Route Plotting Problem

Alien

Alien
gtxOPZ5.jpg


I am having a problem with the route plotter.

I go to the triple LTD site COL 285 Sector CC-K A38-2 That is a non-scoopable star (I can't remember its star type)
When I am going there, my last jump there, ie the next jump is the destination, that star is scoopable.
I do my mining. I go to leave. I am short on fuel and need to scoop. I plot a route to somewhere (it doesn't seem to make a difference where, as long as it's now close.)
The route plotter plots a route, but the first few jumps take me through stars I can't scoop.
I have come close a few times to getting stranded, when I don't then have the fuel to jump to the next system in the route.
This is getting annoying. Why is it (the route plotter) doing this? Am I being an idiot (I don't mean generally, because the answer is yes :p I mean in this specific problem)?

I have tried asking on a discord, so here's some common points ...
Do I have the scoopable stars selected? Yes, see above picture.
Do I have Apply Filter To Route selected? Yes, see above picture
There's a lot of Brown Dwarf stars in that area, so maybe the plotter is just routing you through them to get you to where you need to go
OK, a) Why would it not just fail to plot the route? b) How come I can manually jump to scoopable stars nearby and carry on, but it can't plot a route through them and instead routes me through stars it shouldn't be?
Try flicking between economical and fastest to force a re-plot I didn't try that, but I did try clearing the route and re-plotting it, no difference. Also, when I do go to a scoopable star and THEN replot the route, it avoids any star not selected as per the above picture.
Is your jump range fairly short? Not sure how that makes a difference, but it's in an Anaconda with an 18LY range when fully laden. In that picture it had 34t of LTDs + about 50 limpets. Maximum cargo space was 256t so nowhere near fully laden.

Any advice, feedback, suggestions, praise, criticism, concerns, questions, cookies appreciated ... I may have been joking about one of those :p

EDIT: Thank you to Steve The Red, I have added my evidence to the issue tracker https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/9927
 
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Bottom Hat

Bottom Hat
Had this myself once coming back from Borann to home territory, it was rather annoying. Thought I just had a gremlin in my ship.
 

Florenus

Florenus
Alien said:
Try flicking between economical and fastest to force a re-plot I didn't try that, but I did try clearing the route and re-plotting it, no difference. Also, when I do go to a scoopable star and THEN replot the route, it avoids any star not selected as per the above picture.
Click to expand...
I was going to suggest this. Sometimes the plotter seems to get "stuck" on some rules and changing those selections on route tab seems to help in resetting it.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
There's a lot of Brown Dwarf stars in that area, so maybe the plotter is just routing you through them to get you to where you need to go

Because that's how the route plotter was programmed 🤷‍♂️. Like real-life assistance systems, the design assumes a human in the loop. If you want to keep the plotter manageable, you will have to decide (at one or another point in the design) which weight you will give to the various demands that are put on it. One of those demands is to plot a fairly straight, i.e. short, route. The other is to avoid (or include) the stars selected by the user. If you weigh the requirement for a straight route lower than the requirement for finding a route at all under the constraints set by the user, the plotter will simply need more time in the best case, and not really plot a different route. In the worst case, it may become unstable and run into an endless loop.
So, KISS: put a large weight on keeping the route straight and a lower weight on getting there at all or stick to the limits set by the user. If you end up with a dry tank in an unscoopable system, the problem is between keyboard and chair ;), and you can't plan around that. Much like the people driving off a pier in their cars because their satnav told them to turn left here. Or the truck drivers gertting stuck because they're using a car satnav and/or believe the satnav more than the sign next to that bridge...
 

zipline

zipline
If there are multiple star types in a system, I believe the route plotter will still include those systems in your route but you are not guaranteed to jump in at the scoopable star, so could it be that cmdr?
 

GloatingSwine

GloatingSwine
I have had it take a little while to realise I've unticked a star class that's in the route and not update even though the route should no longer be valid by the current rules.

Try clearing the route and replotting it if it doesn't change.
 

Some1else

Some1else
GloatingSwine said:
I have had it take a little while to realise I've unticked a star class that's in the route and not update even though the route should no longer be valid by the current rules.

Try clearing the route and replotting it if it doesn't change.
Click to expand...
This.

I've had the same thing happen. It sometimes has taken closing the galaxy map, open, changing to a end star, plot a new route, close map again, come back and route to the star you're trying to get to.
Hope it helps.
 

Gauntlet

Gauntlet
I've had this happen a few times too, I found deselecting scoopable star classes from the filter and then reselecting them sorted out the problem
 

Kelster87

Kelster87
zipline said:
If there are multiple star types in a system, I believe the route plotter will still include those systems in your route but you are not guaranteed to jump in at the scoopable star, so could it be that cmdr?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the plotter will include systems where the primary star is not scoopable, but one of the secondaries is. I got caught out by that once or twice early in my explorations and have learnt to keep an eye on things when I get down to 1/4 - 1/3 of a tank. I've come across areas of space where there are no scoopable primary stars, all scooping happened on secondaries. I've never found the route plotter to fail to plot me past a system with a scoopable star, just have to watch for secondaries.

Oh, just remembered: I have had it plot me a route with the first scoopable star beyond my fuel range but only when I have very low fuel - and the scoopable stars are in the wrong direction.
 

Alien

Alien
If you look in the picture in the first post, there's Wolf 1358, a scoopable star near to the star it plotted me to, and a Col 285 Sector star (next to where the apply filter to route button is in the picture) that is also scoopable.

My complaint is that it should be plotting me to those stars, as I have them selected and non-scoopable stars filtered out. When I make a jump to a scoopable star, and then re-plot a route, it correctly plots to only the selected star types. It shouldn't take me jumping to another system to work the way it's supposed to work. What if it plots a route through non-selected star types, and then I can't get to a star to scoop from?
 

Kelster87

Kelster87
Are you checking the secondary stars? As I said, I've had the route plotter plot me through long stretches where the only scoopables are secondaries.. It may also plot in unselected star types if there no other route or it meets other rules - the only time I've had the plotter completely fail to plot a route is when there is no way for my ship to reach the destination without some kind of serious diversion..
 

Alien

Alien
Kelster87 said:
Are you checking the secondary stars? As I said, I've had the route plotter plot me through long stretches where the only scoopables are secondaries.. It may also plot in unselected star types if there no other route or it meets other rules - the only time I've had the plotter completely fail to plot a route is when there is no way for my ship to reach the destination without some kind of serious diversion..
Click to expand...

I do understand the concept of it routing through unselected stars if there are no selected star types nearby, and yes, I do understand it could do this if I am starting from a star that is not one of my selected star types ... what I am saying (for what seems the millionth time) is that in my example, it shouldn't have done. There were stars nearby that I had selected in the filter options. The picture in the first post shows this.
 

Decksmeck

D
Alien said:
I do understand the concept of it routing through unselected stars if there are no selected star types nearby, and yes, I do understand it could do this if I am starting from a star that is not one of my selected star types ... what I am saying (for what seems the millionth time) is that in my example, it shouldn't have done. There were stars nearby that I had selected in the filter options. The picture in the first post shows this.
Click to expand...

By secondary stars I assume he means when 2 stars are in the same system. The one you arrive at might not be scoopable but the other one you can supercruise to and scoop.
 

gooddoc

gooddoc
I'v always overcome an issue like that, in my 5 1/2 years of Exploring in ED.
I've scooped at every opportunity, meaning my tanks are usually full or nearly full.
When plotting over long distances particularly in non scoopable regions, I'v always checked the route plotter a couple of times once my tank falls below half & once it nears a quarter I manually take control & jump to a scoopable Star......it's never failed me yet:cool:
 
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