[BUG] Update 20.1.3 - Bugs

[Cesare]

There are a huge amount of bugs in the Update 20.1.3 of Universe Sandbox 2 that must be fixed as soon as possible.

Please track down all the bugs you find and fix them all as soon as possible.

[SyzygyΣE]

The community is actively finding bugs and reporting them to the devs. There are just not that many bug report posts in these forums because more people use the Steam forums, or emailing the devs directly. You needn't worry. We can expect a number of bugs because the game is still in Alpha and Early Access, but it has come a long way.

I don't believe there are too many bugs that break the game entirely at the moment. Rather than bugs, I find that these issues are features not yet implemented. It's being worked on.

[tkulogo]

While we're on the subject, is there any way to know the status or timeline of a particular bug? I really want to show off my Firefly system, but the orbits not showing up or appearing around a satellite instead of the orbital parent really reduces how shiny it is.

[SyzygyΣE]

While we're on the subject, is there any way to know the status or timeline of a particular bug? I really want to show off my Firefly system, but the orbits not showing up or appearing around a satellite instead of the orbital parent really reduces how shiny it is.

Could you provide a screenshot of how this appears? It's a little hard to imagine with a description alone. I have a few ideas as to how you may be able to do something about it, but I'd like to confirm the issue first.

[tkulogo]

The left side shows the planet Whittier orbiting its moon New Melbourne. New Melbourne is less than 4% the mass of Whittier. For reference, New Melbourne is in a just over 4 month orbit around Whittier and Whittier is in a just under 4 year orbit around a 15k solar mass black hole that the whole system orbits.

The right side shows orbits clearly on, but no orbits are displayed. This problem seems to effect about half of the system which currently has 267 objects in relatively stable orbits. The outermost orbit has a radius of just under 1000 AU.

[SyzygyΣE]

Yeah, the display of binary systems is a little weird. I normally use "Trails" to see the motion of bodies but extend the trail length so that it gives a better representation of their orbit. However, whereas the left image isn't really a bug, I'm not sure what's going on with the right. I've never had orbits switched on but not actually appearing. Would you be able to send over the system file of it as well?

[tkulogo]

Unfortunately, the trails don’t show the system well at all unless you create a barycenter and attach the trail center to it, and it takes a long time to simulate the full orbit for 1 system, yet alone all of them individually. It’s what I’ll end up doing if there’s no way to select the orbital parent.

As for sending you the file so you can see the orbits, maybe you can help with my other problem right away. I'm having trouble changing velocity. The White Sun (Albuti) is in close orbit of a black hole (Esther) and that system is unstable without changing Esther’s velocity to -217.573 km/s, 0.422 km/s, and 113.347 km/s in the X, Y, and Z axes respectively. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. The rest of the system still needs some tweaking, it’s mostly entered straight from an excel file I made, so if you play it, a few objects will go unstable and collide or get shredded.

[SyzygyΣE]

First I'd like to commend your effort in designing such complex system. After looking through, I believe that the orbits don't show because there are too many sources of gravitational perturbations and so there is no fixed orbit for many of the outer objects to follow—their orbits are chaotic. It may just be something that happens as a result of this system's complexity.

But now I have an awkward situation on my own hands. I managed to change the velocity of Esther into the values you require, but for some reason, I can't save the system to update it and send it back to you. I can save any other system, but not this one. Maybe this is another bug I've unintentionally found.

[tkulogo]

Thank you. Browncoats can be an obsessive bunch. I even wrote up a history of how a system like this would exist and how it would be created. I started it because when they released the official map from the TV show, it had ridiculously unstable orbits. I had to add a couple black holes to make anything close. I'm happy I could help you find a bug or two. Anything I can do to help US² I'm all for.

[SyzygyΣE]

Was the problem you had the fact that you couldn't change the velocity? This could be looked into by the devs. Have you sent them a feedback form yet?

[tkulogo]

Where's the feedback form?

[SyzygyΣE]

It's located in the main menu, as shown.

[Cesare]

You I send feedback, does it go to the developers?

[SyzygyΣE]

Yeah. It goes to their inbox.

[im4space]

I would suggest that when sending feedback mention that there has been discussion in the forums about this bug.

[Jar]

We don't have an inbox, per se. We receive thousands of feedback submissions every week. So while we try to review all of it, it's unfortunately not possible to respond to each piece of feedback (though as im4space mentioned, it's very helpful to link to a forum topic if you do end up sending feedback in-game). 

It is most useful for getting a sense of what the community is seeing and what matters most to all of you as a whole. For bugs, it helps us notice when there is an issue affecting multiple users who may not otherwise report it on the forum.

For reporting specific bugs, it's most effective to post on either of our forums. This makes for a more prominent listing, but it also helps lighten the load for us as other users can chime in and say if they're also seeing the issue, help narrow it down, or mention if they know that it's an issue we're already aware of.

A good portion of reported bugs are issues that we're already aware of. We have a long list of minor bugs we'd like to fix, but we also have a long list of improvements and new features we'd like to add. We have to prioritize things, and of course, with a large community which uses Universe Sandbox ² in many different ways, not everyone will agree on priorities. 

Sorry for the long post! Long story short, we truly appreciate everyone's feedback and reporting, and we hope you continue to submit and share. We do our best to prioritize the more serious issues and balance all of this with progression in improvements and new features.

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tkulogo, I'm still a bit unsure what the issue for you was. You weren't able to edit the velocity in the motion tab?

[tkulogo]

Yes, I can't edit the velocity. I can edit the speed, but when I change velocity, it "snaps back" as soon as I click off it or press enter. I attached the latest copy of my sim, and for example, the black hole named "2 Esther D" has an "x" velocity of -226 km/s and I'd like to change it to -217 km/s but I haven't been able to. The specific values in km/s I'm trying to enter for this body are x=-217.573, y=0.422, and z=113.347.

[Cesare]

There is a common bug in Update 20.1.3 in Universe Sandbox 2 which causes planets to turn black when receiving collisions and also when changing their size.

Another common, recurring bug is when loading a saved simulation, and habitable planets stay frozen when temperatures are above 0 degrees Celsius.

There is also a very common mass loss bug on cold and frozen planets which should not appear. The mass loss should only appear on planets when they are vaporized by the star. Planets which are less than 2500 KM in radius unexpectedly lose mass and mass loss is also triggered by changing the composition of planets, gas giants and stars, such as adding or removing water or silicates.

Those are three very annoying bugs which always recur in Update 20.1.3 which must be fixed as soon as possible.