New 1.5 Storyline TOTALLY broken in one area

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Thor'sHammer, Aug 1, 2021.

  1. Thor'sHammer

    Thor'sHammer Commander

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    TLDR: Playing 1.5 Storyline on an Artic planet. Am stuck at Chapter 4 (won't trigger) and wanted to share what happened to A. Get unstuck and B. Report what happened for the Devs to see.
    EDIT: IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE CHAPTER 3 OF THE STORYLINE, THIS HAS SPOILERS!

    I'm taking my time advancing this story, and skipped the Tutorials, going straight into the Storyline. I've played enough to not need to be taught how to build a Base, HV, or SV.

    Apparently, that was an unrecoverable error, or at least not in conjunction with other actions:

    I was scratching the soil to live, bleeding and barely alive, when in my wanders I randomly ran across the UCH Heidelberg and, right next to it, the starter HV. Overjoyed at my luck, I killed the Zirax scum and tried to loot the UCH H. by re-coring it as I've done many times. (See my post in General). Couldn't do that, but could take the HV.

    I did NOT do this following the storyline, just ran across it.
    Deconstructed it, and put together enough for a real HV from the Factory (the Rigoletto SL https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2257116167) a GREAT Early game all in one HV, very underrated).

    I did the Storyline: Prelude
    then Chapter 1 - Tales of the Past. All's well.

    Then I raided POI's, Looted, Traded, built a Mountain base.

    Did Chapter 3 no problems, until the end.
    When offered a Transporter by Kessel I took it, not using his.
    When I go to "Assessing the Situation" I never got any prompt to move on. (Didn't place my Transporter until much later)

    Took a little break to build up resources (remember, I didn't have the Dart), finally, when I'd gotten to owning an SV, decided to continue the story.

    Could. Not. Continue.
    No prompt from IDA, no checkboxes to check, just stuck waiting for Chapter 4 - Totally Overpowered to trigger. All steps of Chapter 3 show Checked and says "assessing the situation"

    Tried returning to the Sanctuary to use the Teleporter on the 3rd floor but it refused to allow me access to the Elevator or other doors to the upper floors. Guard ignored me too. I've reported this "lockout" before. It let me in the FIRST time to speak to Kessel, but now was locked.

    Tried doing the Tutorials (thinking it might unlock) but the HV, of course, was missing and once I got the Dart and "returned to my Base" (NOT the Com Station) but no trigger of Chapter 4.
    Note - the Com Station refused to allow me to place a core, but would respond to my placing the items for the Base tutorial. Odd that.

    I tried placing the Transporter on my Base, no joy.
    Note that I'd killed the five nearest Snowstorm Defense stations to the Dart, and had to go by foot to the Obvious Wreckage to trigger the Dart section. It worked but didn't trigger when I got back to my base with it.

    Remember - the Com Station refused my core so it was never my Base. Is the Dart's "Return to Base" connected to the Com Station as a Base?

    I haven't tried starting Chapter 4 myself to see if it trigger when I get to the SkyBar, I'll try that and see.

    My take on all this:
    What I think is that my randomly acquiring the Starter HV (something easily done by a new player) broke the Storyline. The UCH H. regenerates if violated, but when it does it does NOT regen the HV, and I think that's what broke things.

    The player (IMHO) shouldn't be REQUIRED to do the Storyline before trying to survive, and the Tutorial should NOT be a requirement to do the Storyline. If an experienced player wants to SKIP the Tutorial it shouldn't KILL the Storyline.

    The whole idea behind the regeneration of POI's is so a klutz can't blow the whole thing up. (Now, given an ADVANCED Klutz like me, I understand it breaking as I did many out of order things ... :p:eek::D)

    So, although frustrated I'm not angry at all, just wanted to see if there's any way to flip a config item or some console command to reset the story to the beginning of Chapter 4.

    One of my goals of THIS game was to re-test 1.5 Storyline. Guess I went off course to far.

    Methinks the Devs need to lock down that HV. Not sure how, but it seems to break things if taken out of order.

    I'll be happy to do a Bug report if needed.

    @Hummel-o-War - Any ideas my Guru?
     
    #1
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2021
  2. japp_02

    japp_02 Commander

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    For a meaningful response you will need (apart from devs) to find someone who started on a Ice planet AND who played through until Chapter 4-5, whcih may take some time, I will for sure take note of your post if I ever start on such a planet.
    In the meantime, a dev only will seriously go in-depth about what you say if you make a bug report in the right format, that way if it can be reproduced (also send your savegame) the bug can surely be fixed quickly.

    In my 1.5 game I had first to conclude the 2 robinson protocoll tutorials, only then the story will unlock sending you to a Talon Settlement and starting the story, are you sure you did that?

    Bumping into story objects and interacting, destroying or salvaging them can mess up the story chapter resulting in you to be stucked, you have then the choice or to skip that mission part in the PDA or to reset the mission in the console in order to replay it.
    To reset a mission, type

    help pda

    in the console to list the various options and operations related to missions. Then chose the right command to reset a story chapter.

    To avoid this problem in the first place, look at the POI icon in the map, if it's a double arrow type icon, then it's a POI that you cannot take over (with an admin core), or most of the time: a STORY POI, do not bother with it until you do the story.

    I can not say much about chapters 2-4+ in 1.5 because I didn't play that far yet, I have transfered an old game into a new one starting on a temperate planet and did mainly exploration or blueprint creations and adaptations and such stuff, I always DEACTIVATE the missions in the PDA for them not to clash later when I re-activate and play through them, in 1.2-1.4 versions this has worked without problems until the missions were updated forcing me to restart a new game.
     
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    Last edited: Aug 1, 2021
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  3. Germanicus

    Germanicus Rear Admiral

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    Currently there are only TWO Ways to play EGS:
    RP/Story Line
    or
    Non at all

    As soon as the Player does anything outside of the requirements(or preemptive) of the Storyline - high Risk of breaking it.
     
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  4. Thor'sHammer

    Thor'sHammer Commander

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    Yeah, I could do a bug report but I'll see if it's repeatable. I was posting this under General, just to see who else might have some experiences to share (like you :D;)) and so some of the heavy hitters could see it too. Don't want to waste the Dev's time with a report on a bug that was my own stupidity, they have enough on their plates ...eh?

    I did them but opted out when it offered to teach me HV, SV, Base building. That's where I think it may be bugged (if it is at all) as those decision points are new to 1.5 ...

    Now THAT'S handy!! Didn't know the console command for that. Thx!! I try to avoid using the console AMAP since I play Solo and want to avoid "cheating". I'll figure out how to dig out of that hole rather than invoking a Transport to X,Y,0 position if you get my drift. But sometimes you just gotta fire up the console. Didn't know you could reset the pda like that, cool.


    Didn't know the double arrow icon thing either. I always told by looking at the core ... New game - Yeah I did that too, until 1.5. Wanted to run totally new so I could find stuff like this, I like to try and help out the community as I can. The Devs and the people on here and Reddit have given me an awesome game to play, I like to give back as my feeble skills allow ... :rolleyes::)

    Thanks for the help!!
     
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  5. Thor'sHammer

    Thor'sHammer Commander

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    Yeah, kinda figure that ... Thanks. Should allow RE-play skipping the obvious stuff, and in 1.5 there are decision points in the Storyline now that weren't there to skip HV, SV, and Base tutorials, so I think the Devs intend them to be skipped. Might not be flaw free at this point, that's what I'm trying to nail down. :D

    BTW - I got a chance yesterday PM to try manually triggering Storyline Chapter 4. There were no IDA prompts or checkboxes on the Right HUD to follow, but I know the next step is go to the SkyBar so I did, and the Storyline DID activate then, so I'm doing my Root Beer / Pirates' thing now.

    It may be that the end of Chapter 3 may not be quite right on the IDA telling you to get out and go there. ?? The 'Activate Mission' button for Chapter 4 was greyed out, will all steps of Chapter 3 checked ...

    Thx again "guys", appreciate the help nailing this down. I'm more interested in solving the puzzle than doing the Story. Been there done that.
     
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  6. Hummel-o-War

    Hummel-o-War Administrator Staff Member Community Manager

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    First: Glad you figured it out ;)
    Second: With v1.5 we changed the initial story missions to NOT activate right away when you completed the previous mission BUT instead telling the player WHERE to go or WHAT to do next to progress the story.

    This choice was made to reduce "pressure" of having to play all the missions in a row. As noted here: otherwise you do something else and then the story mission might not work again.

    What I learn from this (and similar reports) is, that the information are often not read (although they are color-highlighted in the dialogues on the end AND given in the description of the PDA mission!) or not clear enough. Although I am not sure how to change the latter while we already have color, info print on mission descriptions and giving the locations where to go... :D
     
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  7. Thor'sHammer

    Thor'sHammer Commander

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    Thx for the detailed explanation! How you have time to do any of this makes me shake my head. ;) Workaholic.:p:D

    I get the "lack of pressure" thing, it's actually refreshing, and how I'm playing this run-through.

    I decided to try going to the SkyBar after re-reading the PDA mission, but I would suggest that the IDA say (as the last thing in Crashed Birds) something like "We might want to check out that Bar, see my log for more info" or some such.

    Is it possible to time trigger a subtle reminder from the IDA a bit later to remind the player to look in the log? Sometimes I know I miss what the IDA is saying while dealing with other things, and since we can't review it ...

    Yes, your LOVELY changes to highlighted & colored text was noted and made me smile, MUCH easier to read! I actually thought "OH! Nice touch!"

    As to how to make player read it ... sometimes you underestimate the players ability for gross stupidity, while battling the players who pay attention (personally I vacillate between the two regularly :rolleyes:) crying "STOP BUGGING US!" :eek:.

    Not sure there is a solution, but a time delayed subtle IDA reminder might help (?) Just a thought.

    Be well, my Friend, and thx for the time you put in on all this. Having this beautiful game has helped get me through some rough times.:)
     
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  8. Miznit

    Miznit Lieutenant

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    What I noticed from my extensive testing (2 tests, one happened one way, tried a second time a different way) is that IF you do something as a chapter is in the countdown to telling you where/how to activate the next chapter (by, say, looking at your inventory), you will NOT get the prompt and the PDA entry won't tell you what you need to know. However, if you sit there like a good little robot, you get the message and the prompt. Almost as if doing ANYTHING except waiting fro the update at the end of a chapter breaks it just enough to make it hard to figure out where to go. First time I checked my inventory and had problems. Started a new game to go through and DIDN'T check inventory at that point, and everything worked fine.

    I know that is nothing but anecdotal evidence, but it's why I have experienced.

    CHEERS!
     
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  9. Hummel-o-War

    Hummel-o-War Administrator Staff Member Community Manager

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    Yes, that could happen .. but thats why I also added the "next steps" to the description of the mission in the PDA (when you click on it > right side gives info where to go to continue) ;)
     
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  10. Germanicus

    Germanicus Rear Admiral

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    Isn't he a nice Guy?:p;)
     
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  11. japp_02

    japp_02 Commander

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    I find the missions working much better now (1.5.5, 1.5.6), there is much more info in the PDA, the dialogues have changed positively, and the POIs were nicely changed too.

    Thumbs up and greetings :)
     
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  12. Miznit

    Miznit Lieutenant

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    Well, whaddaya know. I never noticed. I admit, I didn't look too hard either. :)

    CHEERS!
     
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