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[Jo Jo]

I was notified of a Hegemony AI inspection that was gathering at Sphinx in the Samarra star system, so I went there and watched it happen. They were heading to one of my colonies in Duzahk, so I knew what direction they would be traveling. It seemed easier to intercept them at the jump points near their own system which was relatively clear of hyperspace nebulae than to wait and hope I could find them in all the hyperspace nebulae near my own. The problem is that the AI fleets never left their system or they did, but by magic and not through any jump points or any place that was within an entire view of their systems, while centered on their group of jump points in hyperspace.

The AI fleets formed (two of them) and they headed to the Samarra Jump Point. I was closer to the Fringe Jump Point so I went there and entered hyperspace. I was there several days before their slow moving fleets could have made it to the Samarra Jump Point and I waited and waited. There was a pirate incursion in their system so I thought maybe their two fleets were delayed by a pirate encounter, though I kept checking the "Colony Threats" notification and the part detailing the impending inspection kept counting down the days until the Hegemony's arrival. When the notification indicated 3 days before arrival, I left the empty area of hyperspace surrounding the Samarra system jump gates and flew as quickly as I could towards Duzahk, where I found both fleets near the Duzahk jump gates. How the heck did they get there, if I haven't discovered the gate technology yet, and they technically never left their system.

Surely I'm not the first to work this out rationally and choose the better battle ground? Why not give enemy fleets the same rules for travel that the player has? You've gone to great lengths to develop a story that draws the player in. Why not do away with "magic" that breaks the immersion and works against the benefits of the story plot?

[Alex]

Thank you for the report! Hmm. You don't happen to have a save where this is reproducible, do you? I'm having a hard time thinking of a way this could happen, so assuming you didn't somehow miss them, this would be a particularly odd bug.

To explain a bit how it works behind the scenes: the game tracks these sorts of fleets in an abstracted way behind the scenes, and they come into being when the player is close enough to where the fleets would be at that time, whether at a starting or ending point, or somewhere along the way.

So, for example, if they're launching from Samarra, and you're nearby, the fleets will exist in-game. And since you saw them, that part of it looks like it triggered. At that point, they're in existence and would work normally, unless/until you move fairly far away in hyperspace-distance *and* at least a month passes, at which point they go back to "existing behind the scenes". But even then they would not be able to magically pass through an area in which you're waiting for them without "coming into existence" again. And if you were near the Samarra system the entire time, this wouldn't happen anyway, they'd just fly around following the same exact rules that you do.

So, right, this happening doesn't make sense - I'll keep an eye out for it! And, again, if you've got a save where this is reproducible, I'd love to take a look.

[Jo Jo]

I saw the fleets forming and I waited until they were heading to the jump point. If you look at the area around Samarra in hyperspace, it's a beautiful open space. There's no way two huge, slow moving fleets could not have been seen, especially since my fleet was just flying in circles in the middle of the jump points. The fact that I ran into them about one day's journey from the Duzahk jump points let you know that part of the game is working, because they became visible on the edge of the screen as that portion of hyperspace came into view. 

Thank you for explaining. I'm happy to send you whatever I have, though I fear that the way the saves work is they appear to erase the previous save once you have moved on in the game and have saved again. Maybe I'm wrong and there's a whole list of saves. If that's the case, then tell me where they are and I'll see if I can attach some of them. It happened just yesterday so it should be somewhere.

On the other hand, this should be very easy to reproduce. Maybe it only happens with AI interdiction fleets, or maybe only after you've told your colony peeps to refuse the first inspection and thus the Hegemony doubles up on the inspection fleets for the next trip. There are quite a few people here who are familiar with the console and I'll bet a few of them would be glad to test the hypothesis that fleets don't use jump points.

[Alex]

The game keeps one save, yeah, though there's a "Save Copy" option in the campaign menu that lets you save your current game to a new slot. But if you hadn't done that, a newer save wouldn't be much use, unfortunately.

On the other hand, this should be very easy to reproduce. Maybe it only happens with AI interdiction fleets, or maybe only after you've told your colony peeps to refuse the first inspection and thus the Hegemony doubles up on the inspection fleets for the next trip. There are quite a few people here who are familiar with the console and I'll bet a few of them would be glad to test the hypothesis that fleets don't use jump points.

Ah, I'm sorry I wasn't clear! This definitely isn't a general issue. Something specific must've happened to cause this; I'm not sure what, exactly - a reasonable explanation doesn't readily come to mind.

For example, here's a screenshot of an expedition coming from Arcadia to Duzahk, jumping out of the system:

https://i.imgur.com/ciYv3Yb.png

I did pretty much what you've described to try to reproduce this but it works as one would expect. I haven't seen this sort of thing reported prior to this, which makes me think the conditions that trigger this are not very common (which would make a save where it's happening super handy, but no worries!). At the very least, though, I will look out for this - it's good to know about potential issues; thank you again for letting me know.

[Jo Jo]

The game keeps one save, yeah, though there's a "Save Copy" option in the campaign menu that lets you save your current game to a new slot. But if you hadn't done that, a newer save wouldn't be much use, unfortunately.

On the other hand, this should be very easy to reproduce. Maybe it only happens with AI interdiction fleets, or maybe only after you've told your colony peeps to refuse the first inspection and thus the Hegemony doubles up on the inspection fleets for the next trip. There are quite a few people here who are familiar with the console and I'll bet a few of them would be glad to test the hypothesis that fleets don't use jump points.

Ah, I'm sorry I wasn't clear! This definitely isn't a general issue. Something specific must've happened to cause this; I'm not sure what, exactly - a reasonable explanation doesn't readily come to mind.

For example, here's a screenshot of an expedition coming from Arcadia to Duzahk, jumping out of the system:

https://i.imgur.com/ciYv3Yb.png

I did pretty much what you've described to try to reproduce this but it works as one would expect. I haven't seen this sort of thing reported prior to this, which makes me think the conditions that trigger this are not very common (which would make a save where it's happening super handy, but no worries!). At the very least, though, I will look out for this - it's good to know about potential issues; thank you again for letting me know.

Thanks, I get it now. Glad it's working for you. It must be extremely hard to troubleshoot with so many different versions of Windows and endless hardware configurations. Next time I have another inspection I will repeat my actions with the same game that resulted in the issue last time to see if I can locate the fleet at their starting destination. I'll be sure and save before I try. Good luck with the next iteration of the game. We're all looking forward to it!

Edit: My apologies. I have modified the game a little. Changed to 8GB RAM, and I installed two mods - Automated Commands and Detailed Combat Results. I usually play completely vanilla, and I simply forgot about the mods. Maybe one of the changes above led to my experience?

[Alex]

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

(And, yeah, bugs that aren't straightforward to reproduce are the worst.)

[Jo Jo]

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

(And, yeah, bugs that aren't straightforward to reproduce are the worst.)

You're quite a fast responder. I was editing my message. Would you mind taking a look at the edit? Maybe one of those changes caused the difference in our experiences? I'm not a mod user for any other games and it simply slipped my mind. Thanks again and good luck with the game!

[Alex]

Ah, thank you - offhand, it doesn't seem like either of those two mods (or the memory change) would have anything to do with this, but it's good to mention 'em just to be aware of the possibility.

[Jo Jo]

Thank you! Best of luck to you and your team!

[Alex]

Thank you, cheers!