BUG? UT/LT/ST traders not jumping in AP

madprof · Post by **madprof** » Fri, 16. Mar 12, 00:57

I've a feeling the not jumping due to signal handling change in one of the scripts (plugin.autotrade.local) - I'll experiment with changing it back and try to get the traders attacked by something a bit smaller than a m7.

One thing that might be worth trying - as long as you don't mind the traders ignoring the blacklist. Backup the plugin.autotrade.local from AP and replace it with the one from TC.

ThommoHawk · Post by **ThommoHawk** » Fri, 16. Mar 12, 02:57

ThommoHawk wrote:
I was astonished and astounded to find that while the control panel info said sell wares; energy cells... the action was saying 'killing ... Xenon Q'

Very mad UT behaviour. Obviously the pilot is insane, or crazed by spaceweed.

*ahem* er... anyone else notice this?

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri, 16. Mar 12, 04:05

I havent yet, but am monitoring my UT/LT/ST activity and will watch for this.

I'm curious about Madprof's idea. Will that put a modify tag on the game? That would give conclusive proof if it worked.

madprof · Post by **madprof** » Fri, 16. Mar 12, 07:24

No go on my idea, gave it a quick - still no jump out or message.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri, 16. Mar 12, 19:10

Thanks for trying that MadProf (you ARE quite mad you know!

).

Is there a way to stop the traders from carrying drones, so that they have nothing to launch and will then jump away? If we could narrow down the drone usage to mk1 or mk2, and this is different from the jump routine, then we might find an answer to this bug.

Is there a bug thread where we can post this, so that the devs know that it exists?

martimus · Post by **martimus** » Fri, 16. Mar 12, 23:10

Nanook wrote:
martimus wrote:...
If you want to test it out, install Trade MK3 on your player ship and try to get into a fight with someone. You should automatically jump out as soon as you get shot at.
Don't think that will work. In order to get the emergency jump feature of the MK III software, the script has to be running. And you can't give the ST/UT command when you're in the ship.

I can say that this happened to me. I had given my Centaur TMK3 software since it was the first ship I had that could hold over 1000 units. I took it to Grand Exchange and tried to get an L to bail. As soon as the L shot back at me, the ship counted down its jump timer, jumped, then autopiloted to the nearest tradedock.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sat, 17. Mar 12, 19:19

I've upped my traders considerably:
About 30 UTs
about 20 STs
Just under 40 LTs
and added 20 SpringBlossoms as STs to see if their extra speed/shields affects this bug.

Still, after all this activity, not one single trader uses his jump drive to escape, and not one single message saying "trader X escaped to sector Y".

Since this seems to be a common problem, and is either a "feature" of AP, or an unintentional bug, is there anything more that can be done? How do we let EgoSoft know?

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sun, 18. Mar 12, 00:59

ThommoHawk wrote:
ThommoHawk wrote:
I was astonished and astounded to find that while the control panel info said sell wares; energy cells... the action was saying 'killing ... Xenon Q'

Very mad UT behaviour. Obviously the pilot is insane, or crazed by spaceweed.

*ahem* er... anyone else notice this?

Just got the message one of my SB STs was being attacked. I went to the sector to see the SB zooming past the attacking pirates, and the info on him said "selling nostrop oil" until he docked. Hillariously, he sold it, then came back out, flew right through the pirates AGAIN, on his way to another station.
No jump, but no "attacking ship X" message either.

After seeing this, I'm of the opinion that AP has broken all the trading ships, and only military ships with heavy shields and large holds should be used as traders.

TSs are broken in AP...which is truly sad since they are such a huge part of X3

--EDIT--Just saw one of my mistrals being attacked, and his message under the info tab was "buying wheat" while they attacked him and he mosied on toward the jump gate to go to the next sector. So this is confirmed.

ThommoHawk · Post by **ThommoHawk** » Sun, 18. Mar 12, 04:21

I would be pretty interested if anyone else also notices their UT action as '... killing ... (Enemy Target)' instead of '... jumping ...' as it should be.

martimus · Post by **martimus** » Sun, 18. Mar 12, 14:34

ReadyMan wrote:I've upped my traders considerably:
About 30 UTs
about 20 STs
Just under 40 LTs
and added 20 SpringBlossoms as STs to see if their extra speed/shields affects this bug.

Still, after all this activity, not one single trader uses his jump drive to escape, and not one single message saying "trader X escaped to sector Y".

Since this seems to be a common problem, and is either a "feature" of AP, or an unintentional bug, is there anything more that can be done? How do we let EgoSoft know?

Try verifying your game cache in Steam. I have lost my first Mistral UT in almost 60 game days, and that was because he got one-shotted by a destroyer. The rest of them always jumped when attacked. Maybe your game is borked.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sun, 18. Mar 12, 18:25

good idea. I checked both AP and TC and verified their files, even deleted AP and reinstalled. That was a week ago, but hasnt made any difference.
--EDIT-- just verified both games again...with everything verifying.

I'm discouraged by your post because now you are the 2nd person to say that your UTs will jump in AP. Before your post there was only one confirmed player with jumping UTs.

Are you playing AP, with the bonus pack, unmodified?
And did you input any commands (or settings) to make your UT/ST jump when attacked?

harkov · Post by **harkov** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 10:59

In AP with the latest bonus pack, my UTs don't appear to be jumping either although they sometimes survive long enough to dock at a station. They're level 25 and equipped with fight MK I & II as well as trade MK III, navigation and special command software.

When trying to jump manually I always get the followers message.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 17:16

You chaps with the non-jumping UT problem are not also providing fighters as escorts (whether deployed or onboard) are you? If those are not similarly jump-enabled and kept fuelled (no easy auto-fuelling for them) then your escorted ship will be stopped from jumping while it waits for a reply to the 'jump anyway?' question.

It would be unusual and probably a bug to get the 'followers cannot jump' message just from deployed fighter drones.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 19:07

No, none of my 100+ traders are equipped with fighters, nor have fighter escorts. They do purchase (and use) the drones however (I think this is part of the fight MK software).

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 19:25

I had the same problem last night.

I had a number of UTs at max level and all equipment installed.
Lost most of them due to the non-jump issues.

I don't usually do UT work,finding ST/LT combo more reliable.
But I thought I would give it a try.

harkov · Post by **harkov** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 20:50

I'm thinking the fighter drones might have something to to with it since this just happened:
- One of my UTs was attacked, launched its fighter drones and docked at a station.
- I had a small carrier jump in to clean up.
- During the fight my UT undocks and continues trading.
- Upon seeing that the pirates are still there, the UT jumps away.

During this time the fighter drones where still combating the pirates
It seems that at the time when my UT didn't have the drones on board it simply jumped as soon as it saw the pirates.

madprof · Post by **madprof** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 21:17

To try and figure out what's going on I removed all extra scripts/mods, verified files via steam, reinstalled the bonus pack and cycrows cheat packge.

Started a new game and cheated in 21 mercurys with full upgrades and maximum UT experience level, then set it so most races was at 5 notoriety except for terran (5000) and ATF (-10000)

initial result - saw one say Killing ... before been destroyed.

I've finally got to escape jump - but it has involved make changes to two of the scripts.

plugin.autotrade.local - had to change from "add secondary signal" to "connect ship command/signal" for the attacked signal

lib.ship.signal.attacked.trader - had to remove the check to see if this script was already running on the ship

Editing just one of them didn't do the job. Now when attacked they launch drones and jump, unless in terran space where the escape range is too short.

The downside to this for some is the fact it required a modified game.
One possibility if you don't use the blacklist manager is to copy the two scripts from TC into AP, been signed I don't think it will set the modified flag.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 22:34

So the problem is the drones then?
Something changed between TC and AP for the jump command?

martimus · Post by **martimus** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 23:13

ReadyMan wrote:good idea. I checked both AP and TC and verified their files, even deleted AP and reinstalled. That was a week ago, but hasnt made any difference.
--EDIT-- just verified both games again...with everything verifying.

I'm discouraged by your post because now you are the 2nd person to say that your UTs will jump in AP. Before your post there was only one confirmed player with jumping UTs.

Are you playing AP, with the bonus pack, unmodified?
And did you input any commands (or settings) to make your UT/ST jump when attacked?

I am playing AP with the bonus pack installed. My UTs would die early before I started using UTs with heavy shields. Now it seems that they almost always drop drones and jump out before they die. Although Qs and Terran Capitals will still kill them on occasion.

Edit: I will say that I lost a UT soon after activating the blacklist manager for tbe first time, so that might have something to do with it..

ThommoHawk · Post by **ThommoHawk** » Tue, 20. Mar 12, 04:59

Alan Phipps wrote:You chaps with the non-jumping UT problem are not also providing fighters as escorts (whether deployed or onboard) are you?.

no escorts. but I wonder how many folks are checking the UT's info panel for ship behaivour during an attack... I can't understand why I'm the only one who's UT seems to attack it's enemy rather than jump out.... I still can't fathom my UT's suicidal ... 'killing ... Xenon Q ...' behaivour. (which to me explains why they don't jump).

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BUG? UT/LT/ST traders not jumping in AP