Zombie Ships and Chronically Depressed Turrets

[SAlloy32]

Short Description of the issue:

Hello, Before I start any complaints, I just wanted to tell the devs: your game is awesome. The planets, the oceans, the building systems, they're all a dream come true. Know that I have the greatest respect for your work, and that any problems I bring up don't change that.

That said, there are two issues I've encountered that have made playing Evo trickier. The first hasn't inconvenienced me much yet, while the second has brought me halfway to tears.

Issue 1: Zombie ships. During combat testing, for whatever reason whenever I bring enemy ships down to 0 health, or they bring mine to 0, the ships don't explode. They drift forever as wrecks, and if they're enemy wrecks I can't get rid of them without using the Spaceship tab. This means that if I spawn more than one enemy ship in at a time, I have to make a new world after each test to avoid cluttering. I've had this issue since I downloaded the game, and it has persisted through all updates.

Issue 2: Stuck turrets. I'm currently working on a large ship (very much a WIP), and I made some big naval-esque battleship guns for it. The shape of the guns means that a full 360 degree vertical range is impossible. Due to their locations on the ship, only about 10 degrees of gun depression is practical for most of them. Unfortunately, after combat tests there are inevitably one or more turrets whose barrels have buried themselves in the ship, preventing them from auto-resetting to their default positions. They are so stuck that manually adjusting the hinge angles does nothing. I haven't found any angle limiters in the game, so I tried making some and attaching them below the barrels (see below). The barrels did not bury themselves in the ship, but they did become stuck in the limiters. I understand I could change the turret design to eliminate depression entirely, but I would like to avoid that if at all possible. More information is included in the attached pictures, including some interesting collison maps and strange valid turret positions.

Thank you very much for your help, and I can't wait to see what Evo becomes in the future. ...

Steps to reproduce the issue:

-Issue 1: Method 1: Spawn a ship blueprint, preferably a small one for testing. Then either use a handheld weapon or another ship to destroy it. The ship will not explode. Method 2: Use F8 to initiate a ship battle. Any ships destroyed in the battle will not explode.

-Issue 2: Method 1: Spawn the attached ship (U.S.S. Arcadia). Use noclip to enter the bridge, sit in the forward seat, and activate the ship with the joystick. Use F8 to spawn an enemy ship, then engage in battle. Once the enemy ship is (hopefully) destroyed, exit the joystick. The turrets on the opposite side of the destroyed ship are the most likely to get stuck. Method 2: Spawn the U.S.S. Arcadia. Enter the seat and joystick on the back right side of the bridge. This will allow for control of the the top middle turret. Turn the turret 90 degrees to the left or right, then move the barrels down as far as possible. Attempt to turn the turret forward without raising the guns. Once it gets stuck, exit the turret. Though it auto-resets, at least one barrel will likely be stuck. Both methods are somewhat inconsistent, and some turrets are more likely to get stuck than others. ...

Environment

• Starship EVO version: Early access 24w30b
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

Additional information:

Stuck Turret Pics:

Angle Limiter:

Turret Valid/Invalid Positions: The second photo is inside the ship.

Collison debug pic:

Player Log:

Player.log

Relevant Blueprints:

U.S.S. Arcadia.zip

Glockinator Turret (Anti-Hull).zip

Glockinator Turret (Anti-Shield.zip

[tsunamayo]

@SAlloy32 Thanks a lot for the detailed cases and the cheer up. I will look at the issues and keep you posted. For the turret I am thinking of nuking the current system and letting the player specify his own angle domain. Maybe add an option to compute them from a button. The current implementation is too bug prone. Next time dont hesitate to book too case, it makes my life easier if I want to ask for more info, want to close a bug ect. Cheers

[SAlloy32]

Thanks for your help! I've done some more work on the ship, and the sticking issue isn't as bad as it used to be. It still happens, but it's less widespread, and I think the valid and invalid positions make more sense on second glance.

What I do like about the current system is that it maximizes firing arcs. The turrets can, theoretically, depress further when they're at a 90 degree angle than if they're straight. If it's possible to support that functionality in the new system, it might be worth it. But, I understand that things are harder to code than to think about. Maybe the current system just needs some tweaks.

I'll be sure to open one issue per bug in the future, and I'm glad I could make you laugh. Keep up the great work! We all appreciate it.

[tsunamayo]

@SAlloy32 So regarding the first one, it is not really an issue but the way the game is supposed to work. There is no explosion, and the wreck stays here, because in survival the player might want to scrap it. That being said I could indeed add a feature to collect them if they have been added with the Space Battle tool.

[SAlloy32]

Ok. For some reason I thought they exploded. Sounds like a plan! Any way to despawn NPC ships sounds awesome.

[tsunamayo]

@SAlloy32 Hi, so finally we have the turret update, where now it is up to the player to define min/max azimuth and elevation.