BATTLETECH - Contracts will not load after completing the SLDF ice planet mission

[iamcrab]

One line summary of your issue
Contracts will not load after completing the SLDF ice planet mission

What platform are you running the game on?

Steam

What operating system do you use?
Windows 10 64 bit
Which version of the game are you running?
1.8.1
What DLC do you have installed?
Flashpoint,
Urban Warfare,
Heavy Metal

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
After completing the mission of finding the SLDF base and retreating, mission contract never loads and no other contracts are visible. This has happened after 2 clean reinstalls and 2 seperate campaign playthroughs.
Have you tried verifying your files?
Yes

Steps to reproduce the issue
Simply play the campaign until it refuses to load contracts ever again

Attach DxDiag (PC), System Info log (Mac), or run sudo lshw -html > specs.html and uploaded specs.html (Linux)

Attach Output Log
Windows: \Users\YourUserName\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH\output_log.txt
Mac OS: Users >{name} > Library > Logs > Unity > Player.log
Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/Player.log

If the game crashed, please attach the crash file with the time stamp closest to the crash.
Windows: [Steam library folder]\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\DumpBox
For v.17 and beyond try here: C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH
OSX: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > steamapps > common > BattleTech > DumpBox
Linux: [Steam library folder]/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/DumpBox

If a save game was loaded at the start of the game session, upload it. Please make sure to upload the save game with the timestamp closest to when you loaded it.
Windows:
Steam: [Steam installation folder]\userdata[SteamID]\637090\remote\C0\SGS1
GOG: 'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\Local\GOG.com\Galaxy\Applications\50593543263669699\Storage\Shared\Files\C#\SGS#'
Vanilla:'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BattleTech\C#\SGS#'
OSX:
Steam: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > userdata > [SteamID] > 637090 > remote > C#> SGS#
GOG: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > GOG.com > Galaxy > Applications > 50593543263669699 > Storage > Shared > Files > C# > SGS#
Vanilla: Macintosh HD > Users > [username]> Library > Application Support > unity.Harebrained Schemes.BattleTech > C# > SGG#
Linux:
Steam: /home/.steam/steam/userdata/[steamID]/637090/remote/C#/SGS#
GOG: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/
Vanilla: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/

Attach screenshot / video

 

[Timaeus]

have you tried traveling to a different system outside of Directorate space and checking the contracts, or is this for every system visited?

 

[Mad2342]

Same problem for me.
After the conversation where it says "We're deep in Directorate space, we'll probably find no contracts, talk to me (Sumire)... blabla" the contract list "loads" forever without ever showing any contracts.
Visiting the map even shows an available travel contract (Regis Roost, also still in Directorate hands by that time), but loading the contract list from there leads to the same, empty list.
Travelling out of Directorate space and visiting the contract list on another planet worked as expected (tested two planets).
---
Probably the behaviour is partly intended (as the Directorate won't have contracts for you) but at least the breadcrumb mission should be forced to be anywhere outside of Directorate Space (and of course it should then show in the contract list of Artru nonetheless)

 

[iamcrab]

The first playthrough no contracts came up anywhere, on the 2nd (the one i'm currently on) it has after i verified it again after updating my drivers as a last ditch effort of things i could think of to do. The contract leading out from the planet is still bugged but thankfully my campaign is playable again!

 

[Mad2342]

Loaded up the save and had a look in output.log...
DESC & "FIX":
Contract Generation softlocks because

SimGameState.GetValidParticipants(###Artru###)

in

SimGameState.StartGeneratePotentialContractsRoutine()

fails to find valid participants.
Adding "Locals" to both "contractEmployerIDs" and "contractTargetIDs" in

starsystemdef_Artru_Contested.json

circumvents that and should have no side effects as the def is only valid for this point in Campaign.

 

[Orbitone]

My experience same as earlier posts and some on Steam also with same issue.
Using 1.8.1-640R, own Flashpoint and Heavy Metal.

Campaign affected.
The issue seems to be global contract difficulty level relative to the starsystem difficulty.
This initiates after key milestones that increase Campaign difficulty and can be seen going back to any starsystem with the difficulty below current threshold causing the eternal contract loading status.
Example; Can no longer load contracts on 1.5Skl starsystems when completed Milestone milestone_203_sim_leopard, would be Bellerophon that is 1.5 at this point.
Later difficulty increase milestones can also affect more starsystems.

This is further compounded in those milestones when the following parameter section is true (default), which seemed to make the problem even worst than when set false.
As an example of milestone_203_sim_leopard;:
{
"typeString" : "System.Single",
"name" : "Difficulty",
"value" : 3,
"set" : true,
"valueConstant" : ""
},

Furthermore, making this more variable is the Campaign difficulty setting used by the player; easier and it makes problems quicker than if set to a higher difficulty that increases it beyond 0.

Going into each of the starsystems affected it can be resolved by increasing:
"DefaultDifficulty":
"DifficultyList": [
X,
Where X is the 1st value in the DifficultyList usually matching DefaultDifficulty.
Both need to be changed to overcome the problem.

However this really is only a crude solution to a problem caused by the campaign global difficulty increase at specific milestones relative to starsystems (even when they increase), compounded by the difficulty setting used by the player; meaning players may experience this at different points in the campaign depending upon their difficulty options.

 

[Orbitone]

Further testing with Mileston 203 (triggered by finishing Story_3_Axylus_Default), this applies to other milestones affecting difficulty.
If that milestone set true (default) in Difficulty, starsystems are not incrementally increasing correctly and are too low for the watermark required to initiate both story mission and random contracts.
You can influence this without rebooting by changing Difficulty option for Enemy Strength from say Normal to Hard, but this only increments it by 0.5skl (still too low for Weldry and some starting local systems).
Unfortunately no other difficulty option change will affect this once game campaign started, and one cannot change the Difficulty.json values once the game campaign started to increase the Hard value.

Setting in Milestone the Difficulty to false, increase most systems correctly (for early campaign anyway), but like above only the Enemy strength difficulty option influences the global difficulty for startsystems once campaign started.

The point the issue is noticeable is not fixed as players may experience at different points in the campaign due to using either easier or more difficult options when they created the campaign.