Some messages reaching outside of human space

[Amazinite]

So I was redoing the FW campaign and while hanging out in Coalition space during one of the breaks in the story, I received a message from Freya about Stack Cores being ready. Is it intentional that messages like that are able to reach the player when outside of human space or is this a mistake, because I believe some other messages can only be received while in human space.

I'm not entirely sure how many times this comes up, but this is the first one I've witnessed.

[ReimeiSky]

This is probably a mistake. Humans rely on the hyperspace relays to transmit their messages. Given that there are no such relays connecting Coalition space to human space, we can consider this to be an error.

There's also that one moment I had when the freed family from Smuggler's Den that I dropped off at Millrace sent me a message while the Pug had jammed the relays.

[gunqqer]

It is true that human communications should not be able to reach outside of human space lore wise. Except if we look at this from a gameplay perspective I don't have to have to keep going to a human planet to make sure I didn't miss something. If those messages did not appear you could miss an important mission and mess up an entire story line.

[ReimeiSky]

There's also the problem of several messages arriving at the same time if you delay them by going into other regions of space. For example, the message that tells me that it is Remembrance Day and the message that tells me that the Free Worlds have declared independence can arrive one after the other in the same day if I just hide out in Hai space for a few years.

[endless-sky]

Yeah, it's a balance between realism vs. not delaying information. I kind of think breaking realism is preferable, but it would be easy to make messages like that only appear in systems that are near Sol 1000, i.e. hyperspace-connected to human space, if people think that's preferable.

[Jorlem]

Would it be possible to compromise by having different text for the events, if you are not in human space? As I recall, there are humans living in Hai space, so major events in human space might be mentioned on Hai news services for said humans, or in other areas it could focus on the actions of other aliens, like the Pug acting against the humans, instead of being from a human perspective.

Or, a bit could be added to the jump drive's description, so it is stated to include a transmission relay that the PC sets up on a human would, in order to stay up to date on the news, to provide an in-universe explanation for how the player can get those transmissions no matter where in the galaxy they are.

[Tadrix]

Hai space is connected to human space via wormhole from the start, so messages from human space should reach the player while there. Other places, well… probably not so much. It would be strange to receive communications from FW while in Korath space.

near Sol 1000

Do wormholes count as a connection?

[jafdy]

no

[Wrzlprnft]

as far as i recall the messages reaching hai space are shipped over by merchant ships and they send it on the other side.

[Lorantine]

is it maybe an idea that a Quarg ship chases you & once it's in the same system ya receive the message? kinda weird but seemed like a funny feature (or even have a Pointedstick Vanguard w/ a jump drive deliver the message)

[Tadrix]

@Wrzlprnft So if players are in Hai space, the message should eventually reach them. Would something like

system
    near Sol 100
        "Heia Due" 20

work?

@KiLEdEnNis Yeah, because they volunteered to deliver messages. xD Sounds silly to me.

[Amazinite]

Children of system can't have children like that. You would just do

system
    near Sol 1000
    near "Heia Due" 1000

[Tadrix]

Probably dumb question, but isn't what you wrote requiring the player being in the vicinity of both Sol and Heia Due systems?

[Lorantine]

no, if 1 of the 2 requirements is met it works compare it to like transport missions _source __attributes "near earth" "dirt belt" "north" it takes any planet w/ 1 of the 3 tags, not with all 3 tags

I think what you confused it with is misasions' "to offer"

[Amazinite]

First off, system can't have a child named near. It should have been source. And secondly, it should probably be like this:

source
    near
        Sol 1000
        "Heia Due" 1000

But it doesn't look like near can have children like this.

[Amazinite]

This happens with the Kestrel announcement as well.

[gunqqer]

Some messages that aren't really important to the plot, like the Kestrel Announcement or the couple that you took from smugglers den should be restricted to human space with system near "New Boston" But anything that continues are story line or is time sensitive should be given anywhere no matter what

Edit: I would fix the code but for the life's of me I can figure out how TF to fix it so just deal with it

[Amazinite]

Well none of the announcements are time sensitive. They're usually something like "come see us on wherever when you're ready."

[EndrosG]

note that it makes a difference whether you note stuff into one line or in separate lines

Why do you compare

• near Sol
• near Somewhere

with

• attributes "near earth" "dirt belt"

and not with

• attributes "near earth"
• attributes "dirt belt"

? This is in terms of game mechanics a big difference since the latter one is matched with logical AND while the one-liner is a logical OR.

[endless-sky]

Addressed in #3106.