Hey guys,
After yet another discussion with someone dealing with a frustrating but counter-able bug, I decided Id try to condense what in essence is my preventative maintenance for countering bugs. We all know bugs can strike at any time, and if you play long enough you are bound to run into alot of the big ones. I have found that a few simple steps can help you quickly recover from most of them, and be back on your way before you could even describe what happened to you in global.
Prepared Equipment:
Listen, I know carrying gear with you everywhere you go can be tedious, and eats up space for all that loot you want to get. But I submit that a minimal loadout of lifesaving equipment is more than worth the loss of inventory space.
1) Personal inventory: On my person, at any given moment, I will always be carrying ATLEAST the following.
- Epic weapon and ammo. So I can defend myself if a raptor decides to take my day from bad to worse. Also, for RP.
- 100 fusion. Dont bring a stack of 999 with you all the time, unless you are a masochist who likes leaving valuable backpacks for the enemy. 100 will fuel about anything you need fueled, long enough to get to where you need to be.
- 150 pentaxid. This number is carefully chosen. This is the minimum you can carry for a round trip across the universe, accounting for failed jumps, and allow you to get to a playfield where you can get more pentaxid. If you find yourself with less than 150 pentaxid in your backpack, start searching for more.
- Big O2 bottles. Because oxygen is nice, and it helps to be able to seal a farm in a hurry if a surprise decompression wastes o2. If you react fast, you can save your crops.
- T2 Drill and 10 charges. Remember, fill or flatten can save your life in high gravity environments, and being able to pop some extra ores if you run out on the fly is helpful
- T2 Multitool and 10 charges. On the fly repairs, removal of blocks that are in the way, etc.
- 2-5 rations. This is the tricky bit, because you have to avoid the urge to use these are your primary food source. These should only be used if you are ACTIVELY dying, and cannot reach food.
- Player core. Seriously. Always carry a spare core with you. Because by the time you need it, you wont be able to make one.
Not necessary, but helpful
*Base starter block and a stack of concrete. I will add this in when visiting playfields that do not allow base bp spawns.
2) In EVERY CV. I cannot emphasize this enough. Even if its just a throwaway miner or warp sled, I always keep this in an ammo box or fridge - spare warp core, warp tank
- Spare core
- small gen, small fuel
- 1 RCS, and 6 small cv thruster.
- Spare cockpit, and passenger seat
- 100 fusion
- 150 pentaxid
- 5 ration
- 50 o2 bottles
Not necessary, but helpful
*Advanced constructor with 1 stack of every resource.
*spare boxes
*spare blocks for emergency additions. Light armor for transports, so I can spawn larger sv’s, and Combat armor for PVP vessels.
3) Any SV/hv that you will use to transition playfields. The phrasing here is key. If its an sv that will always stay at the base, no worries. If it always is attached to a cv, who cares. But if you transition playfields, it means that ship should have everything you need to get out of trouble
- Spare SV Warp core and tank if sv is originally warp capable
- Spare sv generator and fuel tank
- Spare Cockpit and passenger seat
- 6 small thrusters
- 1 RCS
- 100 Fusion
- 1 ration
4) In your f2 factory. This is the one most new people dont think about. Having 3 specific blueprints ready to spawn in your factory at any time will save you in most cases.
- Warp Sled CV. Something cheap and simple, a warp capable CV with no frills. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=944009197
- Warp Sled SV. Sometimes just an sv will do, particularly if you just need an easy to spawn ride, and arent travelling cv distances.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1218770028 - Spawn pad, large enough for the other two blueprints. Loads of these on the workshop. Or just place a starter, make a 10x10 concrete pad, and bp it.
When bugs strike
So Empyrion bugs come in a few common varieties. For simplicity, I will break down the big ones into two categories: Those that leave you stranded, and those that leave your ship inoperable but nearby.
Stranded is simple, this will mostly be up to your factory spawns, and then using your personal fuel and pent to get back on track. This includes your ship warping without you and other such nonsense.
Spazzing ships are a bit more complicated. What it boils down to is 3 phases:
- Reach the ship. Sometimes this is as simple as walking up to it while it is freaking out stuck inside of another ship. Other times it involves navigating the delicate invisible line between atmo and space, and making sure you dont accidentally odst yourself to a broken leg. Additionally, it could be stuck in the air and not falling. If it is low enough (<100 meters up or so) you can just power it off via the registry. If that doesnt make it fall, try cb:getshiphere:id.
Addendum 20180820: Invisible ships
In the event one of the two major bugs (ship sink, or ship teleportation after green wall traversal) strike that cause docked ships to no longer be visible, follow these steps:
- Stay Calm
- Waypoint your ship in the registry.
- If the waypoint shows up roughly where the ship is supposed to be, but too low (this usually happens on a base) use the registry to access control panel (P menu) and change the faction setting of the ship itself to Public, then WITHOUT CLOSING P MENU back to faction. A simple toggle is normally all that is required, though it may take up to 3 times. This will undock the vessel, and it will float to the surface.
- If the waypoint says something silly like 50 AU away (normally this will happen when it is docked to a CV) you will nto be able to access the p menu of the bugged ship, so you have to use the menu of what it is docked to. Use the method described above, and it should undock all ships docked to the CV. Be careful though, because if you have other unbugged ships on board, it will undock these as well, and leave you stuck until they are docked again. For this reason, never attempt this closer than 500 meters from atmo of a planet.
- Get control of the ship. Chances are, you wont be able to get to the original cockpit. 3 reasons for this usually:
- Cockpit says “occupied”. In this case, try breaking it and relocating it to a different spot.
- Ship is freaking out too fast to jump inside of
- Cockpit is beyond a green wall, or atmo barrier.
For the second two, this is solved by p menuing into your ship, accessing the box with your spare cockpit, and placing it in a location you can access.
- Return to a stable location. The most tricky variant of this phase is if your ship has melted into another structure. In this case, you may need to use CB:Getshiphere if possible. If it is stuck into a base however, this is not an option. I have found the best course of action in this case is to try to hold “O” and lift away from the other structure. O forces the ship to turn violently to try and reach a level state, and can allow you to spaz out of many situations. If this doesnt work, adding something to the side of the ship that is welded to the other such as a large thruster, forcing the intersection of the two to more violently recalculate can make the o wiggle maneuver work more effectively.
Hopefully this covers my intended topic. I may add on to this with a how to guide in the future for how to counter each specific bug. For now, atleast the info is out there