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Workarounds for common problems

Last modified by Ketraar on 2023/08/15 17:16

This page is intended to summarise, (A) issues that don't need reporting to Egosoft, and (B) issues identified by players that have known workarounds (whether bugs or not apparently Working As Designed (WAD)).

Please don't list all problems here, and please don't list any problem unless it has already been reported to Egosoft on their forum in the usual way.

Page content:


Egosoft's list of issues from the beta thread (with workarounds)

  • Using Alt-Tab during fullscreen video playback will cause video/sound to get out of sync (workaround: press Esc to skip video).

General tips

The User Interface (UI) has frozen in some way:

Perform a UI reload. This can be done in the following ways:

  • Trigger it using the in-game command line
    • (ideally beforehand) Try to go to "Options -> General controls" and set a hotkey for "Command Line"
    • Press the hotkey and type reloadui followed by enter/return
  • In Fullscreen mode
    • press Alt+Tab to switch to the Desktop and back into the game
  • In Windowed mode
    • try to resize the game window (note: moving the window will not trigger a UI reload)
  • In Windowed or Borderless Windowed mode
    • try to minimize and then restore the game window
  • In any mode
    • try to switch the game resolution or the windowed mode

 

Common misunderstandings and confusions

  • No Buy orders when a station/Construction Vessel (CV) needs a ware (link): If you have a station that lacks a resource but has no Buy orders available, the ware may be being delivered by a Non-Player Character (NPC). If they are travelling across a few systems, this could take some time (e.g. >30 mins). In the meantime, if production lines have been halted, you could try using a Transfer order on one of your ships to over-supply the station with some of the needed ware.
  • 'Friendly' Teladi Outpost factions attack my ships: This is WAD. Blue standings allow us to trade with criminal factions but it won't stop them trying to destroy and loot our TRADE and MINE ships. Full details here but workarounds include:
    - Only using heavily defended and/or escorted civilian ships in the Fields of Opportunity system.
    - Only using civilian ships to trade/mine in Fields of Opportunity if able to keep a close eye on them.
    - Not sending civilian capitals between Ascendancy/Far Out (Albion) and Omicron Lyrae.
  • I've open the map and run a text search with input I know is correct but there are no/insufficient search results: The map only works down the layers from Galaxy to Zone so if, for example, you opened the Sector map and searched for an object in a different sector or system, it won't be found. Workaround is to always zoom up to the Galaxy map level and run the search from there.
  • I've found a zone containing a station/ship of interest via map search but there are no objects listed: The search works like a filter so if searching for a zone name/partial name, you'll only be shown an object within the zone if it has the same name/partial name. The general workaround it clear the filter of text and press return. If you have the Economic Software installed, a quicker workaround can be to open that for the zone and the return back to the zone.
  • My manual Trader/Miner has a Captain showing command "Dock at unknown station" but it is trade with a known station: Check the Captain's Detail page to see if it says it is Refuelling. It is probably travelling to a Cell Recharge Fab that you've not uncovered on the map yet.

Bugs or things that do not appear WAD

  • Capital ships having issues navigating near asteroids: v4.10 fixed the old issue of bouncing around off asteroids by making then be destroyed on collision with capital ships. If you're still experiencing problems with navigation, try pressing F2 (external view) and zooming out as far as possible ().
  • Loss of music: If you permanently lose background and/or fight music from your game from after a specific save then search your save for <music locked="1"/> and/or <fightmusic locked="1"/> and delete them if found. Then you should have music back after reloading that save. This does not solve the issue that caused the loss in the first place though (link).
  • Unable to deliver mission-related wares: Mission-related Buy orders may not appear in both the station's Trade Offers and lists of Buy orders at it's docking ports. Check all trades offered by the station until finding the exact quantity specified in the mission (heresee   for further info). Mission Trade Offers may appear after any trade with required ware: if you order a Trade ship to sell some of the required ware to the station, it will force the mission offer to appear in the (it is always listed with max price). You can then cancel your initial, forcing, sale and make actual mission sale.
  • Skunk stuck in station/capital ship geometry: Workarounds include:
    - Pressing F2 (external view) and zooming out as far as possible may deactivate collisions and allow depature (Len5).
    - Going to external view, selecting a docking port in range and docking.
    - Using the Skunk jump drive, if installed.
    - Setting autopilot to a different zone and entering the rear of the Skunk.
    - Flying, boosting and bouncing around inside until luck kicks you out.
  • Hostile fighters stuck in station geometry: The workaround for that is to go OOZ (Out of zone, i.e. leaving the current Zone; the collision avoidance is turned off then) and either wait for them to move out the geometry then return to kill them, or ask our ships to kill them while we are OOZ.
  • Player station has NPC staff called "???": A save and reload should clear it.
  • Ship doesn't seem to follow orders: If it's a deployed Construction Vessel (CV), keep in mind the non-bug note below. Otherwise, try a save+reload. If that doesn't work, try recalling and re-assigning related NPCs to the ship. If that still doesn't help, try going OOS (Out of sector, i.e. leaving the current sector) and doing a save+reload.
  • Ship assigned to a commander doesn't work after receiving a new Captain: Bring the ship into the Skunk's squad and reassign them to their previous commander.
  • Game reduces to persistent slideshow at 1-5 Frames per Second (FPS). Not a temporary dip but persistent after some trigger event, it makes the Skunk almost uncontrollable and survives a save/reload cycle. The best workaround is to try to get out of the current zone; then the Physics engine and game FPS may recover. You can point the Skunk straight up or down and then boost into an Empty Space zone. This is not a guaranteed workaround. 
  • My trader has trades queued up but is following order "Wait" for an unknown reason: Bring a trader into and out of the Skunk Squad can clear this for out-of-squad traders. For in-squad traders it is unknown if this can help but cycling the ship out and back could is worth a try.
    This situation can be caused by ordering "Withdraw from battle" to trading ship, ship switch to "Wait" state after "withdraw" order.
  • Fired Non-Player Characters (NPCs) are appearing on my station and are listed where employed NPCs are listed: This may only occur while firing NPCs from the rear of the Skunk while the Skunk is in the same zone as the a player station. Workarounds are to fire NPCs in other zones, or while docked on NPC stations.
  • Some script actions can cause capital ship crew to enter a broken command state: This happened twice during the campaign with confiscated ships but it is fixed in v4.10. If every you have ship crew that refuses to follow any orders (Captain) or undertake their normal actions (Engineers and Defence Officers (DOs)), ordering the ship in and out the Skunk Squad can fix Captains, or replacing any of them will too.
  • In-game encyclopedia entries for some Omicron Lyrae (OL) stations display incorrect production amounts: Licensed Distillery and Water Prep Plant produce considerably less than expected. Some of the production module information presented in-game for the Argon buildings Licensed Distillery and Water Prep Plant incorrectly display values for Albion equivalent production modules. The Albion equivalent modules produce considerably more than the Argon modules meaning that one can be fooled into thinking a factory will be more productive than it actually is. For example the Argon liquor still has the same batch size but twice the production time of the Albion liquor still. This is especially the case when selecting a building for construction. The values presented on the Wiki list correct production values, which should be used when considering factory productivity and consumption rates.
  • Pressing View from the Info panel of a sold ship that has just jumped away crashes the game: If you open the info panel of a freshly sold L or XL ship that is in high attention and jumping, wait for it to jump and then press view the screen will go black and eventually the application will close. Since view shifts your centre of focus to the target and the target has jumped away or disappeared it results in bad things happening. After selling ships avoid interacting with them, especially after they jump away.
  • Construction Vessels (CVs) ignoring additional equipped Construction URV units while building stations: CVs will only use the Construction URV units they have equipped when ordered to build a stage of a station. Any more that get equipped on them during construction will not be used to build the current construction stage. As such it is recommended that you load all CV ships up with at least 10 (20+ if you want a station fast) Construction URVs before ordering them to build a station so that progress can be made at a decent rate. It is perfectly possible to build stations with only 1 Construction URV, the default number ordered at a XL Shipyard, however doing so will take a painfully long time.
    Workaround for this issue is to equip sufficient number of Construction URVs, wait until the stage of a station has been completed, and to be OOZ (Out of zone, i.e. leaving the current Zone; the collision avoidance is turned off then) while ordering a build of a new stage of the station. In this way CV will use all available Construction URVs for building of the new stage of the station.
  • Player-owned capital ships not undocking from shipyards: This has been reported occasionally. One work-around is to go OOS (Out of sector, i.e. leaving the current sector), save and reload.