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[Jo Jo]

I'm sorry if this is a repeat, though I did look through the first 9 pages and I searched for the key words I believed would highlight a report of this bug. It's such a big one that I find it very hard to believe I'm the first to find it, especially since it's one of the most obvious and frustrating bugs that a new player like myself would encounter. I'll bet that I simply couldn't locate the bug report.

I am trying to collect guns and fighters so I can fit my fleet appropriately and I've encountered a very helpful menu item that shows up when hovering over any object in storage or for sale that tells you how many of a particular item you already own. It works very well when letting you know the number of a certain item you have in your current fleet's hold, though it completely ignores any items stored in at least one very popular, abandoned star bases storage, even when you have the storage window open and you hover over the item you can clearly see. The menu still says, "You own a total of xxx weapons of this type."

Screen shots:

1. Storage at Abandoned Terraforming Platform Corvus - cheap storage and advertised in "Starsector Tips" YT videos - common knowledge and likely where a new player will go. This clip clearly shows I have 6 Hellbore Cannons 16 OP each in storage.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r1xtn0sreuuucht/storage%20raw.png?dl=0

2. The tooltips tell me I have zero when I hover over the items in storage.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/szweym5mf7qu7ib/Storage%20Example.png?dl=0

3. I as a new player think that I should have at least one Hellbore cannon and since the game says I have zero, I head to the nearest market in Corvis (Jangala) to buy one. Fortunately they have some for sale.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/srozdqztk5opqev/market%20inventory.png?dl=0

4. I have already forgotten how many I had in storage over at the Abandoned Terraforming Platform in the same system, so I had better check again before I buy. Maybe I have some in storage over there? Nope, tooltip says I have none. I should buy more.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhz6w1lq4jxupe8/Market%20-%20no%20storage.png?dl=0

5. Here are some juicy Annihilator Rocket Pods 10 op. Maybe I should buy some of those, too. Wonder if I have any? Luckily I have two in the cargo hold of my fleet and the tooltip knows that and does warn me before I buy with "You own a total of 2 weapons of this type."
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6pkdn4gr56y52h8/market-fleet%20storage.png?dl=0

6. Actually, I own 10. I have two in my fleet's cargo hold and another 8 in the Abandoned Terraforming Platform. Sure wish I had known I had 10 of them or else I wouldn't have purchased any more.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1z17pc4ufbght2k/10%20rocket%20pods.png?dl=0

This pattern of the game only counting the inventory in your fleet's cargo hold appears to be consistent across the map. I can visit stores anywhere and the game will tell me I have zero xxx, even though when I get back to my storage location I find that I have six of them there.

The odd thing is that if I pay for storage at the starter station in Ancyra where the game starts new player who complete the tutorial, then the game appears to know that at least I have the item in storage.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/okpv6xg3be4ygdm/Ancyra%20Storage%20tooltip%20works.png?dl=0

I bought a Thumper at the Ancyra market and then put it into storage, and the tooltip in the storage shows the game knows it is there.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pme51gv49i3dfb7/Stored%20Thumper%20Ancyra.png?dl=0

Then I went back and checked to see if the market knew I had one and it was in storage at the station. Yes, this seems to work.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ehl12ewydl9brf0/Store%20Tooltip%20knows%20too.png?dl=0

I bought a mining blaster at another station in the same system to see if maybe putting that in the Ancyra station storage would mean the tooltip at this station would show that I owned one as well, and that it wasn't just a fluke that I was buying something from the Ancyra Market while I had the same item stored at the Ancyra station. In other words, does the game only tell me when I have an item in my cargo hold or when I'm buying from the same station that stores my excess inventory?

Buying at alternative station - one mining blaster
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4hyy7dbce18nbee/Bought%20Mining%20Blaster.png?dl=0

Put the mining blaster into storage at Ancyra.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g24l5dayn4d7hro/Mining%20blaster%20to%20storage.png?dl=0

Then went back to the alternative station to see if the tooltip tells me about the mining blaster in storage at Ancyra. Looks like the alternative station knows about the storage at Ancyra.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gkwrc891ar2drpi/Station%20tooltip%20knows.png?dl=0

Since it's well known that abandoned stations don't charge for storage and because this tip is shared on YT channels in tips and tricks or things I wish I knew, it seems like newer players or even experienced ones will use these stations to store everything and it would be nice if the game kept track of inventory in these abandoned stations as it appears to do for stations in which you are charged 1% of all the items you store there. Hope this helps.




 

[Alex]

Hi - thank you for the detailed report, I appreciate you taking the time! This is actually a known behavior; I might need to have a look at it at some point but, basically, it's trickier to count stuff that's in abandoned stations and the like (i.e. say dropped as cargo pods, etc).

[Jo Jo]

Hi - thank you for the detailed report, I appreciate you taking the time! This is actually a known behavior; I might need to have a look at it at some point but, basically, it's trickier to count stuff that's in abandoned stations and the like (i.e. say dropped as cargo pods, etc).

Thank you for the kind response. I know you have many priorities and that you'd like to release the game in the future. Would you consider reducing the taxes on stored items until you have the chance to fix the station counting issues? I think I'll keep my ships at that abandoned station and my guns at the starting military station until I have a colony. Lower taxes would make the starting cycles feel a bit less punishing. Good luck with the game.

[Alex]

Thank you for your understanding

You can actually modify the fee in settings.json:
"storageFreeFraction":0.01, # fraction of base value, per moth

(... yes, the name of the variable is misspelled, "free" instead of "fee". And also "moth" instead of "month". I must not have been feeling very well that day.)

[Jo Jo]

Thank you for your understanding

You can actually modify the fee in settings.json:
"storageFreeFraction":0.01, # fraction of base value, per moth

(... yes, the name of the variable is misspelled, "free" instead of "fee". And also "moth" instead of "month". I must not have been feeling very well that day.)

This must be a real labor of love for you, if you're working on the game when you're sick. Thanks for the modding info.

Just a thought that sometimes the easiest way to fix something is not to fix it. Since it seems it would take an inordinate amount of time to correct the accounting in abandoned stations, which does matter to a new player who is poor and who is trying to accumulate guns necessary for ship fittings, maybe the way to approach it is to give an alternative that is easy for both you and the player. What if when someone attempts to dock at an abandoned station they receive a notice -

"This station appears to be abandoned and in disrepair. It could however be a good place to store items and ships at a lower tax rate if it were fixed up and made functional again, though at a minimal level."
--Spend a story point to restore the station's basic functions allowing you access to dock and store your items and ships. Maintaining the station at a minimal level will still require a monthly investment, though the tax would be half of that found in a fully functioning station."
--Move on and leave the station to rot

What I understood from your earlier comments and my experimentation is that there were no accounting issues with stations not considered abandoned, so maybe it's easier to remove the storage options for abandoned stations and add a process to turn them into a non-abandoned state that both solves the game accounting issues and allows the player an initial break? Best of luck with the game. You have a real gem here!

[Alex]

Hmm, that's a very interesting idea - when/if I get to this, I'll certainly keep it in mind! It'd help solve the various issues, yeah - and with the use of a story point, wouldn't even need to have a fee. Good stuff!

... actually, this gives me an idea for how to possibly solve this without even needing to do that. Thank you!

[Jo Jo]

Haha! Less work to achieve an improvement in outcomes is the basis for success. Best of luck to you!