[Test RELEASE:] Interstellar Tweak OXP

[UK_Eliter]

New version ready for testing! This one does much more (although the chance of anything being triggered is fairly low - you can change that, though).

URL: http://www.box.com/shared/moreq536ht

In fact: new and not working version available for diagnosis!

A problem I thought I'd solved persists - whereby defence ships don't do what they are told by their AIs and scripts. I've tried all sorts of things, including setting the defenders' AI to the default Thargoid AI, and not using my script - but nothing seems to work. Can anyone help? I'd be very grateful. At wit's end, etc.

If you install the OXP, all witchspace jumps will be misjumps and, upon entering witchspace, there will be fairly near you a . . very large ship. (I don't want to give that much away here. .) That ship will launch a Thargoid warship. But - and this is the problem - it just sails off into the distance!

Download from same link as in previous posts, i.e. http://www.box.com/shared/moreq536ht You'll need the G*** Ship OXP installed. Also, it might be useful to have the Long Range Scanner OXP installed, too - just in case you can't find that ship. Apologies in advance for my probably appalling javascript style/(in)ability.

[maik]

A problem I thought I'd solved persists - whereby defence ships don't do what they are told by their AIs and scripts. I've tried all sorts of things, including setting the defenders' AI to the default Thargoid AI, and not using my script - but nothing seems to work. Can anyone help? I'd be very grateful. At wit's end, etc.

Sorry for asking the obvious: you are using the shift key while restarting Oolite, right? Also, take a look at your latest.log to see if the AI loads, add logging statements to see which state it enters etc...

[UK_Eliter]

Dear maik

Thanks, but I've done all that - and to no avail.

If you - or anyone else - likes, you can download the OXP and try to work out what is wrong. The address is: http://www.box.com/shared/moreq536ht

[Kaks]

Will try and see if I can figure out what's happening... give us a couple of days though, the holidays are taking their toll...

[Switeck]

I had to hack the OXP to test. Testing is hard enough when the needed circumstances happen every time.

I get a crash-to-desktop sometimes from this OXP (or its associated OXP that adds the special big ships). Tends to happen when the big ships die or when I die crashing into them. Strangely, the big ships show the debugging circles and lines for direction/orientation...I don't know how/why they do that. Happens to the Thargoids it launches too, at least for a little bit.

I see the strange Thargoid behavior described by UK_Eliter where the launched Thargoids just continue on indefinitely into the distance. I am still researching why that happens...

Ok, the big ships turn way too fast...and can end up swatting nearby Thargoids with its front/rear. I've seen them kill themselves that way. It's even hard for me to fly near them at full speed with my 0.999 LM hacked Constrictor because its turning edges moves faster than my ship!

As for the Thargoids-gone-stupid, I think these lines in ATTACK_SHIP = are the cause:

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		INCOMING_MISSILE = (fightOrFleeMissile, setTargetToPrimaryAggressor, "setStateTo: ATTACK_SHIP");
		TARGET_FOUND = (setTargetToFoundTarget, "setStateTo: ATTACK_SHIP");

These will probably work better set to:

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		INCOMING_MISSILE = (fightOrFleeMissile, setTargetToPrimaryAggressor, performAttack);
		TARGET_FOUND = (setTargetToFoundTarget, performAttack);

Also, just to be on the safe side to make sure they have a target:

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		TARGET_VALID = (setTargetToFoundTarget, performAttack);

[UK_Eliter]

Switeck

You are the man! That works! More specifically, implementing all the AI changes you recommend works. I am very pleased! Thank you! It seems to the be the 'TARGET_VALID' change that makes the difference. I hadn't realised that 'setTargetToFoundTarget' was necessary - I thought the script had done that. (Possibly - I'll have to investigate - this reveals a problem my Fer-de-Lance 3G OXP has with targetting.)

As to having to hack the OXP to test: sorry about that; what was wrong? Was the code not set to make the player misjump every time?

As to the big ship turning too fast: yes, I'd tried to fix that problem - by changing that ship's stats - but to no avail. Any ideas please?

Apropos the big ship swatting the ships it launches: I've tried to compensate for that, but evidently without full success. Part of the problem here is that the ships launch from the wrong position within the big ship.

As to the debugging lines: that's by design - in the test version of the OXP. Or at least: I know how to disable it.

EDIT: new version, with enforced misjumps and non-stupid Thargoids, now uploaded.

EDIT2: I don't get the crash to desktop your describe. I imagine it owes to something being overwhelmed by the amount of debris generated by the big ship. Is there an easy way of limiting this? If not, perhaps some sort of script work-around is possible. .

[cim]

EDIT2: I don't get the crash to desktop your describe. I imagine it owes to something being overwhelmed by the amount of debris generated by the big ship. Is there an easy way of limiting this? If not, perhaps some sort of script work-around is possible. .

fragment_chance in shipdata.plist should allow that to be turned off.

Reducing the density of the ship in shipdata.plist will reduce its mass and so the amount of debris, though might have other unwanted side-effects

[Gimi]

Have now played around with the new test version of Interstellar Tweak a little bit. So far encountered the "Navy present" scenario, "Derelict" scenario and the regular Thargoids scenario. I have not forced any scenario by editing scripts yet. I like the balance so far. I have done about 10 misjumps and got 8 x Thargoids, 1 x Navy and 1 x derelict. Not enough to make any conclusions, but ok so far. I have encountered no errors in the console or in the logs related to Interstellar Tweaks.

During the Navy scenario I docked with the navy Behemoth after clearing out two Thargoids. When I launched again is was in a nearby system as expected. Unfortunately I had offender status, so they shot me up a bit before I could get away (My own fault I suppose). Wonder why they left me alone in Interstellar Space.

In the documentation it is mentioned that Interstellar Tweaks will make use of various OXP's if they are installed. I think it would be a good idea to list them, and give a small indication of what the benefits are so that players can get the most out of the OXP.

I will do some more testing this weekend, forcing the other scenarios if I can.

[UK_Eliter]

Dear Gimi

Good stuff. Thanks a lot. (By the way, you are using the version marked 0.61, rather than 0.6, right? Various things suggest you are, and I should have flagged the update more than I have - but I just wanted to check.)

About the Behemoths: I don't know. I let them - unlike some other navy or police ships you can encounter via my OXP - have their original AI.

I will eventually do a list of other OXPs that I draw upon. But here is a preliminary, and un-annotated list (in no particular order):

- Fer-de-Lance 3G;
- Generation ships;
- Far Arm Ships (though not sure this works at the moment - and, anyway, the probability of invoking this one is very low);
- wormwhole restoration;
- behemoth;
- Gal Navy.

But most of the scenarios conjured by my OXP will (- can - ) occur without any of those.

Scenarios you've still to encounter include: asteroid field; misplacement within intended system; and (if you have the relevant OXP) generation ship fun.

One bug you might encounter owes to core OOlite code. It's wormholes, created by other ships, that don't work properly.

I should add that the point of my OXP is to add some variety to interstellar encounters, mainly in the form of slight variation but occasionally in the form of something more interesting. One thing you should be encountering, by the way, is witchspace that is, at least near you (10 or so scanner ranges) empty.

[Gimi]

I missed the 0.61 update so the the feedback I gave was for 0.6. Sorry about that. New version downloaded and installed now. I will install the related OXP's you listed, hoping to provoke any unlikely errors that may occur from the interaction with them.
More to come!

Cheers

[Gimi]

Haven't played or tested much lately, but came across this today with Interstellar tweak installed. Not supposed to happen I think, but makes for a good picture though. I was still running 0.61, so this may well be fixed. Have updated now.

[Commander McLane]

Haven't played or tested much lately, but came across this today with Interstellar tweak installed. Not supposed to happen I think, but makes for a good picture though.

I don't know anything about Interstellar Tweak, but Generation Ships.oxp can occasionally create more than one Generation Ship in interstellar space. Why shouldn't two giants cross each other's path occasionally? Note that their heading is different, so they began their journey in different systems and are headed for different systems.

[Gimi]

I don't know anything about Interstellar Tweak, but Generation Ships.oxp can occasionally create more than one Generation Ship in interstellar space. Why shouldn't two giants cross each other's path occasionally? Note that their heading is different, so they began their journey in different systems and are headed for different systems.

Oh, that sounds like a "Once in a lifetime" happening, if that often. I know that Interstellar Tweaks influences generation ships, but not how, so my obvious conclusion was that it was the cause.
I thought that all generation ships started from Earth, but they could of course have changed course if they found their first destination to be uninhabitable. Guess I'm wrong.

[Commander McLane]

I thought that all generation ships started from Earth, but they could of course have changed course if they found their first destination to be uninhabitable. Guess I'm wrong.

Generation Ships could have started from Lave or indeed from any system that was inhabited before the advent of witchspace travel.

GalCop respects them and may have an archive about all known Generation Ships somewhere. At least it is prohibited by GalCop regulations to interfere with them. Attacking a Generation Ship is a felony within GalCop jurisdiction (see Galactic Penal Code, § 13225 (i) 2/a in conjunction with GPC § 13228 (iii) 4/c: Aggrevated assault by violently interfering with a Generation Ship in open Interstellar Space), and carries with it a fine of up to 25,000 ₢ and the registration as "fugitive". There is no known case of a Generation Ship successfully destroyed (or even visibly affected) by an attack, anyway. One thing is for sure: these hulls were built to last.

What actually goes on in a Generation Ship, however, is anyone's guess, because there is no currently known way of interacting with its crew or passengers. There were designed for complete autarky until reaching their programmed destination, and it seems that no-one deemed communications features a necessity. After all, being the fastest means of organized long-range travel at the time they were not expected to meet anybody in the vast voids of space. For all we know, most of them may have been ghost ships for decades or centuries, the human colonists having fallen victim to a disease and the navigation computer being the only thing that's left. Still, the giant vessels enjoy the protection of GalCop (see above), perhaps for mere nostalgia, perhaps for reasons only known to the Galactic Bureaucracy.

[Gimi]

Keep getting this error in the console.

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Exception: TypeError: dummyShips is null
    Active script: Interstellar tweaks - main script 1
    IST_MAIN-SCRIPT.js, line 1198:
        var exists = (dummyShips.length == 1);

And this in the log:

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14:33:03.540 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]: ***** JavaScript exception (Interstellar tweaks - main script 1): TypeError: dummyShips is null