Parallel Universe or Two Systems in One

Strange quirk in RoP, or is it Nova?

One big change we all liked about Nova from the previous games is that if we fly to the "edge" of a system, we "bounce across" the system, rather then just crash on the edge and sit there. I discovered a strange quirk with this. It appears the whole system is actually drawn twice, and when you "cross the border", you're not actually entering the same exact "redraw" of the system, like Spaces in Leopard. Most of the time, it's impossible to notice any differences, but I did while playing Realm of Prey, especially during the domination missions when I fight all over the system. I could cross the system once, and scan a blockade satellite parked near the station, and not see it at all, but have autopilot tell me to fly to the right. I do so, cross the system again, and Voila! There's the Blockade satellite right where it's supposed to be. In the screenshots below, I'm flying my stolen Legion of Honor Faction Cruiser on the mission to dominate Serval Sentinel.

On the radar, you can see two disabled capitol ships and some disabled fighters adrift "South-East" of the station. Now, I "cross the system", and see:

There is now a disabled Spittal ship adrift to the "West", and none of the disabled ships that should still be in the radar are there. If I were to cross the system again, I would not be able to find the Spittal ship.

Odd?

Actually, there's more. The way it is handled seems to not be constant. To test, disable a bunch of ships in a system and then loop. Some of them will be there and others won't.
Edit: I'm not sure if they'll appear after only a single loop, but I know they will eventually.

This post has been edited by Nonconventionally Creative : 24 August 2008 - 10:36 PM

Wow this is weird. Has anyone encountered this in the stock Nova scenario? Also, have you been able to reproduce this in any other systems (preferably one that doesn't change sides during the story, such as Sol)?

I do recall various comments during beta about strange behaviour if you went around the edge of a system, but the response never really went beyond that it served you right for doing so.

I will, however, draw this to the attention of the relevant people. (You're using the latest version, right?)

I have not checked my assertion; it may have been in WinNova 1.0.6.

I use MacNova 1.0.A.

I don't really think it's a quirk only to RoP, It's just the first time I noticed it.

The real question here is, how can we take advantage of this in future plugs, assuming David doesn't get it fixed?

Tough question.
Maybe something complicated with multiple missions that triggered in sequence by a series of disabling, observing, and boarding, maybe use that pers flag for becoming the specialship? This makes my head hurt. The key factor must be somehow that the ships are disabled together but the player can't approach them. Maybe generate new, uber invisible ships on NavDefaults, saying: "the ground-based weaponry is alert to your presence?"

@joshtigerheart, on Aug 26 2008, 08:11 PM, said in Parallel Universe or Two Systems in One:

The real question here is, how can we take advantage of this in future plugs, assuming David doesn't get it fixed?

I haven't used this particular thing yet, but I have used the overlapping system feature to make certain spobs very difficult to find (wormholes, specifically - the idea is that when one approaches too close to a wormhole, or isn't careful on approach, there is a chance that the wormhole will very marginally disrupt his/her spacial location to another part of the system - or, in Acheron's case, the sector - but not transport him/her to the other side of the wormhole (or wormtunnel)).