I'm consistantly getting trade mission requests that are too short for me to be possibly able to respond to. For example, I'll get a cargo delivery mission with a time of 3 minutes and 25 seconds to get to the station in the next system. I'm posting this here because I don't think this is how it was designed to be and could be a bug in the Steam version.
Can anyone else confirm this? The mission times range from 3 minutes 15 seconds to about 3 minutes 45 seconds no matter what difficulty is stated.
I would like some help with this issue as it's really difficult to get started without any missions to do.
Do you have any mods installed for your game? Many mods change a lot of the resource files which contain mission director commands and routines. Several of the conversion mods also introduce new missions for new sectors which can also modify times.
First thing I would do before looking for advanced support would be to try doing a clean install and try and reproduce the effect. (Copy your original directory to another location though, to restore it if the same bug persists so you don't lose saves).
You could also use the steam options to "Validate Game Files" by right clicking it in your library. It'll do an error check on all of the core files, but for a game with as many resources as X3 I've found that to be kind of hit-and-miss.
Yeah, I already tried validating the files. One of them came up as invalid, that's it. It amounted to abot 4kb and redownloaded immediately. Nothing has changed since.
The only thing I have installed is the Cheat Script, and I've only used the overtune function of that.
Is it perhaps possible that the mission time limit is based on your top speed? That's the only thing I can think of that would cause it to be so quick.
On top of that, I have ships docking at my factory, buying nothing and then leaving. So my install is really screwy and I don't know how to fix it or what's even wrong.
Hmm, the cheat script package by itself wouldn't bork any mission timers. And ship speed doesn't have any correlation to the time given to complete a mission.
If I were you, I'd make a backup of your save games and then re-install, see if you still have ultra-short mission timers in a vanilla setting. If you don't, then you're right - something messed up in your original install. If you have the same bug on a fresh vanilla copy it might be a problem with your save game.
Perhaps even something to do with your computer's system time if it's not correct? Not sure if that has any relation to the in-game passage of time though, probably nothing.
Well, I guess I'll give that a try. I don't fancy having to wait four hours for a reinstall but it appears as though I have little choice. I would think if Steam verified the files, that would be enough.
But I would like to get this game working properly, so I'll try a vanilla install.
Well, I've managed to delete it and backup my saved games but Steam won't allow me to reinstall it. Every time I try, it reinstalls with no files and then fails to launch with a (very obvious) missing exe error. Deleting local content or verifying files do not work either.
Well, I finally got the whole 6.5 GB of downloaded and installed but nothing has changed. Mission times are still in the 3 minute range. Vanilla or otherwise.
Not very imaginative, but the site seems to work good I suppose.
Anywho, a whopping 3 minutes and 46 seconds to get to a neighbouring system. Not very long. I don't know what's wrong, but I'd appreciate it if you guys could figure it out, it's really chapping my ass something fierce. I must have something set wrong or something.
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Yes that worked, though the download rate was deliberately slow for free downloads (yawn).
Anyway I checked it out and after a bit of exploring of nearby sectors found several easier fetch missions of 'normal' timings for a ship of your Disco's speed (even though it cannot do them through lack of capacity). The thing is that your unequipped Disco cannot do most of any of the mission types anyway. (No cargospace, no life support for taxi rides or passengers, no scanners for scan missions, no weapons for combat, etc).
The fetch mission timing where you saved was short because it is a 'hard' mission for a TS or big ship to move radioactive waste. By the time you can accept those, you will have a TS etc with a jump drive and docking computer. (Where is your starting TS anyway?)
All in all, I would concentrate on exploring and following NPC battles to pick up small loot in order to build up funds and kit out your Disco before worrying too much about missions. I cannot see anything wrong in your game to be honest apart from your lack of a useful player ship.
I think you might need to consider a fresh and different start as your lone unequipped Disco does not offer a lot of choices for ongoing gameplay unless you would rather cheat and look up the free giveaway ships. If you had wanted to trade, you would more likely have kept the TS and sold the Disco instead.
Oh, I thought you meant a vanilla save. So, I just started new and found the closest fetch mission. Took me quite awhile, actually.
My real, modified savegame is much different. I have a Mercury Superfreighter and a Nova. A Meatsteak Cahoona factory in Argon Prime, a Universe Trader running and about 3 million in credits. I'm doing okay there without the help of trade missions.
I tried completing them with my Jumpdrive but that doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Guess I would need a Docking Computer.
Not worth the hassle to be honest, if that is indeed the correct time for missions to be run in a TS.
Oh OK, we were indeed at cross purposes. I now know you gave me a vanilla restart save to look at and, funnily enough, it acts like vanilla and doesn't show your other game's problem.
Meanwhile you may have an issue in your slightly modified game and/or its associated saves. Well you can try sending me a save from that to look at as the cheat scripts are not constantly running but are only engaged when needed. Nothing to lose really in trying. I'll even make (and drink) a cup of tea while it downloads if you use that 2nd site again.
The time for these collect and deliver wares is based on the distance from the offer station to the collection station and back, divided my the current maximum speed of the ship you are flying when the mission is generated, plus a little extra (possibly how much is difficulty dependent, can't remember off the top of my head).
So theoretically it is possible to fly there and back in the ship you were flying, what it doesn't take into account is ware size, so if you're flying an M5 at 600m/s when a mission for radioactive waste is generated it makes no allowance that you will need an XL class ship to do th mission, which best case scenario is going to be around 1/4 of the speed.
My advice? Your Disco is fast and has enough cargo space to carry passengers. Head for one of these stations and fit it with a Cargo Lifesupport System. Then stick a "Taxi" sign on top of the ship. Apart from being easy wage-earners, they're a great way to raise your rep.
@ StarSword: Though good advice, we discovered in the last few posts that the Disco gamesave was a red herring. I think the real problem perhaps lies in the OP's player ships in the modified game being overtuned through the cheat scripts.
I run those missions with a fully upgraded Springblossom.
Undock from the station, engage the jumpdrive, and gun it for the designated station. Pick up the goods, jump, deliver with about 30 seconds to spare.
I think those missions are actually intended to be that way. They're trade missions for the "Han Solos" of the universe. I also find trade missions with much more available time, generally requiring the use of a large ship and a capacious cargo hold.
Alan Phipps wrote:@ StarSword: Though good advice, we discovered in the last few posts that the Disco gamesave was a red herring. I think the real problem perhaps lies in the OP's player ships in the modified game being overtuned through the cheat scripts.
Yeah, saw that post right after hitting the submit button. *whacks self on head*
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