NPC capships in X2 got stuck

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Tue, 26. Jan 16, 14:45

Hello there. I`m playing X2 now, and encountered a strange problem. The NPC capships like Argon One and other M2-M1 in all of the "protected" sectors like Argon Prime, Herrons nebulae, Paranid prime and so on, suddenly just stopped to move, while i`m OOS, but when i`m in the sector, they do move, but never attacks an enemy, if present. I have noticed that for now they acts the same even if i load earlier savegames. i tried to reinstall the game but it didnt help. Is there a way to "reset" all these capships back to normal without restarting the game from scratch? I`m playing X2 v 1.5 (Russian) with bonus pack only, no other scripts are installed. Thanks for your answers.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 26. Jan 16, 16:12

If your game is a clean vanilla with no old 3rd party scripts left over from past mods, then it rather sounds as though something on your system is not providing the necessary power to operate the entire game universe at once. That might be shortage of available RAM or it might be an underpowered cpu.

Let us know the main items of your system - or you could post again in the X2 Technical Support forum and post your whole DxDiag there.

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Tue, 26. Jan 16, 19:56

I have 8gb of RAM, Core 2 quad q9400 2,66ghz cpu and 220 gb of free space on the system drive, which also contain the game and it`s saves (Program files folder). i`m runnin the game under win 7 x64, without the compatibility mode (i will if it`s gonna help, dunno). BTW there is not so large universe at the moment in my game. I only have 4 factories, 7 ships running for them, 3 ships parked at the NPC`s factories (mostly around Argon Prime) and 1 ship i fly myself. As for the map, it`s not even completely explored. From Kingdom`s End to the east farthest discovered sector is Black hole sun and to the south its Ministry of finance.

Also i`ve noticed now, that some of the (visible when OOS) patrol ships like Novas and Centaurs are freezing too. Could it be script-related problem that way?

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Tue, 26. Jan 16, 21:55

Firstly the whole game universe and all its NPCs are live whether you have explored it or not, and all of it is running on just one cpu core within less than 4 GB RAM. The game contents will grow in complexity and depth as you build and buy stuff and take missions though.

The fact that the vanilla game does not freeze OOS for everybody means that the game code is not inherently the problem but that it must be something related to your system, installation or set up. Obviously you should minimise any background activities and applications while playing.

In your place I would do a clean uninstall, game deletion and reinstall from scratch including all patches and BP (method depending upon whether Steam or DVD). The detailed reinstall advice at the end of this Sticky may help. I would also use a fresh gamestart afterwards rather than use possibly corrupted gamesaves.

If the issues still persist afterwards then please post with your DxDiag in Tech Sp and we can take it up from there.

Good luck.

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Tue, 26. Jan 16, 22:48

Yes, that`s looks like some corruption in saves, because even the earlier saves are affected by it now (but wasnt when i`ve actually made them). I ve installed a game without applying any 3rd party scripts, only approved bonuspack, just like your note said (but without removing, cause it was the first time) and everything WAS fine until yesterday. And if it happened once, then it can happen twice, at least until i dont know why that corruption happened. What can i do to make sure that it wont happen again after my restart?

Araknis · Post by **Araknis** » Tue, 26. Jan 16, 23:58

Amon2501 wrote:Yes, that`s looks like some corruption in saves, because even the earlier saves are affected by it now (but wasnt when i`ve actually made them). I ve installed a game without applying any 3rd party scripts, only approved bonuspack, just like your note said (but without removing, cause it was the first time) and everything WAS fine until yesterday. And if it happened once, then it can happen twice, at least until i dont know why that corruption happened. What can i do to make sure that it wont happen again after my restart?

Check the mod section, before restarting. There was a script for X3 (dont know if it would work for x2 or if there is one for x2) called, kill all ships.
Basically every ship in the universe (except yours) dies and respawns after a while. This has helped solve some very weird problems in the past.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Wed, 27. Jan 16, 15:21

@ Aamon2501: The fact that older saves that were fine are now playing up means that it is definitely your game installation or game set up that now has a problem.

If Araknis' advice doesn't help then you need to do a clean reinstall with all the deletions etc exactly as detailed in that advice that I linked. You then need to restart from scratch as your saves will just start the problem again. Sorry.

If the problem continues even after that then there is a wider issue somewhere in your system or its set up that we can help you to investigate further. That would really need to be done in the Tech Sp forum though.

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Wed, 27. Jan 16, 17:33

I ve also asked about that problem on another russian space sim forum. And one man said that in his game (also Russian v1.4 with BP), the capships are freezing too while OOS but they do kill the enemies. Also in my game i saw yesterday that Odyssey in Paranid prime actually killed the pirate when i was in the sector. I wonder maybe that was a bug of the russian version only? You guys of course playing English or Deutsch versions here, so could someone please look carefully in their own game and tell is there a big difference in the speed of the ships (especially M1 and M1, but not your own) shown by the map (. button) while you in the sector and while OOS? And also do they stop when you exit that sector?

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Wed, 27. Jan 16, 17:48

The only difference between language versions is the textfile and audiofile loaded when you set your preferences. You can set your game to English language and it will be exactly the same as what we have here.

Also the other Russian player should update to version 1.5 as you have.

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Wed, 27. Jan 16, 19:40

I dont know for sure were my older saves fine or not. I never before paid a close attention at the NPCs capships OOS movement speed, until now, then something gone wrong. Maybe that situation was from the very beginning of the game, maybe not. Before i restart, it`s better to know how it supposed to be in the "normal" game.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Wed, 27. Jan 16, 21:36

I think you have gathered by now that your frozen OOS ships (capitals and fighters) is not at all normal. It would not be much of a living sandbox universe game if nothing much moved except IS.

The main differences between IS and OOS movement is that OOS moves will seem more jerky because of the longer period between screen updates, and that OOS movement does not detect or avoid collisions with other objects and so uses more direct routes.

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Thu, 28. Jan 16, 23:11

Today i ve uninstalled the game completely, cleaned all its files (backuping my old saves of course). then i removed any traces of X2 and egosoft from the windows registry mannualy. And then i ve reinstalled the game back and started it from scratch. After the start cinematics i ve bought a sattelite and dropped it near the trading station in Argon prime Then i went to Home of light. And guess what? NONE of the "military" ships in AP were moving. from the moment i left that sector, but TS were. I even stopped my Disco right in the space, opened up a sector map of AP, took a screenshot, then went for awile AFK, without pausing or exiting the game. i ve returned back after about 5 minutes realtime but still, none of the military ships (even the Novas station guards) were moved in AP. And as i wrote before - one of the russian players said that he have exactly the same situation. So, still more questions than answers. Is it supposed to be that way? IF someone here is playing X2 right now or at least have his old savegames, could you please take a look, how the NPCs capital ships act in your game while OOS. Do they move?

MarvinTheMartian · Post by **MarvinTheMartian** » Fri, 29. Jan 16, 02:43

Amon2501 wrote:after about 5 minutes realtime

That's not really very long. Military ships probably only move when responding to a threat in the sector, have you tried watching the sector map with SETA on for 10 minutes or more (although SETA can skip some calculations so might not yield reliable results)?

What about less "safe" sectors, not much happens in Argon Prime even with Kha'ak around? It's been a very long time since I played X2 but I don't recall Argon One doing very much at all even IS.

Failing that, put your DXDiag details in the support forum as it's unlikely to be the game files if you've reinstalled everything

Araknis · Post by **Araknis** » Fri, 29. Jan 16, 06:14

Can you please, share one of your saves with us?

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Fri, 29. Jan 16, 10:43

Araknis wrote:Can you please, share one of your saves with us?

Yes i can, but that save is from the russian version. if it`s matters. Here is the link.

X22.sav

Take a look at Herrons nebula, there are Kaaks there, but Colossus do nothing. You can then jump there yourself (just buy batteries), and see that he s actually moving while you IS.

Araknis · Post by **Araknis** » Fri, 29. Jan 16, 13:13

Ok, i didnt play X2 much. so i can't say what is normal and what is not but a couple of things i noticed.
You play without SETA? Trying hardcore mode ?

It took me about an hour of slowboating from where you were docked to Home of Light

When i installed SETA and set it to 10, things started to seem more alive.

Also, the sector you said, has one of your stations in it, but no satellites.
If X2 is anything like X3 you need a sat in the system to relay data.
I dont know if advanced sats were available in x2, i see you have a nav sat in Cloudbase northwest.
I would say, map the whole sector with nav sats. Then jump out, hit SETA @ 10 and wait to see if indeed the npcs fight only when you are in the sector.

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Fri, 29. Jan 16, 16:10

Araknis wrote:Ok, i didnt play X2 much. so i can't say what is normal and what is not but a couple of things i noticed.
You play without SETA? Trying hardcore mode ?
It took me about an hour of slowboating from where you were docked to Home of Light

When i installed SETA and set it to 10, things started to seem more alive.

Also, the sector you said, has one of your stations in it, but no satellites.
If X2 is anything like X3 you need a sat in the system to relay data.
I dont know if advanced sats were available in x2, i see you have a nav sat in Cloudbase northwest.
I would say, map the whole sector with nav sats. Then jump out, hit SETA @ 10 and wait to see if indeed the npcs fight only when you are in the sector.

Im not using SETA, cause instead of just waiting for factories to make money, i better go trading or completing some bbs missions and make even more money. Also there was no need for slowboating, that Dolphin had the jumpdrive equipped. But anyway, i`ve switched to my Disco that has SETA on board, used it, but nothing changes. Remember i`ve told about that khaak m5 in Herrons nebula. it still was there after the SETA. Also, in AP there is an area, covered by my factory `s radar radius. There was Titan in it. So he didnt move even a little after the SETA time. The worst thing is i dont know is it supposed to be or not? And noone tells.

Araknis · Post by **Araknis** » Sat, 30. Jan 16, 08:20

If you dont mind using mods, i would suggest trying this:

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=85639

From the mod description:

"The purpose of the plugin is to make the response of a race to aggression by another race upon its military assets more realistic.

One of the big plus points of this plugin, is that it fixes the problem you would normally have with race ships completely ignoring attacks by the player on other race ships.

For example if you destroy a station in a sector where there is a capital ship, the capital ship will normally ignore you. This will not happen with JTP. Both attacks on race ships and on race stations will be met with a considerable response. "

Amon2501 · Post by **Amon2501** » Sat, 30. Jan 16, 12:19

i want to complete my game (a plot yet unfinished and my own goals) without any 3rd party scripts. Of course everything can be made with the scripts, but then it will be a different game with different rules. Maybe only the script for killing every ship in the galaxy will do, but i couldnt find it. So now its more important to figure out how it supposed to be in the normal game and try to fix it if needed.

Araknis · Post by **Araknis** » Sat, 30. Jan 16, 12:28

Amon2501 wrote:i want to complete my game (a plot yet unfinished and my own goals) without any 3rd party scripts. Of course everything can be made with the scripts, but then it will be a different game with different rules. Maybe only the script for killing every ship in the galaxy will do, but i couldnt find it. So now its more important to figure out how it supposed to be in the normal game and try to fix it if needed.

I understand that, but as the modder in the description said :

it fixes the problem you would normally have with race ships completely ignoring attacks by the player on other race ships.

Which means, you are not the only one who observed this behavior.
Others as well did and felt they should make a mod about it to correct it.
This is not about changing the game, but more about correcting it, or adjusting to a proper behavior.

Your alternative i believe would be either to ignore the problem or, provide your own defense fleets in the sectors and make sure your military ships kill all hostile, so you dont count on Race defense.