Populating Systems

Not sure what I'm doing wrong

So I have been busy working on my plug in and I have a system with a hypergate
in the center and a bunch of planets scattered around quite a ways out. I have
been trying to get ships to fly around the system and fly between the planets. Now
I have changed the ship governments multiple times to see if that had an effect on
it, I have turned on and off the "Economy at Work" button in each situation, on top
of all this I have also switched between uses hypergates and/or wormholes function.
However the ships still either sit idley in front of the hypergate(occasionally at a
space station) or they run back and forth between spöb 1 and 2 both of which are
uninhabited and practically on top of one another so that doesn't help much either.
Giving them enough fuel to hyperspace out only makes them leave that way, which I don't want.

I'm quite lost as to what I need to do to fix this. Can anyone give me a heads up?

Have you double checked that the ships have an inherent AI? It doesn't matter if each shïp resource has one or if they're all given one by the düde resource, but they need an inherent AI to function. Other than that, I can't think of anything you're doing wrong with the info provided.

That didn't help much, thanks though. Oh well, I will keep messing around if I don't find anything then I s'pose I will just have to scratch that idea.

So I assume that their government is set so that they are fond of hypergates, correct? So if they come in through the hypergate, they should also leave via gate. Try moving 1 and 2 farther apart, see if proximity to their favorite method of travel makes a difference.

EDIT: Shlimazel is doing something like this with micron where there are a lot of planets in one system. You should try PMing him.

This post has been edited by Spartan Jai : 10 October 2010 - 06:42 PM

Actually, I just remembered something regarding hypergates. If you set a gövt to prefer hypergate travel, then their ships will never go to a planet in a system with a hypergate. Instead, they will jump in and go straight for the hypergate. When they come out of the hypergate, they'll jump straight out of the system. If you have that option turned on, try turning it off. They should still use the hypergate. The only thing that stops ships from using hypergates is the 'never uses hypergates' flag and possibly the 'prefers wormhole travel' flag. I haven't tested my theory on the wormhole flag yet.

I turned the flag off, and gave the ships all enough fuel for 1 hyperspace jump, they seem to be working normally now. Oh well, guess that means my plug is going to be bigger.

Have you tried giving the ships less than 100 units of fuel and leaving the hypergate and wormhole flags off? That should fix your problem, in theory.

Yeah they just fly to a spöb and sit there till I land or leave the system.

Alright so after more testing and such I have come to the conclusion that if you activate the "Economy at Work" flag the ships will fly to the next nearest space spöb.

Which results in my system layout being a little like this...

Attached File Picture_1.png (5.15K)
Number of downloads: 15

I hope it doesn't take away from gameplay.

This post has been edited by Sp3cies : 12 October 2010 - 08:48 AM

@sp3cies, on Oct 11 2010, 08:40 PM, said in Populating Systems:

Alright so after more testing and such I have come to the conclusion that if you activate the "Economy at Work" flag the ships will fly to the next nearest space spöb.

Which results in my system layout being a little like this...

Attachment Picture_1.png

I hope it doesn't take away from gameplay.

"Economy at Work flag"? :huh: I'm not familiar with that one.

It's called 'Economy at Work' in Mission Computer. I suspect EVNEW calls it something different. It's also the same flag that makes ships collect asteroid parts if they have an asteroid scoop. Unfortunately, it also turns ships into hopeless cowards. They won't even launch fighters if they have them.

As I recall, that flag is meant for things like interplanetary shuttles and couriers, and not for warships (since warships don't need to fly around the system going planet to planet). I'm not sure why it should force them to be cowardly though.

@meaker-vi, on Oct 13 2010, 11:15 AM, said in Populating Systems:

As I recall, that flag is meant for things like interplanetary shuttles and couriers, and not for warships (since warships don't need to fly around the system going planet to planet). I'm not sure why it should force them to be cowardly though.

Maybe it's tied to some sort of wimpy trader thing. Nova's AI isn't really sophisticated, and if you think about it, the ships don't have to be very 'smart'.

@reclusiveone, on Oct 13 2010, 04:04 PM, said in Populating Systems:

Maybe it's tied to some sort of wimpy trader thing. Nova's AI isn't really sophisticated, and if you think about it, the ships don't have to be very 'smart'.

Well, whatever the case, someone had exploited this particular feature as part of the Nova hacks. Basically, it's a mission where if you ended up destroying a flagship leading an assault fleet, all the others will scatter and retreat.