Ghost Escape Pod?

[Diziet Sma]

I've come across this a couple of times (don't recall if in 1.76.1 or trunk) but this time I saw it in trunk (r5520) and remembered to do a dumpState on it.

I had just finished scooping a pirate I'd tangled with, and was toggling through the ASC to bring up the Station Nav-beacon, when I noticed there was another escape pod about 30km away, in a direction I hadn't been near. Thinking it might have been the trader I saw tangling with a Black Monk when I arrived in-system, I went over to pick him up. I made a pass over him, but the scoop wouldn't activate, even though I had room for several tons in the hold. Thinking I might have been a little too far away, I tried again, but still no joy.

The speed was a very close match for my Cobby, so I was able to gradually creep up on it and make absolutely sure it hit the sweet-spot, but again nothing happened. Then I realised something odd. even though I was only 150m away, I couldn't see any pod. The target reticle was empty. At that range, the pod should have stood out like canine cojones.

I gave it a couple more attempts, and then dropped back a little, got a red-lock on it, and blasted it. Nothing. So I did a dumpState and filed it in the 'too hard' basket.

Here's the log entries.. seems it can't decide if it's a metal fragment or a pod, but either way, nothing I did influenced it in the least..

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01:35:35.784 [dumpState]: State for <ShipEntity 0x15b82288>{"Metal fragment" position: (75502.8, -71731.8, 72403.6) scanClass: CLASS_NO_DRAW status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}:
  01:35:35.784 [dumpState.entity]: Universal ID: 492
  01:35:35.784 [dumpState.entity]: Scan class: CLASS_NO_DRAW
  01:35:35.784 [dumpState.entity]: Status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT
  01:35:35.785 [dumpState.entity]: Position: (75502.8, -71731.8, 72403.6)
  01:35:35.785 [dumpState.entity]: Orientation: (0.112118 + 0.381201i + 0.683329j - 0.612517k)
  01:35:35.785 [dumpState.entity]: Distance travelled: 0
  01:35:35.785 [dumpState.entity]: Energy: 20000 of 20000
  01:35:35.785 [dumpState.entity]: Mass: 2.51172e-08
  01:35:35.785 [dumpState.entity]: Owner: self
  01:35:35.785 [dumpState.entity]: Flags: isShip, hasMoved, isSunlit
  01:35:35.786 [dumpState.entity]: Collision Test Filter: 0
  01:35:35.786 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Type: ecl_escape_pod_beacon
  01:35:35.786 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Name: Metal fragment
  01:35:35.786 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Display Name: Escape Pod
  01:35:35.786 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Roles: <OORoleSet 0x180d2ac8>{[ecl_escape_pod_beacon] ecl_escape_pod_beacon}
  01:35:35.787 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Primary role: ecl_escape_pod_beacon
  01:35:35.787 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Script: <OOJSScript 0x17a1e060>{"ecl_escape_pod_beacon" version 1.4.1}
  01:35:35.787 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Subentity count: 0
  01:35:35.787 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Behaviour: BEHAVIOUR_IDLE
  01:35:35.787 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Target: <none>
  01:35:35.787 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Destination: (0, 0, 0)
  01:35:35.788 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Other destination: (0, 0, 0)
  01:35:35.788 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Waypoint count: 0
  01:35:35.788 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Desired speed: 0
  01:35:35.788 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Thrust: 0
  01:35:35.788 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel: 0
  01:35:35.788 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel accumulator: 1
  01:35:35.789 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Missile count: 0
  01:35:35.789 [dumpState.shipEntity.ai]: AI:
    01:35:35.789 [dumpState.ai]: State machine name: nullAI.plist
    01:35:35.789 [dumpState.ai]: Current state: GLOBAL
    01:35:35.789 [dumpState.ai]: Next think time: 7718.73
    01:35:35.789 [dumpState.ai]: Next think interval: 0.125
  01:35:35.790 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Jink position: (0, 0, 0)
  01:35:35.790 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Frustration: 0
  01:35:35.790 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Success factor: 0
  01:35:35.790 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Shots fired: 0
  01:35:35.790 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Time since shot: 458.69
  01:35:35.790 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Spawn time: 4117.71 (358.713 seconds ago)
  01:35:35.791 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Beacon code: Escape Pod
  01:35:35.791 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Hull temperature: 60
  01:35:35.791 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Heat insulation: 0.2
  01:35:35.791 [dumpState.shipEntity]: Flags: isFrangible, canFragment

[Commander McLane]

It doesn't seem to be a pod, but an "escape pod beacon". I have no idea what that is, but it's obviously from an OXP that I don't have. Does the abbreviation "ECL" ring a bell with you?

If yes, you should examine that OXP and look in its shipdata for an "ecl_escape_pod_beacon".

You're saying that you only had it on your scanner, but didn't see anything physically in your forward view? That would indicate that this entity is a very small (possibly zero-poly) model that ought to be attached to an actual escape pod. This attachment was obviously flawed in your case. Either the escape pod was scooped/destroyed and this beacon entity wasn't correctly removed, or the escape pod was somewhere, but the beacon entity ended up in a wrong location. Or it's a fake escape pod, deliberately designed to create a false scanner blip. As I don't know the responsible OXP, I can't say which one it is.

[Diziet Sma]

Hah! That was the clue, by the looks.

ecl = Escape Capsule Locator

Here's the shipdata entry:

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"ecl_escape_pod_beacon" =
{
	like_ship = "alloy";
	roles = "ecl_escape_pod_beacon";
	beacon = "Escape Pod";
	scan_class = "CLASS_NO_DRAW";
	ai_type = "nullAI.plist";
	density = 0.00000001;
	script = "ecl_escape_pod_beacon.js";
	max_energy = 20000;
	display_name = "Escape Pod";
	bounty = 0;
	energy_recharge_rate = 20000;
    model = "ecl_beacon.dat";
	materials ={};
};

From the readme:

Technical.

When the equipment is installed and working a beacon entity is spawned for new escape pods (standard role ‘escape-capsule’ only) that are launched which tracks the location of the associated pod. The beacon entity is a tiny, low mass entity that is not displayed on the IFF scanner, is too small to be visible to the player and too low in mass to cause damage in the event of a collision. If the beacon entity is inadvertently destroyed it is replaced. The pod itself is given custom scanner colours.

Looks like it got detached from its pod somehow. One for another_commander and Capt. Murphy to figure out, I guess.