Middle States 7.5 Release Bugs/Discussion

GrandpaTrout, a small bug in Corliss. The Sun 'corliss' and planet 'corliss' share the same name. So the stations that should be parented to corliss the planet are being parented to the Sun. The planet name or sun name needs to be changed. I would do it in with my geog tools, but I think you have a better environment setup to do it.

This skipping is interesting. The fact that it does not do it first time around but does afterwards suggests that an l-point mapping is being dynamically updated by the standard PS scripts? That the same behaviour happens as part of the standard game adds to my feeling in this area.

Has anyone done some debug stuff on the l-mappings after this behaviour starts up?

Shane, thanks for the info. Well, that is very bad. Downright not good.

I would guess the behavior is in the AI routines that pilot the player ship. And I suppose it makes some sense, because the skipping behavior is the same as Iwar 1. In that game you could jump from any point to any other.

There is something that could be tested. If tracking where the player has been happens in non-autopilot code, we might be able to turn it off. Turn off all the traffic and space start up scripts in MS_Mod_Main/scripts.ini
[Space]
enter[]=iStartSystem.StartupSpace

[System]
enter[]=iStartSystem.StartupSystem

And get the shutdowns in the exit keys of those two entries as well.

If that works, then it will be possible to still use autopilots in Traffic. If not, we will be forced to recode the ship jumping behavior. And that is the end of system to system autopilots.

I guess we are going to get a chance to code a capsule jump simulation after all. I think even if this bug exists, we are just going to have to go forward and release this version. It is too much work to wait. And is can be worked around by manual piloting. Awkward. But no more awkward than the future solution.

As far as debugging goes, there is no table of lpoint jumps we can reach from POG. The only ones that exist are in the map files. And those are static. I think this must be hidden inside some C++ autopilot code. And like most of the AI, we cannot touch it.

I checked the lpoints with these entries

[Space]
enter[]=iStartSystem.StartupSpace

[System]
enter[]=iStartSystem.StartupSystem

turned off, and it had no effect on the skipping of Lpoints. It still occurs.

Aside from duplicating the double jump, I have not much to report. Looking through all the AI calls that exist in POG, I still do not see anything that could reset or adjust the jump behavior.

The solution (for Traffic) that I am considering would be to remove all the intersteller Lpoint connections. The AI would not see any connections and so would never jump itself. The player would need to plan routes from system to system. Within the same system, the autopilot would work as it does now.

Has anyone else tried this release? Any issues to report?

Don't know if these are real bugs, but here goes:

I cannot sell the pods that I find (swipe), hack, then transport. Am I missing something?
How do I enter pods into my inventory if I want to keep rather than sell?
Docking pods with Patcom is tricky. Sometimes it will dock two pods, sometimes it won't, saying there are no available ports. Sometimes, it won't release a pod, it's just stuck there.
Their seems to be a lot of fighting at stations; e.g. a navy fighter will, for no apparent reason, attack a navy freighter and destroy it, without any reaction from others.
That annoying tug still shows up and harasses my wingmen without going red, at stations as well as L-points.
Collisions at L-points with stationary ships in the jump path occur fairly regularly.
Ghost SnRVs (no hits, no damage, no response, lurking outside L-point exit) from EOC are here as well, though I never noticed them before.
I've also noticed the "skipping " of L-points that Cambragol refers to. The way there and back between two points varies.
I've had two CTD's, but I have no idea why. There doesn't seem to be any connection between them other than the game had been running a long time; one after a jump, and one setting up for a jump, different wingmen, different missions.