Need help: gunboats don't fly

Have you added
[EncounterParameters]
nickname = area_gunboats
filename = missions\encounters\area_gunboats.ini
in your system ini?

If I had 2 guess:

Nova wrote:

faction_prop.ini
[FactionProps]
affiliation = fc_n_grp
……
formation = fighters, fighter_guild
formation = gunboats, armored_basic

system ini:
[Zone]
nickname = Zone_HI04_pop_ambient_01
……
encounter = area_gunboats, 19, 1.000000
faction = fc_n_grp, 1.000000
…

That has nothing to do.

In the encouter area_gunboats, the formation name is gunboats.
In the faction prop of the Nomads is given, that gunboats = amored basic. So it uses amored basic formation for gunboats.

Do you have any other zones in that system? It’s an ambient pop zone and I think other zone types usually take priority over them. Normally you would make an ambient pop zone like that pretty large so that it covers a whole system or asteroid field etc, use smaller zones around bases such as single base law etc. When you leave the area of a base or gate the ambient pop then becomes active.

Try adding a different faction and encounter, one you haven’t modded to the zone and see if it spawns. Use a simple area_scout encounter, should tell you straight away if it’s the zone or something you’ve modded.

You have to add pilots, gunboat patrols in patrols.ini and add them in encounters.ini for that.

These inis don’t exist.

Did you try to remove some equipment in the loadouts.ini?
Maybe there is an error.

Oops, my fault. Been a year or 2 since I touched such files. I know formations.ini exists, and that was what I meant by patrols.ini. Hmm, seems I have to put myself into modding encounters again.

Hehe yes cloak. So the ships were the whole time there, but invisible.