I think I've been hexed...

[Captain Over]

So I'm in Galaxy Four and I just started looking for the missing Trident. I had gotten a briefing and was headed to the next location minding my own business when I approach a station (I don't recall which one, but near Lavebe?). I get close to the station, and there is a Thargoid harassing some innocent traveller.

I'm a good citizen of the Ooniverse, particularly when there is a reward, so I dispatch the bug for my fellow man and go about my business. I'm in a bit of a hurry to get where I'm going, so I don't take the time to scoop or blast the robot fighters.

When I dock at the station, there is a message waiting for me, (text over the background of an exploding ball of lava, it looked like) to the effect that I had abandoned someone in a very cowardly way and really ought to be ashamed of myself. I was puzzled, but managed to collect myself and continue.

Only now, whenever I make a witchspace jump, I have an engine malfunction. The malfunction puts me alongside of a witchspace beacon in the midst of an asteroid field, with a sun distant but no planet in sight. My cabin temperature steadily climbs until I die.

I've tried to skim the sun - I only die faster before I can get any fuel. Once I was there with 5 or 6 Naval Freighters. I tried following them to some kind of haven or solution, but they died. Then I died.

I tried checking all the asteroids in case there is a Rock Hermit or something hidden among them. No dice. Once all the asteroids blew up at once, and one of them left a persistent trail of glowing sparks. I tried collecting that or flying through it. Nothing but death.

I'm stumped. It seems as though someone has put some voodoo on my engines. Is this a feature or a bug? I don't mind puzzling it out if it's a feature, but I'm worried that I've broken something.

I'm kind of new to this iteration of the game, by the way. I played Elite as a kid back in the day, but things have changed.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback from you all. Thanks.

[Rxke]

Hm. Looks like the asteroid storm mission gone wrong...

[Diziet Sma]

Hi Captain Over, welcome to "the friendliest board this side of Riedquat!"

I don't think it's the Asteroid Storm oxp, Rxke, that takes place in Galaxy 1, and Captain Over is in Galaxy 4..

Captain Over, I think you've had the misfortune to have the system you're in go Nova while you were there. That would explain the "ball of lava", the fact that you and the other ships in the system keep getting barbequed, and that your mission has terminated in an unsatisfactory manner..

How you go about fixing that, I'm not sure.. it may be possible to edit your game-save, (DON'T use notepad, if you're on Windows.. use Wordpad or better yet, Notepad++). Or, you may need to revert to an older game-save, if you have one.

I'm not too sure on just what you'd need to alter, but I'm sure somebody with more knowledge about things will be along soon.

[another_commander]

I think this could be a case of Trident Down conflicting with the built-in Nova mission. Maybe both tried to display a mission screen at the same time? I am not sure what happened there, but it is definitely not supposed to go like this. If there is a way to repeat the sequence of events, I would be interested to know.

[JazHaz]

Yes, if this is the Nova mission then see the spoiler below. Use ROT13 to decode.


Jvgu gur Abin zvffvba lbh arrq gb qb n Tnynpgvp Ulcrefcnpr whzc gb yrnir gur flfgrz. Gur Abin zvffvba bayl gevttref jura lbh unir n Tnynpgvp Ulcreqevir ba obneq. Abg univat qbar gur zvffvba zlfrys sbe bire 20 lrnef V pna'g erzrzore nyy gur qrgnvyf, ohg nf sne nf V erzrzore qbvat n abezny ulcrefcnpr jvyy yrnir lbh va gur fvghngvba lbh qrfpevor.

[another_commander]

Captain Over: What OXPs do you have installed? Do you happen to recall a fuel leak or anything unusual before getting the briefing that sent you to the station where the problems started?

[Rxke]

Ooops, I meant Nova Mission, of course.

[Zbond-Zbond]

It's definitely the Nova mission (aftermath). Try using your EscapePod when you arrive at the planetless star with the exploding asteroids. When you arrive at your destination do not "quick-save" the game it becomes a bit awkward to depart again but if you want to polish up your departure technique you could "save commander" (with a different commander name) for later rehearsal

To experience the full nova event you'd need to load an earlier saved game..

[Captain Over]

Maybe both tried to display a mission screen at the same time?

I did have two mission screens appear when I docked: the (apparently) Nova screen, and another screen informing me that Thargoid spy satellites had been seen near the witchspace beacons lately, and I should keep my eyes peeled.

What OXPs do you have installed?

• adcks_behemoths
  aegedian-special*
  BlOomberg markets
  Commies*
  Dictators
  Executive Spaceways
  Fighter HUD
  Fuel Tank
  Galactic Navy
  gwxstations
  Ionics
  marett_vol1_b*
  Military Fiasco
  murgh_Xships*
  nuvipers*
  PlanetFall
  Saleza*
  Shady Blackmonks
  supercobra
  Target Autolock
  Target Reticle
  thargoid wars
  The Feudal States
  tori
  transports*
  Trident Down

*these were not installed at the time I got into trouble. I installed them after doing some research on the wiki and finding out that Trident Down needs them. I had hoped that would fix my issue. Alas.

Do you happen to recall a fuel leak or anything unusual before getting the briefing that sent you to the station where the problems started?

Nothing that I recall.

Try using your EscapePod when you arrive at the planetless star with the exploding asteroids.

I'll give that a try next. Otherwise it's back to a prior save in Galaxy 1 most likely.

[JazHaz]

Try using your EscapePod when you arrive at the planetless star with the exploding asteroids.

I'll give that a try next. Otherwise it's back to a prior save in Galaxy 1 most likely.

I think that the solution I posted earlier (the spoiler protected one) should sort you also.

Before you do go right back to the G1 save, you might be able to edit your current save to reset the Nova mission.

I'm currently also in Galaxy 4, but have not yet started the Nova mission.

from my save file (not quite sure what it is counting):

Code: Select all

	<key>mission_novacount</key>
	<string>73</string>

[Eric Walch]

Maybe both tried to display a mission screen at the same time?

I did have two mission screens appear when I docked: the (apparently) Nova screen, and another screen informing me that Thargoid spy satellites had been seen near the witchspace beacons lately, and I should keep my eyes peeled.

Seeing two screens is no problem. The problem would be when there was a screen displayed that was overwritten by another so you never saw it.

You definitely encountered the nova mission. The code always gives you a fuel leak, so you must stay in that system do dock and refuel (or sunskim to refuel). However, I see you also have fuelpod.oxp installed. So maybe you just refuelled and jumped out of the nova system. Or refuelled at a rock hermit and jumped out without answering the distress call. Since 1.73 the witchspace buoy also sends a distress message for help, to make it less likely a brave pilot will just pass by this system.

To prevent a cowardly pilot from returning, the system is definitely set to a nova system on leaving. It just happens that the nova mission in oolite 1.73 has a bug here. It turns every system into a nova on leaving the nova system until docked. So when you jumped a bit around after leaving the original nova system and before docking, it might be that you left a trail of nova systems you can not return to. (bug is fixed long ago in trunk)

Try going to new systems to find some normal ones. I think the F7 screen tells if a system has turned nova.

When you want to know for sure if your system is messed up you could open your save file with a texteditor and look if you have more than one entries like:

Code: Select all

		<key>3 xx</key>
		<dict>
			<key>market</key>
			<string>none</string>
			<key>sun_gone_nova</key>
			<string>YES</string>
		</dict>

xx can be any number. xx is (or are) the system that has gone nova.

[Zbond-Zbond]

I need to make clear that escape-podding at the nova star is
not really a solution
and if you try it it is important
not to quick-save.
But it is an interesting, or "fun" play experience. Don't worry if you do decide to use early save from G1 - I had to do something similar when I exploded shot up and generally killed another mission, but it was quite interesting retracing my steps

[Captain Over]

I think that the solution I posted earlier (the spoiler protected one) should sort you also.

JazHaz: I might try that, but the thing that I don't like about it is that I'm in the middle of the Trident Down mission and don't want to leave it. Would it be possible to do what you suggest and eventually come back around the horn and pick up where I left off?

You definitely encountered the nova mission. The code always gives you a fuel leak, so you must stay in that system do dock and refuel (or sunskim to refuel). However, I see you also have fuelpod.oxp installed. So maybe you just refuelled and jumped out of the nova system. Or refuelled at a rock hermit and jumped out without answering the distress call. Since 1.73 the witchspace buoy also sends a distress message for help, to make it less likely a brave pilot will just pass by this system.

To prevent a cowardly pilot from returning, the system is definitely set to a nova system on leaving. It just happens that the nova mission in oolite 1.73 has a bug here. It turns every system into a nova on leaving the nova system until docked. So when you jumped a bit around after leaving the original nova system and before docking, it might be that you left a trail of nova systems you can not return to. (bug is fixed long ago in trunk)

Walch: This I think must be true. I don't specifically remember having a fuel leak, but I can't say for sure that it didn't happen. I was doing a lot of sunskimming trying to get to the other side of the galaxy in a hurry, which is probably how I missed the distress signal.

I have noticed that some of the systems in my reach don't have the nova, so I might have an out, but I did do some docking and saving so I'm sure to have left a pretty good trail of destruction. I'll try that next.

Thanks again.