Depart by hyperspace behaviour not correct when mothership set

[Dez E]

In Y-Wing Historical Mission 6, when finishing the mission, the frigate Vehemence attempts to fly home -- to the player.

In the mission definition files (both the original and easy versions), the frigate is set to depart by hyperspace, but instead of using the hyperspace waypoint, XWVM uses the mothership value - which is set to Y-Wing Red 3, causing the frigate to follow the player around like an imprinted duckling :)

Steps to reproduce:

• Launch the game and select Y-Wing Historical Mission 6

• Complete mission as normal, but stay in the map.

• Target FRG Vehemence and note the reported orders it is following.

• Fly in a loose arc around the frigate several klicks away - the frigate turns to face the player.

[David Esparza Guerrero]

This behavior happens only on the CLASSIC version of YWHM6, "Interception and Capture". The screenshot shows that Frigate Vehemence has the player set as mothership, and depart by hyperspace is disabled. The rebalanced version of this mission, in the MISSION folder was corrected.

Even when it is a bug in the mission, it's not a bug in XWVM.

Can you please provide evidence that this mission shows "Depary by hyperspace" on in some other mission editor?

[David Esparza Guerrero]

The X-Wing Mission Builder DOS utility also shows that Vehemence doesn't have "Depart by hyperspace" active in the CLASSIC version.

Note: The German localization of this mission has this bug, I think, in both the CLASSIC and the MISSION versions. But I don't think you are using the German localized edition, right?

[Dez E]

Hmm, the bug seems to be present in the X-Wing 98 (GOG, English) mission files (both versions) - see screenshots below. This may well be an issue with the files bundled in that version, given that there doesn't seem to be any difference between the two files.

However, when I play the mission in this version, the frigate seems to follow the hyperspace point - at least in my playthrough, it wasn't following me around.

I suspect that the desirable behaviour here is that if 'depart by hyperspace' is set, use the hyperspace coordinates and ignore the mothership value, else use mothership as the target for docking. (If departing by hyperspace, there is no need to return to the mothership)

This would still leave a bug in any version of the mission where the depart via hyperspace flag has not been set, as per the version you have included in the screenshots - which I'd be curious to see how this situation is handled in the original game. Maybe this is something that we could override on an individual basis (if we're already planning to have sidecar files for stuff like dialogue anyway).

[Dez E]

Verified file config in XMB for the Windows 98 files:

Confirmed also that the 1993 English DOS version has the bug:

[David Esparza Guerrero]

The version I took the screenshot of was the 1994 DOS CD-ROM edition, English. It seems they fixed that in the 1998 edition, then. The "sidecar" files will surely fix this, but until then, I will consider that XWVM is doing the right thing by following the mission file to the letter.

[Dez E]

No worries -- just to confirm, the behaviour I'm seeing is based on the imported X-Wing 1998 files, which are the fixed versions - where depart via hyperspace is set.

Even in that case, the frigate is still using the player as the waypoint to return to, instead of the defined hyperspace waypoint in the mission file.

[David Esparza Guerrero]

In my version of XW98, the classic mission still has the "Depart by hyperspace" flag disabled, and so the XWVM behavior is correct. Awaiting confirmation for that. Changing this Issue status to Open since further research is needed. About ignoring the mothership if "Depart by hyper" is marked, I don't know if that would be the desired behavior for missions where rebel fighters can leave both entering hangar or hypering out depending whether their mothership is present. If the mothership is present, it feels right that they would enter hangar.

[Dez E]

I'm an idiot - I forgot about the CLASSIC folder, and was comparing the two variants in the MISSION folder (ackbar and ackbare) - which explains a lot about the differences!

Later this week, I'll retest the XW98 behaviour with both versions of the mission, to observe the behaviour and compare.

[David Esparza Guerrero]

Until evidence can be found to change this, this behavior mimics the original precisely and altering it could alter some missions where a ship can leave via a mothership and hyperspace.