Caduceus Alpha

[Frunobulax]

Hi,

after searching for a long time for a Caduceus Omega I finally found a planet that sells an Caduceus Alpha, and jumped on it. However, I can't make heads or tails what's up with it.
* I can't see anything out of the rear vier. Half of the screen is bathed in white, the other half in black.
* I can't activate my damage report in the Coluber HUD. Also, it seems no repairs are taking place from the auto repair system.
* I can't see my laser firing. (OK, not a big problem.)

So, what's the deal with that ship?
And I gather the difference between the Alpha and the Omega is the location and the power of the plasma weapons?

.f

[onno256]

Hmmm, and if you try a different hud?

Also the Alpha has plasma turrets left and right, the Omega also has them top and bottom...

Sure you're on the latest version of Oolite?

Greetz,
Onno.

[Frunobulax]

Hmmm, and if you try a different hud?

Also the Alpha has plasma turrets left and right, the Omega also has them top and bottom...

Sure you're on the latest version of Oolite?

Greetz,
Onno.

Yep, latest Oolite version, latest Caduceus plugin.
No idea about the HUD, gotta try a different one. (Although I really love the Coluber HUD.)

[spara]

* I can't see my laser firing. (OK, not a big problem.)

If I recall it right, this is by design. No parallax to consider when shooting.

[ClymAngus]

spara is correct. You can't see the laser because your line of sight is within the gun barrel.

Rear view was working fine recently.... Half there and half not sounds like a render issue. Model intersecting with the viewing plane? The camera could be put further down the axis, but that's more a fudge rather than a solution.

The repair system is not a quick one or infallible it was made to be slow so not to be OP. This ship has been dialed down from ober to something that a few players finally find acceptable.

I'll see if I can replicate the tail cam issue and get you some more specific information on the particular repair sysetm used on the Caddy. But oxp's are bundled up these days aren't they? It may take me a little time to get round the new status quo. (as you can probably tell I'm mostly writing at the moment).

[Frunobulax]

spara is correct. You can't see the laser because your line of sight is within the gun barrel.

Rear view was working fine recently.... Half there and half not sounds like a render issue. Model intersecting with the viewing plane? The camera could be put further down the axis, but that's more a fudge rather than a solution.

Rear view is not dependend on HUD and looks like this:


It's not half there, I can't see anything on the black half either. Only targets markers are displayed.
Obviously this would be pretty much a knockout for the ship. I could try to deactivate some OXPs to figure out if there is some interference. (Can I just move them from the managed OXP folder to a different folder? The expansion pack manager is convenient, but not if you want to disable 20 OXPs at once

The repair system is not a quick one or infallible it was made to be slow so not to be OP. This ship has been dialed down from ober to something that a few players finally find acceptable.

Slow repair system is OK, but not having a damage report MFD would also be a reason not to use the ship. If I lose injectors or ECM then I really want to know, and I haven't got the time to scan my comms.

"a few players finally find acceptable" - because the ship is too strong? Right now it doesn't look that much stronger than my iron ass Cobra XT to me, and for a hefty price. Also, the price seems to be in line with other heavy ships (like the Vortex). A bit fast for such a powerful ship, yes. But then, the Cobra XT could outrun most opponents too so the advantage is not that big.

.f

[Anonymissimus]

I have seen Caducei Omega or Alpha sold at main stations multiple times. Keep looking in Tech 12+ systems. Space bars (from Random Hits) also sell them.
The Omega version also has more cargo and missile slots. What the wiki says is wrong or outdated (that it puts different priorities). It is better than the Alpha version (other than the price).
Damage report MFD and the repair system work fine here...maybe you need to be patient. Sometimes you can catch a message about repairs ongoing.
While my rear view is better than yours, the huge exhaust plumes consume most of it:

Maybe there are overlaying ones, judjing from how it looks when moving up/down ?

The important points are speed and turrets. Speed enables you to outrun most enemies even at cruising speed if you desire it. The turrets are powerful at close range (<5500km for the Caduceus, can be checked with a pirate cove). They enable you too keep "shooting" while not heating leasers, not consuming energy and keeping to dodge instead of keeping some orientation so you could shoot with lasers.
The Vortex has functionality to never need maintenance overhauls as a self-repairing ship, but the Caduceus needs them. That strikes me as a bug as it's described as a self-repairing bio ship.

[Devium]

seems like your looking through a towbar? *EDIT* Yep tested and you look down the center of the towbar in that ship. It's a great view without.. well the exhaust plumes but I kinda like those :p

[Lone_Wolf]

The Vortex has functionality to never need maintenance overhauls as a self-repairing ship, but the Caduceus needs them. That strikes me as a bug as it's described as a self-repairing bio ship.

Vortex repair system is very similar to the one used on the Caduceus (and Repair Bots oxp) .
Those repair system only affect equipment, and you should still get maintenance overhauls .

I think the cause of no maintenance overhauls is the player.ship.restoreSubEntities() in vortex this.shipWillDockWithStation .
As you reported in Turrent Toggler thread (TT code is based on vortex script) , removing / restoring subentities has an impact on service level.

[Norby]

If you are not afraid from a small parallax (like in all other ships) then change the second numbers in view_position_* in shipdata.plist of Caduceus from 0 to 5, in this way you will look out from a bit higher position.

Alternatively the $TowbarShow=false; setting in towbar.js can make an invisible towbar (like tractor beam) and free your aft view.

[Anonymissimus]

I don't have towbar OXP installed.

The vortex is meant to not needing maintenance overhauls, it contains

Code: Select all

player.ship.awardEquipment("EQ_RENOVATION");

It's just that that doesn't seem to work and the effect is instead granted by its turret toggler.
If you (Lone_Wolf) think they should need overhauls for balance reasons...well, it still doesn't make sense that they should, for the Caduceus at least according to oolite fiction. The Vortex has robotic repair, Caduceus biological.

EDIT
Was this towbar stuff directed at me or Frunobulax ?
I suspected there may be something wrong or bad about the ship's backwards view grahpics (the exhaust plumes) and that that may cause Frunobulax' problem...

[Devium]

Yeah, I was directing the towbar comment @ Fruno. When I tested the Caddy with the towbar it looked just like his pic.

[Frunobulax]

Guess the towbar is the reason, will try the patch tomorrow. Now, if I only could make the damage report work...

[ClymAngus]

Tow bar? TOW BAR!
Fiendish.....
So targeting : Check
Rear view: Check
ship repair: C.B.B. (but looking into it.)

progress indeed.

[Norby]

change the second numbers in view_position_* in shipdata.plist of Caduceus from 0 to 5, in this way you will look out from a bit higher position.

Another idea to avoid the parallax: leave the second number at 0 and change the third to -400, like place your aft camera at the end of towbar.