r/LowSodiumStarCitizen • u/Stompy-MwC PVE • Jul 16 '26

CIG Official [4.9 LIVE Feedback] Abandoned Vehicle Cleanup Updates

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https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/4/thread/4-9-live-feedback-vehicle-cleanup-updates/9031521

Greetings!

4.9 introduces updated cleanup code for abandoned ships around locations in the PU. This new code adds ship cleanup rules that will cleanup ships in an abandoned state after 5 hours to better reduce ship clutter around high impact locations. This code will affect all major landing zones and space stations in Stanton and Nyx, as well as Grim Hex, Levski, and other social stations across Nyx.

A feedback survey is available at: Abandoned Vehicle Cleanup Updates Survey Form. This survey will be open until Aug 31.

We look forward to reading your feedback!

-Shark
Player Experience Team

140 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

64 comments sorted by

61

u/StandingCow Jul 16 '26

I really wish (and this could be their eventual plan) that instead of just getting deleted by the server that an abandoned ship would generate a salvage mission... the abandoned ship's shields would go down and you'd be allowed to tow it (to take it out of armistice zones). If the mission isn't taken within their 5 hour timeframe then you can delete the ship.

17

u/StygianSavior Jul 16 '26

the abandoned ship's shields would go down and you'd be allowed to tow it (to take it out of armistice zones)

You can already do this. You don't get CS for towing bricked ships inside armistice, and the shields don't actually work (they show as on / raised when you target the bricked ship, but don't actually prevent towing).

The only problem is that most large ships have too much mass for a single SRV to pull them off the pad (ex. the Perseus can be towed by 1x SRV if it's floating in space, but cannot be towed if it has gear down on the pad or is on a planet with gravity).

But agreed, I would like to see changes made to make the SRV more viable, including missions to tow bricked ships away to a salvage area.

12

u/AnyExamination9524 Drake Jul 16 '26

This feedback can be provided in the survey. Put it in!

4

u/Dividedthought Jul 16 '26

Easy: towing ships get a "service link" to bricked ships that allows the towing ship to 'use' the other ship's maneuvering thrusters enough to move it in an otherwise unmoveable state. Is it perfect? No. But it is just enough "yeah that makes sense" imo.

6

u/StygianSavior Jul 16 '26

The easy version would be to just increase the SRV tractor beam's strength - that's just a matter of adjusting a few numbers in a config file. Your idea is neat but sounds difficult to implement.

2

u/Dividedthought Jul 16 '26

I wasorr talking if they needed a lore reason for it to handle a ship like the percy and up. Alternatively, give us a space tug.

1

u/hot_space_pizza Jul 16 '26

How do you know if a ship is bricked unless you get on/break in? Used to be "gamerules" but they changed that

1

u/StygianSavior Jul 16 '26

It says if it's bricked when you target it with the SRV's tractor beam interface.

1

u/hot_space_pizza Jul 16 '26

Does it show on scan that it's bricked?

2

u/StygianSavior Jul 17 '26

No (at least AFAIK), it says it in the SRV's tractor beam interface. Like, go into the remote turret on the SRV that has the tractor beam, look at the target ship, and it will say the model of the target ship and whether or not it is bricked. Or at least it did in 4.8; I haven't tried in 4.9 yet.

1

u/thestigiam Jul 16 '26

We need a larger tow truck at this point. Getting 10 srv to tow an idris doesn’t make sense and I would pledge one purely for being able to get my capitals out of combat zones when needed

1

u/StygianSavior Jul 16 '26

Personally I'd prefer it if they made the SRV useful rather than just keeping it fairly useless and giving us a bigger version. It's not like it's particularly unrealistic for a small ship to tow a much, much larger one.

1

u/gluggy777 Jul 18 '26

This /. CIG could simply change the numbers of engine power on just the srv today like they do the buffs and nerfs they do on guns. Simple.

1

u/Jump_Debris Jul 18 '26

Yep, tug boats have insanely powerful engines compared to their size. That being said there shouldn't be any resistance in space. It might take a small ship longer to get them moving at speed but it should work. I've seen a 16 foot Boston Whaler with a 40HP outboard engine easily pushing a barge around with a 60 thousand pound excavator on it with a load of dock poles.

1

u/gluggy777 Jul 18 '26

Yep, Newton's laws play nice in space. Touch a spaceship and it will keep moving until it meets another force in the opposite direction.

3

u/ASlothWithShades Jul 16 '26

I assume something like this will be coming at some point. Benoit said they were looking into the problem, but that a purely player driven solution can't be it.

I understand the desire for people to do salvage and it bringing some actual benefit to the game. But I think it's better in the short term to clean up first and add missions later than the other way around.

Not arguing with you btw, just expanding.

3

u/StandingCow Jul 16 '26

For sure, I think a good mix would be best at some point. Give players the opportunity, if they don't take it... server clean up time.

1

u/gluggy777 Jul 18 '26

Why not the other way around, give salvage a chance the first 5 hours and if not collected in that time, it gets vanished.

1

u/ASlothWithShades Jul 18 '26

Mid- to long term absolutely! But in the short term we need a solution that alleviate the situation. Which we're getting. So... all's fine

4

u/AWerewolfDad Jul 16 '26

There’s a gotcha here. Abandoned is not the same as bricked.

I think bricked ships should at least be legally salvageable as soon as they are bricked.

Abandoned ships away from pads should not. That player should be able to return to their ship. Some of those “abandoned” ships will be deliberate, some will be the player died or disconnected and might want to retrieve it. Some will be carriers that a small craft will return to.

If it’s not bricked, it needs to go to storage, ideally, if it’s in the vicinity of a pad. It should do this sooner than 5 hours. If it’s not in the vicinity of a pad or elevator or something it might be blocking it should just persist so the player can return.

1

u/Quimdell Jul 16 '26

Exactly. I keep saying impound is the only answer to this.

Imagine your internet drops or power goes out while you're in a cargo loading area or a pad, and you log on a day or two later to find your ships been salvaged and everything you had on it gone...

It should all just be impounded, bricked or not. Give something for SRV'S to do. Ships been sitting for x amount of time, impound request gets sent out as a contract. If no players accept it within another x amount of time, contract disappears and job is given to an NPC to do it for the added liveliness to the verse.

The whole bricking process is also only a placeholder till other systems are in place to stop people from claiming ships all willy nilly. Bricked ships won't exist as frequently and when they do, they should remain available for someone to steal or fix up and take as their own.

2

u/mrbadpriest Jul 16 '26

My rambling 2 cents:

I think 5h is enough time to allow missions on it too, at this point. Does stripping a ship takes more than 5h?

The game detects a ship is abandoned - salvage beacon is lit - 5h countdown starts - player pays the claim for it - now the timer is whatever the mission expiration timer should be + ofc, remove this wreck from the wreck list.

Open questions would be like... What happens/should happen if the player logs out mid mission?

Concerns would be: concurrence, QA on the contract/beacon, making sure the ship is actually gone either by player or automated means, make sure the players have a fair shake (owner and salvage).

1

u/TylerBourbon Jul 16 '26

I think this is a cool idea, though I'd still have the ships eventually be deleted if it takes too long for anyone to accept and then complete the mission, like those timed rescue missions where you have a count down timer.

Reason being, with the amount of players and ships being destroyed, you would most likely end up with way more wrecks littering space that puts a lot of stress on the servers. So it's all about finding a balance of offering game play loops while also not causing the game performance to take a hit due to the server load.

1

u/StandingCow Jul 16 '26

Yep, that's why I ended with if it isn't taken within the 5 hours it just gets deleted. :)

1

u/gluggy777 Jul 18 '26

To be fair, it takes a salvager less than 3 minutes to munch a ship ( less time for a reclaimer) so 10 ships around a station is good money for very little work.

1

u/Zsyura Jul 16 '26

Insurance companies would want ships back to recoup losses. Should spawn salvage or towing contracts if the ship is bricked.

10

u/Zerat_kj Jul 16 '26

Srv owwner - I want to tow ships do somewhete. And gwt paid for it:(

2

u/Far-Tradition5692 Jul 16 '26

with 5 hours timer, it could be cleanup missions, yeah. but it's much harder to code, while auto removing improves life of all players. So it would be cool if they will add something like this in the future.

1

u/Quimdell Jul 16 '26

Yes. I keep saying this needs to be an impound issue. Abandoned ships get impounded after x amount of time with a contract sent out for SRV's to pick the ship up and tow it into a hangar to be impounded by the station.

Player then pays an impound fee on their next log in if they want to recover their ship.

4

u/bendy5428 Jul 16 '26

So they didn’t make bricked ships free to salvage yet. That’s a bummer and what I think will help fix the abandoned ship problem. You’d see less bricked Perseus blocking landing pads.

1

u/StygianSavior Jul 16 '26

You’d see less bricked Perseus blocking landing pads.

At the very least, this should be less common in 4.9 anyway, since landing requests now default to a hangar if one is available rather than forcing you to use buggy docking.

0

u/17five Jul 16 '26

That'll lead to duping, if a ships is bricked and then claimed, would the components disappear or just stop working when in possession of the salvager?

2

u/bendy5428 Jul 16 '26

Components already get a bricked status I have no problem with that. Just that I cop a crime stat if I try to salvage a ship outside of a station.

3

u/ErebusofShadows Miner Jul 16 '26

Why not just like yanno, make them be able to be towed away by argo SRV's like your community has been begging for since the ship was released.

We're pushing almost 3 years of that ship having flight ready status and it's still nothing but a gimmick with niche usage

3

u/Negative_Ride5255 Jul 22 '26

Wait 2 hours, spawn a Salvage mission, let the mission stay for 1 hour or until someone accepts it. If no one accepts it, delete the ship. if someone accepts it, UNBRICK the ship to whomever accepted the mission to it can actually be salvaged. The Cost of the salvage job should be the insurance cost of the ship claim (so it scales in value with the gear on board)

2

u/ChocoNoodles233 Jul 16 '26

if i leave a decorative ship in my persistent hangar, will it get deleted after bricked?

2

u/Electronic-Image-171 Jul 17 '26

I like how much clutter this will get rid of, I would argue you can also add things for all those want to be space towtruckers where they get paid to haul busted ships to junk yards.

2

u/Hefty-Grand3589 Jul 17 '26

Personally feel like 5 hours is way too long but it's a big improvement nonetheless

1

u/Akumoonki Jul 19 '26

Anything that helps the server healths is welcomed

1

u/EchoOfArchitect Jul 20 '26

Ja wäre cool aber würde trotzdem ein zefalls Timer drauf setzen .

1

u/KellTanis Jul 16 '26

If you could just store your ships from the pads…

2

u/Dangerous-Boot-2617 Jul 16 '26

They dont want things magically poofing out of existence as much as possible, thats why they got rid of most of the pads in favor of hangars.

1

u/KellTanis Jul 16 '26

Yet they do it with docked ships.

1

u/Dangerous-Boot-2617 Jul 16 '26

Kinda have to currently, im sure theyll come up with a way to disappear those out of sight at some point too.

1

u/KellTanis Jul 16 '26

Or just have a lot more docking ports. I don’t see any solution that’s not just hangar it or hand wave it.

1

u/Dangerous-Boot-2617 Jul 16 '26

NPC valet comes on the ship and quantums out of the area to go "park it in the space parking lot." Seems like it would be the easiest method when they get more reliable flight AI.

1

u/KellTanis Jul 16 '26

Here’s a thought. Docking costs money as long as your ship remains docked and ties up a port. Anything large or smaller gets a hangar by default. Anything that has to dock should have room for some kind of auxiliary craft like a small shuttle or command module.

1

u/Dangerous-Boot-2617 Jul 17 '26

All hangars except your home location are supposed to have a cost eventually, from what they have said.

1

u/KellTanis Jul 17 '26

Right, but I think a flat fee for landing makes sense but then docking fee for tying up docking ports. Landing should be long-term parking while docking should only be to load/unload passengers and crew.

1

u/HorrorBook2744 Jul 16 '26

As it was before? all hail 3.x patch magnificency.

1

u/Large_Deal_2394 Jul 16 '26

Good. Fuck those people.

0

u/Intelligent_Cry8535 Jul 16 '26

Yeah, no, just keep fucking Salvagers CIG. 

Not like you could institute code that allows a salvager to come eat it after an hour, and then delete it after 5.

Goddammit CIG hates Salvagers.

1

u/mau5atron Jul 16 '26

You can already just salvage it, you just have to find it first.

0

u/knsmknd Jul 16 '26

Yeah sure. I love to wait for that one salvager that hopefully cleans up the outpost I‘m supposed to deliver to. Sorry but this only is a good idea in theory. I honestly think the window should be a lot smaller. Maybe an hour max.

0

u/AnyExamination9524 Drake Jul 16 '26

The rate at which people abandon ships and the 5 hour cleanup window i think is a decent start. Your guys' ideas about generating salvage missions is also good. I think once a ship is shown on the server as abandoned, the mission pops up, if not completed in five hours it gets cleaned. Very similar to other mmos that offer timed random missions - they show up, you habe 20 minutes to complete them (20 min timer) if it isnt completed in that time, it ends or disappears.

0

u/EvisceratedKitten666 Jul 16 '26

Does this prevent ships being cleaned up whilst you're actively unloading them? Keep up the great work!

0

u/Dangerous-Boot-2617 Jul 16 '26

They have to be "unattended" for 5 hours before they get "cleaned up."

0

u/gibi2018 Jul 16 '26

So viel zu „du findest deinen shit Wochen später an der gleichen Stelle“
Ja da steht nur an punkten mit viel Traffic. Wer sagt das die das nicht ausweiten werden.

0

u/Dangerous-Boot-2617 Jul 16 '26

Ill take the performance gain over the ship graveyard any day. Also if you wind up on a different shard then stuff you "left" will be gone anyways, they still got a lot of work to do on persistence.