Middle States 7.4 Release Bugs/Discussion

I have a bug to report myself. Jon, none of the Station or Planet sounds seem to be working? Were you aware of this?

I think there may be an issue with multiple installs. I also think it's a PS bug, since it doesn't seem to check the directory structure it's being run from, but checks the directories listed in the registry... I ran into this as well, selecting mods in one copy would make changes in the "official" install, but not the copy.

Note: Should we start the user out with the Gamma heatsink? Or give them the basic Alpha, unless they buy a nice ship in which case something better should some standard. Or make all these items something you trade in seperately?

I am losing all my sound.inis and thus sounds, on 3 out of 4 loadups. The only sound I get when those sound objects cut out is the background system sound.

Jon, I also fixed the problem with the production station sounds. There was a typo in the folder name.

MS_Mod_Music\avatars\production_station_sound was spelt: MS_Mod_Music\avatars\production_staton_sound

Notice the missing 'i'

Some notes-

- when there is more than one wingmen (in this case SnRv's) in a group, they tend to collide as they vie for the same space after given the Form Up (2) command, similar to a glitch in the original EOC when two ships tried for the same space at an L-point. Makes for annoying noises and difficult to load cargo. If you stay in slow motion, it mitigates the confusion somewhat, but loading cargo is still difficult unless they are assigned to different groups. As per Greb, wingmen must be ordered to halt, otherwise they will avoid cargo.

-as noted elsewhere, I CTD upon entering a lot of stations, not just HQ's, e.g. Processing stations, etc. I will try to track it down more specifically if possible.

-CTD upon emerging from a jump through L-point (with two wingmen) as I tried to return to a previous location. I have not enabled traffic. Will try to track more.

-as I noted before, backround chatter is very difficult to hear, unless acceleration on soundcard is set to basic. On full, it all but disappears. The station LDSi "hum" varies from place to place also, sometimes like a hum, sometimes like a hammer or pile driver in the distance. No big deal, I just don't know if that's intended.

Note to cambragol-

"Purchasing a ship can only be done at stations that produce ships...like ship yards. At least I think that is the case."

Simple enough, but the screen at every station includes a Purchase Ship box, which leads to expectations/hope that it will be available. Wasn't sure if they were empty on purpose, or just not populated as yet for this test. Sorry if this is annoying/redundant.

Back to looking for what we don't want...

More notes-

-turns out it isn't enough to assign wingmen to different groups to prevent them for competing for space and bumping into each other, I couldn't assign all of them to form up to me; it seems you have to give each one a separate group and command, otherwise they keep going round and round whenever you stop somewhere. You can assign them to defend each other, and that seems to avoid the problem.

-using the approach command (6) to send them to your target destination ahead of you avoided the CTD during jumps, but you have to still herd them like sheep because they will stop at random points and will not go through the next L-point w/o another command. They rarely (never?) stop at the same points together.

-using the approach command one ship at a time to approach a pod and load all cargo went a lot smoother than when I had them formate to me or defend each other.

-managed to get them to load and deliver 18 pods of rare metals from the mine at Mckeown Belt to the Exotic metals processing plant near Emerald and fly back to the shipbuilding yard at Azran using this process. Upon trying to enter the station to save the game-CTD. Usually, this is the safest place (for me) to enter a station and save, but not this time. I haven't tried the other method of saving yet.

Questions:

1)does anyone else notice that when the wingmen are given a command to form up or approach a target for example, they will not respond to another command, say Halt, until they have completed the previous command? (I don't remember this being the case with EOC, but I could be mistaken.)

2)if you've exited the UNiGUI screen at any given station, is there a way of calling it back up other than undocking and docking again?

Q2: You can use the "o" key to open the UniGUI menu. The Install_notes.rtf document sent with the links to the install files has some useful information about keybinds.

Which brings up a good point. How should player manual type of information be handled? I was thinking a document file, but I find that I seldom read those. Same with install notes, readme files, and other data.

What I am thinking at this point is to include that kind of info in the "Library" GUI. It kind of breaks the illusion that this is not a game, but it is much, much handier than a readme file hiding somewhere.

What does everyone think about a color coded map - with areas like Epitaph in Red, and the wastelands in yellow, and the civil areas in green. Something like "freighter pilots handbook to the Middle States"?

Other information, such as where you can purchase ships and upgrades could also be included. It needs to be written somewhere.

Persona: I would like to hear more about your crashes on jump. Do they happen when you have no wingmen? Do they still happen when your far_clip value is lowered? How often does the crash happen. Once every 10 jumps. Once every 20 jumps?