[Bugs] Minor Gameplay Issues

[FearlessKenji]

First, with the Hydra Regal specifically, the hired pilot is bugged in the seat. Meaning when I get up, they are already there and take control immediately. When I ask them to get up to take control myself, they may or may not get up, and after a few seconds, they disappear. I have not noticed this with other ships. I have also had to fight with the AI trying to control the ship as I'm piloting it, forcing me to get up and sit back down to have control back.

Second, when shooting criminals at stations that are neutral or below, sometimes the station security (civilian-sized ships) will get mad and call for reinforcements (normal ships) without the "Your actions cannot be tolerated; calling sector security" sequence. No non-criminal ships are being destroyed/damaged and neither is the station. I even get thanked and a rep increase as security is on the way. Obviously, if I fight back, there is a rep penalty for each security ship destroyed.

[conrado.lacerda]

1. Try clearing the ship's order queue before taking control. I personally have the habit of always hitting the full stop key every time I take control, it seems to at least stop any interference from the relief pilot.

2. That's usually caused by illegal items in your inventory because npc stations have these little police drones that scan you with a blue beam of light without asking first.

[Sticky]

Those Civilian ships that are red might have got some collateral damage while you were shooting at Criminals. When you see a red ship verify that it says Criminal and not just a Red Civilian Ship. There are different versions of Pulse Laser, some better than others, Terran's is probably the best Argon version is Okay to use. But weapons like Shard would be horrific for killing Criminal Ships you will take out all the ships around them.
As for the pilot of the ship your having issues with try to assign them to another ship even if you assign them back to the Hydra Regal, this might fix the issue.
You can take control of a ship that has Orders, and when you get up they will wait for you to tell them to proceed with current orders and they will continue their original set of orders.

[FearlessKenji]

1. I see now that fighting for control after a reload is a common problem on the Egosoft forums FAQ. I will disregard that issue since it is known, but will post the rest of these there since it seems more appropriate than here. This also doesn't address the NPC just standing there and disappearing, or being already seated when I get up.

Originally posted by Sticky:

You can take control of a ship that has Orders, and when you get up they will wait for you to tell them to proceed with current orders and they will continue their original set of orders.

This is the problem. After docking and getting up, the pilot is already seated and in control and starts taking off. They do not wait for orders since I'm already on the ship.

2. When cargo gets scanned, it is announced. When illegal cargo is detected, you are told to drop it. When a non-hostile ship is attacked/killed, even collaterally, that is also announced.

Originally posted by Sticky:

When you see a red ship verify that it says Criminal and not just a Red Civilian Ship.

When is there ever a random enemy civilian ship that's not a criminal? In any case, to not announce anything and just go on the offensive seems like a bug. Especially when I still get Cr + rep for the kill.

Also, I don't think I've ever accidentally fully killed any kind of ship. I generally use the Hydra Regal or Geometric Owl as personal ships, and they have very little if any splash damage. This also does not take into account the fact that this is not a problem with friendly/allied (10+ rep) factions, only enemy/neutral ones (9- rep).

Again, I will post these issues on the official forums as that seems to be a more effective/appropriate form of bug reporting.

[conrado.lacerda]

Selective reader, huh?

[FearlessKenji]

Originally posted by conrado.lacerda:

Selective reader, huh?

No, that would be you. If you're not going to be respectful, you can move on.

[Carlsberg]

I have found sometimes the red ship is red to you the player, but not to the station defence, if you shoot a ship in that scenario the police will turn against you.

If I decide to shoot criminal at a station and there is more than one I don't shoot any, I just move on because I am never sure which one I can shoot.

[Mordtziel]

2. When cargo gets scanned, it is announced. When illegal cargo is detected, you are told to drop it. When a non-hostile ship is attacked/killed, even collaterally, that is also announced.

I've found that they don't always do this. They do what we'd call in the real world an illegal search where it's unannounced and you're just immediately under arrest when they find the contraband. Similar to the criminals you're vaporizing.

Originally posted by Carlsberg:

I have found sometimes the red ship is red to you the player, but not to the station defence, if you shoot a ship in that scenario the police will turn against you.

If I decide to shoot criminal at a station and there is more than one I don't shoot any, I just move on because I am never sure which one I can shoot.

I've yet to see this in hundreds of civilian kills. Is it a particular faction perhaps? I know with SCA, you can freely kill all of their civilian ships without an issue because I guess they're all criminals?

[Gibbo]

What mods have you installed? I've never had any of those problems in over 2000 hours. Never had the Hydra problems and the only time station traffic turns red is if I kill a criminal and my guns are too powerful and they also damage/destroy a civilian.

You must have mods.

[FearlessKenji]

Originally posted by Gibbo:

What mods have you installed? I've never had any of those problems in over 2000 hours. Never had the Hydra problems and the only time station traffic turns red is if I kill a criminal and my guns are too powerful and they also damage/destroy a civilian.

You must have mods.

Thanks for the assumption, but I don't. As of right now, I can't reproduce the pilot immediately taking control, but here's a video of the animation being broken: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11sMNto4twVvqhmmiu6e12Aum5Uwa0016/view?usp=sharing

Originally posted by Mordtziel:

2. When cargo gets scanned, it is announced. When illegal cargo is detected, you are told to drop it. When a non-hostile ship is attacked/killed, even collaterally, that is also announced.

I've found that they don't always do this. They do what we'd call in the real world an illegal search where it's unannounced and you're just immediately under arrest when they find the contraband. Similar to the criminals you're vaporizing.

That's fine if that's the intended behavior; I can just chalk it up to more vague game mechanics. I just wish the game was consistent and it doesn't seem to happen in friendly systems. But it could also make sense that neutral or less faction space they'd be more willing to start something. The most recent times this happened was in trying to get TER points and immediately after shooting a criminal. Could be a coincidence.

[Gibbo]

A mk1 pulse laser can cause friendly fire when shooting crims. A mk2 can be carnage and those are the weakest weapons in the game I think? I'm not the only one saying they haven't seen it. Have you used mods before? Because if you have they may still be active.

That video you posted is quite common. If you aim at the chair (bottom of chair is best) then you can just ignore that nonsense. That's been happening since around 6.20? Look at the chair and you can very quickly get seated and ignore what your relief pilot is doing.

And yes I hope they fix that, but have to say your video shows your game to be a lot more janky than mine. The worst I get is an ass in the face. Only for a second and then they're gone. Yours was quite a mess.

[FearlessKenji]

Originally posted by Gibbo:

A mk1 pulse laser can cause friendly fire when shooting crims. A mk2 can be carnage and those are the weakest weapons in the game I think? I'm not the only one saying they haven't seen it. Have you used mods before? Because if you have they may still be active.

That video you posted is quite common. If you aim at the chair (bottom of chair is best) then you can just ignore that nonsense. That's been happening since around 6.20? Look at the chair and you can very quickly get seated and ignore what your relief pilot is doing.

And yes I hope they fix that, but have to say your video shows your game to be a lot more janky than mine. The worst I get is an ass in the face. Only for a second and then they're gone. Yours was quite a mess.

I've never used mods as this is my first playthrough. I know I can ignore it, but the pilot taking off was the big problem (they also left the landing gear down/bay door open, allowing me to walk into open space), which I still can't reproduce. Could just be computer jank, and if it happens again, I'll be sure to record it. I have an i5 12600K gen with a 3070, which is getting old fast, but it should still be more than enough going off requirement specs.

It happened maybe 2-3 times, which made me want to post about it, but hasn't happened since.

And if there was collateral damage, wouldn't I get a hit to rep for an unnecessary kill? I think it's likely the unannounced search as mentioned by Mordtziel, since I do remember seeing a scanning beam. Just weird that it happened a few times in a row with that specific timing.

Though, the timing could also be a part of station behavior, as generally within a few seconds of arriving at a station, a criminal appears. Could be that within those same seconds, a neutral/enemy station sends traffic-sized police to scan your cargo.

[Doom]

Originally posted by FearlessKenji:

immediately taking control, but here's a video of the animation being broken: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11sMNto4twVvqhmmiu6e12Aum5Uwa0016/view?usp=sharing

Have you tried replacing the captain or hiring a human?

[Gibbo]

Probably won't help, but verify files and if that doesn't work then sign up for the beta which is easy to do and I'll help and plenty of others will. Other than that I don't know? Sorry.