the bug happens on any captain, no matter their allegiance. fed, kdf, both roms.
to reproduce, you'll need an empty boff slot, a disposable boff and to be in space, so you're in control of your ship. commission the boff while in space map, press "change uniform" then switch to captain tab.
you'll notice most of your slots turned into [null message] and you have x new empty uniform slots. x is the number you can normally get, so 3 for default free account with no costume slot unlocks, 2 if outside a fleet and so on.
as soon as you create and save a new slot, you'll cause the bug, and since uniform slots aren't removable, you won't be able to fix it anymore.
the phantom slot will share its outfit data with the related actual slot (so first created will share it with first slot, second with second etc), but will only update when you directly edit it, so only when doing what i said above.
it will appear instead of your real slot in many cutscenes (i'm guessing if you either use the related outfit, or another one with a bugged phantom slot bound to it). on the plus side, it'll be visible in the gateway's captain tab instead of the shadow man picture, but that's hardly useful.
and unfortunately i broke one of my characters that way. he now constantly uses a costume i had some 30 levels ago in cutscenes.
i wonder if i can get anyone to help with this.
Now clowns, that's another story. They scare the crap out of me.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
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