Horizons NPC's "Wanted" status changing to "Clean" as we watch

[Scoob]

Hi all,

Been playing in a private group this evening, just two of us, and we've noticed what seems to be an odd bug. Maybe someone can advise?

Basically, we're in the Delkar system, bounty hunting at a Resource Extraction point. It's been going really well, but twice now we've had this odd issue. We've found an NPC, done the preliminary scan to reveal a "Wanted" status, shown clearly in red of course - we both see this - I then proceed to perform an additional scan with my Warrant Scanner. We proceed to attack the NPC, often with the local Security forces joining in too. Then, suddenly, the NPC's status changes to "Clean" and we're marked as "Wanted" and the local forces turn on us. Needless to say we flee at this point.

Now, to be totally clear, this isn't some stray shot, nor is it us targeting the wrong ship by mistake. The named NPC is clearly marked as "Wanted" then suddenly they are not. What could possibly be causing this issue?

I've successfully managed to leave the system, return and pay my huge 400cr fine, so that's not an issue. It's how said ship firstly changes wanted status like that, and the handful of shots that land after this switch are not simply classed as stray shots - in each case the NPC's shields didn't even drop.

Any advice welcome, while I've only just started playing again after a very long break, I've never seen this issue before.

Note: we've been seeing some server issues today, we actually got booted out at one point and couldn't rejoins for a short while. The launcher was also saying there were issues, but we got back in eventually. Could our issue be related to a server problem in any way?

Cheers,

Scoob.

 

[Jon flint]

Does sound like a networking thing, I've seen similar oddities, and only when in a wing, including NPCs straight up vanishing, only to reappear with a different ship and rank.

Always put it down to serverside issues or communication issues between my pc and whoevers machine is playing host to the instance.

 

[Scoob]

Does sound like a networking thing, I've seen similar oddities, and only when in a wing, including NPCs straight up vanishing, only to reappear with a different ship and rank.

Always put it down to serverside issues or communication issues between my pc and whoevers machine is playing host to the instance.

Interesting. If NPC's can change ship and rank like that, changing wanted status isn't a huge leap.

Up until now, "server issues" for me have just been long login times, delays accessing Outfitting and menus in general in a station, or delays exiting FSD, never changes to NPC's like this.

This evening, while there's only two of us in this particular Private Group, we did have issues seeing each other at first. I.e. I could not see him at all, but he could see a marker for me, fly up to it, but my ships wasn't there. We had to re-log a couple of times before it worked - then it seems to work well for a couple of hours. Later, after we got booted out, we re-joined yet it was showing my friend as in Open play, when I know for a fact he was in our Private group. Once again, re-logging a few times sorted this.

It's been a glitchy day in ED, and it's cost us both a chunk of rep we'd built up in one of our favourite systems. Ah well.

Scoob.

 

[lomac]

Happened to me tonight and I wasn't in a wing.

 

[Faded Glory]

Interesting. If NPC's can change ship and rank like that, changing wanted status isn't a huge leap.

If an NPC leaves your instance, it can reappear as a different ship / rank, because it's just created again. NPCs aren't persistent, even though they may have the same name, especially if they are mission related.

Regarding the OP's glitch, I'd say it's a bug, and I think it may have happened to me on an assassination mission. I suddenly noticed that the targeted NPC went from red (hostile and attacking) to orange. Can't say that it became clean, as to be honest, I cannot remember if I fired on it while it was in that state, but I certainly didn't become wanted, and it reverted to being red after about 5 seconds.

I'd suggest a bug report might be in order...

 

[Mike Reacher]

No way server issues can do that to a bunch of pixels!
It has to be one of the many bugs.
In my post "Strange Interdiction I mentioned that an NPC was shooting at me while I boosted. I low waked and one of the orange diamonds in front of me was the same NPC. Same ship. Same rank.

 

[Scoob]

Just had this bug occur again.

I'm patrolling a Resource Extraction Site (HIGH) in Solati, I notice the local forces (green) engaging an Asp (amber) not far away. I move in, allow the automatic scan to show this ship as "Wanted" and I proceed to engage. My target magically goes "Clean", and I'm wanted - while right in the middle of about 6-7 police who were, seconds earlier, shooting this very target. Indeed, he was down to just over 40% hull left!

I don't know what evidence I can provide for this bug, or indeed recreation steps other than "Shoot wanted NPC's", in the hope they exhibit this bug.

This is becoming very frustrating, between my friend and I (who was not in this particular encounter) we're having to flee otherwise FUN fights due to this bug causing our very allies to turn on us.

This issue is akin to a trader selling a legal ware at a station and, only after selling it, a random role of the dice deciding whether it was illegal or not, the player lives or dies based on the result lol.

Scoob.

 

[Stonn Mrogg]

^ yes.

Exact description of experiences in the last BH CG, for both my friend and I. I thought we were trippin. However we got really good at hanging out above the RES and those mass locking asteroids to make a quick escape from these phony criminals...

edit-

Forgot to add I even would go out of my way to warrant scan them. Still wanted looking. Still phony.

 

[mp4x]

I've been trying to record this happening. I believe some of the people on here, including myself, who swear that they didn't shoot past the target into another, or didn't wait for the scan to complete, have been victim to this bug.

Usually the replies on here go down the path of telling the OP to be more aware of their surroundings. And often I'd say that's the case, but I've now experienced this myself, without doubt - One single target to the bow of my ship, waiting until I saw the red 'wanted,' then taking the ship on AND getting Navy support... moments later I'M wanted and my target, which is still the same target, is clean and the navy ships that were to my stern HELPING me shoot this ship suddenly target me instead. I literally watched the beams attacking this ship just stop and focus on me.

 

[d8veh]

I've been trying to record this happening. I believe some of the people on here, including myself, who swear that they didn't shoot past the target into another, or didn't wait for the scan to complete, have been victim to this bug.

Usually the replies on here go down the path of telling the OP to be more aware of their surroundings. And often I'd say that's the case, but I've now experienced this myself, without doubt - One single target to the bow of my ship, waiting until I saw the red 'wanted,' then taking the ship on AND getting Navy support... moments later I'M wanted and my target, which is still the same target, is clean and the navy ships that were to my stern HELPING me shoot this ship suddenly target me instead. I literally watched the beams attacking this ship just stop and focus on me.

Only video evidence will confirm. I've had it many times, but after some time studying the video, there's always a logical explanation.

See if you can figure out this one:
[video=youtube;w4gSD6XwBKg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4gSD6XwBKg[/video]

 

[mp4x]

Yeah, I hope to find out if I capture it

Only video evidence will confirm. I've had it many times, but after some time studying the video, there's always a logical explanation.

See if you can figure out this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4gSD6XwBKg

Im completely okay with this, I've had things like that happen - I don't have a problem with me becoming wanted for something I can't immediately see. My rounds fly for 3klms past the target, anything could happen. What's different is that, unlike in this video, the target simply dropped it's wanted status. Whatever we did elsewhere to earn a wanted status aside, an NPC shouldn't be able to do that... ?

 

[d8veh]

Yeah, I hope to find out if I capture it




Im completely okay with this, I've had things like that happen - I don't have a problem with me becoming wanted for something I can't immediately see. My rounds fly for 3klms past the target, anything could happen. What's different is that, unlike in this video, the target simply dropped it's wanted status. Whatever we did elsewhere to earn a wanted status aside, an NPC shouldn't be able to do that... ?

I can't disagree with what you say if the facts that you say happened are true. The only question is whether your perception of the facts is correct. Only a video would show that. maybe something happened with your targeting before or after you started shooting. It could be anything.

 

[mp4x]

Yeah, I can appreciate that. This is the only time where I was actually looking in the right place at the right time and feel confident in what I saw. It's not like I was looking away, or flipped targets or anything, it just happened in plain sight. I've spoken in these types of threads about the things that can earn you a bounty, I agree on that stuff, but this is more about the NPC status change. I didn't want to say anything until I captured it, but as this is the one time I can say it happened I don't imagine it's going to happen again soon and, TBH, I wouldn't have said anything but the OP mentioned the NPC status chang, specifically, and I basically wanted to say 'ditto.'

I record when I DO go bounty hunting... It's all I can do


[edit: I've wondered if it WAS a network issue, if some error reverted the NPC to his status X seconds/minutes ago]

I can't disagree with what you say if the facts that you say happened are true. The only question is whether your perception of the facts is correct. Only a video would show that. maybe something happened with your targeting before or after you started shooting. It could be anything.

 

[Scoob]

I had an interesting variation on this last night...

I was hanging out in Solati, bounty hunting in a Resource Extraction Site (High) location as usual. I scanned and warrant scanned an Asp (Explorer IIRC) which showed as "Wanted". As I was on my own - mate hadn't joined me at this time - I held back waiting for the local police force ships to head over in my direction. While casually following the Asp, with it still targeted, it appeared to be heading for one of the many asteroids. I expected it to change direction but instead it suddenly went "Clean", then starting Mining!

So, zero hostile action on my part, I was simply following a "Wanted" target who then suddenly wasn't wanted. I wonder if this NPC was a Miner who somehow got pulled into combat (not with me) got a "Wanted" status for a stray shot or something, but then this was reset when they went back to their scripted activity.

I did raise a bug report for this, along with this additional info. A video would be great of course, but that'd mean trying to record ALL my gameplay until it happens, which'd likely need to drive space than I have.

Anyway, this issue is real, I've not doubt of that, and now it's happened before I fired a shot. Suggesting that the original reported "Wanted" status wasn't real, and the info panel updates either as soon as we attack OR said ship goes back to it's original scripted duties.

On a side note: my friend and I, in the same Wing, can target, scan and warrant scan the exact same target. They'll show "Wanted" for both of us, but my scan, for example, will show "Bounty: 200,000cr" in the ships Contacts tab, whereas my friends will not show any Bounty information at all. I thought while in a wing, what one scans, the other is privy to?

Scoob.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Is that only happening in open or group play with other players entering or leaving your instance? Maybe the NPC status isn't properly transferred when the instance "owner" changes. Anyway, it's worth a bug report along with verbose logs.

 

[Jon flint]

Only video evidence will confirm. I've had it many times, but after some time studying the video, there's always a logical explanation.

See if you can figure out this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4gSD6XwBKg

I think what happened in that vid, the Corvette cmdr (you?) grazed an NPC adder, you didn't get a wanted rating right away because he was under attack by another npc, when he was destroyed by that other npc, you got the "credit" for the kill (you will always take kill priority over npcs), and hence you got the bounty on your head.

Sucks and would have been frustrating at the time, but as you say, there's always (often) a logical explanation

 

[d8veh]

I think what happened in that vid, the Corvette cmdr (you?) grazed an NPC adder, you didn't get a wanted rating right away because he was under attack by another npc, when he was destroyed by that other npc, you got the "credit" for the kill (you will always take kill priority over npcs), and hence you got the bounty on your head.

Sucks and would have been frustrating at the time, but as you say, there's always (often) a logical explanation

That's it, but there's still one thing that nobody can explain. If I hit that adder, why didn't I get an assault charge, which is what normally happens. You hit him accidentally, up comes the assault charge and when he dies, it changes to murder. If he blew up straight away, it would be murder, but there was a long delay between when i hit him and when he blew up!

And look at the bounty: 4530 cr. Where does that come from. Murder would be 6200 cr.

 

[Jon flint]

That's it, but there's still one thing that nobody can explain. If I hit that adder, why didn't I get an assault charge, which is what normally happens. You hit him accidentally, up comes the assault charge and when he dies, it changes to murder. If he blew up straight away, it would be murder, but there was a long delay between when i hit him and when he blew up!

And look at the bounty: 4530 cr. Where does that come from. Murder would be 6200 cr.

You're right, something is a bit screwy there. I sort of assumed the delay/lack of instant assault charge was because he was already under attack. But the odd bounty amount is very strange indeed.

 

[Shackram]

I had something like that during the Slink's Eye bounty hunting CG.

Local security starts laying on a NPC Python, i scan it and it shows as wanted (didn't have the warrant scanner) so i jumped in to help, didn't get any assault bounties while shooting it, but when the Python died i got a murder bounty. I opened a ticket but support couldn't comfirm if it was a bug or if i made a mistake, which i don't believe i did.

 

[d8veh]

I can't disagree with anything that people say that they've seen; however, I have well over 1500 hours bounty hunting experience in RESs, and have never seen those things. I thought I had those things many times, but everytime, the video record showed what actually happened, which turned out logical and according to the rules - no bugs. There's no point in discussing anything without video evidence. Nobody has ever put any up.