Epic: Middle States bug reports

This thread is meant to collect together bug reports in Epic:Middle States released version. (which is ver 8.0).

Alright, I flew my tug and SNRV back and forth between the common metal mine and that processing thingamajig quite a few trips. Here are the things I’ve noticed so far:

My tug’s autopilot has no respect for the port jurisdiction. It always goes 850, even in the 250 zone. I’m going to get pulled over for speeding sooner or later!

Both stations have ships, but no activity. The freighters just sit there like their crews are on a coffee break. Once, maybe twice, I saw (heard, actually) a ship enter LDS, but that’s it.

Could we get a slightly more detailed chart of what products go where? E.g., what do the heavy manufacturing plants need, as opposed to the regular ones, and where do I ship their output? Even better would be a way to select a commodity in game and get a list of stations in this and nearby systems that would buy it. (Better than that would be to see how much each is willing to pay for it, but that might make it too easy.)

Hi Mdvalley,

I don't know what is happening with the activity levels. I seem to get non stop fighting in my game. I was run over by a megafreighter once, so I know they move (in my game)!

Your question about what goes where: here is the short answer. You can learn this by docking at the station and reading the "station needs" list in the lower right.

And you bring up an interesting issue with trade sims in general. "Where is the fun in a trade sim?"

Every person is entitled to thier own opinion. Mine is that the fun is in learning the economy. How it works. Who trades what. If that happens automatically, I don't have much fun. What I don't like, is riding the autopilot 1000 times. But some people really like that.

What does everyone else think? What do you like about trade sims? What is your ideal?

Mdvalley, the inactivity you see might just be ships waiting in line to unload pods at the pod spewer. A very common situation.

GrandpaTrout also raises interesting questions about how to make trading fun. I am leaning away from requiring many repetitous autopilot trips between stations, and leaning towards having fewer, more involved and complicated trips. I.e. the physical loading and unloading of cargo, docking to a station to make a purchase, manually piloting between systems, actually having to find out where things go, where prices are lowest/highest, establishing contacts to open new markets, etc. These kind of activities just seem more fun to me than simply hitting autopilot 1000 times between two stations you picked from a list.

Still, that is just me. In future releases we will be adding a news system that may broadcast economic reports among other things. These reports will be valuable information, which could be put to immediate use by the player.

I witnessed the same inactivity at an L-point last night. Three freighters, one a loaded Venice with interceptor escorts; all sitting motionless.

I managed to get the Venice to drop her cargo, but she continued to sit there. The escorts had a 15km radius 'zone of activity'... if I moved outside the zone they would return to the freighter.

Allowed the Venice to repair herself to full, but still she never moved. Finally destroyed her.

I'll keep closer tabs on AI activity on later forays.

Well I found a nasty traffic jam at a processor, though no-one was actually unloading.

I see your point about not making it repetitive. How about we get that economic report, but it only shows the easy (read: low/zero profit) trades and the player can find the juicy stuff? Or buy some insider information from a passing ship.

What I would like is to fly one of those big freighters myself, trying to maneuver the bus around stations and L-Points. Those things should fly like bricks, and if you get into trouble in one, it is very hard to run. Imagine the following:

Antimatter is very difficult to produce, so it is very expensive, and hauling it would garner a huge profit. Imagine flying a freighter with a pod or four of the stuff. You exit an L-Point right into some pirates, who demand some of your loot. Losing a single pod will set you back tremendously, but losing four pods and a ship are worse, considering that your life pod might not make it past the explosion, either. Do you pay up? Do you sic your escorts on them and run for the edge of the LDSi field? Maybe you could set up a deal with that gang beforehand to let you pass in exchange for a cut of the profits.