Ship explodes after shutting off systems and leaving it in SRV

[DaveL]

Reposting this from bug forums per suggestion of QA-Johnny.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=232309

While shutting down ship systems including Life support causes the countdown and leaving it expire, ship destruction, leaving the ship in SRV this countdown still goes on and affect the ship itself, not the pilot in the SRV.

I´ve gone AFK being docked on planet surface, shutting off systems as usually i do in space (well except LS) to make ship "invisible" and go freezing. Tried that on planet surface, leaving the ship nearby with all systems off, including the life support. The ship exploded after leaving it long enough to countdown hit 0:00 but i was fine in my SRV. The timer shouldn´t continue while i am not present in my ship, because from gameplay perspective there is no reason to run out of oxygen if i´m not in the ship.
Pausing the countdown whlile leaving the ship would make sense, because basically i am returning to ship with LS turned off and not using its (or mine) oxygen reserve.

Also this bug causes player stranded in SRV on planet surface with no possibility of getting ship back, rebuy or anything. Only logging to the normal Elite Dangerous game, selecting "load to orbit" option gets the ship back as it was right before leaving it on surface.

What do you think? is that logical thing to happen? and why?

 

[Chris Simon]

Have you tried sending her away in the shut-down state?

But yes, it doesn't make sense.

 

[excalibus]

but if you think about it, just for a moment, it's not a bug, its working as it should... If you turn off life support, regardless of if you are in your ship or not, why would the countdown magically pause when you leave the ship? Surely it would keep counting down... It would be a bug if it did indeed stop counting down when you left the ship... And of course if your ship explodes while you are in the SRV it would indeed leave you 'stranded' on the surface and are you suggesting it shoudln't? what do you think should happen?

Of course if you 'self destruct' the SRV you should then be back at the rebuy screen for your ship.

I would say that your 'work around' is actually a bug...

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

Time to get a bit draconian I think:

If I leave my car window down and it get's stolen... My insurance people won't pay out.

If you leave your ship in a state where it will self destruct I think you should have to wait until rescued and then have to pay top dollar to get your ship back. No 5% re-buy, no nothing.

The main bug I would be worried about is getting your ship back after logging into the base game - if anyone who gets killed while on a planet or flying within the bounds of one can do this then it needs to be addressed IMO.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

AFK with a disabled Life Support (??!)
Not a good idea. Mildly put.

Plus, there's no reason to hide the Ship by heat Signature. Just Dismiss Ship and it'll be safe (it'll essentially despawn).
Even if you leave it, the Life Support hardly makes a difference in heat signature with everything else already shutdown.

And given the Glide mechanics and distance to where the Ship is eventually ending up - anyone following your Low Wake is extremely unlikely to ever locate your Ship.

Pro Hint :
To anyone in an SRV, the EM signature of your Ship will still be visible completely regardless of the heat signature or Terrain it's hidden in.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

just a question...wasnt the AI programmed to "die" when you destroy their life support or canopy?
so when you leave your ship under AI control, with deactivated life support...it could do exactly that...die

 

[DaveL]

okay thanks for your replies, but let me put it this way:

You shut off LS, timer goes on cause you are actually using it. (Breating the oxygen, duh?). But when you leave it, you are not using it.. therefore why?


Anyway, i get that point when leaving ship, dissmis it part. But i am most of the time encountering thing i cannot seem to retrieve my ship after dismissing it. The button is stuck on "Ship departing" state and is ususable. Relogging makes the ship be gone from lowe display and cannot be reached/retrieved. What happens then, is i wreck my SRV (yeah, die) and get to rebuy screen... but i had to pay full rebuy cost for my ship and all its internals.. but i only lost the SRV not the ship. Or maybe i lost the ship due that "cannot recall" bug....?

 

[Chris Simon]

okay thanks for your replies, but let me put it this way:

You shut off LS, timer goes on cause you are actually using it. (Breating the oxygen, duh?). But when you leave it, you are not using it.. therefore why?


Anyway, i get that point when leaving ship, dissmis it part. But i am most of the time encountering thing i cannot seem to retrieve my ship after dismissing it. The button is stuck on "Ship departing" state and is ususable. Relogging makes the ship be gone from lowe display and cannot be reached/retrieved. What happens then, is i wreck my SRV (yeah, die) and get to rebuy screen... but i had to pay full rebuy cost for my ship and all its internals.. but i only lost the SRV not the ship. Or maybe i lost the ship due that "cannot recall" bug....?

Yea, this is definitely a matter for support forums, I reckon.

 

[excalibus]

okay thanks for your replies, but let me put it this way:

You shut off LS, timer goes on cause you are actually using it. (Breating the oxygen, duh?). But when you leave it, you are not using it.. therefore why?


Anyway, i get that point when leaving ship, dissmis it part. But i am most of the time encountering thing i cannot seem to retrieve my ship after dismissing it. The button is stuck on "Ship departing" state and is ususable. Relogging makes the ship be gone from lowe display and cannot be reached/retrieved. What happens then, is i wreck my SRV (yeah, die) and get to rebuy screen... but i had to pay full rebuy cost for my ship and all its internals.. but i only lost the SRV not the ship. Or maybe i lost the ship due that "cannot recall" bug....?

not being able to recall - that would be a bug...

The reason why the countdown continues is because the oxy tanks keep circulating oxygen into the cabin, regardless of if you are in it or not... so all that keeps 'working'

I have not experienced any major problems with recalling my ship, the only probalems I have had were some issues taking off where the thrusters would not turn on after dismissing and recalling my ship... which required a logout to menu and re-enter to fix, that has not happened in a little while now as I tend not to 'dismiss my ship' but let it dismiss itself when I am far enough away

 

[Kaybe]

Sadly, I'm certain it's working as intended. The ship is programmed to self destruct if life support fails. It doesn't know whether the pilot is monitoring or not.

Remember, you the pilot always survives as the ship pushes you into a pressurized escape pod. Or in this case, your pilot chair survived

 

[goemon]

i'm with you concerning the timer - without a pilot, the ship shouldn't need "life support". but than - we actually don't know a lot about the technical design. if you run out of oxygen, your are ejected, and your ship blows up. why does a ship blow up, if you run out oxygen? to me it looks, as if the ship self-destructs if it has ejected the pilot. some kind of safety procedure, maybe?

--- @kaybe said it all

 

[who?]

I'd agree, it doesn't make much sense for your ship to explode if life-support is off/fails; particularly if the Cmdr isn't on the ship. If/when we have ship boarding, it'd add a lot to the game to be able to board cold airless ships.

You're a brave guy to try it though, I certainly wouldn't unless I had cash and time to spare!

 

[CMDR Byr Goefin]

i'm with you concerning the timer - without a pilot, the ship shouldn't need "life support". but than - we actually don't know a lot about the technical design. if you run out of oxygen, your are ejected, and your ship blows up. why does a ship blow up, if you run out oxygen? to me it looks, as if the ship self-destructs if it has ejected the pilot. some kind of safety procedure, maybe?

--- @kaybe said it all

Navigational hazard. Scuttle the ship.

 

[DNA-Decay]

I'm with OP on this.

It seems more like a quirky boundary condition rather than a sensible bit of gameplay. And expensive.

I sort of get the cries of "who does that anyways", but the expense of losing a ship seems punishingly high.

Opportunity for gameplay though:
less punishing boundary condition-
Ship shuts down into "too cold too dark" state.
Needs revival by repair limpets. Either on SRV or something the Fuel Rats can carry.

Fuel Rats rock - Love those guys and gals.

Point being - you could wake the ship by going on a longish material collecting expedition in the SRV.
Or you can contact other player for help.

 

[Sealurk]

Navigational hazard. Scuttle the ship.

Precisely. When the pilot ejects, its sort of implied that he or she isn't simply drifting through space in a chair or pod waiting to be picked up, they're immediately jumped back to the last station they docked at (that might just be headcanon for me though). That would leave an otherwise functional ship with no crew, full power, fuel, weapons, maybe live cargo drifting through space, or worse, supercruise or witchspace - that's potentially a major hazard. Scuttling the ship is ultimately the safest thing to do once the crew are confirmed to have exited the vehicle permanently.

EDIT: I do agree however that with life support turned off and the crew off ship, the timer should pause - and that we need repair limpets, or better yet 'stores transfer limpets' that can move AFMU ammo from one ship to the other to maintain a degree of balance.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Its a very small issue, but valid. Espescially if you're an explorer, your ship is damaged and you need to get to the surface to find materials for your AFMU refill this nuisance can be fatal. The oxygen is a closed circuit system (the Remlok thingy), without pilot it would just circulate indefinitely.

 

[DaveL]

Yea, this is definitely a matter for support forums, I reckon.

Yes i surely do that soon-ish because it happens everytime for me

son why the countdown continues is because the oxy tanks keep circulating oxygen into the cabin, regardless of if you are in it or not... so all that keeps 'working'

From that standpoint it makes sense, yes i agree...

i'm with you concerning the timer - without a pilot, the ship shouldn't need "life support". but than - we actually don't know a lot about the technical design. if you run out of oxygen, your are ejected, and your ship blows up. why does a ship blow up, if you run out oxygen? to me it looks, as if the ship self-destructs if it has ejected the pilot. some kind of safety procedure, maybe?

--- @kaybe said it all

But this makes more sense to me..

I'd agree, it doesn't make much sense for your ship to explode if life-support is off/fails; particularly if the Cmdr isn't on the ship. If/when we have ship boarding, it'd add a lot to the game to be able to board cold airless ships.

You're a brave guy to try it though, I certainly wouldn't unless I had cash and time to spare!

agree, well i tried the possibility of "breaking game" in the way noone would think about..



And also i agree with people above, wich corespond with my former thought about ship not needing use self-destruct while im not onboard...

Its a very small issue, but valid. Espescially if you're an explorer, your ship is damaged and you need to get to the surface to find materials for your AFMU refill this nuisance can be fatal. The oxygen is a closed circuit system (the Remlok thingy), without pilot it would just circulate indefinitely.

oh yeah and also this. While you are very far away in very desperate situation and something like this happens.. That outcome would be very cruel.

 

[Kristov]

So you make a habit of turning off everything on the ship before you leave in an SRV, including life support, which automatically kicks in the self destruct timer, and you can never get your ship to recall when you this?

That's not a bug, that's you setting your ship to self destruct and leaving it in an SRV. I can see how that might be confusing the FIRST time you do it, but HOW many times have you done it with the exact same results now?

 

[Sysmon]

i'm with you concerning the timer - without a pilot, the ship shouldn't need "life support". but than - we actually don't know a lot about the technical design. if you run out of oxygen, your are ejected, and your ship blows up. why does a ship blow up, if you run out oxygen? to me it looks, as if the ship self-destructs if it has ejected the pilot. some kind of safety procedure, maybe?

--- @kaybe said it all

It would explain the many wrecks we find outside the bubble!

Maybe the ships are only really stable when actually powered? If life support is connected to a gas exchange for other systems, and shutting it down makes the ship incapable of keeping in light elements like oxygen and hydrogen, it could be a simple systems failure.

S

 

[Ian Skippy]

So you make a habit of turning off everything on the ship before you leave in an SRV, including life support, which automatically kicks in the self destruct timer, and you can never get your ship to recall when you this?

That's not a bug, that's you setting your ship to self destruct and leaving it in an SRV. I can see how that might be confusing the FIRST time you do it, but HOW many times have you done it with the exact same results now?

Its not a self-destruct timer. Its an oxygen countdown. When the oxygen is gone, the pilot is ejected and self-destruct engaged. With no pilot present, there is no oxygen being removed from the closed circuit, so the oxygen countdown is paused. Before 2.0 there was no difference between what you say and how it should be, and they went with the easier way to code it. With 2.0 there is a difference, and it should be fixed. Remember that the countdown start AFTER general life support fails, and that the oxygen countdown is from the personal remlok system. As said, hypothetically one should be able to get in an SRV, find materials for the AFMU and repair the life support. Its a rare but cool scenario. The way it is currently programmed that is impossible.