[7.0 HF1 BUG] Manticore Tugs will sit stationary in open space until its assigned station has a free Scrap Processor

[ArtemisUK]

Hello!

As per this board's readme:

Version and language (e.g. 6.10 Hotfix 1, English, etc.)
7.0 HF1 (534380), English

Whether or not your game is modified using any third party scripts or mods (see note below)
No modifications or third-party scripts are in use.

Game start being played
Project Genesis

Exact nature of the problem, where and when it occurs and what you were doing at the time
Manticore tugs which are assigned to a station (via the "Salvage for Commander" assignment) which does not have any free Scrap Processors will sit stationary in open space with its tractor turrets engaging a salvage target (wreck, scrap cube, etc.) and will not attempt to move from the location of the salvage target until a Scrap Processor becomes free. Whilst in this state, a tug's order queue has "Deliver Salvage [Auto]" as the active order, and it's active command states "Trading with <STATION NAME HERE>", and "Waiting for free dock".

Prior to 7.0, a tug would latch onto a salvage target and pull it back to its assigned station, regardless of whether a Scrap Processor was free or not. If one was not free, it would idle near to the station until one became free.

In 7.0, this no longer appears to happen. They instead sit stationary at the location where the scrap target is found, which is usually a warzone. They will only start moving when a Scrap Processor becomes available at its assigned station, and therefore no longer gain any defensive cover by being close to their assigned station (as they would have prior to 7.0), instead sitting idly by in the middle of a battlefield.

Any possibly relevant changes you have made to your game, system, or software before the issue occurred
Upgraded from the latest 6.x build to version 7.0 HF1.

Where appropriate, additional symptoms, error messages, links to saves, screenshots and crash dump files
Save file can be provided via a link in a PM upon request.

Your system specifications in the form of a DxDiag report and vulkaninfo
Both can be provided via links in a PM upon request.

Thanks!

[Alan Phipps]

That can also be the case in vanilla 6.20 where I was seeing mixed behaviours and so often manually intervened to move remotely stalled loaded Manticores closer to the processors, sometimes from a different sector.

I think the individual Manticore behaviour depends on several factors - how available scrap cubes or deployable/S/M wrecks are, which processor of many the Manticore has pre-selected, how many processors there are, how many assigned Manticores, how quickly processors get the needed energy, how quickly the storage has room for their output, etc, etc.

[Imperial Good]

Likely related to the new queueing behaviour of the tugs. They now smartly are allocated available scrap processors rather than trying to unload at a seemingly random one when they arrive.

The issue here sounds like they are queueing at the scrap pickup zone for a free processor, and not near the station with the processor, resulting in a large shipping delay?

[ArtemisUK]

Hey both, thanks for replying.

That can also be the case in vanilla 6.20 where I was seeing mixed behaviours and so often manually intervened to move remotely stalled loaded Manticores closer to the processors, sometimes from a different sector.

I think the individual Manticore behaviour depends on several factors - how available scrap cubes or deployable/S/M wrecks are, which processor of many the Manticore has pre-selected, how many processors there are, how many assigned Manticores, how quickly processors get the needed energy, how quickly the storage has room for their output, etc, etc.

I don't recall needing to manually tell Manticores to un-stick themselves prior to 7.0, but I agree that the various factors you mentioned could affect how and when this sort of behaviour appears.

For added context, the stations which my Manticores are attached to have a plentiful supply of Energy Cells, and the outputted Scrap Metal is continuously being shipped to another station, so the storage is never full. I have two stations with Scrap Processors: one in Heretic's End (bordering Xenon-overrun Split sectors which the Xenon make regular attacks through) and one in Getsu Fune (collecting the local drifting scrap), and they each have eight Manticores serving four Scrap Processors. This new behaviour happens with both.

Thinking about it now, I could cut down the number of Manticores to stop the queuing, but it wouldn't resolve the root issue if queuing behaviour had to be triggered. Regardless, this 7.0 behaviour feels notably different to pre-7.0.

Likely related to the new queueing behaviour of the tugs. They now smartly are allocated available scrap processors rather than trying to unload at a seemingly random one when they arrive.

The issue here sounds like they are queueing at the scrap pickup zone for a free processor, and not near the station with the processor, resulting in a large shipping delay?

They're queuing at the scrap pickup zone, yes. They hit a wreck or scrap cube with their tractor beams, then sit in the same spot until a slot is free at the station. My concern is less focussed on the shipping delay, and more focussed on sitting like a duck next to a jumpgate which has an angry Xenon fleet pop through once every few hours. This would definitely lead to a shipping delay of a different sort if enough of the tugs got popped, though

[vikcachat]

I have been experiencing this as well; since the patch I have been constantly replacing manticores initially I though I was losing them to the end game crisis event.

The event is over now and I am still losing manitcores, they are hanging around the combat zone where the wrecks are accumulating waiting for a free processor rather than flying back to the station and are getting destroyed.