Am I Really THAT Unlucky?

[Hullblazer]

Hi all

Every (and I do mean EVERY) derelict I try to collect/tug explodes on me. Every one. Every time. I am getting so frustrated. They either spin and explode through some booby-trap or explode through leaking gas whilst on my tow-bar.

Every single frakking one.

What have I downloaded, what has recently updated or what has changed that I cannot salvage any more?

Even tug-drones fly around the derelicts and refuse to connect.

Please help?

[Astrobe]

Important thing to tell: are you on Oolite 1.84?

[Hullblazer]

Important thing to tell: are you on Oolite 1.84?

Going to appear quite dim. How do I tell? Can't seem to find that info displayed?

[another_commander]

Check the first line of your latest log file.

[Hullblazer]

Different route, same result. A Google search showed a release yesterday and I wasn't aware (I don't check the bulletins often).

So no I wasn't but yes I now am. Will that fix things?

[Astrobe]

I just did a towing in 1.84, so it seems to work fine.

[Norby]

Hi Hullblazer!

All of these are possible in [wiki]Towbar[/wiki], just usually less often. The average chance of a trap when lock to your ship is about 20%, 10% for timed bomb (timed up to 2 minutes from the first scan or touch on the derelict ship), max. 30% chance to destroy the ship when your towbar reach unstable status due to too much turns with load (so after pickup you should go as straight as possible to the nearest station) and 10% for explosion due to fuel leak if you use Ship Miner equipment.

These together could give more faliures in line but if you tried over 20 ships without success then worth futrher testing. There is a $TowbarDebug variable in the 10. line in towbar.js which create derelict ships in front of the station where you launch so easy to tow many ships into the dock for a proof.

Tug drones can miss the target, it is a bug what I can not fix yet and add some challenge to the usage: you should aim well and not from very near. If it is missed then you can try to ram the drone to kick it nearer to the target or at least break the loop around.

[Hullblazer]

Thank you for the info, I will certainly give the testing a go as I have not successfully captured in many hours. I'll post findings.