Maelstrom west gate disappeared

[Probe]

Hi,

(in case it's relevent: Windows 7 64 AP Steam)

Having slowly worked ny way through the AP plot line I am now on the "black crystals" mission where I have to liberate 5 of said crystals from transporter ships operating between Maelstrom and some other sector (can't remember the name, Gaia or something).

When I 1st got this mission I did a reccy, found the west gate in Maelstrom and more pirate hardware than I was able to deal with at that time.

Having returned to it, mob-handed, the gate is no longer there and there is no indicitive stream of ships, although, when I 1st entered Maelstrom there were 3 pirate M3s that seemed to come from the West, but absolutely nothing in an hour's realtime play.

Pirate ships in this sector appear friendly due to my space fuel trading elsewhere. Is my "friendlines" impacting on this in some way and negating the mission (I can't "activate guidance" on the missions menu)?

Thanks

[Sabrina Bergin]

Have you tried looking on the sector map if you passed close enough to the gate to be able to click on it, it should now be listed on the inventory on the right. of the map screen ie the one where the north gate is also listed.

Spoiler

Show

The ships you want will appear in maelstrom.

[Probe]

Yes, I located the gate to the far West in the sector the first time I received the mission.

For whatever reason the gate (despite having been previously discovered and passed through) no longer features on the current sector map, nor can it be found by navigating to the far West side of the sector.

[Black_hole_suN]

Edit: I reread your post and it seems that you have already discovered the gate.

Do you have Cheat package installed?? if you did you might have accidentally "destroyed" the gate with cheats..

can you jump to Merc's Rift using the south or the west gate?? if you can, try to find the east gate of Merc's Rift to see if its there

[Sabrina Bergin]

If you passed through that gate then I suspect your game has a fault if it no longer shows on the sector map. It may be related to the loss of the mission director (Guidance).

Go back to a save prior to that part of the mission if only to see if you can locate the gate again; Alternatively try to jump to that gate if that does not work the mission has definitely messed up your game somehow though I have never heard of this type of error occurring.


"Of course this could also be due to you letting Rimmer navigate for you".

[Jimmy C]

Probe, do you mean to say you found the Maelstrom west gate and got it recorded on your map the first time, but it's not there now?
Sounds like a system fault.

[TTD]

If you are still using Steam for this get the game files checked.
after verification ,it will re-install anything it finds missing. I f this happens try game again. if the fault is still there, test earlier save with gate in and continue from there.

[Probe]

If you are still using Steam for this get the game files checked.
after verification ,it will re-install anything it finds missing. I f this happens try game again. if the fault is still there, test earlier save with gate in and continue from there.

Ok.... problem identified and solved (verification was fine, btw).

Loading a previous game save only lost me an hour's game play and I was able to re-discover the west gate. (although, tedious, as I had been painfully, manually repairing a Cobra from a "return abandoned ship" mission which, as I'm sure everyone knows, takes forever, but, call me "tight", I do love to "penny-pinch" such opportunities!).

It would seem that the first time I entered Maelstrom I chose to take on 3 pirate M3's, that were, presumably, of friendly status due to my space fuel trading in othern sectors, immediately inside the north gate. I capped 2 and destroyed the third. This looks to have caused a bug where the west gate was no longer discoverable (and no traffic to indicate it's proximity). Re-loading and refraining from the temptation of combat maintained the flow of traffic and allowed me to find the gate OK.

Maybe one for your "stickies", or maybe not given I seem to be the first to fall foul of it.

Anyhoo, many thanks to all contributors.

Cheers