Singularity Profile Increasingly Erratic with each Patch to ED Post-3.3

[Stormcloud89]

With each minor patch to Elite Dangerous after 3.3, the Singularity Profile and VA are becoming less and less reliable.

I have three packs installed: Eli, Orion, and Verity. I primarily use a mix of the first two, usually Eli manning all stations except for Science and Tactical, which are assigned to Orion.

Since 3.3.02, if I have Orion in charge of all stations, he can not execute a Discovery Scan successfully. It will toggle the HUD mode to Combat mode (where the DS won't work) and then either remain in Combat Mode or switch back to Analysis Mode when it's done, depending on what mode it was in first. So no matter what mode I start in, he'll always switch to the wrong one and fail to scan. Once I switched back to Eli in all stations save for Science and Tactical, this problem went away... sort of. If in Combat HUD, it will switch to Analysis and do the scan, and then switch back to Combat HUD as it should. However, if in Analysis HUD when command is issued, it will switch to Combat HUD, fail to scan, and then switch back to Analysis.

And it just gets worse from there. If I tell it to switch to Analysis HUD, it will toggle the HUD to the other mode - it doesn't even check to see what mode it is in. Further, the command to switch to "Combat Mode" always ends in a reply "That's already done" and does nothing. So I have to use "Analysis Mode" command to switch modes like a toggle and Eli is completely unaware of the mode he's in.

Now the problem has spread to the landing gear. The deploy command works. The retract command sometimes works and other times doesn't with the response "That's already done" when it isn't. The Departure Handover command will successfully retract the gear as part of its routine. The landing gear issue is hit or miss, with no apparent pattern.

Retracting Weapons never works anymore. I'm always told "That's already done" when it isn't.

I had to turn off "Invoke actions" because any time I dropped out of Super Cruise, he asked if I wanted to deploy the landing gear! I'm in deep space! No!

The weird thing about all this is everything was working perfectly when 3.3 was first released. With each successive micropatch, the Singularity profile responds in an increasing erratic manner. Is there someway to reset the state it is reading in from the game (or failing to read in)? "Run Diagnostics" doesn't fix this issue.

The worst bug of all hits when I try to target a subsystem. It's only happened once, when I tried target the NPC's Frameshift drive. The command macro cycled through the subsystems and then kept going back and forth between two choices (couldn't tell whether either was the Frameshift Drive). When I tried to alt-tab out to kill VoiceAttack and restart it, my computer became unresponsive. I couldn't even bring up task manager to kill the process. Only choice I had was to do ctrl-alt-del and then choose sign out to close everything. Not fun.

And before you ask: VA was installed as admin. HCS voicepacks were installed as admin; registry keys for each pack that was installed under admin (during installation) were exported to my user account so they work fine. Game was installed as admin. However, all have been run under my user account for as long as I've had them (3+ years for Elite, 2.5 years for VA+HCS).

[LanceCorrimal]

I had similar issues, not to the same degree tho, and Ive been told here to run VA as administrator... and it all works as expected now.

[Stormcloud89]

Thanks for your suggestion, but that's not going to work. If I run VA as an administrator, it's going to be using that account's Windows profile. It won't be able to find the ED logs, keybinds, etc. because those are under a separate account. It would only work if I also ran the game as an admin, and I'd have to copy over my keybinds and other stuff to that account, just for it to have a chance to work. And all of this shouldn't be necessary and runs against good security practices, which I've been following since the days of NT 4.0.

If I need to grant my user account extra permissions to some folder VA uses, or some registry key, I can do that. However, everything has worked fine - even in 3.3 - until the first or second micropatch (e.g. 3.3.02) and then stuff started to break. Something needs to be fixed.

[Gangrel]

As LanceCorrimal has said, running as admin in this case *can* help though.

Frontier *appear* to have changed something. Now, not everyone has needed to do this (big surprise) but some people have found that it *has* worked for them.

Side note: The only folder that we look at for ED is the "Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous" (this is where the journal and status (and other json files) are located)

[Stormcloud89]

Well, yes.. If I run VA as admin, and the game as admin, it will be a whole different instance as both will be running under another account. The only way to test this with my user account would be to grant it admin rights across the board, which I'm unwilling to do, as any lurking malware (shouldn't be any, but you never know) would then have the ability to compromise the whole system. That's the only way we would know if admin rights alone are the issue, and not just switching windows profiles due to doing a "run as admin" on both game and VA.

Is the HCS plugin just reading information from the logs that ED puts out? I've tried deleting all the log files and letting it create new ones, but that didn't seem to help. Perhaps I'll set the file permissions for users to equal admin permissions on the entire VA folder and subfolders and see if that works. Ugh. This is very frustrating.

[Gangrel]

Well, yes.. If I run VA as admin, and the game as admin, it will be a whole different instance as both will be running under another account. The only way to test this with my user account would be to grant it admin rights across the board, which I'm unwilling to do, as any lurking malware (shouldn't be any, but you never know) would then have the ability to compromise the whole system. That's the only way we would know if admin rights alone are the issue, and not just switching windows profiles due to doing a "run as admin" on both game and VA.

Is the HCS plugin just reading information from the logs that ED puts out? I've tried deleting all the log files and letting it create new ones, but that didn't seem to help. Perhaps I'll set the file permissions for users to equal admin permissions on the entire VA folder and subfolders and see if that works. Ugh. This is very frustrating.

Tell us about it.

[Stormcloud89]

I have good news: I was able to fix the problem and I didn't need to give myself admin rights!

On the hunch that this may be a file permissions issue, I logged into my admin account and granted my user account (changing the permissions for the Users group would work too) Full Control of the Voice Attack folder and everything under it. When I went back into my user account and started up VA and Elite Dangerous, VA was now fully aware of my status (e.g. which HUD mode I was in, landing gear status, etc.) and everything worked perfectly.

If other users have this issue, I highly recommend you tell them to just grant Users full control to the Voice Attack directory, and all subfolders and files. This is safer than running VA as admin. My way, the worst that can happen is Malware/Acts of God can only corrupt the VA program and/or HCS files; uninstall and reinstall all of that and your good to go again. Whereas if your running VA as admin, and it gets hijacked, it has full access to change any and everything in Windows. Not good.

Now why this change in file permissions is necessary all of sudden, I have no idea. However, at least this gives you a safer remediation method as well as more focus as to where this new problem is occurring. Hope that helps your team.

Now if only I could get all the pre-singularity functionality back for Eli and Orion... *sigh* a topic for another thread.

Thanks for your help and hope this information helps you help other users and/or eventually fix the problem. As for myself, I can live with this level of risk.

[Gangrel]

What features are missing for Eli and Orion from pre singularity to now?

[Stormcloud89]

Sorry for the delay in my response. I've been quite busy lately.

Some features have been missing (or moved and I don't know how to activate them) since the Singularity Profile was created. For Orion, it is the multiple responses you would get when you asked "Who are you?" For Verity, it is her replying "No" if you tell her to shut up and giving vague responses when asked about the Thargoids ("Thargoids. Classified. No." or "You don't need to know about the Thargoids"). In both these cases, it was a minor loss. For Eli, it was huge. You used to be able to ask Eli "Something on your mind right now, Eli" and he had about 30 different responses where he would rant about how stupid you are, a very funny summation of human evolution, talk about other intelligent lifeforms, etc.. Some of these responses also doubled with his introduction script, while others would only be activated by this phrase.

In the latest version of Singularity, I do have the ability to bring Eli's profanity back. However, it isn't as varied as used to be. Also, it seems like have to choose between either 90% standard/dry talk Eli and 10% non-profane sarcasm or pure profanity. Also, he seems to use the same phrase over and over again much more now than he did before. For example, with profanity on, when I tell him to open the Galaxy map I will get a few variations that always in calling me *(&^ face and I never, ever get the "Oooh, bright sparkly stuff. Isn't it pretty?" response. I've also never heard him once, since the update, comment about how the paint smudge I left on the last station (by scraping the side) was so stylish.

Maybe some of this is enabled in "Chit Chat". That never did anything for me before. I did have him randomly chime in a bit when I turned that on for him, but it was always the same thing. I'm sure these are little quirks that will eventually be worked out. Sadly, Eli loses a lot of his appeal with out the mockery - both profane and just sarcastic.

One thing that isn't working at all: Constellations. I have it checked and none of the voice packs will ever give me info when I ask them about constellations any more. I get "command unrecognized." Galaxapedia entries do work, though.

Other minor gripes:

1. Inconsistency in speed when executing menu commands. I've shortened the delay so that they execute menu commands (like request docking) at maximum speed. However, it seems to then slow down on certain ships. For example, always superfast when doing "Request Docking" from my Cobra Mk III, but sometimes taking 2-3 times as long when in my Type 6.
2. Inability to omit certain phrases. If I could get rid of Orion's one, long winded poetical rambling when open the starmap AND get him to never make the joke about Einstein when engaging the FTL, I might be tempted to use him in more positions than just Science and Tactical.
3. Inability to assign someone to all roles while you're in the SRV. Right now I have Orion assigned to Tactical so he'll be my default SRV voice. However, when dismissing the ship, I get Eli's (First officer) responses instead of Orion's, which are some of his best and funniest lines.

In short, it seems like my two favorite packs have been diminished ever since the universal "singularity profile" was implemented. I understand why that's needed, but it's a real bummer. It also makes me less inclined to by other packs, for their comedic value, like KSai and Leo.

[Gangrel]

Some of the longer replies are in the "verbose" mode of replies (listed in the customiser). Some of them require chit chat to be enabled (ie if you say something and the response).

Constellations needs to be enabled in the customiser. "[give;tell] me a random constellation [fact;]; Tell me about one of the constellations" for information about a randome constellation or

There should be no difference in "command speed" between ships. As in, "we don't have special code which enables this", "[what;whats;explain] [is;was;does] [a;an;the;]; [briefly;] Tell me [everything;] about" "Constellation XXXXX" for a specific constellation

You can always move the sound file to a nice safe place from the "profile sounds" directory, and this would remove it from the "choice list" of sound files to be played.

Strange that you cannot assign someone to all roles whilst in the SRV. But you can have someone assigned to the SRV specifically (so no need to place in tactical if you want someone different).

In terms of "voice triggers" you can always look in the voice trigger editor to see what commands are used for each section of the game, and edit those to your hearts desire.

[Cmdr Galyock]

Stormcloud89 thanks for providing that level of detail; I thought I was just not remembering things correctly, but now that you mention it, Eli definitely is not as verbose as he used to be when "Profane" is selected in the customizer (and with "Verbosity" set to '2'). Prior to Singularity 2.x he was much more talkative and varied in his responses. Now he seems a little more one-dimensional.

I wonder if somehow the "Profane" option is unintentionally pulling from a narrower list of Eli's sound files....?

[Stormcloud89]

Some of the longer replies are in the "verbose" mode of replies (listed in the customiser). Some of them require chit chat to be enabled (ie if you say something and the response).

I think the problem here is that I have to choose either verbose or profane. So when Eli is set to Profane, he never uses some of the verbose options. It would be nice if profane was an additive option to verbose, so you get both.

Constellations needs to be enabled in the customiser. "[give;tell] me a random constellation [fact;]; Tell me about one of the constellations" for information about a random constellation or

I had it set correctly in the customiser. What I didn't realize was that the voice command had changed. I used to be able to say "Constellation Aries" for example, and it would immediately respond. Now I have to say "Tell me about Constellation Aries" and it works. So the problem was a minor change of which I wasn't aware. Also, I'm not sure this was updated in the manual. On the plus side, I wasn't even aware of the "Tell me about one of the constellations" command, where it will pick one at random. So that's a bonus for me that is fun.

There should be no difference in "command speed" between ships. As in, "we don't have special code which enables this", "[what;whats;explain] [is;was;does] [a;an;the;]; [briefly;] Tell me [everything;] about" "Constellation XXXXX" for a specific constellation

The only time I notice this is when I do anything with the GUI panels (e.g. "Request Landing," "Inventory," and "Navigation"). I had to set the delays, key presess, etc. to all be much faster. Your defaults made the AI take WAY too long to handle a docking request for when I'm coming in fast (which I usually do). It was faster/safer to do it manually. After I made these changes, it was doing this even faster than I could do it. It's always superfast in the Cobra Mk III. It's sometimes just as fast in the Type 6 and other times it's 3 times slower (which is still fast enough, but slow enough to notice the difference). I don't know why there is a difference.

You can always move the sound file to a nice safe place from the "profile sounds" directory, and this would remove it from the "choice list" of sound files to be played.

If I (re)move the sound files I don't like, it will still choose one of the remaining ones with no issue? Or will it occasionally try to play the missing one, in which case it won't say anything? I just want to make sure I understand how this is going to work.

Strange that you cannot assign someone to all roles whilst in the SRV. But you can have someone assigned to the SRV specifically (so no need to place in tactical if you want someone different).

There is the command "<Crewman> you're with me" and then they take over for the SRV voices. However, that only works for that one deployment. If you have to relog while in the SRV, or you need to deploy it again, you have to issue the command again. Very annoying. So I just put Orion in charge of Tactical (which is fine) since the manual says that station automatically joins you for all SRV functions. Sadly, the Number One role overrides this for "Dismiss the ship" commands, so I get Eli's responses instead of Orion's. This is sad, because some of Orion's best lines are for dismiss the ship: pretends to activate self destruct, talks about how he likes this chair and how he'll leave you down there, or sings "Fly me to the moon" which then cuts out and is replaced by music from the actual song.

I realize these things might seem trivial, but it's these little things that endeared your VoicePacks to me when I play Elite Dangerous. And when they disappear due to changes, it is really noticeable. It's also extra aggravating when it happens after I see posts of how you have had both Shatner and DeLancey back to do more lines and I'm experiencing less and not more.

[Gangrel]

1) Strange, as the profane option *should* also have some of the verbose choices as well if I remember correctly

2) The command had changed quite a while back (as in over a year ish IIRC), although with the voice trigger editor, it does give some more flexibility as well

3) I have no idea either. The code is ship agnostic for the button presses. Although now you have given me an idea... *cackles*

4) If you remove the sound file from the "Profile Sounds" section, it only plays commands from that folder. So a sound file not present, won't even get chosen

5) Ahh noted. Will have a look to see what can be done to make it a little bit more flexible, but generally speaking that is how it was (if I remember correctly). No promises or nothing.

See you in the black o7

Gangrel

[Cmdr Galyock]

Any chance you kind folks can investigate the first item, RE: "profane" seeming to not pull from the entire library of "verbose" responses? I know we're all fans of saying "random is random" but in weeks of playing Eli has been uncharacteristically quiet / monosyllabic.

[Gangrel]

Will be looking into it. Partial solution: Copy contents of "Verbose" directory into the Profane directory where applicable