weird glitch

[mandru]

Isn't that a two layer acceleration gel cake with rebound gel frosting?  Yum²!

Oh yeah I found another shelf with two of the indestructible cardboard boxes that can be propelled by attaching C-4 at the East side of the sewage treatment plant on the North island.

[Art Blade]

sounds like a chop shop makes your cakes :)

Those cardboard boxes, I'll yet have to check those out :)

[durian]

The cake looks delicious, Art. I'm not a guy who like cake or sweets in general (that's why I'm skinny) but I love a good muffin (especially chocolate) sometimes to go with my coffee in the afternoon break.  :)

[Art Blade]

 :)

I'm not necessarily a cake lover but I never say no when I'm offered a big juicy chunk of cake  :-D

[fragger]

I too have yet to have the cardboard box fun :)

Speaking way off-topically as we were about cake and flirting with a split-off as I am by getting back to it, I'm curious to know if anyone here has ever tried a Pavlova? I don't know if they're very popular, or even heard of, outside of Australia or New Zealand. It's not your typical cake, but served cold in summer it makes a lovely dessert, even if it is a concentrated tooth decay time bomb waiting to go off.

The traditional topping of strawberries and kiwifruit counterpoints the main concoction with a mocking allusion to healthiness (maybe so you won't feel so guilty about eating what's under it) but it does compliment very well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlova_%28food%29

[fragger]

OK, I've pushed myself back on-topic (and hopefully staved off a topic-split) to report that I have now had a box experience, at Kell's Boat Repairs. It didn't last very long though. I stuck a C4 charge on a box and consequently marvelled at the resilience of Rook Island cardboard as it tumbled aloft without so much as a crease. Determined to push R.I.'s quality control to the limit I put another slab of C4 on the box after it landed and dropped a mine next to it, then let the C4 rip again. The box indeed tried for orbital insertion but then it came down in flames like a piece of Skylab (thanks for dropping that on us by the way, U.S. :-()) and landed in the water just off the dock. I tried to find it on the sea floor but I got munched on by a shark and stung by a manta ray while trying so I decided that the box indeed ruled and left it for Davy Jones to lock up.

Definitely had potential for much time-wasting fun though :-X

[Art Blade]

no split-off  :-D

lol fragger, a shark, a manta ray.. hey, how come you missed out on a moray eel

[Dweller_Benthos]

I never had a problem with the manta rays, they just ignore you, sure you weren't stung by a jellyfish?

[mandru]

I've found a few other places with the boxes to establish that they turn out to be fairly plentiful on both the North and South islands.

So beyond this I'll quit reporting on them other than mentioning one notable location to be found by starting at Broken Neck Home outpost (on the South tip of the North island) and going North up the coastline past the Amanaki Trial location to the small bay (marked by a shark icon) where there are a few buildings with three piers for docking.  The multilevel building fronted by two of the piers has a plethora of both larger and smaller boxes on shelves and scattered around on the floors both up and downstairs.

Note that a shot gun helps to move them around for rough positioning much better than a rifle blast.  :)


My new obsession is the physical characteristics of the various plastic drums scattered around when force is applied to them.  ::)

I was showing Mrs. mandru how lively they were when stimulated (starting by lying on their side) with three landmines place on one end (the flat top or bottom) of the drum and a C-4 charge offset by 90 degrees on the outside edge of the opposing end.  Paraphrasing fragger's apt observation as the drum locked in a violent spin (because of the C-4's  offset initial boost before the mines kicked in) attempted to reach orbital insertion I commented to her "Watch this puppy bounce when it hits the ground!"

Only it didn't.  :o

I don't know if the spin was too much for the physics engine to calculate but when it touched-down the ground swallowed it up as if it had never existed.  Which actually impressed the Mrs. more than if it had actually bounced.  :-D

[Art Blade]

 

[fragger]

I never had a problem with the manta rays, they just ignore you, sure you weren't stung by a jellyfish?

Maybe... I saw the manta ray pass very close overhead just as something bit me. Maybe a jellyfish or even another shark. I just associated the red claw marks with the manta because it was so close at the time, but I may well have been wrong.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Maybe... I saw the manta ray pass very close overhead just as something bit me. Maybe a jellyfish or even another shark. I just associated the red claw marks with the manta because it was so close at the time, but I may well have been wrong.

I think if you see the three claw marks, it's a shark. They are sneaky.

[mandru]

There's a hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a hole, there's a hole
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea

(verse one of a very long, annoying and pointless youth camp song but aren't they all? )

Now that that's out of my system I will attempt to minimize my embellishments. 

I encountered another piece of FC3 weirdness that I've been able to recreate by shutting down my computer, restarting and entering the game again.  Hopefully this will also be a glitch present on all PC installs and not just mine.

First I'm going to give some coordinates for the area I'll be describing South of the South Island and a good ways off shore:

NW Corner  X:300.8,  Y:288.0
NE Corner   X:307.1,  Y:288.0
SW Corner  X:300.8,  Y:281.7
SE Corner   X:307.2,  Y:281.6

I was swimming very deep in god mode (so I didn't have to come up for air) doing a census on eels when I encountered a fairly square shaped area where the ocean surface looked like water but once I crossed into the zone I found myself falling, then standing on the bottom holding my shotgun and taking that gasping breath you hear after holding your breath for a while.  A quick check showed that all weapons could be equipped and used as well as the camera and knife.

Reef fish, sharks and mantas  outside of the zone continued to swim far above my head but once they entered the Dry Patch they would drop sharply to my level.  The sharks and mantas would drag along the seabed (stray jellies were stuck in one spot throbbing on the bottom) but the reef fish maintained a height off the bottom where the school's center mass would be about even with my head level.

I could shoot the sharks and mantas (and even a boatload of privateers) inside and outside the Dry Patch with rifles and shot gun (when in range) but every RPG round would detonate when it hit the vertical walls marking the boundaries of this quirky spot.  I used thrown rocks (listening for the sound of the clunk when they hit) to help me define the edges of the zone as well as (when walking) experiencing stepping from dry sea bottom to instantly swimming.  By swimming directly backwards after stepping out of the zone I would come back out of the water and onto dry ground again.

I also piloted one of the rubber rafts into the zone where once entered the water fell out from under me and the boat dropped to the bottom.  Pushing the boat back outside the boundary and into the water had the effect that the boat would start to rise quickly but eventually it would slip as if drawn by the absence of water back into the zone where it would again fall to the bottom.

Once I'd returned to shore I climbed to a high embankment that overlooks where I now know this anomaly to be and I could faintly make out a non-reflective square patch that looks almost like flat matte fog amid the normal reflective wave animations going on around it.

It's not as exciting as finding all seven dragon balls and getting to make a wish but if you decide to check it out either go in god mode to check it out, fast travel out or park your boat nearby and swim in because if you get your boat stuck in it you'll be swimming back to shore and this is an area positively rife with sharks.  ;)

[fragger]

You're pretty good at finding these oddities mandru :-D Cool, something else to play around with!

I found out the other night that there is a cave near Amanaki Outpost which if entered into at speed on a jet-ski will drop you through a hole in the map and into a sub-map area, like the ones we used to find in FC2. At least with FC3 you can fast travel your way out of these traps. I can't remember where the cave is, but there are rocks in the water just inside the entrance and a jet-ski can usually be found nearby with which to propel yourself into the weirdness.

I've only tried it once so I don't know if it will happen every time.

[nexor]

This game is getting weirder by the day  ???

[Art Blade]

agree. Then again, maybe it's not the game.. it's the players  :-D

fragger, heh heh, I think the game has a lot of surfaces that are thin as paper. Countless times I pierced head on into oblivion and on my way through the rocks I scraped off every fibre of whatever vessel I was using. Usually ending in an endless fall (paradox, I know, pun intended :-() ) or sometimes landing in an invisible ocean just to fall out of it again eventually. I love the sight of when the map starts to become visible, from rocks to outpost to area to world.. more and more gets sucked into the field of view until even the world fades away :)


mandru, +1 :-X for upholding OWG's spirit of experimentation, exploration and documentation ^-^

[PZ]

mandru, +1 :-X for upholding OWG's spirit of experimentation, exploration and documentation ^-^

:-X X2

[mandru]

Thanks for the kudos guys.  I enjoy the rummaging around so of course if I spot a weirdness I've got to share it.  :-()

[mandru]

Speaking of rummaging around I came across some weirdness at Valsa Docks on the NW of the North island.  There is a zip line that runs from the awning off the front of the safe house over to the nearby Side Mission bulletin board that is amusingly useless.

Starting atop either the awning or by standing on the roof of the bulletin board and jumping to catch the zip line allows you to cross about 20 feet but it does not automatically decouple you from the line when you hit the end of the ride the way every other zip line I've encountered does.  As there is little or no slope to the line there isn't a top or bottom and once you reach the far end of the line if you turn your character to face the other direction you can scoot back and forth along it's short length.  ;)



Using a glider and scanning the ocean surface I have also located an additional square of missing water at X:182.9, Y:286.1 that I was able to visit even though it is a fair ways out into the out of boundary range on the world map.  As far as I could tell it has the same conditions as the other dry zone I reported on other than being slightly less populated by sharks.

So far I've scoured about 75% of the North island's coastline from the air and not spotted any dry zones in the waters there.  Maybe the game developers were hurrying to finish up the last 1/3 of the game and got sloppy with the texture mapping on the South island.  :-()

[nexor]

I just went and tried it out mandru
first I parked a jeep next to the awning (the only way I could get onto the roof) then tried to grab the zipline, no luck, then I got onto the bulleton board roof (the same way I got ontop of the awning) also tried to grab the zipline, also no luck.
So what you found is a real glitch for sure

[mandru]

Interesting it's not working for you fragger.  :-\\  I was using a standing still straight up jump to connect not a running jump if that would have made any difference.

Hmm...  I'm currently going around thrashing things while in god mode along with no detect and leaving all the safe houses populated by bad guys so that the surrounding roads remain busy with potential victims but I wouldn't think that would affect this one way or another.  Although without the command line no detect cheat hanging there during the slow drift across that short span I'm pretty sure would leave you feeling like the lone piñata at a party of hyperactive children without blindfolds buzzed on red cream soda, cotton candy and each with their own stick.

To gain access to the two roof areas I was starting out by going around back of the safe house (outside of the fence) and there's a spot where the fence is at its lowest.  You can jump atop the fence and then tightrope walk one way to make the leap to the bulletin board or the other to make the more difficult leap to the flat roof of the covered area that is in turn within jumping distance of the safe house awning.

It's funny how I'm able to run along the top of a corrugated metal fence but sometimes unable to navigate my way up a six foot stretch of bare sloping rock.  ::)

[Art Blade]

you're thinking about fragger a lot, aren't you?  :-()

[mandru]

Oops!  Sorry it was nex that had gone out and tried it.  :-[

I was so busy trying to figure out why it hadn't worked (I'd even checked nex's system info to be sure he was on a PC) I failed to respond to the right person.  :D

[Art Blade]

at their age, they tend to forget things like that in no time. :-()

[fragger]

 

I'm glad you thought of me anyway, mandru - whatever it was about :-()

There's a hole in the ground at X:607 Y:676 which links to a cave where a relic is located, on that long and very high ridge that lies east of the centre of the north island. This is that hole:

[smg id=6471 align=center width=600]

The cave is constricted in one place where you have to crouch to get through and it's a bit of a trek to get to the relic, and since I'd noticed this hole in the roof of the cave on previous plays I thought that maybe I could save myself a bit of time by dropping down this hole into the cave and landing almost right on top of the relic. But once I'd dropped into it I found that I couldn't fit through and I was sure I'd be stuck down there - it's deepish and the sides looked too steep to allow a jump back out.

I needn't have worried. Once down there, as soon as I tried to move I was magically wafted back up to the top edge of the hole. I repeated this several times and had the same result each time - if I stood still after dropping into the hole I stayed there, but as soon as I made any move at all I smoothly slid back up to the top as though an invisible hand was hoisting me aloft.

Just another little oddie :-D