HyperKat Support and Tester Forum

Mars Challenger V1.0 => Mars Colony:Challenger => Topic started by: Hyper on May 18, 2013, 08:03:59 AM

Title: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: Hyper on May 18, 2013, 08:03:59 AM
Use this topic to report things about the game. Try to keep chat and opinions in other topics ....Thanks...
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 18, 2013, 12:29:13 PM
Bugs and possible bugs I have found.
These mainly from v1.04, so before v1.05. I have not had a chance to see if all of these are still occurring or not, since some were single time incidents, although a few things have persisted.
I've got a lot of notes on the subject, some 30 hours of gameplay... and I'm still on phase 6 of my first play through, so there might still be bugs for me to find in phase 7... whenever I get there... (blame the farm/bio lab being more interesting to me than... most other stuff...)

*During a crash in Phase 1, of loosing an hour of progress and needing to 'restart' (it was my first time playing MC:C), I noticed the game, even if it has not saved my progress, does save the state of the Rover. This has resulted in one case of restarting Phase 1 and seeing rover fuel used up during the first attempt was still used up. On a second incident, after which I had to force terminate MC:C (see next bug, basically the game ate my Plibs). I had to hike a few hundred meters to get a rover back. The rover was not where it was when the game had last been saved, it was where it was parked when the game was terminated.

* Relating to the second rover location issue. The Spot Radiation mission popped up for me during Phase 3. I was collecting samples from the meteorite and accidentally picked up the meteorite... I was already carrying the plib, which 'vanished' without a trace and was replaced by the meteorite. (hence force terminating to avoid saving, as I did not want to be without a Plibs for several phases)

* Several occasions where the bio waste containers, which 'had' stuff in them, ended up empty upon reload of a game, with at least one instance I think occurring due to a crash while trying to quit and save. I lost a number of gallons of bio and chemical waste due to this. I have not seen this occur again, partly since I now immediately dump waste into the composter thing when I empty waste from stuff, rather than let them set in the containers.

* While fixing a rover in the garage, the 'adjust' button (for the wrench icon) got 'stuck' on when the option popped up early, the red bar was very short and about gone when I clicked the adjust button, which seemed to remain 'pressed'. When repairs were finally done, the adjust button was still 'activated'. I could not exit the rover service GUI, it stated I had to finish the present action first. I had to force terminate MCC. This occurred a second time when repairing a rover, with the redo button getting stuck, but luckily it 'unstuck' on its own after a few clicks on it.

* I made a meal using mushroom and meat mush, and shortly after did a 'quit, save and reload',  the mushroom was back in inventory. I forgot to put it in the notes I made at the time, but I think the game had crashed when doing the 'save and quit' part.

* Minor issue transferring O2 from the main tank to the ELS. The bar shows ELSE was nowhere near full at 100 (I did not realize at the time that was the ELS max). Trying to transfer O2 from the main O2 tank had the ELS button stuck on 'stop'. Clicking stop did nothing, although it wasn't transferring anyways since the ELS O2 was apparently actually full. Reloading after a quit and save apparently fixed the button being stuck on 'stop'.

* The portable lights don't always generate light. Sometimes they work, sometimes the top 'lights up' but no actual light is created. Many cases occured with me using rover lights before parking the rover and turning off its lights, then going to use a portable light. Power goes down, so they are 'on'. I had only one instance of a portable light working right, although I had parked the rover a few dozen meters away from it. The reason I suspect the rover is because the first incident also had the rover lights not making light for a short while. However, the EVA light still worked during that incident. One factor seems to involve the forward and rear light arcs of the rover being close to the light radius of the portable light. The incident the light did work not only had greater distance from the rover, but the light was more to the side of the rover.

* Radiation sometimes drop to 'inside base' levels just standing on the ramp leading to the main airlock outer door. On a related thing, after using the main airlock the enter the base, radiation spiked to outside levels for a brief moment when crossing through the doorway of the inner door.



Possible bugs, description issues, and other out of place things.

* I get the occasional warning about Air Pressure, O2 and CO2 mix, quickly followed by a message saying the levels are okay. My guy takes 9 damage during these incidents. One time occured right after I turned off the power of the EVA gear before taking it off. The other times were in base without EVA gear on. Checking the Air Scrubber shows everything is okay.

* I try to regularly 'stir' the Air Scrubber filter. However, it seems there has been some time since the filter rating has changed at all. I am presently assuming this is less a bug and more the plants handling the job of removing CO2 from the air.
Quick edit: I just remembered that the Air Scrubber filter did break at the start of Phase 6, I had to remove it, fix it, and re-install it. Maybe this issue is a bug?

* After a little to much wear and tear on a rover, the speed bar went red and the top speed got reduced a little (due to skidding down a steep hill in the dark...). After repairing damage in the garage, the rover still had a red speed bar with slight decrease in top speed. It persisted until the end of the phase. The next phase the problem was gone. I am assuming this is less bug and more a limitation of how much can be fixed, even with the rover in the garage.

* Rovers in the garage, opposite side of the wall from the refueling station (but not ones parked on the other side of the barrier in the middle), can be refueled. I am not sure if this is intentional, or if the 'usable' area of the refill station is out of place.

* A few items, like the med bed and water pump, can apparently be interacted with, through the wall, while outside.
I stumbled this upon in v1.05, when was moving close to the walls near the airlock to see if any other spots near it had 'inside' radiation levels. The names of a few things popped up as I was looking at the wall when I moved the cursor, and was able to actually interact with the med bed and water pumps, but not things like the separator or sabatier. Seems to happen with stuff right against the wall. Didn't test to see if the medical desk or other items could also be interacted with.

*When right next to one of the fish tanks, off to the side (where the stuff is on the side), squeezing between the side mounted stuff and the wall and pushing up against the main part of the tank with the water causes water splashing sounds to occur.

* The info for the processor in the bio lab says it can process mushrooms, but rejects them.

* In game volume seems way to low to me, even with settings max. With in game sound settings all max, I still need my speakers up 3x higher than normal to hear things in game at 'normal' levels. This causes issues when the computer makes other sounds (like an Instant Messenger tone).

* Food prep says 'plant' and 'meat', but can handle just 1 plant, or 2 plants. I assume it can also handle 1 or 2 meat. I am guessing this is more of an intended thing that is not well described of what meal prep options there are.

* Right before sunrise, things seem to go 'pitch black'. This is especially noticeable in the base, with only the illuminated buttons being visible.  Is this normal?

* Making plastics, the wording in the description confused me a bit at first. When it said 'pre processed', I thought it indicated to use the plants 'before' processing them into food.
Also, is it supposed to be possible to make plastic using just 2 algae, without proper plants?

* Planters seem to loose fertilizer/water even if nothing is planted in them. Due to other factors besides plants?

* A number of items are lacking descriptions... or rather, have descriptions that basically say they have no final descriptions yet.

* Spinning in place in the passenger seat of the rover when looking around. It looks... um... unusual and peculiar...

* Radiation outside seems to be able to be fairly high at night. Is this unusual? Or are there major radiation sources other than the sun?

* While trying to find resources, I was using a rover carrying GPRs with both wide and deep charges due to hilly terrain. Oddly enough, with two wide and one deep charge, the deep charge failed to create a contact with one of the deposits. Altitude differences and GPR placement shows both deposits should have been within the deep charge's range. Due to the two resources practically being next to each other, and the results of the third charge (the second wide), that the deep charge might have been 'on top' of a resource pocket, with the possibility the 'missing' resource hit dot was 'under' the GPR shot dot. A sample drill using two dots did hit high density resources.

*(Edit 2 addition) While trying to zero in the location of some ore with Lithium, I noticed a few spots on the map have no info. It shows the position of where the ground sample was taken, but not of what the ground sample contained, or of the value of the sample. I am guessing this might relate to spotty communications in the area I was taking samples in. Is this a feature that is due to samples are taken when out of radio contact, or a bug?

Suggestions to prevent accidental actions.
* Give a confirmation thing for the Drain option on algae tanks.

Issue with the mccinfo (on site and the MCCSHelp.html)
* Unless I missed it, There is no mention and no pics of the portable weather stations in the MCCSHelp.html included with the game, or the mccinfo page on the MC:C web site.

Edit: Added something I forgot with the air scrubber filter not decreasing.
Edit 2: Added something I noticed with ground samples.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: Hyper on May 19, 2013, 09:55:23 AM
It seems my testers missed a few things. I iwll address some of the issues for next patch and as you say some were intentional. Will edit this post as I go....Thanks!
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: kyleus on May 19, 2013, 11:40:17 AM
This is my first run through the game (v1.04).  I got stuck at Phase 3 and below are my observations.  From reading posts, I know some of the bugs/"features" may already be known.

1. I found the toilet use a bit illogical.  It seemed to have been a while but using the toilet said "not enough fluids", yet as soon as I drank immediately after, my bladder indicator <HYPER> Please it is not a bladder indicator, think of it as a water level. Take a drink, the water goes through your system before it hits the bladder yes> read "full".  That's some mighty fast kidneys!  Also, not sure if there is any indicator (dropping Health?) that my bladder is full and I need to go (I remember getting a warning in the early demo).

2. RHU manufacturer needs to be re-bid.  In Phase 3, I installed the second generator and immediately after a log in (that's when most crises seem to occur oddly), there was a pressure loss (about 14 down to 8 psi).  This was traced to Gen 1 offline - RHU popped and was leaking radiation.  Being noob, I RTFM and could not find what to do.  I tried to fix at workbench but got a warning to put the RHU in the rad safe but could not locate it on the map.  Trial and error led me to the radiation storage area.  But coming back to it revealed that the RHU was never going to "cool down" - chalk that one up.  Note - I already knew to keep the output under 70% and I was operating it at 60 when the RHU popped.  I tried to reroute good working Gen 2 to Batt 1 but that didn't seem to be effective.  So I uninstalled the RHU from Gen 2 and reinstalled in Gen 1.  At (55% or 60? I don't recall) the next login that RHU blew.  My cursing could be heard on Earth.  I attempted to route the installed and cleaned PVA to Batt 1 (from the Power Console) but the charging was always canceled out by the usage even though all items from Phase 1 were shut down (pumps, separator, Sabatier, scrubber - I never used the base lights).  Several Sols were burned cleaning the PVA and watching Batt 1 toggle between 0 and 0.2 charge.  I even looked at materials in the locker to build another RHU but without any other ideas I gave up.
Suggestion - allow a "cleaning" function in the Rad Storage bin so the RHU can then be handled/repaired. <HYPER> it shouldn't blow up 2 times the only times it would is overload or solar radiation burst which is rare.
3.  On a foray to set up a weather station, I was driving and had a soil sample kit in hand (the cargo area was full of weather stations and a tool box).  I had to log out (I know now from other posts - BAD IDEA).  I log back in, standing in the vehicle (that's a bit disorienting at first) and the soil kit was floating in the cabin.  I could not retrieve it until I drove a bit forward.  That almost wrecked the buggy (damage jumped from about 0 to 90).  I was able to retrieve the soil kit.  Later, to reproduce this feature, I tried it with tool box in hand. Similar result but less vehicle damage and I could NOT retrieve the tool box from the air/atmosphere.
<HYPER> yeah I warned people not to do that so I will recode that part  
4. I watched the Youtube instructions before starting the game and he suggests stuffing the airlock with things (about 4) before going inside.  Suggestion - a "nice-to-have" feature would be a marker or indicator (I imagine a box outline) of where the item will be dropped, eliminating much guess work and getting "too close to other objects" by trial and error. <HYPER> or....since the base has no pressure or oxygen at first, just open both doors and carry the stuff inside....
5. Suggestion - similar to other games, it would be "nice-to-have" a Save As function so you can save as you go allowing parallel choice paths or at least Redo Level instead of having to start all over.
6. Suggestion - nice to have cheat codes or at least an "Order Supplies" button that could resupply eventually missing crucial items like RHUs.  Obviously there should be penalties (loss of score, etc) or time delays to prevent abuse.
7. Suggestion - mention in the instructions about using the Emergency Life Support station that removing your helmet turns the power and suit temp off.  It took me some time before I put this together.  I thought the suit was resetting itself to 0 temp spontaneously between log ins and wasn't sure at first what all the X'ed out fields was to mean.  Maybe a text warning when you put helmet back on to check suit power and temp?
8. Perhaps my noobishness is showing but (in Phase 1 or 2) I noticed the water separator filter was getting full and wanted to proactively clean it but it said I needed a waste container.  It was not apparent where I was supposed to get this container.

Thank you so much for this wonderful simulator.  I am enjoying it very much and hope it becomes a successful game.  I am a Mars One applicant and I am (sort of) treating this sim as training (I am planning to bring my own RHUs to Mars!)

Keep up the great work!

- Kyleus
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 19, 2013, 05:34:34 PM
@ kyleus

#1: : A message will pop up in the message window when your astronaut has to 'go'. After using the toilet, it seems to take 2 meals and a drink before the 'need to go' occurs again, from what I have noticed.

# 2: What... the RHU can break and leak radiation?
I can see the Linear Generator breaking, but not a technically solid state piece of equipment like the RHU.
The radioisotopes in question likely have a half life of many decades (or longer). It won't get 'cool' anytime soon.
For simplicity sake, the RHUs are likely programed to 'work', 'not work', and 'break' like all the other parts.
I would not be surprised if your battery bank is 'dead' due to being fully depleted. It would make sense, since the same goes for real batteries.
One can only hope those things are 'replaced' or 'repaired' at the start of the next phase.
Otherwise, hope that systems can still operate so long as the present power flow is sufficient.
<HYPER> the RHU will / may / might leak after a solar radiation "event" but shouldn't break normally.

For simplicity sake, it would be handy to have the rad storage and portable life support thing show up on the equipment filter for the map.
I find it is handy to tour the base a little when urgent tasks are done at the start of a phase, to get a good idea of what has been added where.
<HYPER> I left them out for you to discover. Once you know they are there then it's not an issue so it seemed pointless to go to far with it. Discovery and suprise  .


#3: I believe Hyper mentioned in another thread that a fix is already finished or otherwise in the works.


For 4+, not exactly the best place, since this thread is supposed to be mainly for bugs. It might be better to make a new thread for suggestions/ideas. (if so, I will delete these following bits and move them to said new thread).
I got my own list of ideas/suggestions I am holding onto and refining as I play through the game to get a better feel for the overall way things are handled/done in game, and try to get a feel of if they would be practical or possible or not.

#4:Try to look down, even put your back to the wall. It should try to drop the item at/between your feet. That seems to help (sometimes) with dropping carried items close to other things, or close to a wall. A trick in Phase 1 can help speed up getting things in base. It's mentioned on the forum... someplace... haven't tried it myself (I learned of it afterward the end of Phase 1).
<HYPER> I added the airlock override button to help moving things into the base, use it !!!

#5: A 'Save As' and 'Redo' options would be nice, but kind of conflicts with the survival/scoring aspect. It might make sense for a free-play/sandbox mode/mission, however.

#6: I can agree with having an emergency order/resupply option at the expense of score, for those rare times things go down the drain in a very bad way. Even a trade option, to avoid a as much of a score loss. Even options to 'return the favor' with a mission to mitigate score loss for an emergency resupply.
Makes sense in many ways. The outposts and main base helping each other out when possible.

#7: Agreed. It at least gives such a message when putting the EVA gear on at the EVA gear locker.
A GUI tweak suggestion. Widen the Power and Lights buttons to include On (green background) and Off (red background). Same for the Rover lights. Make it easier to notice at a passing glance (and when parking a rover in a lit garage during sunrise).

#8: I think 2 waste containers show up in phase 3. Don't take to long in Phase 1&2. With enough O2 supply and hydrogen in the Sabatier, you could possibly shut down the separator for a period of time. Just remember to check O2 supplies and Sabatier stats regularly.
On a side note, don't forget to stir the air scrubber filter regularly. It seems to help the filter last longer. Stirring the Air Scrubber filter does turn it off, so don't forget to turn it back on afterward.

@ Hyper
Shouldn't the RHU be impervious to 'breakdown' due to being solid state systems? Especially since it should technically require them to be physically damaged by an outside source in order to cause some or of containment breach?

Edit:
Three things to add for possible bugs/issues.
One, I forgot to mention the inconsistent light from the rover. Uneven terrain is not illuminated right. At some angles, the light illuminates a very short range, as if the light is only along a narrow cone/flat plane. This is mainly going downhill, even if 'level' with the slope itself.

Second, I did some more soil sampling. The green dots are showing up on map, but not the resource types. Updating the map did not help. I brought along two comm relays to ensure I was in radio contact with the base when doing soil samples. Of note, I got over 150 samples taken total on map so far.

Edit 2:
Third, I noticed the 'everything goes pitch black' thing occurs at about 6:00 Mars Time.

Edit 3:
Duplicate GPR occurrence.
Doing GPR shots. Did a shot, checked map, closed map, picked up GRP, turned and took a few steps, noticed something off to the side (it was dark, EVA light was off). Turned back, saw... the GPR... sitting there, even though I had it in hand. I put the one I had in the rover (with my actual second GPR), left the other on the ground, saved, quit, backed up the log. Upon reload, the GRP on the ground was still there, the duplicate one in the rover was missing (empty slot again).

Edit 4:
Wide GPR shots have a range of 200m, correct? I just noticed a third hit on a nearby resources where the above GPR bug hit. The extra hit appears to be outside of the 200m radius. I didn't notice it at first, since it is between two already close hits (they are close to the resource I was trying to zero in on).
GPR Shot: X 224, Y -464, Elevation 83.7188
Hit location (est.): X 472, Y-328, Elevation 119 with Depth 71.9991.

Edit 5:
Doing sample drilling when 'pitch black' period hit at 6:00 Mars time. Turned off my EVA light after getting it started, and noticed the dust cloud was still clearly visible as if it were still lit up, even thought everything else was in total darkness with the light off.
Edit 5A:
And it seems I got hit by the 'low pressure/O2/CO2' warning batch of stuff right before I saved (and took health damage, maybe due to accidentally hitting the PWR when I went to turn the EVA light off, but I got it back on within a second.)

Edit 6:
GPR deep shot, a hit roughly 200m away South, but within range in terms of distance West. Shot storage says Deep shots have a range of 128m. Saved, quit and copied log for the heck of it.

Edit 7:
Did two test drills. They are marked on the map, but don't show the results of the Libs testing of the core samples. Luckily I made a habit early on of jotting stuff down on a piece of paper (in case moving relays puts an area out of radio contact, meaning no map data on their exact locations would be possible when deploying augers and such)

<HYPER> Testers would print out the topo maps and mark them. Much like you would if you were there.
If you took a core sample and tested it, It should show up on the geo maps. Hover the mouse around the dot some it's not 100% on the X
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 20, 2013, 01:21:45 AM
I noticed Hyper has been editing posts. That threw me off guard, to say the least.
I usually see others quote stuff and toss the colored replies with the quoted stuff...

Due to that, a new post to be on the safe side, to not trip over the edited stuff.

A few comments/replies.

I didn't know it was alright to share info about the airlock override. I though it was supposed to be a 'secret' for people to figure out themselves as being useful at the start of phase 1.
<HYPER> just trying to minimize the pain a bit. I hope people spend the first run clicking on things and exploring but hate to see anyone get frustrated (much)
A comment about the RHU.
Being they contain radioactive material, and stuff meant to keep that radiation in, wouldn't a radiation burst be kind of harmless to it?
That said, look up info on the General Purpose Heat Source, used in space probe RTGs, Curiosity's Multi-Mission RTG, and planned for use in the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator NASA is developing for potential future space missions. The GPHS is made to be durable and reliable to the point of absurdity. As in able to survive an exploding rocket during launch, even surviving high speed re-entry. Very impressive stuff.

<HYPER> Yeah I realize that RHU is safe beyond need but game caveat I added the failure in for excitement and should only happen on a rare circumstance. Mass solar ejecta could reek havok on many things. Mars is suceptable to an event like that.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: Hyper on May 20, 2013, 08:28:09 AM
I will respond to these issues as I can. Working on a new engine at the moment and it's burning up alot of time. Still have to deal with school, wife, cats, lawn, cars and SWTOR.
New engine allows 64 km sq area so that should lead to some interesting issues.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 20, 2013, 09:08:29 PM
About the issue with taking samples.

It is like at some point, the game just stopped 'saving' Plibs/Libs test results.
I got a few areas I sampled and found several ores during one prospecting run, where a few are shown on the map, yet a followup run, which found more signs of those ore, it only marked the point of the surface sample on the map, not what the Plib result was.
It seems like after about 120 or so surface samples, the game just stopped keeping track of Plibs/Libs test results on the sample map for surface and core samples I had tested.
<HYPER> there is a limitation of 128 in the engine. Each dot has to be drawn but I will look into that.

All the older surface/core samples still show info when I mouse over them on the sample map.
Switching my mouse to low sensitivity for fine control and going over a few of the dots and the area around them doesn't have anything pop up in the info box at all for the newer samples. 

Drill Sites and GPR Sites shows info for depth, even on the latest GPR shots and last pair of core samples I took.


Back to the RHU.
I can think of one thing I could better believe with an RHU failure, and definitely adds a bit of dramatic effect.
Having the radiation burst cause a catastrophic failure in the Linear Generator. If the cold side got hot for brief moment, it 'might' make more sense for those gasses to 'explosively' expand for a brief moment, enough to cause the LG to 'pop' and send high velocity debris into the RHU. While the RSG is likely 'protected' against such stuff, that protection won't do much good for stuff 'inside' of that protection.
<HYPER> yeah that does make some sense but you are right on the isolation. Just added that for some drama and it really should not happen much if at all.

Protection designed to handle brute force impacts might not do as well for handling a strait on high velocity impact strait on a flat surface in a focused area, especially if an errant LG piston is right behind said high velocity debris.
Example. Hitting wood with your hand doesn't do much. Hitting would with a hammer will dent it. Hitting wood with that force of the hammer focused into a nail, and it goes right through the surface.
It also means one has to not just dump the RHU in rad storage, but also fix/replace the Linear Generator... not much else will change, will likely still need to redirect other RSGs to keep flower stable and  balanced, keeping non-essential stuff on solar. Phase 6 still means RSG 4 gets to double as backup RSG in case RSG 1, 2 or 3 suffer such a catastrophic failure.
To bad the power station cannot be used to evenly distribute power in case of loosing one or even two RSGs.

Would Thorium be usable to make a basic backup RHU, to at least get a little power going in an RSG that has lost its original RHU?
Stirling Engine tech can technically be made to run off of body heat. Maybe a little Thorium, enough to make some heat, but keep below the melting point of lead, so radiation can be kept in check to some degree (hopefully)... adapt and improvise with whatever is on hand.
(MacGyver... in... space!)
<HYPER> yes thorium is my pick for any type of radiation driven systems. Still dont understand why the world wont change to molten salt thorium reactors. .

And that is without bringing human aspects and human error into the mix. Humanity has messed up things as great and 'safe' as the Hindenburg and Titanic, so why not an 'equally' safe system as an RSG?
If you make something fool proof, someone will just invent a better fool.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: kyleus on May 21, 2013, 06:48:46 PM
A comment about the RHU.
Being they contain radioactive material, and stuff meant to keep that radiation in, wouldn't a radiation burst be kind of harmless to it?
That said, look up info on the General Purpose Heat Source, used in space probe RTGs, Curiosity's Multi-Mission RTG, and planned for use in the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator NASA is developing for potential future space missions. The GPHS is made to be durable and reliable to the point of absurdity. As in able to survive an exploding rocket during launch, even surviving high speed re-entry. Very impressive stuff.

<HYPER> Yeah I realize that RHU is safe beyond need but game caveat I added the failure in for excitement and should only happen on a rare circumstance. Mass solar ejecta could reek havok on many things. Mars is suceptable to an event like that.
[/quote]
<kyleus> @HYPER Still not sure why I experienced two RHU failures while operating at or below 60%.  Also, Batt 1 refuses to recharge.  It oscillates between 0 and 1.0 charge but keeps getting zeroed out.  Nothing attached to it is ON that I am aware.  In Phase 4, I installedthe RHU into Gen 1 with output at 65%.  Batt 1 is still not charging.  Bug or "game realism"?  It's not like I can repair or replace the Batt stack, right?

<HYPER> as far as I can tell that is a jack random bug that probably can't be duplicated
send me your log file....
<kyleus> @HYPER Batt 1 is now charging normally with good RHU from Phase 4.  Not sure if re-logging or switching PVA away from charging Batt 1 to another Battery stack did it.  But I can swear that the PVA alone was NOT charging Batt 1 stack and I am positive everything was OFF (water pumps, separator, sabatier, the air scrubber, and all internal lights) because between cleaning the PVA I was hitting the OFF buttons for the devices to ensure they stayed OFF.  I will send the logs as soon as I figure out how :-)
<kyleus> @rditto48801 I had only one (atmospheric) storm.  It occurred during Phase 2 and I do not believe it precipitated the problems with the RHUs - one after the other going bad in Gen 1.  They appeared to blow at log in. 
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 21, 2013, 07:51:39 PM
@ kyleus
Right before the RHU's started going bad on you, did you get a 'warning' of some sort of solar/radiation event being detected, along with a count down based warning in the message window every minute until the event actually occurred?

Edit:
As for the battery. Are you sure everything is off? The water pumps, separator, sabatier, the air scrubber, and all internal lights?

I took a look at my own battery 1 for comparison. (in case such a comparison will be useful for Hyper)
This comparison accounts for a fully operation RSG 1, output 65%, and was done around 23:00 to 0:20 Mars Time, so it is night and there should be no solar power.
Power ticks up in amounts of 0.06 and 0.11 (usually 0.10 and 0.11) in battery 1, with drain ticks between 0.03 and 0.14, with at one time drain being steady -0.06 to -0.14. This being with pumps, separator, sabatier and air scrubber shut down, and all lights inside shut down (did a pass of the base to make sure). It is charging faster than energy is being depleted. Even with the air scrubber on, it still charges faster than it uses energy. I assume at least a few of the external lights are drawing power from battery 1.
It sounds unusual that it is going to bounce between 1.0 and 0 charge in battery 1 for you. I again wonder if it is either 'dead', or just bugged.


@ Hyper
What battery (or batteries) do the internal and external lights, and the communications systems, draw power from?
<HYPER> should be zones listed in the docs, externals draw from 1.


How often do breakdowns normally occur?
In some 40 hours of gameplay, I have had only one thing break, when the Air Scrubber filter apparently caught fire (at the start of Phase 6, iirc).
I have had one solar event occur, but I never noticed any signs of anything having broken when it occurred (it occurred Phase 4 or Phase 5, iirc).
Is not having something break over a long time unusual, or just darn lucky the RNG has not decided to not have things break on me?
<HYPER> totally random. I think 80 - 90 chance of no fail. I count on the users to over tax the system and cause failures.. It was a matter of contention in the testing phase, people complained that things broke too often randomly but never got any more feedback.


Edit 2:
The game ate an auger...
I was going to deploy both augers. Mounted the first one, it loaded alright. Mounted the second, which was a little farther away from the rover, it also 'seemed' to mount. Went to get into the rover, saw only one auger in back. Checked cargo, one auger shown. Unloaded auger, slot goes empty, no sign of second auger. Saved, quit, reloaded, hoping second auger would 'reset'. Saw nothing unloaded first auger again, noticed second auger now in the cargo bed, at an angle, cargo shows no auger. I try to move the rover a little, it 'stops' suddenly, takes almost 60 damage. Missing auger now floating in mid air, in the back of the rover bed, 'stuck' on the rear of the rover bed. The rover's rear was 'down' a little due to this. Exited game, copied log.
(edit 6): forgot to mention that the second auger was roughly 3-4m away from the rover, seemed pretty close to the max distance at which it could mounted. If the rover was on a heading of 0 degrees, the second auger was about 210-240 degrees. I had relocated them from their previous mining sites to the base previously, and they were sitting not far from RSG 4 outside of the geology area when the bug hit.
<HYPER> 1.05 should have fixed that event, I will look into it.

Edit 3:
Looking up 3rd person, could 'click' on the top part of the auger, was able to mount it, loading it on the rover. It loaded into the same slot as my tools, but in the rover loaded up to the front of the rover bed. Unloaded auger. Unloaded Plibs also. Rover cargo now empty, but tool kit is still visibly in the rover, drove the rover a little, tools 'stayed' the the bed as if still there as it should be.

Edit 4:
Saved, quit, reloaded. Tool box still 'there', drove rover a little, tool box now froze in mid air, stuck on back of rover bed, stopping rover and doing a good 45 damage. I can mouse over it, but not pick it up. Rover is basically at 105 damage and is effectively out of commission now. Tried to exit out, game crashed when I clicked yes on the confirmation to exit the mission. Log backed up.

Edit 5:
Speaking of augers, I found a typo. In Auger Info, ore is accidentally spelled oer halfway through the info description.
No slack when accidentally turning of EVA power outside when trying to turn off the light during troubleshooting the floating tool box thing, double whammy damage. Need a warning to help avoid that (or a more visible off thing for PWR button...)
Also, console basically just says 'talking to the tools' when I clicked on the floating tool box, so it at least registers I am trying to click on the floating tools.

Edit 7: I noticed on a steep hill during some soil sampling at night that even the EVA light doesn't seem to shine 'downhill' very far.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: Hyper on May 24, 2013, 04:35:03 PM
I am not ignoring anyone, I am on vacation till tues next week. Will dig deep into this then.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: kyleus on May 24, 2013, 06:26:46 PM
Enjoy yourself.  Take a spare RHU with you  ;)
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 25, 2013, 02:03:30 AM
I figured you were neck deep in work or something, guess I was looking in the wrong direction with my guessing.
Enjoy your vacation.

Thinking of vacations makes me think of Hawaiian style music... and music from the Tropico series... and camping in the woods...

I wonder if... (actually, I better hop over the sandbox thread before I go wild with what popped into mind)

I find it always helps to tackle a problem after taking a break and approaching things with a fresh prospective.

On a side note, no new bugs to report at the moment (on account I got distracted with other games... one of which has rockets and an analogue of Mars...)
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: Hyper on May 28, 2013, 05:15:03 PM
"The portable lights don't always generate light." This light only works at night. The glow you see is from other light sources like the sun or rover. Trying to do a glass in game got a bit difficult. The light charges during the day and will last most or all of a night cycle.

I try to regularly 'stir' the Air Scrubber filter. However, it seems there has been some time since the filter rating has changed at all.
This is true. Once the base air mix is stable the scrubber wont have to work that hard. You should be able to drop the mix if you remove your helmet and exhale co2 for a period of time. Compare your lung volume to the base volume. 4 players will make more difference faster so....
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 28, 2013, 05:59:00 PM
At night, in the dark, is when the portable light is not creating light. As I said before, one factor seems to be if the portable light was deployed close to the rover, toward the front or rear arcs where the rover lights will shine. One incident had the rover lights stop creating light for a short time (EVA light still worked at that time). One time the portable light worked, it was a little farther from the rover, to the rover's side. That is why I suspect my issue relates to the coverage of the portable light overlapping with the coverage of the rover's lights, with I think at least one incident occurring when the rover's lights were turned off before getting out to deploy the portable light.

I have noticed minimal light well into the night, it just strikes me as odd that things go 'pitch black' at 6:00 Mars Time, right before sunrise.
<HYPER> yeah thats engine related it's always darkest before the dawn. I happens during the switch to sunup. the sun pops below the horizon so you dont see it and it zeroes the light factors because it's going into daytime. Not a failure just irritation, new engine should be better on that.

The air scrubber filter level has not changed, at all, for quite a few hours. Stirring basically has no real effect.
<HYPER> you dont need to stir the co2 till it starts losing it's ability to operate. The term came about from the early days where you "stir" to expose more filtration material to the air passing through it. Dont stir till you need to. When it works properly the stir only gives you half of the used value back so if it goes to 80 then a stir will bring it back to 90 or there abouts so it's only there for when it gets low. I will look at the code for that.

 I will say my phase 6 score is not that good, on account I think I got well over a dozen hours into phase 6 alone (more doing stuff 'for fun', got all work orders done), so I have spent a lot of time in the base. I almost always take the EVA gear off when in the base.
I had noticed minor drops in the filter level over time in previous phases.
It makes me wonder if the air scrubber break down I had at the start of phase 6 (in which there was a fire in the air scrubber, and the filter had to be removed, repaired and reinstalled) was a factor, as it occurred before I noticed the filter level stopped going down.
<HYPER> that is what I will investigate, repair should set it to operate like it should but might be a bugger.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 29, 2013, 08:40:51 AM
A minor update.
I checked in MC:C really quick, I got 26 hours just in Phase 6. >.<
Also had a crash when  exiting the mission a second time (went back into mission to double checking the filter level). saved the log (got a few log copies now)

Any suggestions of what I can do with my stuck rover or the floating tool kit stuck in the cargo bed?
Or will the tools reset whenever I actually move on to Phase 7?
I'm guessing the rover itself will reset position as usual.
<HYPER> phase switch might help. I need to pin down how you make that happen so I can fix it.

On a side note, has anyone had trouble logging into the forum?
I'll try to log in via the login stuff on the upper left of the main forum page, then it says I got the wrong password. When I put in the same password at the login failed screen where it says I had the wrong password, it (usually) logs in.
I am trying to figure out what the issue is, or if my keyboard is just having a key or something stick on me, which I have had happen before, but a quick test shows the related keys don't seem to be sticking or anything. If no one else is having such a problem, I will chalk it up to my keyboard not cooperating (it's a cheaper no frills Logitech keyboard).
<HYPER> Are you using IE or firefox?
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: Hyper on May 29, 2013, 08:55:26 AM
@rditto now that you know some of the quirks of the game why dont you do a full reset and run the game for a score.
And can you supply me with a list of items that have no Info data.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 29, 2013, 09:48:55 AM
I will probably at least get to phase 7 and beat it before going on for a full game aimed at getting a good score. If any phase 7 goals involve extra mining, prospecting or food growth, I probably got enough of that done already. I'm a bit of a casual gamer, so scores are usually a secondary concern for me.

Is it possible to have multiple missions going at once? Or would I need to create a second character profile to do that?
<HYPER> at this point you can only have one active mission. V2 will allow what you want.

Hyperia is the 'least hilly' of the maps, correct?
<HYPER> more or less, they all offer a challenge, I like Helios  

I guess I can poke around when I get the chance and see what items need descriptions still. I've been a bit distracted with other things. Food and algae will be no problems, I am up to my eyeballs in both.

Speaking of algae, bug or feature that organic fertilizer cannot be used to make algae nutrients?
<HYPER> should work, I will mark it for check for next patch

Maybe also rip everything in the base apart to check parts for descriptions...  :D
I got a spare heater part from the broken down caravan rover mission, so I won't risk the farm/bio lab growth by tearing heaters apart.
(although I am guessing such an approach might be a bad idea in some ways...)

Major bummer on the 128 limitation for surface/core samples kept track of. I would expect a possible limit of 256, but not 128. Oh well. I got in the habit of writing down coordinates  whenever I find samples rated at 20+.
<HYPER> I never have used all the slots. Once I lock in on a resource I move on. You can print maps of the region and use them for notes Next version I can bump it. There are 256 slots for the dots and I use part for one thing and part for another so it's byte indexed.

I use Firefox. It should be up to date. It's set to notify me whenever an update is available.

A comment/opinion of why people are likely not using molten salt thorium reactors, even if the tech was already available.
Money/Greed.
Until it becomes affordable (or someone finds a way to weaponize it), there  will probably be major resistance in adapting stuff to use such a power source. 
Or leave it to Russia to do. I think they have tried out molten salt reactors before (on submarines), and they do tend to use RTGs at remote light houses from what I have read in articles online.

Don't some solar power setups (the type with sunlight focused on a central tower) have some locations that utilize molten salts to store heat so they can make power even at night?

I'm a bit of a fan of pebble bed reactors myself. I read an article on them once (either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics) a few years back. No chance of meltdown sounds like an excellent idea if you ask me. So does the impression that the fuel pellets could be handled using just oven mits and a long pair of grilling tongs...
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 31, 2013, 06:24:40 AM
I got MC:C going this morning.
This space reserved for a mess of stuff I am looking for (items missing info, typos, etc). 

Still in Phase 6, so if I accidentally wreck the last rover, I can just go to Phase 7 (since they seem to reset to the garage area during a phase change).
Still got to check stuff exterior of the base (stuff immediately outside and rad storage checked, so still need to check main radio towers, portable comms, weather towers, and the augers)

I forgot there was no info for 'carried' objects... so I have no idea why I mentioned the idea to rip everything apart to check for item info...  :-[
Lucky I had a backup two backup things salvaged from the broke down caravan rover mission to check before I did go tearing stuff apart. Except the air scrubber, I took out and reinstalled the filter to see if it 'un-sticks' the filter level.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on May 31, 2013, 11:31:15 AM
Okay, felt the need to just toss this in a new post so I could more easily format stuff...

Anyways, today, I present to you what happens when I get into what I call a 'kill it with fire!' bug hunting mood... (partly on account I did not sleep well last night...)

Here is my latest bug, typo, and 'missing description' list.
(sorry for duplicates of things I may have mentioned already)
Also, a few other things of note.

Bugs/Possible Bugs

Bug/Feature?: Algae D + Algae D provides plastic like Algae D + Beans/Potato
ChemDesk/Chemistry Station info for it says "Algae D Potatoes or Beans" for needed items, so the wording does not help.

Bug/Wording Mistake?: Bio-Processor says it processes mushrooms and worms, but rejects them.

Bug/Just plain lucky?: I have never needed to use the medicine Dulacine. Or only required due to food poisoning from raw food?

Bug/Feature?: When the mix abruptly 'goes bad' (a bug itself?) damage is instant (9 damage?). Shouldn't there be a brief 'warning' or 'slack' with that feature? Even with a sudden lack of oxygen, there should be a roughly 15 second window anything serious happens (like passing out from no oxygen). Maybe a few quick 'warnings' in the message window (and in the main view) before damage is incurred over a period of time, rather than in chunks of 9 damage?
 
Bug/Feature?: When repairing something, if the Adjust/Redo check pops up early on (about 1/5-1/4 of the progress bar), selecting the right option causes repair progress to jump to about 2/3-3/4 done. Edit: Forgot to mention that it effectively seems to be a roughly 50% jump in repair progress.

Bug/Feature?: Cannot interact with PVRemote next to the RadStore/Containment

Bug/Feature?: When setting an Auger to 0 depth to retract the drill, it does not turn off when it gets to depth 0.

Bug/Feature?: Sabatier shuts off before Methane is full (O2 will filll to 400, Methane will only fill to slightly over 99.x)

Bug?: The two lights in the garage seem to have a basic 'glowing aura' around them (as if on) when turned off (during day).

Bug? Sometimes when turning on a Water Pump, it immediately goes back to Idle. Exiting the GUI and selecting it again shows it is Running

Bug/Feature?: Right click menu for (Algae) Nutrients shows 'food' (as the item type, I'm guessing)

Bug?: Right click menu, if right clicking to bring up the drop down menu, and then dragging the item into a container, the right click menu bar remains where the item used to be.

Bug/Feature?: Dragging Algae Nutrients into the Algae Tank, or Fish Food into the Fish Tank, has the has it immediately added to the nutrient/food value, without needing to use the 'add' button.

Bug/Feature?: Algae based Edible Meal only fills about 20-25% of the Food bar.

Bug: Portable Light not 'working' normally.
I was was trouble shooting the issue more.
2 connected factors I can find.
#1: If the portable light had been in the rover before being removed from cargo, placed and turned on less than 10m from the rover.
#2: if the rover was moving with its lights on prior to the portable light being removed, placed and turned on.
It appeared that just placing the light, moving the rover near it with lights on (and turning them off after stopping), then turning on the portable light, had it turn on, but the light did not seem as bright as normal. This was before I put the portable light on the rover. The testing was done just outside of the geology hub, it was after 0:00 hours, so still very dark outside).
I had moved a short ways away with the light in the rover before deploying it (rover lights were on during the short drive, turned back off after stopping) and had the portable light produce no visible light. During the testing, short drive without the rover lights on, carrying the light in the rover cargo during the drive before placing it, did seem to cause a lesser effect of the portable light not creating as bright of a light as normal. (things got a little out of order in my notes, I think this occurred before the 'no light at all' thing fully occurred...)
After the test, took the portable light back into the geology hub where I had it stored previously, and tried it again a last time and it then produced light again like it should. This is similar to a previous occurrence, the portable light had stopped producing light, but had worked normally a little after when I had moved it to another location via rover and deployed it about 20-30m away from the rover, rather than within 5m or so like I normally do (I park really close to present/planned work sites).
Edit (extra info): I got to wondering if perhaps the game is getting slightly confused with interactions between 'stationary' and 'mobile' light sources. Like  if the portable light shows less or no light because the game still 'thinks' another light source (the rover) is illuminating the area.


Also, how do I recharge a portable light? I tried the drill bench (since the core sample drill can be recharged there) but nothing happened. Also tried EVA Recharge with it in hand with no effect...


Typos, Wording, etc.

Typo?: CommDesk/Communications. Info has some all caps, LAND COMMUNICATIONS, LOCAL, and REMOTE. All capital letters intended?

Typo: Auger. Info, 5th line. 'Use the oer boxes to empty the collection box on the auger'

Typo?: Heater Info. Last line ends with three periods.

Typo?: RadStore/Containment. 'Consainment' instead of 'Containment' in first line. (nice coincidence that the rad bar went yellow on the walk there...)

Wording Confusion: Description for making plastics. Mainly  'pre processed'. Maybe better to just be 'processed'? Some might see 'pre' to mean 'before' processing the plant.

Wording issue, Suggestion: Info for BioDesk/Biology Station says Algae A makes 'compressed food blocks', but instead makes a ready ediblle meal. Maybe the game needs an 'Algae Food Block' item... (can any more items be added to the Freezer GUI?)

Wording issue, Suggestion: Freezer/Food Storage: End of first line, '... MRE cooked packaged food'.
Possible better description for that bit, 'MRE (Meal Ready to Eat), a pre-cooked, packaged food'.

Wording issue, weather towers. I don't quite get the 'place 90 degrees of each other' stuff. Makes me want to put them in a 'square' pattern...

Wording Issue, Worm/Mushroom Beds. Info says 'DO Not over water'. Wouldn't it look better as 'Do Not' or 'DO NOT'?

Wording issue: Power Distribution Unit: Tweak description to include mention of what battery bank powers the external lights?

Wording Issue, Suggestion: Medical Station/MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS STATION: All capital letters intended? Add a bit more info on what it does/how it works/why it is needed?

Wording issue/Punctuation?: LIBS: First line . Missing punctuation after Spectrometer in first line? ("Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer Use this device to test rock and dirt samples.")

Wording issue/Punctuation?: RadStore/Containment: Info perhaps needs punctuation (missing a comma or two in the 'second' line?).

Info Suggestion: Bio Waste, add mention of 'gray water' and 'bio solids' for extra detail in the Info? (or is that to much info for the subject?)

Info Suggestion: PLSUnit/EVA Charge: Info does not state where you charge/refill it at.
(I am assuming the Rover refueling point. Never really used the PLS Unit myself. Radiation bar going yellow has me running back to base often enough to not run low on O2/Energy)

Info Suggestion: FuelStation/Fuel: If the PLS is chargeable here, mention it in the Fuel Station info??

Conflicting Info: GprSupply/GPR Supply, the GUI shows ranges for GPR charges, but I had one shot reveal nothing, a message on screen indicated nothing was within 350m. That and ranges I have detected deposits at suggests the GPR shots cover a wider range than what GPR Supply listed ranges are. I missed one deposit that was 72m deep with a wide shot, so the Depth range is apparently as the GPR Supply GUI states for the Wide shots.


Objects and stuff.

Suggestion/Item Management: Ability to do something with Edible Food and (drinking) Water. During testing, I ended up with slots taken up by those while checking stuff... (food was Algae based, so short wait until I could safely eat it... accidentally double clicked drinking water...). Slowed down checking work a little, but nothing crippling.

Suggestion/Object Interaction: Add a name and GUI with Info to the red tool case in the garage? Like mentioning that rovers near it can be repaired better (full repair instead of temp repair) when a Rover is parked near it?

Suggestion/Object Interaction: An option to allow transferring water from the Separator, to the Water Supply, without needing to turn on the Separator

Suggestion/Object Interactions: A 'box' for the WormShroomInv/Bio Storage, so removed worm/mushroom starters/nutrients can be put back if they are accidentally taken out.

Suggestion/Object Interactions: A 'confirmation prompt' of some sort when going to drain an Algae Tank.

Suggestion/Sounds: Add a few sounds for when doing stuff like food prep, or working at the different 'crafting' stations? (making plastics, turning algae into food, etc). Nothing major, just little basic sound effects (bubbling, sizzling/hissing, light hitting/tapping or mixing/stirring type sounds?)

Images/Icon issues/suggestions, etc.

Image Issue/Suggestion: The icons for the fish are a bit to 'colorful'. Would it be possible to find get something a little more 'natural' looking?

Image Issue: I noticed the dark spots in the middle of the Fish Fillet icon is actually 'transparent'.

Image Issue/Suggestion: A bit of color variation (and perhaps secondary markings) might be nice for fertilizers, plastics, and just about anything else that uses the same basic inventory icon.

Model/Texture Issue: Food prep table. I noticed the 'inside' of the bowls and cups have textures, but not the 'outside'. That is, they are 'invisible' on the outside for me. (I have a HIS made Radeon HD 4670 IceQ w/ 512MB RAM)

Model/Collision Issue: Player can clip through the Rover wheels.

Image Suggestion: Minor variations for the icons for the different medicines?

Misc stuff.

Thing of Interest: Outside temp being -7.5.x during the day. Is that unusual?

Thing of Interest: I got a brief speed warning when I started going up a hill (shallow grade at first)

Thing of Interest: Thinking back, I don't think I have seen a single storm since I got to Phase 6. I have seen multiple times where the pressure reading went red and dipped below 0.30 for a short period of time.

Object Access Issue: It is hard to interact with (get the GUI to pop up) the Satellite unit on the base. I have to stand on the side of the path leading to it and be as close as possible to get the GUI to pop up.





Missing Item Description List:
("Information about objects under construction")

Potato, Beans, Zucchini (Plants, Seeds and Raw Food forms)
Mushroom
Bass, Trout, Catfish
Fish Fillet
Frogs
Frog Legs
Fish Eggs (all 4)
Meat Mush/Meat
Algae (A, B, I think also D, but had none right now, used a lot before switching to B. Probably also C)
Algae 'starters'
Processed Minerals (The ones that started in fab storage, and apparently all minerals/elements I have gotten in Phase 6, at least the ones that I checked).
Plastics
Fertilizer, Organic (Fertilizer)
Algae Nutrients

I did not check items in WormShroomInv/Bio Storage, on account I don't think they can be put back when taken out. (hence a suggestion higher up the list to add such an option). I kept some in reserve, just in case, and don't want to waste any. That and could I even use worm/mushroom starters if their respective growing units already have growth in them? I wouldn't want items stuck in my inventory with no way to get rid of them.


Items/Objects with no Info option/button

MRE
Medicines (all four items, Propodine, Dulacine, Radicium, MedPack)
FarmWaterTank/Water Supply
Microwave
Seed Storage (GUI lacks object name)
PlantExtract: Also, GUI interface shows name as PLANT Processor
FishFoodInv
FishEggInv
WTowerStore
Plastic
Water (drink)
Raw Meal
Edible Meal
OxygenTank/Oxygen
FabStore/Object Storage
Geology Desk ('feature' since it pops up the same map as the EVA suit has?)
MechDesk (I guess no surprise, no GUI unless there is an item to test/repair)
PortaLight/Portable Light
OreStore/Ore Stock
OreProcess/Ore Processing
DrillTools/Drill Repair Kit
GprDevice/GPR Unit
GprSupply/GPR Supply
PVMount/PVPanel#




Other stuff...


Where's the... power?
An observation.
Those red light beacon poles marking the safe paths to the comm towers... a pole... with a light... what powers them? Same for the weather stations and portable comms. And the Augers...
The portable lights and core sample drill need to be recharged, why not other items?
At the very least, it would make sense if the models for the portable comm towers, portable weather stations and those little beacon lights to have something like small solar panels or something on them.


EVA testing of power drain and suit temp settings:
Exterior temperatures seem to not affect suit power usage when in the base. Maybe just to little of a difference to drain much power?
Test 1: Suit on in base (temp 18.2), suit temp 4.8
O2: 82.4
Energy: 85.1

Test 2: suit temp 20.2, base temp 20.1 (farm at 20.2, reset heater 1 to the same, forgot in first test)
O2: 80.6
Energy: 83.6

Test 3: Suit temp 4.8, base temp (both heaters) 20.1 (ext temp reading 20.1)
O2: 82.9
Energy: 85.5

It seems regardless of temp, energy usage was mostly the same, except for with high suit temp set close to ext temp, which seems to be. I was mostly moving around during these tests, so O2 usage should have a semi-consistent drain in each test.
In test 1 and 3, O2 usage is roughly 3.2% higher than energy, test 2 is 3.7% higher.
Not sure if this info is useful or not, but I felt it stuck out enough to mention.

Outside energy generally drains faster than O2.

Maybe it's just a non issue and I am straying from 'bug hunt' territory into 'witch hunt' territory...

Edited: Added something (or rather a few things) I forgot, fixed a few (non-game) typos.
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: Hyper on June 01, 2013, 09:53:47 AM
All valid points and will be addressed in time.
Early patches are for major issues like being in the rover holding and item is worthy of a immediate fix.
I have coppied all this over to dev notes for revision as I get to them.
Thanks for all the hard work .... where were you when we were testing..... <grin>
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on June 01, 2013, 12:23:30 PM
You're welcome.
I guess my efforts are partly due to being more of a casual gamer at times, and wandering off to do 'whatever' rather than focusing on objectives. Or bouncing between different games in general, so I have a semi-fresh perspective when I get back to a game.
That, and maybe a little bad luck at times... And sometimes when a bug annoys me, I just feel the need to troubleshoot it into a smoking crater. Except for big name titles, usually kind of pointless there... In one case, a developer wanted to continue patching a game, but stopped patching said game because the publisher forbid it from being patched more...

As for where I was when you were testing... probably grinding myself silly on some sort of coop game with a friend... or playing Kerbal Space Program with a healthy dose of game imploding mod soup... but I did help track down one annoying bug there... someone 'broke' the Vehicle Assembly Building because a few certain parts did not like clipping into other parts in certain ways when surface attached at an angle. I've done a little helping on the support area off the KSP forums to mainly with a few issues I had run into myself a lot myself, relating to previously mentioned game imploding mod soup...

I will admit I had an interest in MC:C when it first popped up on Steam Greenlight, but I was a little put off at first by the fact the forums were mostly 'private', preventing me from taking a peek to see what things were like. I usually like to 'lurk' a while before I sign up to a forum.
<HYPER> That forum thing was a result of people posting porn and torrent links. I had to restrict things to real users.

Edit:

I was playing with 1.06 a little bit.

I was able to grab the 'floating in air' tool kit, so that issue is resolved, and I got my second rover back to the garage and fixed up.

Two things I forgot to put in my above list, both minor.
First, the in game volume being very low.
Second, the crates the weather stations were stored in are sort of 'floating in air', they are not 'sitting' on the ground/the lower crate.
<HYPER> There was a shelf graphic that is supposed to be there. The artist that did it is gone now. I'll see if I can add it back in.

One thing I just stumbled upon while toying around with the fabrication desk.
I built an Electronics Kit, just to see how things worked with the fabrication process. After it popped up in inventory when done, I right clicked, and saw a 'blank' entry in the drop down window. When I clicked on the blank spot to see if it would bring up info or similar, the kit instead disappeared from my inventory. ('invisible' drop option?)
I was expecting it to be a 'carried' item. Can the repair kits be stored in the fabrication storage by any chance, since they are inventory items and not carried items?

<HYPER> those items should be able to store in the storage lockers, will have a look...
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: Hyper on June 01, 2013, 05:10:26 PM
Will create a new topic for 1.06
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on June 01, 2013, 05:24:20 PM
Alright.

I built a Pump Assembly for a quick second check of fabrication, and it's right click menu also had the first option being 'empty' (I clicked on cancel with this time), then I tossed it in storage with no issue.

On a side note, I am still in Phase 6...
After I relocate my augers, I will (maybe) get on to Phase 7 to see if I run into anything out of the ordinary with it. I am having fun just wandering around doing stuff.
The tale of the Tortoise and the Hare comes to mind...

Edit: *face palm* for putting Turtle instead of Tortoise...

Edit 2:
Quick question, are resources found (via Plibs, ,then GRP, then, core drill sample and then confirmed with Libs) count toward score?
<HYPER> I made no distinction on how the material was found other than what is in the work orders as a minimum.
Are you running the 1.06 patch ?
Title: Re: RELEASE BUGS and ISSUES for 1.05
Post by: rditto48801 on June 01, 2013, 09:57:46 PM
As I stated in my post from earlier today, I do have 1.06. I mentioned it in the post mentioning the apparently floating weather tower storage crates. (Edit: I sort of missed the new 1.06 thread. I guess new/continuing issues I stumble across should be listed there)

I was curious about how exactly discovered resources might count toward score. I think I have got about 12 of the 20 resources found.

I was also curious because it seems like my score in Phase 6 never got to 60, and I partly assume it is due to how long I have played in Phase 6. I do have all work orders done for Phase 6.

I guess my wording was probably poorly chosen for putting different steps of finding/identifying resources 'in order'.
I guess it would have been better just to ask if/what any of the finding/identifying steps counts toward score.

So finding resources past what is needed for work orders won't affect score or won't affect it as much?
Edit: What about stored resources from mining. My score seems to jump around a bit and I am trying to figure out what all the factors are (I've basically guess that stored fuel is one thing, since my score seems to drop a point or so when I refuel the rover after a long trip, and seems to 'recover' about the time it is topped off again)