So I've been exploring out in the black, as a means of trying out ED with my new PC setup and Oculus Rift headset.
About ten days ago, I found a system that had a landfall planet that was extremely close to its sun. Close enough that it looked like a big ball in the sky - you could actually see the surface, unlike most planets where it's just a bright point in the sky.
As can be expected from a planet orbiting so deeply into the gravity well of its star, it was also orbiting very, VERY fast. Orbital period read as 1.8 days. Not months, or weeks, DAYS. As in, one year on this planet = 1.8 days on Earth. That is really ing fast. So fast, in fact, that when I went in to surface scan it, it kept moving away from me and throwing off my probes. It wasn't until I was in orbital cruise that my velocity was finally matched with the planet and it stopped moving away from me.
Being an explorer, naturally I was curious how this planet would look from its surface, so I stopped in and landed. I was getting tired in meatspace anyway and I typically like to land on planets and shut down all my systems except life support before logging off - makes it harder for me to be spotted by anyone who might happen to be exploring the black, however unlikely that might be.
The next day I logged back in, powered up all my systems, took off, retracted my landing gear, pointed my nose straight up, and engaged the FSD. My intent was to break out of orbit and fly the relatively short distance to the star so I could fuel scoop before continuing my journey. The countdown reached zero, my ship lurched forward into supercruise, and then everything went black. I tore off my headset to find myself staring at an error screen - game had crashed to desktop.
Alright then. I found a glitch. Big whoop. I'll just try again. And so I logged back into the game, and tried again. Crashed to desktop.
At this point I was getting frustrated, and I assumed this might be an issue with the Oculus Rift, so I started the game in monitor mode and tried taking off again. CTD, followed this time by a rage-quit. Three CTD's in a row was my limit. I shut everything off and figured I'd try again next time I played, which ended up being tonight as I had to leave my apartment for a week to go pet-sit for my parents.
I get back after the work week(end) and try taking off again. Once, CTD. Twice, CTD. I was starting to panic, because every CTD put me back on the surface of the planet I was trying to leave.
After the third time I noticed that as I was jumping to supercruise, my altimeter would get screwy. It would bounce me 5km down toward the surface every time the countdown started. I figured the natural issue here was that the game was short-circuiting trying to figure out how I was jumping to supercruise when I should have been mass-locked and not able to engage the FSD at all, and was crashing to save itself. So I tried waiting until I was 20km up, and then I jumped. It worked... but now I wanted to test to see if this was a reproducible bug, so without thinking I flipped back over to return to the surface... before I had reached the minimum altitude for orbital cruise. The result was that I dropped back into normal flight over the planet, but doing so caused a hard freeze. However, this time I was convinced I knew why I had crashed. So I restarted, found myself starting in-flight at 15km above the surface, flew to 20km and went to supercruise. CTD.
Now I was really upset. I thought that my character would be trapped on the planet forever, unable to leave because of game-breaking bugs. I considered suicide but keep in mind I was - am - currently on my way BACK to known space with a treasure trove of scan data, including at least one Earth-like planet, all of which would be lost if I self-destructed. It was either that or a career reset. Both of which would have likely resulted in me quitting Elite for good.
I tried one last time to leave the planet. This time, rather than jumping to supercruise, I plotted a hyperspace jump to a star that was visible from the part of the planet I was on. FSD charged, I went to witch-space and then boom, desktop. Needless to say I came close to needing a new Oculus Rift headset, it was in my hands and about to be thrown into the nearest wall.
However, even though jumping to the next system DID cause a crash, it also worked. I ended up idling in space next to the new system's star, likely at the exit point of the jump. Subsequent jumps gave me no problem.
So fair warning to everyone on the forum, if you see a planet moving fast enough that you can see it moving, whatever you do, DON'T land on it.
And Frontier, please see my complete and comprehensive bug report on the tracker. I know this bug probably slipped through the cracks since having a landfall planet this close to a star is rare, but it almost cost you a player.
For anyone curious/stupid enough to see this for themselves, the system in question is Phylur PV-T B44-4, and the planet is the first planet in that system. The system itself is at galactic coordinates -1398, 34, 2458, about a good 100 or so jumps away from the bubble with a 40-Ly FSD range.
About ten days ago, I found a system that had a landfall planet that was extremely close to its sun. Close enough that it looked like a big ball in the sky - you could actually see the surface, unlike most planets where it's just a bright point in the sky.
As can be expected from a planet orbiting so deeply into the gravity well of its star, it was also orbiting very, VERY fast. Orbital period read as 1.8 days. Not months, or weeks, DAYS. As in, one year on this planet = 1.8 days on Earth. That is really ing fast. So fast, in fact, that when I went in to surface scan it, it kept moving away from me and throwing off my probes. It wasn't until I was in orbital cruise that my velocity was finally matched with the planet and it stopped moving away from me.
Being an explorer, naturally I was curious how this planet would look from its surface, so I stopped in and landed. I was getting tired in meatspace anyway and I typically like to land on planets and shut down all my systems except life support before logging off - makes it harder for me to be spotted by anyone who might happen to be exploring the black, however unlikely that might be.
The next day I logged back in, powered up all my systems, took off, retracted my landing gear, pointed my nose straight up, and engaged the FSD. My intent was to break out of orbit and fly the relatively short distance to the star so I could fuel scoop before continuing my journey. The countdown reached zero, my ship lurched forward into supercruise, and then everything went black. I tore off my headset to find myself staring at an error screen - game had crashed to desktop.
Alright then. I found a glitch. Big whoop. I'll just try again. And so I logged back into the game, and tried again. Crashed to desktop.
At this point I was getting frustrated, and I assumed this might be an issue with the Oculus Rift, so I started the game in monitor mode and tried taking off again. CTD, followed this time by a rage-quit. Three CTD's in a row was my limit. I shut everything off and figured I'd try again next time I played, which ended up being tonight as I had to leave my apartment for a week to go pet-sit for my parents.
I get back after the work week(end) and try taking off again. Once, CTD. Twice, CTD. I was starting to panic, because every CTD put me back on the surface of the planet I was trying to leave.
After the third time I noticed that as I was jumping to supercruise, my altimeter would get screwy. It would bounce me 5km down toward the surface every time the countdown started. I figured the natural issue here was that the game was short-circuiting trying to figure out how I was jumping to supercruise when I should have been mass-locked and not able to engage the FSD at all, and was crashing to save itself. So I tried waiting until I was 20km up, and then I jumped. It worked... but now I wanted to test to see if this was a reproducible bug, so without thinking I flipped back over to return to the surface... before I had reached the minimum altitude for orbital cruise. The result was that I dropped back into normal flight over the planet, but doing so caused a hard freeze. However, this time I was convinced I knew why I had crashed. So I restarted, found myself starting in-flight at 15km above the surface, flew to 20km and went to supercruise. CTD.
Now I was really upset. I thought that my character would be trapped on the planet forever, unable to leave because of game-breaking bugs. I considered suicide but keep in mind I was - am - currently on my way BACK to known space with a treasure trove of scan data, including at least one Earth-like planet, all of which would be lost if I self-destructed. It was either that or a career reset. Both of which would have likely resulted in me quitting Elite for good.
I tried one last time to leave the planet. This time, rather than jumping to supercruise, I plotted a hyperspace jump to a star that was visible from the part of the planet I was on. FSD charged, I went to witch-space and then boom, desktop. Needless to say I came close to needing a new Oculus Rift headset, it was in my hands and about to be thrown into the nearest wall.
However, even though jumping to the next system DID cause a crash, it also worked. I ended up idling in space next to the new system's star, likely at the exit point of the jump. Subsequent jumps gave me no problem.
So fair warning to everyone on the forum, if you see a planet moving fast enough that you can see it moving, whatever you do, DON'T land on it.
And Frontier, please see my complete and comprehensive bug report on the tracker. I know this bug probably slipped through the cracks since having a landfall planet this close to a star is rare, but it almost cost you a player.
For anyone curious/stupid enough to see this for themselves, the system in question is Phylur PV-T B44-4, and the planet is the first planet in that system. The system itself is at galactic coordinates -1398, 34, 2458, about a good 100 or so jumps away from the bubble with a 40-Ly FSD range.
