Where are all the cargo ships?

[cptsavarus]

Noticing a complete lack of cargo ships here... you know, the ones that used to spawn randomly & float through the world until they either vanished or you did something with them.
Not a single one in maybe 20 hours. 3 different worlds, same deal in all of them. Where are they? Did Keen remove them again & not grey-out the button?

Also noticing a seriously low spawn rate for exploration finds. Again, 20 or so hours & only 2 finds, despite using the scan mod. That's not including the twenty billion SPAT stations that seem to cluster together in groups of 4 or 5. Passed one of these clusters about an hour ago, then nothing at all since.

Are the random gen's this loaded for everyone or am I just being really unlucky?

[Sketchy]

Cargo ships are a separate option that has to be turned on for you to see any. As for finding derelicts, its a hit or miss really. High density asteroid spawning has a higher chance of spawning derelicts.

[Raikonis]

cargoships not spawn in dev branch at all and derelicts like stations and ships pop up a large number or very few when using the explore scan mod

[RogueDelta]

Derelicts are under the random encounter checkbox, and cargo ships are in the Cargo ships checkbox, I believe, they also changed the pathing of cargo ships to avoid entering gravity wells, so they don't just fall out of the sky anymore.

[cptsavarus]

Thanks for replying guys.
Not a new player - been around a long time. I know about the options & how the random gen works... or used to work. Right now seems like it's broken... or that it's been messed with & the balance is screwed up.

Been away from the game for 6 months or so & have no idea after what update things changed but they definitely have.

Used to be a cargo ship would spawn roughly every 5 - 15 minutes. Now not one in many hours. And not just in one world but in 3!
I know there was trouble with them spawing inside planets, etc & that it was fixed with the gravity well exclusion thing. The worlds I'm playing right now though don't have any planets in them.

Random encounters always came in groups but there was always variation to them. Now the variation is almost completely gone. 40 or 50 SPAT stations to 2 player created content.

The clustering I can understand... that's just what happens when computers generate random numbers. Somehow the numbers tend to form up into groups. There are theories as to why it happens but no-one really knows for sure.

What's different now is that the clusters are so large and the spaces between them so vast.

Far as I know the scan mod does nothing to actually affect the number of random encounters or the chance of them occuring. It just detects & reports them when they're in range.
I know it doesn't always detect ALL derelicts but I've used it for a long time & it does have a high success rate.

Honestly, I don't remember the random gen ever being this loaded! Is no-one else experiencing this?

[RogueDelta]

I usually see a military mine layer or cargo ship about every 30 - 45 minutes, usually 9 - 14 km away, but not within any gravity wells or atmosphere.

Random encounters are distributed in 20 x 20 x 20 km cube sectors

[SpetS]

Cargo Ships, Random Envounters and Space Pirates do spawn in Dev branch. If you are on a planet you have to fly like 100 km away or so to find them

[Raikonis]

spet i was doing lone survivor in dev branch and not one single cargo ship showed up

[cptsavarus]

Originally posted by RogueDelta:

... Random encounters are distributed in 20 x 20 x 20 km cube sectors

That sounds about right, though can I ask where you know that from? Was it in one of the update vids or something?

From what I understand of random generators, there are usually 2 at work (presumably that's true of SE as well)... the first decides if anything actually gets spawned, the second picks from a list what that thing is.
Seems like the first one has had its %chance modifier reduced.

30-45 mins between cargo ships is definitely longer than it used to be too.

[Superdeathrobot]

This same thing has been happening to me, but instead of no cargo ships spawning, it spawns these tiny fighters with absolutely no fuel. Do alt-f10 and scroll through the biggest grids tab, when you do, do you see a lot of tiny, blue fighters?

[Twelve]

im still geting them spawn on my worlds, i have noticed a drop in the spawn rate though, seems like a pretty significant drop too. im reluctant to put a number on it but it feel like i get a cargo ship every 40-60 mins now. kinda like it.

[Superdeathrobot]

Again, check in the admin menu (alt-f10) and go to the biggest grids, look to see if a bunch of tiny fighters have started spawning

[SpetS]

yeah wtf are this tiny fighters? it was made by the Devs or by an user? how is this even in the game? lol

[Superdeathrobot]

I emailed the developers, I am glad it is not because I changed the spawn rate or because of a mod. I'm also glad that I'm not the only one.

[Regicide]

Hmm i have to check that little fighters, too. But somehting i also recognized: I thought there are no Cargo Ships out there. Even after building my first big Ship with a Large Antenna ... nothing. Only SPAT Stations.

But then, when i did fly to a planet, only me, without any Ship, i suddenyl saw one ~13km away. So i thought maybe the settings of my Antenna is broken. Do i need something special to make the Signals of the Cargo Ships visible? Because maybe they are out there, but my antennas don't see them. (And yes, Antenna Broadcast range is at max)

[Superdeathrobot]

I don't think having an antenna does anything, because most of the time cargo ships use beacons(all ships do)