ATTENTION: Signed SDS script is BROKEN

Damar Stiehl · Post by **Damar Stiehl** » Sat, 31. Jul 04, 04:09

Funny, I thought signed scripts were problem-free for the most part.

Anyway, SDS script is broken, I can confirm this now. My loop in Paranid Prime has just ground to a screeching halt because of this piece of crap. The Crystal Fabs each have 32 Crystals in inventory, SPPs are empty, and what do the delivery Mantas do?

Why, they sit in the homebase station displaying "SDS Wait...".

I tried different ships, I tried restarting the script, I tried reinitializing script cache, and all of it bought me some wasted time and little else.

There was a similar report a few days ago, and nobody appears to give a damn. Yay...

Scarecrow · Post by **Scarecrow** » Sat, 31. Jul 04, 04:13

I've got four of them in two different sectors supplying ecells to my factories....so far so good.

Haven't tried delivering any other goods with them yet.

The Great Stonk · Post by **The Great Stonk** » Sat, 31. Jul 04, 18:43

http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57220

would be nice to hear an official word on this.

Damar Stiehl · Post by **Damar Stiehl** » Sun, 1. Aug 04, 00:16

BLARG!!!!

WHERE is the script creator?

WHERE is EGO?

WHY wasn't this mentioned in the readme?

Sweet Jeebus!!

VincentTH · Post by **VincentTH** » Sun, 1. Aug 04, 06:01

Calm down, I use 10 SDS freighters currently, and have no problem whatsoever. I notice a little feature, urh bug as follows:

If the freighter has already been given an SDS command to deliver to 1 station, and is currently waiting, then if you issue a new SDS command to deliver to 2 stations (with the new station flashing yellow), the new command sometimes does not take effect. and the ship is stuck in waiting state, despite your factory flashing yellow. The fix is to issue a Nav command to stand-by, then re-issue the SDS command. The ship should start its delivery to the yellow flashing station right away.

Damar Stiehl · Post by **Damar Stiehl** » Sun, 1. Aug 04, 06:33

Nope - wrong.

The reason for my problem was explained in the thread that was linked from the post above.

Less than 10% ware in the factory = no delivery.

Sure enough, I spoon-fed my problematic CFabs until they were at 50 Crystals each, and the delivery ships took off like gangbusters.

And it's mentioned NOWHERE in the readme.

VincentTH · Post by **VincentTH** » Sun, 1. Aug 04, 20:17

Damar Stiehl wrote:Nope - wrong.

The reason for my problem was explained in the thread that was linked from the post above.

Less than 10% ware in the factory = no delivery.

Sure enough, I spoon-fed my problematic CFabs until they were at 50 Crystals each, and the delivery ships took off like gangbusters.

And it's mentioned NOWHERE in the readme.

I thought mkess mentioned that the ship would only go when it is worthwhile for him to do so. It is standard "pilot" behavior, as in Mk3SW Note that the SDS pilot __IS__ a pilot not Julian.

Seraph062 · Post by **Seraph062** » Mon, 2. Aug 04, 00:41

How is it worthwhile for the pilot to sit around on his ass while goods sit around not being used for anything? You're wasting the ships time, and you're increasing the amount of money you have tied up in inventory.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon, 2. Aug 04, 07:28

Would you personally transport just 8 crystals? Don't expect the SDS pilots to do so either.

The_Abyss · Post by **The_Abyss** » Mon, 2. Aug 04, 08:38

Damar Stiehl wrote:And it's mentioned NOWHERE in the readme.

Never expect all features of the scripts to be documented - it's part of the discovery of the game.

Charlie Whiskey · Post by **Charlie Whiskey** » Mon, 2. Aug 04, 09:25

Aasvogel wrote:Would you personally transport just 8 crystals? Don't expect the SDS pilots to do so either.

I would if a factory in a loop is blinking yellow. Why won't you?

Jasperodus · Post by **Jasperodus** » Mon, 2. Aug 04, 11:14

To all those who want to talk about the SDS pilots making 'worthwhile' trips...

2,000 ecells @ 16 = 32,000

32 crystals @ 1,684 = 53,888

Hmmm...

Anyhow, I would advocate a variable threshold according to some reasonable factor (avg price? cargo category? whatever...).

A thought... if the threshold is 10% across the board, how on earth does SDS transport high-powered weapons to player-owned stations?

However, another thought: why rely solely on SDS? Popping a Sector Trader in there will help no end. Also the forthcoming BHP script should help.

I'm sympathetic (and agree a fixed 10% threshold is shortsighted given the different permutations of stock limits, production rates, costs, etc) but I can't support anyone who is relying solely on SDS supply networks...

Jasp

bravoman · Post by **bravoman** » Mon, 2. Aug 04, 11:18

Charlie Whiskey wrote:
Aasvogel wrote:Would you personally transport just 8 crystals? Don't expect the SDS pilots to do so either.
I would if a factory in a loop is blinking yellow. Why won't you?

I guess you could look at it from an employees point of view.

"Loop? What loop? I was told to wait for 40 crystals before heading out on my delivery run."

But seriously, its really an issue for the owner since its lost profitsss

For a simple pilot, he doesn't really think much about the business, just his "job".

But yeah, one thing the script could have taken into consideration is if a station is blinking yellow, deliver what you can.

Just my 2 cents.

Damar Stiehl · Post by **Damar Stiehl** » Mon, 2. Aug 04, 21:50

GRRRR....

Excuses excuses...

Even from the roleplaying point of view... The instruction issued to the SDS ship is "Keep that factory supplied", not "Wait until you have N units available, then move them to that factory."

And "discovery" has nothing to do with it, the 10% threshold should have been documented as it is an easily reproducible condition for which there is no explanation, unless you go rooting in the script. I mean c'mon Abyss, that's just lame: my carefully built loop craps out for no apparent reason, and you're smugly telling me "discovery is a part of the game". Sure, I can go discovering in the script editor, or someone else can. But I thought the point of signed scripts was exactly to avoid such situations...

Lorien · Post by **Lorien** » Mon, 2. Aug 04, 22:58

The_Abyss wrote:
Damar Stiehl wrote:And it's mentioned NOWHERE in the readme.
Never expect all features of the scripts to be documented - it's part of the discovery of the game.

Talk about a weak-assed reply.

I would expect to be told all the situations that a script would work on. The info we got for the galaxy trader was very informative.

frymaster · Post by **frymaster** » Tue, 3. Aug 04, 00:13

to be honest, I can understand why SDS behaves the way it does; it is reducing ship travel ineficiency, at the expense of stock level efficiency. fair enough. But, although it has never bothered me (all you need to do is wait for the resources to trickle down) it might have been nice to have this behaviour documented

Seraph062 · Post by **Seraph062** » Tue, 3. Aug 04, 20:37

Aasvogel wrote:Would you personally transport just 8 crystals?

If my options were
1) Transport a few crystals
2) Stand around looking at the ceiling while my SPP sat idle.
I would definitly transport the 8 crystals. Heck, I've had times when I've done transport runs of 8 silicon in order to get a crystal fab going that had been stuck idle. Time is money, and the more time my moronic pilots spend sitting around the less money I have.

raw_dawg · Post by **raw_dawg** » Thu, 28. Oct 04, 23:35

anyone that doesnt agree with the fact that an spp is flashing yellow while the gotdamn crystal fab has 32 crystals is ****** stupid.

It throws your whole loop out of wack and for persons who have multiple loops in one sector supplying factories in the general area(LIKE ME) its f*cking up my cash flow. Multiple ore silicon quantam tube, computer microchip, satellite laser tower and teladium factories not operating because they dont have needed goods cus the basic loop is out of wack kills profits. Also supplying factories with some of the goods and/or allowing the loop to run a while. does not solve the problem it simply delays it.

Interesting enough my oldest loop doesnt have this problem which the crystal fab is boron(and supplied by boron food) but all other factories are paranid. My newest loop which is completely argon based has yet to mess up but my middle aged split loops(3 of them) all crap out periodically.

Rathgar · Post by **Rathgar** » Fri, 29. Oct 04, 09:08

I typically run into problems where food fabs do not seem to be delivering up the chain to another factory. I use SDS in the sector because I carfully placed a set of factories to take advantage of a high yield silicon roid that is hiding behind a hull eating nebulae in the system. SDS prevents the ships from trying to buy from the local dock or stations. However, it does seem to have problems with occassionally sitting on its rear.

Best way I have found to fix this is to have an extra supporting fab in system that produces more of the product. Occassionally, you will fill up the target factory and then end up with the spare factory full up as well. At that point, open to the public for sale for a little bit.
Oh... and be careful about the delivery ship. If it cannot carry 10% of a factory load, it'll never launch.

A fix for the SDS might have it decide that if resources at the supplied station were at 10% or less, or at 1 or less (whichever is lower), the delivering ship automatically launches to bring whatever it has on hand. Same way a GPH trader launches in a critical situation at higher levels.

grays · Post by **grays** » Fri, 29. Oct 04, 12:20

I've get several sectors with 4 loops each, all running on SDS without any major problems.

Yes the ship does wait until a "minimum" stock has been made. I suspect that this min stock if a combination of three factors, goods size (XL etc), goods volume(5 units etc), and available cargo space in the SDS ship.

I often get the odd yellow factory but it usually has enough stock of end goods so that the rest of the loop isnt upset, by the time the SDS arrives.