Author Topic: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in  (Read 1117 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
So I've gotten back to Freespace, updated everything and started a new pilot.  Everything's been going good so far, but when I got to Proving Grounds, I found myself unable to finish the mission.  The first section with the Oberon works fine (I can never win the contest with the Pegasus wing but that's irrelevant) and the Shivans begin warping in, but the moloch never spawns.  I'll get the first wing of Nahemas and Maras, then Basilisks and Nephilims, and a final wing of Basilisks again...then nothing.

The only thing I could imagine is that the moloch isn't spawning because I fail to stop the bombers before they inflict damage, leading Aquitaine to report the Moloch's main gun before it's even there...but IIRC that was never a problem.

I don't really have any log files since there was no crash.  I don't know what more I could provide.

Really sucks to be stuck on one of the worst missions in the game...

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
UPDATE:

I've just noticed something that might explain it...For some reason Delta wing doesn't depart and stays stuck with an "Attack Oberon" order.  One or two ships from Delta will jump out, but not all of them.  I'm guessing the Moloch doesn't jump in until after Delta jumps out.

I also noticed in one of the tries I've made (there have been several) that the Delta wing ships that stay in system just spin around constantly.

I have no clue why they wouldn't be jumping out and since I can't command them to leave, I'm stuck in this mission.

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
FURTHER UPDATE:

I think we can change this issue to "Spinning ships prevent mission progress"

I was just playing a new BP - Age of Aquarius campaign and during the "mission" when you escort the Admiral to the Temeraire, the escape pod began spinning endlessly just before reaching the fighterbay and wouldn't do anything else.

So it would seem that it's the game engine itself having seizures or something...I've never seen this in the 14 years I've been playing the SCP...

 
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
If you are playing on debug (The mod's dropdown -> Run Fast Debug, on knossos) it will always create a log file, regardless of whether or not there was a crash. And it would still be useful, just to confirm the version of FSO you're using. You can get the last one made by clicking any mod's dropdown, and 'Upload Debug Log'
« Last Edit: July 10, 2022, 03:11:09 am by Asteroth »

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
Thanks, had forgotten about debug mode.  I'll replay the mission later today to generate one.  As for my FSO version, I'm using 22.2.0 RC5

 
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
Not sure what else to say unfortunately, other than that I haven't been able to reproduce the issue. You're right that Delta must leave for the Moloch to show up and the mission can proceed, although they don't jump out, they return to the Aquitaine. Nothing should stop them from doing so, and be aware it will still say their orders are to "attack Oberon" even as they are departing.

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
Okay, took longer than I'd hoped to post this. 

I set the difficulty to very easy and had basic mission armaments (one subach, one morning star, 2 banks of tempests) in the default Perseus.  The morning star allows me to win against Delta wing for the Oberon defense (by pushing them, they stop firing and move off) in case getting the secondary objective might trigger something...and it happened yet again. 

I've noticed this happening in any campaign that I play.  I even tried doing the same mission in FSBlue.  Also the "spinning ships" issue occurs pretty much in any mission of any campaign at random.  Usually doesn't impact gameplay except it being funny watching fighters pull off insane G's with these spins.

Here's the log:
https://fsnebula.org/log/62cc4d54d58598f151f3408b


And it seems Delta wing does get the order to leave...they just don't.

Lines 3987 to 3992:

Entered mission_do_departure() for Delta 1
Acquired departure path
Entered mission_do_departure() for Delta 2
Acquired departure path
Entered mission_do_departure() for Delta 3
Acquired departure path


EDIT: I need to attempt the mission in Retail just to see if it's also doing it there.

EDIT 2: Just thinking out loud here, but could this be physics-related?  Again I'll try in Retail later.  I need to head to work, but I'll make a Retail run when I get back.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2022, 01:17:44 pm by darkdaej »

 
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
I've seen the "Ships spinning around randomly" happen on both my PC and on Joe's stream. I didn't pay it much mind at the time.

FWIW (But I can't really confirm this looking back), the issue seems to mainly occur when a ship doesn't have any AI orders left.

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
I've just made a run on Retail FS2 and I had zero problems (as I had expected, to be honest).  Delta Wing returned to the Aquitaine, the Moloch warped in and no ships did any spinning shenanigans.

So yeah, seems we got something going on with FSO - this spinning doesn't seem to have direct effects on most missions, however as was shown in Proving Grounds, it actually prevents campaign completion.

 
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
When you say "spinning" how exactly are they spinning? Are they spinning on their Y-axis, like a top? Or banking really hard on their Z-axis, like a drill? Are they moving in a circle? Or spinning in place? Also, what framerate do you usually play at (it's listed in the top right when you're playing debug)? I'd be interested to see if you can replicate it in 22.0 RC2, if you have the time.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2022, 01:48:35 pm by Asteroth »

 
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
Might be getting a bit ahead of myself, but there's a good chance this may solve the problem. Extract this to wherever you like, and then in FSO Settings you can browse to this .exe (and dont forget to save at the bottom) in order to run FSO with it. If it's working, on the main hall it will simply say 'v22.1.0' for the version. See if you can cause the issue to happen again while running this version of FSO.

https://filetransfer.io/data-package/CMcSqG47#link

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
When you say "spinning" how exactly are they spinning? Are they spinning on their Y-axis, like a top? Or banking really hard on their Z-axis, like a drill? Are they moving in a circle? Or spinning in place? Also, what framerate do you usually play at (it's listed in the top right when you're playing debug)? I'd be interested to see if you can replicate it in 22.0 RC2, if you have the time.

They spin on their Y axis.  Like Peppy Hare would say, "Do a barrel roll!" (though that's actually a aileron roll).  They might be stationary or moving while doing their spin.  Sometimes it's rather slow, other times they spin so fast the pilot would have been turned to paste inside the cockpit.  And it seems utterly random - sometimes every fighter out there will be spinning, other times none are, yet others only one or two will be doing it.

As for my framerate...the game says it's between 12-23 fps, but I don't believe it because it runs smooth.

I'll check to see if I can get this to replicate in 22.0 RC2

 
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
Your low(ish) framerate is confirming some of my suspicions, as well as it being an uncontrollable 'barrel roll'. Keep me posted, and try that build I posted when you get a chance too.

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
Hmm, the game won't even start with that exe you provided.  I get "FSO is running" for a microsecond and then nothing.  I used to have this problem before and it was due to a bad screen resolution being selected in the options but everything's fine there.

I went back to 22.2 RC5 and the game boots.

 
Re: Proving Grounds - Moloch will not warp in
Blech. Well the most recent nightly (7/14) should also work now, you can download it manually here as well, Knossos gives me issues trying to get nightlies during a release cycle.
https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=98316.0