Now the main topic... There are still Bugs present, although. All this bugs come from 2.0RC10 version (and seems to appear also on Beta 2.10 x32). I will split them based on the affected drone.
General Bugs
- Drones destroyed while deployed appear still as used. Self explanatory... Over time the total ammount drones that can be launched is reduced because of this "Ghosts" still appearing as used.
- A tagged object is assigned WITHOUT checking if the nearest ship is fullfilling the requirements to enter into the Mode. The best improvement is that now tagged objects are reliabily assigned to the nearest ship of your squad but... The system doesn't check if it is the ship that allows the player to enter into a given Mode. So it's into player hands to ALWAYS be sure the nearest ship fullfills the drone & cargo type requirements to catch a given item, otherwise the object is lost because once it becomes assigned to a given ship, ONLY that ship will be able to send drones to catch it. On isolated loading operations there is no problem... But with an average sized squad with combat ships ziping in/out the zone and maneuvering, it's highly likely that some long range tags end assigned to a ship incapable of catching the object.
- Tagging can keep ongoing EVEN if the nearest ship Drone complement has been exhausted. This results in all items tagged after all drones are deployed to become impossible to retrieve as the ship "forgets" to launch newer drones to already tagged items once the previous wave returns. A locking mechanism preventing player's tagging when the drone complement is exhausted would prevent this.
(The above 2 bugs could be solved if some preventive checks are done each time the player tries to tag an item... To be sure the closest ship is capable of storing the item and has available drones. Would remain still the cargo full problem... But that's easier to plan and control)
Cargo Drone Bugs on Cargo Collection Mode
- Drones forced to maneuver close to their container sometimes get "stuck" into them and the catch operation never ends. Usually happens on tight spaces (The typical container section of stations... After a Trojan Hack "liberation"
). You recognize this drones as they are immobile with their container within their geometry. It's easy to "unstuck" them, you just collide gently and separate the container from the drone for another "catch chance". This means a simple "innactivity" timer that triggered a small "backward" move on the drones will do the same without forcing the player to get involved.Surface Miner Bugs on Mining Mode
- Drones that do not find a direct patch to the Drone Bay "go south" after a catch. "Going South" requires a detailed explanation. This behaviour ONLY happens when a Miner Drone returns with a catched mineral chunk. If it bounces against its Mothership Hull or it's delayed by any other mean (Mothership movement) it will do the following:
1) Some of this Miners will reduce the "used" counter of the mothership at this point. Allowing the user to send new drones EVEN if the original ones are still "going south". It's perfectly possible to have DOUBLE the owned drones flying around at a given time.
2) It will travel loaded to a point located 25km on the back of the Mothership... The "South Point".
3) It will "briefly" dissapear when reaching that "south point" and then return to the Mothership unloaded.
4) Once it touches the hull of the Mothership the chunk initally catched will "magically" reapear. This time the drone will bounce as many times as needed until it manages to dock into the mothership.
5) The drone will dissapear on the Mothership and the correct ammount of resources appear on the Mothership's Cargo.
So far no material is lost... But as only a small fraction of this "Rogue Drones" decrease the "used" counter on initial approach, this extra 25km "walk" delays considerable any Manual mining operation.