Newcomer / Intro Log Out and Lost!

Some of you may remember back in early December I left the game unattended only to return to find myself on the rebuy screen, having lost seven weeks exploration data to say nothing of general progress over a year or more (I play in iron man mode). The more sympathetic of you drummed into me that if I was to leave the game for more than the shortest of time I must "Exit" back to the main menu, just hitting escape was not enough as the game with my ship in it was still running. Fair enough, lesson ell and truly learnt.

Now fast forward a few weeks and I am off in my Dolphin on a high paying, but very safe, VIP tourist mission. I scan the first target beacon, receive the message asking me to fly on to the second. Everything is running along very nicely, but Herself calls from downstairs. I have to go and do husband stuff for about half an hour. So I drop into normal space, a long way from any planet or station, set the throttle top zero and exit back to the main menu. I have done as I have been advised, I and my mission is safe. Right? Wrong!

When I came back to the game my ship was where I left her, the comms log showed that I hadn't been dreaming but of the passengers and the contract there was no sign. If it hadn't been for the comms log I could have been persuaded that I had imagined the whole thing. £3.5 million down the tubes.

There followed a couple of other instances where contracts and cargos disappeared following a break in play but none that I had so well documented. Then came my expedition to Dev's Hope.

Now, as I freely admit, I am new to this whole ground lark but I think I am getting the hang of it. Last evening I managed to find and land at Dev's Hope and go off in my SRV, primarily for a drive around (this was my first time on a planet other than at a base). Anyway I picked up some stuff including two cargo cannisters. My SRV was full so I recalled my ship and tried to drive in to transfer the cargo. I am new to all this so I was making a complete pig's breakfast of it when once again the voice of doom struck. Herself said it was time for bed. So leaving my SRV under my ship (about three feet from the sweet spot it turned out), I remembered my lesson and logged right out confident my ship, SRV and cargo was safe. When I came back to the game today my SRV was in exactly the same position that I left it but it was empty. The cargo I had collected before I logged off had gone.

It seems to me that if one logs out in the middle of a "modern" mission then one is in serious danger of losing cargo and progress. I say "modern" mission because I have never experienced anything like this under the stuff in the old original game. When I take off from a station with a hold full of stuff to deliver to another system I do not have to worry about it disappearing if I pop off to put the kettle on. If someone has a reasonable explanation I'd be pleased to hear it.
 
You need to master BRT

(Be Right There)

Then take as much time as you need to finish what you are doing.

Never saw what you describe (but then again I got divorced), and losing your stuff's not cool. Hope you work it out.
 
Did the timing on the missions elapse while you were logged out?
Nope, nowhere near the time limit. Not only that if I had run out of time there would have been something in the logs but there was nothing. As if the mission had never existed.
 
That's ... strange. Never observed anything like this.

Which logs are you talking about? In-ship, left HUD (mission tab) or right HUD (there's something that calls itself log, too, IIRC), or the logfiles written to your PC (assuming you play on PC)?
If it's not the latter, download and install EDDiscovery. That'll let you go through your logfiles in a readable form (if you're a JSON wizard, you can read them just like they are). If those support your memory, create a ticket :confused: - yes, that'll probably get ignored, but who knows. Mission stuff (and probably cargo, too) is a different server instance than general gameplay, so it might just be that your specific server for this kind of stuff is stuffed.
 
........ Anyway I picked up some stuff including two cargo cannisters. ......

Are you sure you picked up cargo cannisters? They don't spawn within the settlement so did you do track down a signal and find a cache of cannisters? I am asking because for example the high density composites material does look a bit like a cargo cannister.

I have never had cargo disappear from my hold.
 
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@ParaHandy, Well they looked like cargo cannisters more than that I wouldn't swear to. Though having picked up two of them I was unable to scoop a third, which might be supporting evidence for the prosecution. Anyway I am on my way back there now in the Krait with 2 Scarabs on board so I should be able to find out more.

@Ashnak The log I use is the one read and displayed by EDDiscovery. It is usually reliable.
 
@ParaHandy

It would seem that you are correct. What look like cargo cannisters are actually labelled, when I target them, as materials of some sort and do not show up as cargo when I try and use the "transfer cargo" command on return to my ship. So that explains why I had no cargo on my earlier expedition.

Why some materials are dressed up to look like cargo cannisters and others are not is a mystery to me, but then much of this planet-bound malarkey is. For example, I shot an outcrop which then exploded into half a dozen or so fragments of different types of elements (chromium etc). I picked up three of these using the cargo scoop and then it would pick up no more. Why? I have no idea.

Then there is the Farseer woman, who has upgraded my FSD twice, or possibly three times - the displays are unclear, but refuses to upgrade it anymore until we become better friends. What am I supposed to do? Take her out to dinner, maybe take in a life-affirming movie or perhaps a visit to a good art gallery (not the Tate Modern)?

All in all I am having an absolute hoot. Following your advice I got voice attack set up with the HCS packs so now I have Cleo, an Essex scrubber, and a ship's cat to keep me amused on long voyages (I was going to get the Parrot but I reckoned it was too close mentally to an Essex girl) and generally help out about the place. I have also set up GameGlass for its nifty touch screen user interface. I don't know when I have enjoyed a game more.
 
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<...>

I picked up three of these using the cargo scoop and then it would pick up no more. Why? I have no idea.

Then there is the Farseer woman, <...> refuses to upgrade it anymore

Materials also have a storage limit, mostly about 250 units, meaning you can only pick up about 60 of them.

You can then set that material/cargo/item to "ignore" in the left contact panel so they won't show up on your radar anymore.
It's a pain to de-ignore them afterwards, but this way you also avoid your drones picking up the unwanted material and then lurking around your cargo hatch alledgedly being unable to unload (if that happens, you need to kill them by switching off the drone controller).

Felicita is a bit picky. She expects you to indeed provide the required materials for engineering, credits are not offered, regardless of the quality of your wine.
And she offers only level 3 updates for thrusters, for level 5 you need to see the Professor. Or charm Chloe instead.

Regards, Dirk
 
You have a storage limit for each material, if you target a fragment or other piece look down to the left and the little information panel tells you about the material and shows it’s storage level as follows.
297/300
Showing that you have 297 out of a maximum of 300 stored, when the storage is full you can’t pick up any more of that item.

Grade 1 limit is 300
Grade 2 limit is 250
Grade 3 limit is 200
Grade 4 limit is 150 (this is the maximum grade for raw materials such as iron or carbon)
Grade 5 limit is 100 (maximum grade for encoded data and manufactured items)

Rather than set any of them to ignore I visit an appropriate Materials Trader from time to time and swap stuff around so I don’t have full bins.
 
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@Donaldi & @aRJay

My thanks, gentlemen, for taking the time to put me on the straight and narrow as regards limits on materials. The more I learn the more I realise the depth of my ignorance. However, rather than bother you chaps with more questions I will go off and, with my Essex girl by side, about some more. Only when I have failed to make progress in what I am trying to do, or at least sense of what I am seeing, shall I return to try your patients some more.

P.S. Re this "... if you target a fragment or other piece look down to the left and the little information panel tells you about the material and shows it’s storage level ..." it is amazing how much is going on on our screens that we just do not see. In a previous life I had (for a while) a contract teaching high flying city types how to use their companies' computer systems. I drummed into them the motto for success, "Read the ******* Screens", I had it on posters around the buildings, on screen savers (remember those), I even had them chanting it in the pub after work. Goodness, I was a good teacher, it seems though I am a lousy pupil. "Read or in these days look at really look at, the screens"
 
Regarding levelling up an engineer...
Eg you got Felicity up to G3 and now can't upgrade your FSD any further. Here's what you need to do...
Engineer another module (any will do) and that will increase your rep with her and take you to grade 4 or 5. Now you can get the higher grade FSD engineering done.
 
Regarding levelling up an engineer...
Eg you got Felicity up to G3 and now can't upgrade your FSD any further. Here's what you need to do...
Engineer another module (any will do) and that will increase your rep with her and take you to grade 4 or 5. Now you can get the higher grade FSD engineering done.

So no romantic dinner then; just engineer something else. Ok, many thanks for telling me that, I shall give it a go the next time I am passing the old bag's place.
 
Now my wife also has this effect. But I've mastered the "put it all away" technique..just a few minutes to tuck that srv away... (blue light by fuel gauge lights up Wen your aligned to go into your ship).
But missions....mmm combat one's don't do this for sure. I don't do passengers but some have their own itinerary and some are wanted and ain't announced it etc. Changes the dynamic over real time...so you log off and one passenger pulls the plug somehow....least this is what a squadron mates told me. Sorry if that's inaccurate.
Get into the habit of closing loose ends before logging off.
I've explained Ed nuances and she's OK with it long as I've done my chores!@
o7
 
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