If the game is saved when a missile detonates, then reloaded, the game loses track of what fragments have what properties. Specifically, it gives sub-fragments (eg. The little pieces that come off an M5) to share some properties of the parent fragment. This includes the existence of said sub-fragments. This means you get a massive cluster-bomb effect with large munitions.
To replicate: Start in Eridani. Give yourself a NAMI heavy launcher and some M5's.
Fire at the gas giant, and quit the game the instant that it hits, as you see the flare start. Then reload. The bug is very obvious when it triggers, and if the game derps then it can corrupt a savegame completely (hence the previous ticket I made, then resolved when it became clear it was tied to this bug).
That's awesome! Can't wait to try and reproduce it.
When it doesn't crash the game, it is pretty cool.
Edit: Fun fact. This bug stacks. if you save during the Baysplosion, then reload, it gets even better!
Edit2: And then the game crashes. of course.
Also worth noting: Trying to trigger this bug will also sometimes trigger a failure of the music system. I am re-opening the relevant ticket.
Also also worth noting: Shockwaves weapons can be rendered useless by saving and exiting before the shockwave hits you: this bug cancels the effect on loading.
....exploiting the full Baysplosion effect also often triggers the OnAnimate map crash when you destroy a station with it.
Sadly, this has been fixed in 1.6 Beta 3. We're going to need a new way to get our Baysplosion fix.
Don't worry. Wolfy's already worked out how to do it via another bug and some script. :)
But it's not as awesome as the original. Goodbye Baysplosion.
This ticket came up in some chat on Discord about memorable bugs in history of Transcendence. In case anyone wants to resurrect the Baysplosion, the bug was most likely resolved by (and could be easily restored by reverting) this commit: https://github.com/kronosaur/Mammoth/commit/3ff7929e7ab0d7bfd3d4465fa556c0f0ef41acaa