Oolite Bulletins

I am in G5 and I have had 3 targets where I have been completely unable to find the target.

I know the target should be between the Witchpoint and the Station and it does appear that these 'missing targets' are restricted to systems where the Station is close to the Witchpoint. I have sailed around the system, gone back & forth to the Witchpoint, traversed over the whole sky, jumped out and back in again and repeated the search and yet I can find no evidence of the target being present. In frustration, I have had to dock with a Seedy Bar and cancel the contract (which is really embarrassing) and take another in the hope the same thing doesn't happen.

Is this a known problem and how should I deal with it?

EDIT: I'm using 1.5.3

Hi Tricky,

I also find it really frustrating when unable to locate a target ship. Normally they appear between the Main station and Witchpoint and most of the time victims reveal themselves by attacking you. If you still have a marker on the system set in the maps then they are still somewhere to be found. I do not know how common this is.

Cheers,
V-SFC

I've had a few instances where the mark has been hard to find. On a couple of occasions I've had to cruise back and forth between the witchpoint beacon and Main Station half a dozen times before spotting the mark or one of their escorts. This is the route they are programmed to take, and they will travel back and forth along this route until intercepted. Note that they travel between the WP beacon and the Station, NOT between the beacon and planet! If they are over near the Station, and your ship is heading towards the planetary centre, there is a good chance you will miss them.

However,I suspect that more often what happens is that they have become involved in a fight with a patrol or bountyhunter, as a result of which they get drawn away from the centre, towards the edge of the spacelane (or even beyond).

This would tend to explain why, when I finally locate the mark, they have often appeared at the far left or right edge of my scanner, rather than ahead of me. Cim has stated that the next release of Oolite will have a slightly wider spacelane, which I suspect will only make this problem worse..

Bottom line: unless you get a message saying someone else has killed or captured them, they are in the system somewhere.. perseverance pays off in the end.

Commander Tricky wrote:

In frustration, I have had to dock with a Seedy Bar and cancel the contract (which is really embarrassing) and take another...

I know how embarassing this is... I still heard the laughter when I launched from the station again...
But be patient - your victim is there as long as you dont hear another one did the job.

Well, the next time this happens I will fly back and forth a few more times but I'm afraid I do suspect it is something more fundamental - it has only happened in G5 and where the Station is close to the Witchpoint. I may end up going on to G6 to see if it makes any difference.

Commander Tricky wrote:

Well, the next time this happens I will fly back and forth a few more times

Further suggestions:
When patrolling, just cruise, with no use of injectors.. this gives you a better chance of detecting the mark at extreme range, rather than blundering into the middle of a pack of heavily armed henchmen. Also, this means that often, especially if you detect a henchman first, the mark won't even notice your presence, giving you the chance to observe their formation and decide on your tactics before engaging.

Keep an eye out for battles going on ahead of you, especially off to the side of the spacelane. There's a good chance your mark and their buddies may be involved. Careful investigation can pay off.

Also, now and then, check all your views for a small group of exhaust plumes moving against the background.. I've lost count of how many times I've spotted the mark and escorts beyond range of my scanner.

Commander Tricky wrote:

but I'm afraid I do suspect it is something more fundamental - it has only happened in G5 and where the Station is close to the Witchpoint. I may end up going on to G6 to see if it makes any difference.

Interesting thought.. perhaps Spara and Eric Walch (who I believe maintained RH for some time) might have some thoughts on that.. I'd suggest sticking in G5 for a bit longer, to keep investigating. Or at least make a copy of your gamesave before going to G6, so that others could investigate, if it was determined to be advisable.

If you want to try using This piece of equipment next time you are finding trouble to see if it is in system. It is a bit of a cheat oxp but it can be good for a bit of a tool to test a few things.

it has only happened in G5 and where the Station is close to the Witchpoint.

You mean with small stars, as there the planet is much closer to the Witchpoint and thus the station also. The only effect I could see is that in those systems the police is spread over a much shorter distance and the mark is more likely to meet a police. And with the station more on the centre of the spacelane (In front of the planet as seen from the witchpoint), the chance of the mark, meeting police is even higher. Mark and police are now patrolling different lanes. In my opinion wrong, but I never fixed it because of the now lower chance of meeting police.

And to add another cheat: Hits on the mark are written in the log, so if you can't find him, you might look in the log to see if the mark is busy. When yes, this fight might have driven him away from the usual route. In the original code, the mark continues flying to the station after a fight, but this could be even further away from the spacelane than usual. In one of the later releases of the code, I gave the Mark an AI to first travel straight away to the point were the fight started and only than continue its patrol. This will bring him faster back to the normal route.

EDIT: I miss the changed code of the Mark AI in the version Spara released. There the AI is last modified on march 2010 ? In my last version 1.4.18, the mark does travel back to the spacelane first. I have no idea on which version Spara build his modifications. It is only in the version on my computers. It is a modification I prepared for my next release. I might sent the AI to Spara, so he can add it when he updated the current version.

I put the AI on my box account: https://app.box.com/s/ucayyq53eggs1jglasru Just replace the current AI with it.

Eric Walch wrote:

EDIT: I miss the changed code of the Mark AI in the version Spara released. There the AI is last modified on march 2010 ? In my last version 1.4.18, the mark does travel back to the spacelane first. I have no idea on which version Spara build his modifications. It is only in the version on my computers. It is a modification I prepared for my next release. I might sent the AI to Spara, so he can add it when he updated the current version.

I put the AI on my box account: https://app.box.com/s/ucayyq53eggs1jglasru Just replace the current AI with it.

Thanks Eric, I'll put it into the next version that will come out this weekend.

Generally my changes to the oxp have been mainly cosmetic. I have updated models, added models and retouched the naming scheme to follow the RandomShipnames standard. I also added support for Skilled NPCs and Station Validator. I have not consciously done any change to logic or AIs.

I can report success with the most recent 'missing' mark - I set sail for the station from the Witchpoint but didn't engage injectors and eventually the mark found me (I see Diziet Sma suggested this in his last post - thank you!).

I will try this strategy again if needed - looks like I was wrong about it being something more nefarious