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Shuttles flying in circles


CedricB
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Okay, this started in another thread....

quote:

CedricB

I still seem to have problems with the shuttle periodically deciding to drive around in circles, never reaching their listed target for COLLIDE or what have you. I read in another thread that shuttles should have a minium distance between objectives, but was under the impression that was only planetside to prevent the craft from trying to cross the near-infinite delta in density at the air-ground interface at high speed.

Yes, that long sentence basically means "Crash"...

Anyway, is that [related to having Marines fly shuttles as a low AI issue or is it a bug maybe]?

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Admiral Tigerclaw

You could call it 'CRASH' but I prefer to think of it as the transfer of momentum from shuttle to planetary surface, while compressing the shuttle into a more compact and higher entropy model.

Of course, this does little good for the guy on board, as he gets reduced to a higher entropy version of himself as well...

I lamens terms: "He gets splattered right messily all over the inside."

None of which achieves the goal of retrieving that mining drone and gathering the minerals it contains. (I also note this weird event you described, but I only see it happen with my Shuttle MK1s... I think it might have something to do with craft pathfinding.)

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A quick search on "Shuttle" and "circles" turned up an OLD thread back from 2002 about how the shuttles seem to fly circles around stationary objects when they get close. However, sometimes with my CC moving and giving a dock order results in the same behavior.

The original fix was to give a halt order than then reapply the original order to break the AI loop. I've tried that and the shuttle (any type apparently as my Mk IIs are fond of the same thing) just goes back to flying in circles again.

I don't remember for sure, but I think one of my FCs once exhibited the same behavior. Anyone else have any ideas what causes it and how to avoid it?

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I note that if you BABYSIT the craft it returns to normal flight after a moment... by babysitting, you hop to TACOPS, and center on the offending craft. Unfortunately, you have to moniter the craft ALL THE WAY BACK to dock.

But I can't seem to avoid having the shuttle Act a FOOL!

Oh and, don't launch shuttles while on planets when they have even the slightest damage that puts their engines in the yellow... they take off, right into the unforgiving ground. (I launched a shuttle earlier, and it nose dived upon launch... When I went back to the save game I found out I should have checked its status, I launched a shuttle with most systems destroyed, and a none existant engine... no wonder he didn't fly. I launched shuttle one with similar results, only his engine was at sixty.)

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I believe, your problem is relative, to where the shuttle is, and where it wants to go. sometimes, it appears they are confused, when they are trying to extrapulate a course, and are NOT in an optimal location(due to geography, or buildings, ships or are just in the wrong geographical plane... etc) to actually plot an accurate course to where they are ordered to go.

I have found, when in space....shuttle starts circling..I send it someplace else, then send it back to where I tried, to send it, when it started circling.

on the ground, shuttle acts weird. I send it some where, like to space, or cross country etc. THEN, I give it the RTB order, or such.

I have found: When EVERYONE's AI gets to be at 100 and EVERYONE is on station....These anomolies are not as prevelant.

What APPEARS, to be true, may only be just that...APPEARANCE! After all....I HAVE been in space...for over a MONTH (Gametime) and may be hallucinating

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Even if a human's intelligence wasn't supreme, I think they'd be able to make the simple task of flying between point A and B reguardless of obstacles.

Do you drive your car in circles because there's a tree branch in the road and you can't figure out how to drive around it?

That's niether here nor there. I don't need my shuttlecraft flying themselves like a missile into the ground because they got confused... So I now park my ship in nice flat areas and do that, it seems to work.

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quote:

Originally posted by CedricB:

The original fix was to give a halt order than then reapply the original order to break the AI loop. I've tried that and the shuttle (any type apparently as my Mk IIs are fond of the same thing) just goes back to flying in circles again.

I don't remember for sure, but I think one of my FCs once exhibited the same behavior. Anyone else have any ideas what causes it and how to avoid it?

Have you checked the health of your shuttle pilot? When ever my shuttle pilot died, the shuttle would have a tendency to just go in circles. I would have to go over and pick it up myself.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thats really the only big bug ive noticed. When i order a shuttle to retrieve say a cargo pod they will sometimes just fly in circles, no matter what i do so i just order them to return. (note halt and then reissuing orders doesnt fix this) Oh well the do a good job updating this game it'll probably be fixed soon

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quote:


Originally posted by speedyvenom547:

Thats really the only big bug ive noticed. When i order a shuttle to retrieve say a cargo pod they will sometimes just fly in circles, no matter what i do so i just order them to return. (note halt and then reissuing orders doesnt fix this) Oh well the do a good job updating this game it'll probably be fixed soon


Its not a bug and there is nothing to fix. Learn how to set waypoints, use your shuttles etc.

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I'm new at this, but even I know the answer to this one:

If your shuttle circles endlessly around a waypoint, it's because you didn't set a previous waypoint farther away to give the shuttle enough distance to plot an approach vector. Read the tutorial that comes with the latest patch. I was having the same problem. Once I did the above, I've had no problems. Read the docs before you jump to the conclusion that something is a bug.

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Plot an approach vector to something you fly a straight line to in space with no obstructions?

Why would I do something as time consuming as that? I'll just point my nose at it, fly close, then stop when I'm close enough. Plotting a COURSE or vector is for flying to something far away, or hard to see.

COMMANDER: "Plot a course 133.5!"

PILOT: "You mean fly to that cargo pod five clicks away sir?"

COMMANDER: "Erm... YEAH! THAT!"

PILOT: ~_~; "And he's our commander?"

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COMMANDER: Set a course five seven eight mark one.

NAV: Sir, that's GALCOM HQ, I don't think I need to worry about plotting a course for something that's taking up the whole viewscreen.

Maybe the AI need a short range flight code. All due respect Supreme Commander SIR. If the shuttles have to have waypoints set beyond a certain distance, then we have a problem. To avoid this bug, (It's a BUG, the shuttles can't fly correctly if they don't have their correct approach vector. They can't attain their approach vector inside a certain range. An untrained ninny can fly a shuttle better than AI who can't calculate an approach vector. If you don't like BUG, I have, Glitch, loophole, limitation, and error. I don't care HOW much you yell at me SC. If something is not working right, it's bugged. But if we want to argue, I'll do the civil thing, and we can have a nice go-round with each other VIA PM. That way dissruption stays to a minimum.) why not implement something like making it so you CAN'T set a waypoint within the range (10 K was it?) of the previous point. Or some kind of distance marker so you KNOW how far out you're looking. (It's allways guesswork.) Might I also suggest making the AI who can't create a vector have some kind of error correct, like flying out some other way and then replotting from there if they can't maintain some kind of range closing or some kind of failsafe that can get the shuttle out of it on its own.

Now that I've finished my blasphemous post... I shall erect an SC SHRINE!

*Builds a Supreme Commander Shrine in the thread to (HOPEFULLY) avoid the wrath of the UC God.*

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With me no matter where I send my shuttles, they always circle. If you wait about an hour, they slowly spiral twards their target. I found, at least on land when picking up a mining drone, that moving the waypoint when the ship is over it causes the ship to fly down twards the new location. It usualy lands about halfway there, collects the drone, and lifts off again. With cargo pods, I just fly the ship myself to go get them.

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Guest kenny87

I've noticed this only seems to happen when the waypoint is very close on the horizontal plane, but very high or low on the vertical plane. What it looks like is that there is a maximum acent/decent angle that the AI won't violate.

Every flyable craft in the game has a VTOL mode, the problem is that the AI seems to forget to flip the switch and instead decides to do a slow controlled spiral decent/ascent to their waypoint when the angle violates the limit.

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Guest Remo Williams

Just set two waypoints on planet egress and all is well.

The first waypoint should always be "proceed to next". ItÔÇÖs not that hard really or doesn't take up much time to do. ItÔÇÖs up to you though complain when something doesn't work the way you desire wasting your gaming time or play the game the way it works best.

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quote:


Originally posted by Kenworthy:

....the problem is that the AI seems to forget to flip the switch and instead decides to do a slow controlled spiral decent/ascent to their waypoint when the angle violates the limit.


Rubbish. Read the manual. Read the tutorial. Follow the procedures for setting waypoints, and you won't have any problems.

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