the "escort" issue since I got Albion Prelude in December over maybe 20-30 games total; hence the issue existed before the 1.1 patch.

I have some of the official bonus pack scripts installed--nothing else. No modified tag. I've read about issues when saving during battles (invincible ships, for example), but I only allow saving in stations--so there's vey little saving going on. I also reboot the game every couple hours or so (quick breaks ).

It takes 5-15 minutes after game start for the issue to appear. However, in my current game it's gotten pretty out of hand, haha.

(I've been tempted to mount a few Plasma Burst Generators and just mow through the escorts, but it's basically pointless, as new escorts are bound to appear.)

Edit: I posted about the issue in December here.

[Tormbo]

Are the escorts actually still escorting anything? Are there still freighters among them?

If not it looks like a cleanup issue, where the mission freighter is removed on mission end, but the escorts are not.

edit: Ow, that's exactly what Alan said...

[Alan Phipps]

@ Datalinks: So are these definitely freighter escorts from ship-offered missions as here, or could these be RRF ships waiting for orders as that earlier thread you linked in your edit may imply (and hence could only be an AP issue anyway as there is no RRF in TC)?

[Datalinks]

@ Datalinks: So are these definitely freighter escorts from ship-offered missions as here, or could these be RRF ships waiting for orders as that earlier thread you linked in your edit may imply (and hence could only be an AP issue anyway as there is no RRF in TC)?

Honestly, I don't know...

I assume they are freighter escorts, but I have not investigated their origin. I've got NPC TPs hanging out at the gates in Hatikvah's Faith that also seem "lost in space"--about 3-4 at each gate. No idea where they came from, but their numbers seem to be growing too. My guess is that my issue has nothing to do with RRF ships.

I'll try spot a convoy in Nopileos Memorial and follow it to Hatikvah's Faith and observe the result.

I'll report back

[Ripskar]

Anyone else seeing the OP's issue in (vanilla) X3AP 1.1 (or X3TC 3.2)? If those escorts are not being removed after a mission or job has completed then that is a serious game issue and its effects will get worse over time.

I noticed a small number of "Terran" escort fighters around the MAM Warhead Fab in Jupiter, (what stood out was the fact they were 2 Busters and 2 Makos) moving into investigate there didn't seem to be a ship they were escorting, they just sat there. Nothing docked at the Warhead fab, nothing else that stayed in scanner range whilst I was watching them.

x3:AP 1.1
The makeup suggests a Heavy Load Transporter escort mission, I haven't seen that mission offered in Jupiter but did see a Demeter offering one in Saturn some time back.

[Datalinks]

Reporting back:

Entering Nopileos Memorial a second time I spot a convoy with a mission:

• Fighter Escort Needed
  Escort : Split Heavy Load Transporter to Rastar Refinery M alpha, Hatikvah's Faith

The "convoy" consists of:

• Split Heavy Load Transporter - Mercury (STSVM-17)
  Split Escort Pericles - Pericles (SM4VM-97)
  Split Escort Buster - Buster (SM4WM-36)
  Split Escort Buzzard Hauler - Buzzard Hauler (SM4VM-26)

Without accepting the mission, I follow the ships to the refiney in Hatikvah's Faith. The Mercury docks 3 times in a row before disappearing (the info window says: destroyed).

The 3 escort ships have now joined the other 70'ish Split escorts in Hatikvah's Faith--and I doubt any of them are going to disappear, but I'll monitor these particular escorts.

(I just re-checked, and I'm almost 90 hours into the game.)

[Xander Cade]

After spending a couple of hours in PTNI HQ today, I noticed a M4 icon not moving. I read this thread earlier so watched it for a while in SETA and it didn't move, nor did it join any of the other convoys in the sector. It is a Teladi Escort Buster Sentinel TM4FT-34 and it is sitting just off from the Swarm Missile Fab and has been flying for 122 hours.

[Catra]

well this is...
interesting.

theres 4 teladi m4 escorts (1 is a buzzard, 2 pericles and a scorpion) docked at an SPP, they've been there for quite some time now.

[NuclearBacklash]

Haha, thought this was a known issue. Apparently not. >_>

Noticed this happening back in 1.0 AP mainly with the Terran defend convoy heavy load transporters. Have noticed bug with other races as well. Bug persists in 1.1 AP, however, at a diminished rate than 1.0, possibly due to a lower spawn rate of these missions.

I have observed cases of escort fighters following and docking at the station the freighter docks at but never despawning, escort ships stopped near the entrance of the docking path of a station, most likely due to the lead ship despawning or this is actually their spawn point, and at least one instance of escort ships not following the freighter upon spawning.

All orphaned escorts remain at 0m/s with no visible orders until enough damage is done to make them hostile, at which point the entire group will begin combat maneuvers.

Suspected cause is the script responsible for giving orders to these escorts aborting due to S.E.T.A. use.

[Ripskar]

I haven't been using SETA since pretty early in the game (Time saved to SETA listed as 51 minutes in 5 game days played) yet I'm still seeing these orphan escorts, just found another bunch docked at Uranus Orbital Defence Station, 8 ships; Terran Escort Pericles/Scorpion.

[Alan Phipps]

Thank you all, this does look like rather like an (at least) X3AP convoy escort mission scripting issue - waiting on any further confirmation about X3TC though.

I will slightly retitle the thread and move to Tech Sp forum (leaving a hook in Universe) to try to catch the Devs attention.

[Reliku]

Just wanted to add that all these are of the same race which correspond to the race of the station. Argon Escorts clouding around argon station, split around split. They are not mixed. Also, even after God had removed the station, the escorts stays. There were 2 argon stations in Olmancketslat's Treaty, GoD took the special weapons one, and left the lasertower Factory, and where the special weapons was suppose to be, there are 50ish m4 and m5 occupying the space. Where the lasertower factory sits, there are another 50ish surrounding it. I have over 110 Argon Escorts sitting in that sector.

[Datalinks]

Alan Phipps, thanks for moving the thread to the proper forum I just got blown to pieces in my DiD game, and need to start a new one.

Question: Is there any way to prevent or reduce the "escort issue"?

I'll try uninstalling the "bonus pack" scripts, and I'll try not to use S.E.T.A. this time whenever I see an escort mission; but I fear S.E.T.A. is not the culprit

Also, assuming this is a script bug--and assuming the bug is fixed in the next patch: Is there any chance of the patch fixing already stuck escorts? Or am I to start yet another new game?

[Alan Phipps]

I cannot see it being anything to do with the BP which uses totally separate scripts. This is a mainstream game script, jobs or Mission Director issue. It would then take a patch or hotfix release to stop it happening.

I do not know (but doubt) that a patch can identify the correct ships to remove from everyone's different games without at least leaving unnamed ships behind for a while, so you may have to solve the local problems 'creatively' after the patch, ignore them or even restart (my personal opinion only). (Example of this: the 14 MadHawk M1s I still have in X3TC 3.2.) Treat their 'removal' as bonus 'Think' missions maybe?

[Datalinks]

Ah, after restarting the DiD, I find a Boron escort convoy in Sanctity of Corruption heading for Queen's Retribution. I spend some time trying to get a Caiman Hauler pilot to bail while waiting for the convoy to dock at the Stock Exchange.

After a futile capping attempt, the Boron Heavy Load Transporter docks twice at the Stock Exchange before disappearing; leaving 3 M4 escorts hanging around the station.

So...

I'll install the Bonus Package scripts again, play my game as usual, and not worry about those ever increasing numbers of idle escort ships, because--thanks to you, Alan Phipps--I'll have myself a new, most satisfying mission to complete once the bug gets fixed

Here's hoping that all those escorts won't take up spots for other ships flying the universe, or otherwise mess up my game.

Thanks!

[Alexology]

My apoligies if this has been reported already but due to internet restrictions in China my attempted search for this issue is blocking any search engine that I use. No idea why, you literally never know why in China. My VPN is being sketchy too so bear with me.

I noticed something strange today, I was trying to tractor a Large Silicon Mine in Elena's Fortune when I jumped into Cloudbase South East to clear out some pirates. On my way back to tractor I jumped into Split Fire to clear out some more pirates that were causing my SEWN network to constantly report enemy sightings.

Short Version: Some escort ships (very close to stations, not moving)

Long detailed version below:

On arriving in Split Fire I noticed that pirates (two M4/M5 fighters) were attacking a station. The station shields were gone and the station hull was down to half of its total. That in itself was unusual as I don't think I had ever seen that before especially from such small ships.

What was really weird was that there were (and still are, hours later) 3 Paranid ships (all with the escort designation) in very close proximity to the station that are not moving, defending the station or attacking the pirates.

After killing the pirates I had a little look around and have spotted that in at least 2 sectors (Eleana's Fortune & Ore Belt) there are a number of 'escort' ships in very close proximity to stations that are not moving.

I also noticed while taking a quick look at sectors using the universe map that large ships including an Argon 'Rapid Response Titan' were displaying the same behaviour.

Never used image shack before so this is a test, if it does not work pm me and I'll try again.

[ external image ]
Click to view at full size

Anyway you should be seeing the Ore Belt sector map. 99% of the ships have not moved in at least 2 hours. Anything with the 'Escort' or 'Rapid Response' designation is not moving.

Any thoughts? Am I crazy or is this save game going to have issues?

{Thumbnail to image fixed. - Terre}