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Scanning Planets does not appear to be working

A topic by Memeras created Jul 27, 2020 Views: 280 Replies: 12
Viewing posts 1 to 2

Just recently bought this as I loved the original. I can launch the game, start a new game, pick crew and ship type, but when I try to scan the planets (any planet), my probots just endlessly do the moving, analyzing, refuelling thing, but no progression is shown on the land, sea, etc areas.

I've left the probots going for over an hour and nothing happens, they just keep scanning lol.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Can you email your save game file to robert@redshadowgames.com?  I'll take a look at it.  Can you scan another planet or is it all planets?

Hi, thankyou for your reply. I'll send it over asap, just working at the moment. I haven't left the first system, but as things stand it happens to all planets in the startup system, even when starting a new game. The probots are just stuck on "analysing" and the percentage scanned stays at 0%.

I need to point out that this happens on my laptop (an i5) as I tried it at work yesterday evening. I'm going to try it again on my home pc. But will send you the save files regardless.


Steve

Developer

You wouldn't happen to be on "Easy" difficulty would you?

interestingly enough on my laptop I was. I've tested my desktop pc this evening on normal difficulty and that worked. Is there a bug with easy mode?

Developer (1 edit)

Apparently =)  I want to look at that "Insufficient Fuel" bug too that you mentioned.  Might take a couple of days.. the machine I was using to build died and I've got to set up my laptop to rebuild the assets and build the installers in addition to debugging the issue.

okay. I'll send you my save file when I get back. The insufficient fuel bug happens when I use the sector map and try to jump to another star. Returns me to the main screen with no graphics. I'll try and replicate it and send a screenshot. Using the email address you sent earlier?

Ok, I've tested game on Easy, Medium and Hard and can confirm that only Easy mode has the probot scanning problem. To replicate the insufficient fuel bug just go to Astrogation, sector map and pick an out of range star, I'm not sure how you see which stars are in range to be honest, its difficult to tell on that map, but if its out of range you'll be returned to the main screen minus the graphics and be unable to do anything but quit - can take a screenshot and send if you like, but its easy to replicate.

One other thing I noticed was the initial music that plays when you are orbiting planets - its different to the tune played in the original, think its the same music that plays when you are in the sector map itself. Not sure if that's intentional or not.

Thank you for your communication so far, I really loved playing this game when I was younger, was only about 18 or so lol. Its nice to know you are keen to fix it - have all sorts of questions, like how do you stop your crew going insane - always got pretty far and then they went crazy. Let me know if you need anything else - happy to keep testing if need be :)

Steve

Developer(+1)

Thanks.  

I've fixed the Easy problem on Probe Scan.  Stupid simple bug that slipped through.

Found the problem with Sector Map and Insufficient Fuel.

I've found a couple of more minor issues that have been plaguing the game that I couldn't track down like some of the text updates and Creation teams not updating properly.  Those will be fixed. 

I will do a better testing pass this time around. =)

Developer

To answer your question about crew insanity:

Encode and Decode as needed

Raise your crew level and create Mind Enhancers

Tweak values using Psy Eval

(+1)

Good morning :) First of all, thankyou so much for gettng the new build out - it did indeed sort my initial problems out :)

However, I have noticed a few more things, which may be bugs, or may be game related, I've listed them below:-

When planet scanning, the Land, Sea, Air, etc stay red even when scanned - I remember them turning green in the original when done.

The system map doesnt seem to remember which planets you have visited, and even says you have visited some you havent.

When retrieving anomalies, it is quite difficult sometimes to click on the little scanner box and select the anomalies, sometimes have to click around a lot, the main planet view works fine, but of course you cant always see the anomalies on there and you cant rotate that one like you can the smaller window.

The Retrieve button on planet scanning has a tooltip which constantly flashes on and off when you hover the mouse pointer over it, rather than staying on like the other tooltips do.

Possible bug:- I've found when you discover a planet with a race on you can initiate communication with, after doing this, every planet you visit has intelligent life on (even the dead ones I had scanned previously) - it looks like once you have spoken to a race once, every planet is then populated? So I'm thinking this isn't as intended.

Finally, the sector map, I seem to remember initially that when you started in Oban on the original game, the sector map only showed one or two other close stars, one of which was Edaum, I forget the other one. The sector map gradually filled as you visited the systems. I've noticed that the new version shows all the stars on the sector map at the start, rather than as you find them, is that intentional? The local map works as it used to, in that I can only see the other two local systems at the game start.

Oh, and one more thing, I remember when you warp to another system in the original, think its Edaum, you get a message saying you had found another buoy and it mentions refuelling your ship and the Sengzhac. In the current version of the game, I don't get any more messages after the initial two at the game start.

Think thats it - sorry to be a pain lol, seem to keep finding stuff. Let me know if you need a save file, or any screenshots, etc.

Cheers,

Steve

Developer

Thank you for your feedback! =)

I'll see what I can do over the weekend to fix these bugs.

Probe screen plays the correct song.  Sector Map song was originally Probe and sector.mod was played for some of the random aliens.  I set it to the Sector Map because I think it gets boring to hear too much of probe.mod. =)

Anomalie clicking is a bit annoying.  Something wrong with the rotation of the hitbox.  I will see what I can do to fix it.

Star reveal code is there but it doesn't seem to be working right.  I will check.  Maybe I left some debug in there or something.  It needs to work right because some events reveal hidden systems.  It's supposed to reveal 60 light years out as you travel.

There were some new events added by another programmer later on that I think I missed.  I will have to go through them and check.  There's a message about fuel and returning to Mars that I don't see.

I will do a lot more playing this weekend.  Thanks again for testing.  I do want this game to be a good experience for anyone returning to it 25 years later. =)

Absolutely no problem at all. I have a lot of fond memories of this game, playing it as a youngster :) its plain you are very passionate about it which is great :)

I've stopped playing the remake for now, the thing where every planet suddenly becomes populated has kind of stopped me for now. Probes getting destroyed and all that lol.

Thought of another minor thing too - on the creation screen is it possible to make it a bit easier to see what you can create? I remember on the original, items you could create had white text. Currently I think the coloured text is a bit brighter if you can create, sometimes a bit difficult to see lol.

I'll continue working through your builds until I finish the game ;)


Steve