[TI] PET Autolooter issue

I just got the autolooter today, and have been having a bit of an off and on problem with it.

I know other people have had similar issues, and just wanted to post what I've noticed, in case it might be a clue to what's happening. Basically, I will sit in a screen with several bonus boxes, and my PET will just sit there, even if I'm right next to the box.

I started with three or four radar protocols, but finally put 10 level 3 radar protocols on, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Sometimes if I move and fly right over the box that I'm sitting next to the PET will wake up and remember, "Oh, I'm supposed to COLLECT this!" And then it will be okay for a short while before going dormant again.

What I think might be happening is, I've noticed that when my cargo fills up, it seems to trigger an erratic shut-down mode in the PET. If I have a full cargo bay and am in a window with any cargo boxes in addition to bonus boxes, it won't pick anything up. If I fly out of the frame to where there are just bonus boxes, it seems to tend to wake up.

Maybe others have noticed this too, but it seems like a good clue to start troubleshooting this.

I'll test it more to see if it's really doing this as consistently as I think in this situation.

If the autolooter shut-down boils down to crossed wires between cargo and bonus boxes, frankly I don't care much about the cargo boxes most of the time. I wish there was a way to toggle cargo collection off.

 

Thank you for posting here in the forums, in the future could you please provide the following information so that we can investigate the issue further.
Ship name / User ID / Server.

With the radar protocol installed the radar range of your PET increases, this increases the effectiveness of the locator and collector gears. This will generally only be effective if your ship is moving. You cannot sit on a portal or base and expect the PET to just go collecting for you. I does not work that way... of this I am positive. When your ship is moving the PET will get further away from the ship itself.

As I cannot look at your ship, I would ask... do you have a auto looter 3 installed on both configurations. If not, that could be part of why the PET is not collecting.

As for the PET not collecting when the cargo bay is full. That happens to everyone, and it is designed to do that.

One thing I tell people about the PET, is that it can be a great working tool if you add the right protocols and you go about playing and not worry about what the PET is doing. You can gain more from the PET if you go about killing NPC's / Players and enjoying your game.

I know that this probably not the answer you want...
But I do hope some of this helps.

Have a nice day
Astraea

 

Sorry Astraea, should have posted my info. Thanks for responding.

Ship name: Jaded~Dragon
User ID: 47748189
Server: US East 1

I did take a few radars off since posting the thread, but still have 5 on, which I think ought to be more than adequate. And I do have the autolooter on both configs - double-checked that.

I have been mostly flying around picking up a box or two while killing NPC's, and the PET will do okay for a bit, then it will fly back to me - sometimes right over a bonus box, and then just kind of hang around following me, ignoring bonus boxes as I'm flying around.

Sure, but what I meant was it almost seemed like the fact that the cargo bay was full interfered and kept it from picking up bonus boxes, when there was a cargo box in the screen.

I haven't tested this any more yet, but will try and figure out if that's always the case.

I'm still pretty new to the autolooter so I know I'm not an expert with it, but it was ignoring boxes enough that I knew it couldn't entirely be something I was doing wrong.

Regards

 

Update:

Okay. I was able to recreate this several times, and this is exactly what's happening.

If my cargo bay is full and I've just killed an NPC with the cargo box in the same view frame as bonus boxes, the PET is assigning priority to the cargo box but saying, "Nope, I'm full. Can't pick anything up." and it will go into idle mode and not pick up the bonus box even though it's right there also.

As soon as the cargo box expires and melts away, the PET will stop idling next to me and go pick up the bonus box.

If I fly into the next frame/away from the cargo box and there's a bonus box there, the PET will wake up and pick up the bonus box.

If I turn on my auto-refine, so that basically my cargo bay is never full and the ores keep refining down, everything works TREMENDOUSLY, and just as expected. The PET flies around collecting boxes without a problem. It's great.

I didn't test it very long with the auto-refine on because I don't want to eat up xenomit, but the difference was night and day for as long as I had it turned on. As soon as I turned off the auto-refine and my cargo bay filled up again, I started experiencing exactly what I was before.

I sure hope this helps in trying to get it fixed.

Edit: Was wondering if I should open a ticket with support? I've been flying around cloaked and boxing since I don't want to use up xenomit turning auto-refine on, but I'd like to not always have to do that just to use the auto-looter.

 

Hi, I was wondering if this has been passed on to support, or if I ought to contact them? It's still an issue and the conditions that cause it can be reproduced very reliably.

 

do you have radar level 3?and auto looter level 3?if you have those two,try another radar level 3.that might help.

 

It increases the range, but if its not in pets range he wont collect it. If you move through ton of boxs and you will be like quart map awa, pet will leave em be and will come to you, with radars he will be collecting them there even if you will be half map away. But the problem is he wont go alone half map away from you to collect them. Allowing you to just sit and dont even move.

 

No, the problem is that when my cargo bay is full, if there is a live cargo box in the same screen and also a bonus box, the PET won't touch the bonus box until the cargo box goes away.

 

veritas, As stated by ASTRAEA If your cargo bay is full the P.E.T. will not pick up anything. This is by design. If you would like to request a change to the game mechanics, you can create a post >here< and see if you can garner the attention of the Developers. They are the only ones who can make that type of change.

Do you have any further questions on this topic or may we close?

Best regards,
.-Raijin-.

 

Hi Raijin, thanks for the response.

I guess I'm confused about this particular thing I'm talking about - it still seems like a bug.

I know the PET won't pick up cargo when the cargo bay is full - that's perfectly logical and expected, but it should still pick up bonus boxes. And it actually does pick up bonus boxes when the cargo bay is full...it just won't do it if a cargo box is in the same window. As soon as the cargo box expires, it will carry on picking up bonus boxes, no problem, until it's in the same window with another cargo box. It just goes completely dormant, then will proceed with bonus boxes once the cargo times out and disappears.

I'm sorry if I'm missing something, but this behavior is inconsistent overall and doesn't make sense. If it picks up bonus boxes when the cargo bay is full (it does), it should always pick up bonus boxes when the cargo bay is full, not temporarily stop collecting when there's a cargo box anywhere in the area.

 

Not to hijack the thread but I've also noticed inconsistencies with the Autoloot. Sometimes the PET ranges far and wide away from my position, sometimes while I'm sitting at a gate for up to a minute (after which he does come back and idle). Other times it's tagging along with me and will actually pass boxes. If I drag him over near a missed box he'll grab it.

What's REALLY annoying is that I generally use Autoloot in gates. At random times when warping to the next level the PET will go into Passive mode. I have to deactivate/activate then re-select Autoloot to get him going again. Just changing to Autoloot won't get him to collect. He has to be deactivated and re-activated. Most times the Autoloot sticks. Seems to happen the most in Kappa but it's done it at one time or another in all the gates.

I've got 10 - level 3 Radars and Autoloot is also 3. Same setup in both configs.

Ghiamonster
68885612
US West

 

We have looked at this matter as requested further information on this from higher up...

"The PET will not collect cargo or bonus boxes is the ships cargo bay is full. This is intened this way and is not a game glitch and or bug"

I hope this helps to answer your question.
Have a nice day
Astraea

 

Hi Astrea, I appreciate you looking into this further.

But the PET actually does collect bonus boxes when the ship's cargo bay is full. (Except pausing briefly in the instance I outlined when there's a cargo box present.)

The inconsistency of its behavior is what's confusing, and I guess now I'm more confused hearing the official version of what they think it's doing, because that's not what's happening either.

(For the record, I'd just like to also say that it makes no sense that it shouldn't collect bonus boxes when the cargo bay is full (in spite of higher-ups saying that it doesn't, even though it usually does), because the bonus boxes have nothing to do with the cargo capacity.)

I dunno. I feel like I should quit while I'm ahead here. If they fix it so it does what they say it should, it'll be a bit worse than it is now...at least it picks up bonus boxes w/ cargo full if there's no cargo box in sight (even though I think it should always pick up bonus boxes and not be tied to cargo at all).

 

Glad we have decided that the issue could be worse if it were as higher up states it to be.

Do you have any further questions on this topic?
Have a wonderful day and enjoy the game.
Astraea

 

Pet is a stupid Robot, needs a chip to make it think better lol and do what it is suppose to... The robot cant decide what it wants to do it has to identify what it is picking up and may take awhile to determine what it is picking up, by the time it decides to pick up content other robots have all ready pick up your box.
maybe a quick think chip

case closed

 

Bit of a discouraging attitude toward a problem (even if there's a benefit to not fixing it), and wish the point had been easier to convey.

Thanks for your help, Astrea. You can close.

 

Closing as requested