Incorrect contract link already active message

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 12:47 am

I was going to post this in the 1.228 release candidate thread but it has been closed. I just did a contract in CWZ on R1 with SeeJay, Nubarus and Lorelei and when we tried to take another contract it said the link was already active. We had just finished the previous contract, all of us are on the 1.228 release candidate and no one left the sector. None of us were doing a contract and there was no message saying contract accepted so it is some kind of bug.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 12:51 am

Actually, the only way a contract option is blocked is if at least one other player is registering an active contract in the same sector. If it happens again, have all players in the sector open the inventory console to find out which one has 'current contract' displayed there rather than 'available contracts'. If a player binds a contract (either by accepting it themselves or by linking in to one), then does something like enters an exit/shipyard menu and the others complete it, they won't receive credit for it and it will still be pending to them, so they will need to manually deactivate the contract to remove the binding.

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:08 am

Yeah thats exactly it, being in the exit menu when the contract is completed.

So if someone goes afk via the exit menu during a contract that breaks the sector for everyone until they get back? Plus, according to NFG he didn't get any payment when I did it on purpose to test even though it said they had completed the contract.

As a little aside, I just saw a navy cap model being used for a vonarii cap ship in a contract. Everyone else saw the correct model, I got a screenie of it though. Sneaky Vonari trying to impersonate the Navy I guess. Shame they aren't smart enough to change their IFF transponder

.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 2:03 am

That is right, if a player enters the exit menu they are temporarily suspended from the contract and will not be paid if the other players complete the contract while they are in the exit menu and may also miss updates to the contract status, leaving them either behind or excluded. It is possible to terminate the contract for them if they exit their ship/game for any reason, but enough players accidently hit certain buttons that it was best to just suspend their status until they return (also helps let things continue if they are alone in a sector and need to take a break for a few minutes).

If a player wants to be paid while being part of a contract with other players, they should never enter the exit menu or any other menu outside of the cockpit until the contract is finished. The message about their change of status is displayed for that reason, so other players are aware of who may be leaving the contract and the impact it may have for that player.

The second issue could have been a lost packet update, can happen from time to time. Mismatched threat levels can also occur if various data/status packets fail to reach a client properly (although it will generally eventually update).

Aures · Post by **Aures** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 4:44 am

K, not ideal but if that is the way it has to be then fine. I already advise people to enter a station to go afk and use the quicksave feature, this just adds another reason for doing it that way.

The second issue continued until I logged out of the server and back in. Every Vonari cap ship (at least those in contracts, didn't see any random ones) used the navy cap ship model. I saw four or five of them so I don't think it was a lost packet issue. But, it was harmless so it is not a problem.