[#3586][7.50] Unable to side with ZYA after meeting with Curbs - Resolved

[CheeseJedi]

Split Campaign - "Seem Valuable" mission - Departing the Ravenous Wight Raptor in the Boneyard sector
7.50 (553255) - Unmodified Save file provided - Has workaround

Summary
I encountered a problem that was unexpectedly preventing interaction with Dal on the funeral ship, having flown through the accelerator to leave the Boneyard, to inform the ZYA Police. This has the effect of locking the player to siding with the Curbs and removes the choice to side with ZYA. However teleporting to a ship docked on the funeral ship and not passing through the accelerator seems to avoid this situation, and allows the ability to side with ZYA.

Problem Reproduction Steps
Prior to save I passed through the accelerator from the funeral ship to Heart of Acrimony Boneyard, met the Curbs, paid 1M cr to prove worth. "Kill ZYA Cobra" is then highlighted as mission target. Intent is to take the option Dal offered to notify the Patriarchy Police by meeting with him on the funeral ship to discuss, ultimately siding with ZYA.

Save file taken at this point.
https://1drv.ms/u/c/79ce8746c389ffcf/Ec ... w?e=BuG946

1 (the "expected" path?)
Board the Tuatara from the docking bay of the Ravenous Wight, fly out towards and through accelerator, and dock on the funeral ship. Dal is still standing there but not able to be interacted with - it does not seem possible to inform the ZYA police, which effectively forces the player to side with the curbs. This seems unintentional and I recall this course of action has worked in previous playthroughs on versions prior to 7.5x

2 (workaround)
Do not board the Tuatara, but instead teleport to the Xperimental Shuttle, which in the save is still docked at the funeral ship. Dal is there and interactable, and he offers to set up the meeting with his contact in the Patriarchy Police, and the mission target updates to "Talk to Wau t'Knt". Teleporting to a vessel outside the Boneyard is not necessarily an obvious course of action as Boso had recently mentioned that the teleportation tech was not working through the accelerator.

Note that in either case, the hidden Boneyard sector does not unhide itself on the map even after exiting the sector. Assigning a captain to the Tuatara while it is still docked to the Ravenous Wight shows "Unknown Sector" in the Property Owned list instead of a sector name, and the pilot is unable to fly out of the sector with an issued fly-to command. Subsequently flying as the player back through the accelerator from Heart of Acrimony II to the Boneyard does unhide the sector. I believe in previous playthroughs this unlocked sooner (before even exiting the sector) and didn't need to be re-entered for it to become visible. It is conceivable this is related to the primary issue listed above.

[db48x]

Note that in either case, the hidden Boneyard sector does not unhide itself on the map even after exiting the sector. Assigning a captain to the Tuatara while it is still docked to the Ravenous Wight shows "Unknown Sector" in the Property Owned list instead of a sector name, and the pilot is unable to fly out of the sector with an issued fly-to command. Subsequently flying as the player back through the accelerator from Heart of Acrimony II to the Boneyard does unhide the sector. I believe in previous playthroughs this unlocked sooner (before even exiting the sector) and didn't need to be re-entered for it to become visible. It is conceivable this is related to the primary issue listed above.

I’d like to step in and point out that this is a different bug. It happens any time you are aboard an NPC ship when it changes sectors. For example, at the end of the Segaris Terraformers quest chain you board the Oberth to give Dr. Feynman his research data. The Oberth begins to head back to Segaris space, and if you stay aboard any unknown sectors they enter stay unknown to you. Or you can do this even without a quest by simply boarding any NPC freighter headed to unknown space.

If you want to avoid this little bug in the Boneyard, simply board the Tuatara before you teleport out of the sector. This should update the map; although now that I think about it you might have to undock so that you are actually flying before it updates the map.

[CheeseJedi]

Note that in either case, the hidden Boneyard sector does not unhide itself on the map even after exiting the sector. Assigning a captain to the Tuatara while it is still docked to the Ravenous Wight shows "Unknown Sector" in the Property Owned list instead of a sector name, and the pilot is unable to fly out of the sector with an issued fly-to command. Subsequently flying as the player back through the accelerator from Heart of Acrimony II to the Boneyard does unhide the sector. I believe in previous playthroughs this unlocked sooner (before even exiting the sector) and didn't need to be re-entered for it to become visible. It is conceivable this is related to the primary issue listed above.

I’d like to step in and point out that this is a different bug. It happens any time you are aboard an NPC ship when it changes sectors. For example, at the end of the Segaris Terraformers quest chain you board the Oberth to give Dr. Feynman his research data. The Oberth begins to head back to Segaris space, and if you stay aboard any unknown sectors they enter stay unknown to you. Or you can do this even without a quest by simply boarding any NPC freighter headed to unknown space.

If you want to avoid this little bug in the Boneyard, simply board the Tuatara before you teleport out of the sector. This should update the map; although now that I think about it you might have to undock so that you are actually flying before it updates the map.

I have seen the issue you mentioned before - in my case I first noticed that with the Tides of Avarice plot when you escape from the prison and you are a passenger on the ship you escape on piloted by an NPC.

I should make it clear that that the behaviour you described is different to what I experienced (and could reproduce) - in the issue I describe in my original post, I am piloting the ship (Tuatara) in the Boneyard sector, and the sector does not become visible in the map until I exit the sector and then fly back in to it.

[Tranxalive]

I'm not experiencing the issue with being unable to side with the Curbs.

When loading your save, I'm asked to destroy a Cobra, then go do the Hall of Judgment thing. Afterwards, I go back to the Curbs and talk the Curb in charge.

Dal talks to me, and then from there I have to go back to the HQ and make my choice of who to support.

Can you load your save and play until you're asked to pick your side by Dal, and verify if the issue is broken, or if it's just a misunderstanding?

[tuxinvader]

I'm not experiencing the issue with being unable to side with the Curbs.

When loading your save, I'm asked to destroy a Cobra, then go do the Hall of Judgment thing. Afterwards, I go back to the Curbs and talk the Curb in charge.

Dal talks to me, and then from there I have to go back to the HQ and make my choice of who to support.

Can you load your save and play until you're asked to pick your side by Dal, and verify if the issue is broken, or if it's just a misunderstanding?

I think you've gone too far in the quest line. It seems like CheeseJedi has an issue before destroying the Cobra.
There is a quest fork prior to taking any action, right after you leave the Curbs in the Boneyard, where Dal offers you the option to inform ZYA about the Curbs insurgency.
This gives you two paths.

1. Kill the target in the Cobra as requested (side with Curbs option)
2. Inform ZYA and play as a mole. You still attack the Cobra, but the target escapes, and ZYA allow you to flee the scene unhindered (side with ZYA option).

Regardless of the option chosen here, you can still switch sides later. But it seems CheeseJedi doesn't get the ZYA option. Dal is bugged.

[Tranxalive]

Ah, okay.

Sadly the uploaded save has the option to destroy the Cobra already picked, and there's nothing else in the mission menu.

I'll need a save from just before that point.

[CheeseJedi]

Hi Tranxalive - thanks for taking a look at this issue. I think you are correct when you mentioned a misunderstanding, but it seems user tuxinvader understood what I had reported.

TLDR: Primary issue seems to have been resolved, secondary issue remains.

My intended course of actions were those necessary to achieve the "In Authority We Trust" achievement (description in Steam is "Work with the Patriarchy Police during the Split storyline")

It seems this mission segment has three possible branches, and only the last one earns you the mentioned achievement:

1. Side with Curbs
2. Side with Zyarth
3. Side with Zyarth AND work with the Patriarchy Police

I had already unlocked this achievement some years ago, but decided to try this option again. According to this post from 2018 viewtopic.php?p=4949979#p4949979 user drhay53 notes:

"After the mission where you go through the accelerator on the funeral ship and get caught and imprisoned, when you're allowed out, Dal will mention that he has a contact in the police. And to come and talk to him if you want to work with them. He is on the funeral ship at the accelerator in the dock area. There's no mission guidance to him, you just have to go there."

The key part is there's no mission guidance to see Dal to choose this option - you only have the "Kill ZYA Cobra" mission and guidance. Dal's dialogue line informs you to visit him on the funeral ship and talk to him as he has his contact in the Patriarchy Police. As far as I know this is how it's always been, but I believe should have had a pair of mutually exclusive missions with the other being talk to Dal (this type of multiple mission options was used in the Yaki storyline related to the Amplifier). The next step after talking to Dal is to visit the police contact on the indicated station - the mission guidance only changes AFTER you've spoken to Dal.

I repeatedly checked the save file before I uploaded that it shows the soft lock issue where if you FLY through the accelerator out of the Boneyard, Dal cannot be interacted with on the funeral ship to trigger this storyline branch.

As mentioned previously I had also found a workaround where, instead of flying out of the Boneyard via the accelerator, if you TELEPORT to a small ship docked on the funeral ship you can interact with Dal and trigger the mission to show the station where the Patriarchy Police contact is waiting. If you fly through the accelerator Dal is standing on the dock area of the funeral ship, but does not respond when interacted with - i.e. the choice to work with the police has been soft locked and is not available.

Without knowing what's going on underneath the covers in the game's storyline systems, it's difficult for me to understand why this is occurring - it certainly used to work in previous versions (I, and 0.6% of players according to Steam, have the achievement unlocked to prove it) and certainly without the need to teleport out of the Boneyard.

I concluded that the loading of the Heart of Acrimony II sector (where the funeral ship is waiting) is not handled the same way when transitioning via the accelerator vs teleporting - the accelerator transition does not correctly load the talk to Dal branch of the storyline. The secondary issue, (Boneyard sector not revealing itself while present in it and flying through it) could very conceivably be related to this, which is why I mentioned that also.

For reasons of completeness I just tested this again, as several hotfix versions seem to have been released since I reported this. Good news! It appears the primary issue has been resolved, as Dal is interactable if you FLY out of the sector.

I should point out however the secondary issues of the sector not revealing (unhiding?) itself remains, however this is not as serious.