Why do Scrap deliveries just stop sometimes?

[Scoob]

Hey all,

I have several scrapping operations going on over the map. Nothing unusual there. However, I've noticed something quite annoying that occurs from time to time, and I cannot find a legitimate explanation for it. Basically, I see scrap deliveries just stop. Tugs have arrived at the Station with a wreck in tow, there's a free Processor, but the Tug just sits there not dropping off. Currently, I have a station consisting of FIVE Scrap Processors, to take advantage of the ample wrecks being produced by a border conflict that's been on-going for many hours in my game. Out of eight Tugs, four are currently idle due to no wrecks in the area - I temporarily blacklisted the sector with ample wrecks, due to their being an active invasion, I'll unlock the sector again when it's safe - and four Tugs that are parked next to the station with wrecks in tow. However, ALL five Scrap Processors are sat there idle, yet I can see the impending deliveries of those four tugs in the Raw Scrap queue... yet they're not delivering.

Now, I know a save / reload may well see things working again, and deliveries will actually be dropped off. However, I don't know what actually triggers things to break down like this. In the past, I've observed Tugs that are right next to the Station seemingly waiting for another Tug slow-boating its way to the station - for some reason that more distant tug is ahead in the drop-off queue. In this case though, that's simply not the case, the Tugs are THERE, parked near the station but they're simply not dropping off.

I've watched this station more closely in the past, and I've seen Tugs arrive with wrecks and the instant a Processor becomes free, they move in to drop off. Working really well, as it should. With no changes on my part, the station has very much stalled.

Note: I had another theory on this one, and that is that the wreck have "expired". I.e. the Tug does not consider the wreck it's towing to be valid any more. The reason I think this is because if I CANCEL the Tugs order - so it drops the wreck - that wreck is then not seen as a wreck any more. I cannot even manually order a Tug to collect it. I observed this with distant wrecks, by the time they get back to the station, they've expired. This is basically my only theory currently. When this happens, the wrecks will often not be there after a save / reload, reinforcing this possibility.

Any thoughts or ideas on this? I have submitted formal reports on this in the past, but they've not gained any traction, perhaps due to the save / reload cycle NOT reproducing the issue that occurred when played "live" so to speak.

Sanity check: Yes, there's ample EC's, yes there's ample storage for output, yes there are M-Class Docks (if that bug still exists). This station has been working great for HOURS, until it didn't.

[Raptor34]

What happens if you just wait? Also do they stall if they came in and have been waiting for some time? Or do they come in and there is an empty receiver and they just don't deliver?
Basically I'm wondering if the game is just slow at processing things, and maybe their order is stuck in some kind of queue.

[Scoob]

What happens if you just wait? Also do they stall if they came in and have been waiting for some time? Or do they come in and there is an empty receiver and they just don't deliver?
Basically I'm wondering if the game is just slow at processing things, and maybe their order is stuck in some kind of queue.

They just stay stalled, the wrecks are never dropped off. I was off doing other stuff for ages - perhaps an hour or so - and the same ships were still sat there, with their wrecks in tow. There were five empty Processors - all of them. I don't know how long they were waiting there before I noticed, so it could well have been a lot longer. Checking the Storage level graph, I can see that Scrap Metal hadn't gone up in well over an hour, so it hadn't been producing for a while.

I cancelled the Tugs delivery order, and they immediately dropped the wrecks they where carrying. They would not collect them again and, moments later, said wrecks despawned. This further reinforces my "expired" wreck theory. The neighbouring sector is producing a LOT of wrecks, so some wrecks the Tugs collect can be quite old.

[Raptor34]

An hour is pretty long. But frankly since save/reload solves it, assuming you mean they then proceed to delivery, it sounds more like an order queue issue.
Actually related to that, I heard that ship replacement checks only trigger when the overall commander changes orders or something like that, i.e. if you order them to fly and wait they'll never replace their ships. I wonder if save/reload would also force them to trigger a check. If so it would be circumstantial evidence that your issue is caused by something clogging up your order queue.