MP issues

SpaceBum1 · Post by **SpaceBum1** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:26 pm

ello.

I'm very new to MP so not sure if these are bugs or not.

1: On my first visit I trained a science op to 90/100 doing contracts and paying him loads of my meagre profit. Saved and logged out.

On my scond visit I was in the correct station but my crew was gone. There were no new crew offered in any station in sapphire while I was in that session.

2: On my second visit I found that I was given contracts without prompting and out of station. The first was the asteroid contract which appeared during a mining session. The second was as I approached the main station in Sapphire I found I had to deliver goods to a ship and I had a full cargo load. Was I supposed to use one bay for the delivery?

Are these 'usual' behaviours of MP?

Does your crew jump ship when you log out? If so, what's the point in crew if they don't remain with you after you spend all that time training and paying them?

What gives? Are these bugs? Where am I? what's going on? lol

Sinbad · Post by **Sinbad** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:53 pm

Hi Spacebum, welcome to the game and the forum!

Not sure if this is exactly your issue but...

1. Crew have two percentage values you have to watch: one is for skill, and the other for loyalty. If the loyalty percentage is not really high they are very likely to jump ship at the next station you dock. I can't remember exactly the percentage but I think it has to be something around 90% to stop them randomly leaving you.

2. It used to be that in MP if another player takes, completes, or fails a contract then any other player in the same sector is also affected by the same contract, even if they aren't consciously participating. I'm not sure though if that is still the case.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:50 pm

McCon is correct about both. Many new players glom on to the first sector in Sapphire and, as a result, often end up sharing each other's contracts. To avoid this, move to any nearby sector. Use the tilde key (~) to see who is in your current sector ... the info will be listed in the upper-right corner. As for your crew jumping ship, when you log on to a server (or even into SP) ... if you then immediately dock, it's possible that one or more crewmembers (if not at 100%) will jump ship. To avoid that situation, don't log out while still docked.

SpaceBum1 · Post by **SpaceBum1** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:26 pm

Hi MCCON

Thanks for the reply and the warm welcome.

I think I understand crew management per se.

I had 1 crew member with skill 90 and loyalty 100. They were well paid and happy. I finished my session and I'm thinking that my crew were settled in nicely. On my next login they were no longer in my crew list. Why would they leave?

Do the crew leave the ship every time you end your MP session so that when you return they are no longer there? Does the crew list start empty on every login?

On the second point I don't quite understand the logic of 'failed contracts' affecting other players...

I found myself in an active contract WITHOUT my accepting any and it prevented me from quicksaving. I did not choose the contract. I did not accept the contract while in a station. It just appeared from nowhere. This happened twice without any action from myself. Is this normal MP behaviour? If some other player fails a contract is it always the case that the contract is transferred to some other player? This seems very odd if that is indeed the case. What if you cancel the contract? There are consequences for cancelling a contract aren't there?

I find these very confusing. That's why I ask if they might be bugs or something.

Evoversal Paradoxes mayhaps... Oooo... Spooky..lol

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:33 pm

Hi and welcome.

No, crew does not leave ship when you end a session. They can only leave when you dock at a station
or city when they are below 100% loyalty. So, to avoid that, fly for a long time without docking, or
dock where they can't leave. (Hint

)

All players in the same sector is automatically joining any contract taken by Another player.
You won't even get asked if you want to join it.
If a contract is already active in a sector, a new one can't be taken by any player at all until it's
finished, one way or the other.

This is all normal and works as intended by the dev, Vice.

SpaceBum1 · Post by **SpaceBum1** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:43 pm

Hi Marvin

I see. There were other players logging in and out while I was doing stuff. Perhaps they took on those tasks and were unsuccessful which triggered the transfer to my contract log.

While I appreciate that the contract system should interfere with saving your progress in order to avoid 'contract locking' I wonder why on evoearth they should default to some other player instead of just resetting to the station of origin contract list.

I will read more stuff and try to get the logic.

SpaceBum1 · Post by **SpaceBum1** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:48 pm

Hi Seejay

Ok, I kinda get it now.

Everyone in the sector gets any contract taken by any player. To make sure it gets completed.

I'll try the long flight crew saver technique.

I've got sooooooo much to learn..lol Thanks for the help.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 9:25 pm

From post: 173694, Topic: tid=11671, author=SpaceBum1 wrote:Hi MCCON

Thanks for the reply and the warm welcome.

I think I understand crew management per se.

I had 1 crew member with skill 90 and loyalty 100. They were well paid and happy. I finished my session and I'm thinking that my crew were settled in nicely. On my next login they were no longer in my crew list. Why would they leave?

Do the crew leave the ship every time you end your MP session so that when you return they are no longer there? Does the crew list start empty on every login?

On the second point I don't quite understand the logic of 'failed contracts' affecting other players...

I found myself in an active contract WITHOUT my accepting any and it prevented me from quicksaving. I did not choose the contract. I did not accept the contract while in a station. It just appeared from nowhere. This happened twice without any action from myself. Is this normal MP behaviour? If some other player fails a contract is it always the case that the contract is transferred to some other player? This seems very odd if that is indeed the case. What if you cancel the contract? There are consequences for cancelling a contract aren't there?

I find these very confusing. That's why I ask if they might be bugs or something.

Evoversal Paradoxes mayhaps... Oooo... Spooky..lol

Here is my guess what happened.
You were in a sector where another player was doing contracts and so you became part of those contracts though you didn't realize. And when that player failed (or you failed because you didn't participate and this you failed the contract, then your crew, who was not at 100% jumped ship because you failed the contract.

When you have a crew, even if they are at 100% Loyalty, and you do contracts and fail then that will lower their loyalty until you either (1) do more successful contracts and get them back to 100% or you fail enough contracts that they jump ship.

That's why before I accept a contract I always (more or less) press Quick-Save and then accept the contract so that if I do fail and I feel the need I can Exit (no save) and re-launch and my crew will be back to the point before I accepted the contract. Mainly I do this when doing combat contracts, especially in places where the odds are bad like Warzones and Moderate to Hostile rated systems.
I have 4 crew members all at 100% and very helpful to me and I don't want to loose them and have to go thru the retraining of others.

I notice a lot of oldtimers will tell players in the same area to do a Quick-Save before accepting a contract so they have warning.

[Edited on 10-11-2014 by PaulB]

Sinbad · Post by **Sinbad** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 10:28 pm

Spacebum, it's possible that you had your crew at 100% when you last checked, then if you were the unknown victim of another player failing a contract in the same sector, your crew loyalty would suddenly drop below 100%, which would explain why they disappeared after you docked and logged off. You can avoid that by watching out if any players in your sector start a contract (it will show in the chat messages), then exit the sector before they fail their contract (or stay if you think they'll complete it successfully in which case you'll also get the money and extra loyalty for your crew).

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 10:45 pm

The reason for everyone getting the contract is (1) it promotes co-operative play and (2) it's a simple task of moving to an empty sector if you do not want to engage in co-op.

SpaceBum1 · Post by **SpaceBum1** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:03 am

Ah... It makes sense now.

Because the contract didn't get completed, by whomever, it affected my crew loyalty and therefore they left. Both of the points that troubled me are connected and the consequence of my not reacting to local events.

I given a delivery contract in the same manner but was full of plat at the time. The delivery contract supplies the required item and the waypoint. So how would I have completed it? Would the waypoint be set automatically? Where would the item come from? Would it be loaded at the next visit to a station in that sector?

I was totally unprepared for the inter connectedness of the gameplay! This is the first game I've joined in with that allows external player effects. Wasn't expecting that and hence my confusion. What other tricks up the sleeve does the game have... how many sleeves come to that.. lol

Sinbad · Post by **Sinbad** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:14 am

When you accept a delivery contract, the item to be delivered is automatically loaded in your cargo hold. You then have to fly to the waypoint (which is also automatically placed) and head towards the ship which is waiting. The ship has a translucent green box below it which is the area you have to fly into and deliver the item (by pressing default J to jettison it, or clicking on it with your mouse in the inventory console).

And yes there are a lot more sleeves LOL. And tricks for each one!

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:39 am

Word of caution: don't press the J key if you have other items in your cargo hold. If you do, the transport ship will gladly take your entire inventory. Instead, use McCon's 2nd option.

SpaceBum1 · Post by **SpaceBum1** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 10:34 am

Yeah guys... done that one and watched as they jumped with all my ore as well..lol I sat there and felt my bottom lip wobble...lol

What I was asking though is how does it work if I get handed a delivery contract due to the way contracts are connected. Where do the delivery goods and waypoint come from? How would I attempt to complete it if the original player fails. See what I mean? I could be bopping about doing my own thing then BAM! I receive one because someone else triggered it.

Getting to grips with this seems to have given me 5 cargo bays worth of questions..lol I've never felt so 'noobian' and really appreciate all your help. I'm thinking the secrets are in the details with EM.

Serendipity is a wonder. I was simply trawling the net checking out what space sims were out there. I saw the screenies of EM and thought I'd try the demo. Two hours later I headed straight to the website and paid cold hard paypal for the full copy! I'm now wondering if there's a leaderboard for 'Deaths per hour'. I can imagine my doing well on that to start with..lol

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:49 pm

You can't finish the delivery contract since
the pilot that took the contract has the required
goods onboard. Just continue what you are doing
and you'll get paid when the delivery is completed.

SpaceBum1 · Post by **SpaceBum1** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:20 pm

Thx Seejay. Another knot untied..

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:53 pm

The same works for recovery and ID contracts ... except it's the first player to reach (and tractor, if required) the object. 'Till then, all others should avoid docking else they "fail" the contract.