[Release] Technical reference library OXP 1.0.1

[spara]

Hello.

In Drew Wagar's Mutabilis Rebecca browses the technical specs of a Vampire ship. I got inspired and added technical reference library of ships to Oolite.

Here's text from the readme:

Code: Select all

Technical Reference Library OXP ver 1.0.1 (23.3.2013)

Author: spara (Mika Spåra)

_The_Story_

Mrs Ming (Head of our marketing and fundraising department) from Spara, PrOog & Ming Agency had to pull lots of strings to get all the biggest ship manufacturers to give out technical specifications of their ships commonly seen in the space lines. Funnily, when the ball got rolling, manufacturers started to call us. We did not anticipate such a high level of interest. Suddenly every single company that had something to do with ships wanted to sponsor us. The deal we did with them was that Technical Reference Library will be a free bundle to every STE upgrade sold anywhere. The catch is, that every sponsor wants their name to be seen. That's the price for it to be free. We don't complain, as this liberated resources for Mr PrOog (Head of our R&D department) to develop an equipment that links Technical Reference Library to the hud. That piece how ever is not free as we were not ready to show sponsor messages in the hud. The price is set to a reasonable 1250 credits and the equipment is available from any TL12 system.

Mr Spara (CEO) is quite happy with the results of his team.

_Features_

* Free STE upgrade that will show information of spacecrafts via a primable equioment "Ship Identifier". (lock ident to a spacecraft, select the correct equipment with shift-n, activate with n or b)
* Boughtable equipment that will show the same information in the hud when activated. (lock ident to a spacecraft, select the correct equipment with shift-n, activate with n)

_Which_spacefraft_are_identified_

* Entities with scan classes "CLASS_NEUTRAL", "CLASS_MILITARY", "CLASS_POLICE" and "CLASS_THARGOID" are identified as spacecrafts.
* Entities with scan classes "CLASS_MILITARY", "CLASS_POLICE" and "CLASS_THARGOID" are not included in the Reference Library. Military and Police are thought to be classified information and Thargoid ships are not made by known shipmakers.
* In addition, Constrictor, ships from Aliens oxp, Black Monk Gunships, ships with the role bigTrader, Green Gecko and ships from Capisastra oxp are not included in the library.

_Information_for_oxp_makers_

* Ships with script info "classifiedShip = true" are not included in the library
* A ship can be declared classified from a script by calling worldScripts.tech_ref_lib.$addClassifiedRole("foo"), where "foo" is the special role of the ship.
* A ship can be declassified from a script by calling worldScripts.tech_ref_lib.$removeClassifiedRole("foo"), where "foo" is the special role of the ship.

_Requirements_

Oolite version 1.77.

_Credits_

* Technical drawings from Mandoman are used in the background graphics

_Installing_

Install the OXP by copying technical_reference_library.oxp to your AddOns-folder.

Free upgrade to the STE equipment showing core Cobra Mark III specs.


Free upgrade to the STE equipment showing oxp ship specs.


Buyable equipment links Technical Referenca Library to hud

Download: https://www.box.com/s/igf18tv8abycedz0ses1

[Rorschachhamster]

Does this work on... say...Thargoids? Because it shouldn't.
I'll try it.

[Fatleaf]

Some people would like their ships not to be available so as to be more mysterious and/or classified. So it would be good to have an option for ship builders to have their ships unavailable for scan.

[spara]

Does this work on... say...Thargoids? Because it shouldn't.

That's one of the things I'll have to ponder a bit. At the moment thargoid data is not available right a way, but thargoids can be scanned, takes 30 seconds. Reference sheet actually already gives data on Warship and Robotic Fighter.

Some people would like their ships not to be available so as to be more mysterious and/or classified. So it would be good to have an option for ship builders to have their ships unavailable for scan.

Good point. It could be from shipdata, but that would mean that ship oxps should be updated. Probably better to exclude them, if I knew which ones to exclude. Smivs Aliens OXP springs to mind first.

[Fatleaf]

Does this work on... say...Thargoids? Because it shouldn't.

That's one of the things I'll have to ponder a bit. At the moment thargoid data is not available right a way, but thargoids can be scanned, takes 30 seconds. Reference sheet actually already gives data on Warship and Robotic Fighter.

Just because it is in the reference sheet doesn't mean it should be available to in-game play. After all the reference sheet is just for the player.

Some people would like their ships not to be available so as to be more mysterious and/or classified. So it would be good to have an option for ship builders to have their ships unavailable for scan.

Good point. It could be from shipdata, but that would mean that ship oxps should be updated. Probably better to exclude them, if I knew which ones to exclude. Smivs Aliens OXP springs to mind first.

Having this thread should be enough for oxp'ers to ask for their ships to be excluded.

[Rorschachhamster]

I just had the idea: If something is unscannable, the scanner could give some strange random readings, like 256 pylons...

[Paradox]

I am sure that Galcops would require all ships to transmit an official identification of some type. The format would (in my opinion), look something more like:
Ships Registered Name (if running the Random Ship Names oxp)
Current Captain/Commander
Ship Type
Current legal status (I know we have a bounty scanner, but why not centralize the info)
Technical specifications etc.

Just my 2 cr.

[spara]

Thanks for the feedback. Very much appreciated. It's a bit vague where this oxp will go, but this is a start anyway. The idea is originated from Drew's novels. This is from Mutabilis:

Ident computer initialising. Please wait... Ready.
Unknown vessel type, interrogating Galcop astrometric database...
Please wait... done.
Vampire Mk1 : Isis Interstellar manufacturing prototype : ‘Killer Wolf’
Mass 290 metric.
Speed .2 LM.
Rebecca looked over the specs of the ship, pulling up the references on the console from the Galcop databases. Her eyes were alight with enthusiasm.

This implies that there is an internal database of vessels in players ship and if a match is not found, a connection to the Galcop database is established. Above information is printed to the hud. The last sentence implies that more information is also accessible.

So... There seems to be no scanner that can retrieve information from the ship itself. Got to ditch that, I'm not eager to bring new stuff in.

Here's my vision at the moment:

1. Enhanced ident system equipment, that must be activated and it will give above info to the hud. It uses an internal database of vessels and automatically (?) updates it by connecting to the Galcop database if no match is found. Connecting will take time.
2. More detailed reference system that will give detailed info of the targeted vessel. Reference info would be like in Oolite's reference sheet. This could be printed to the hud or I could borrow F7 for that. In F7 there could be nice rotating ship , but you would lose visual. It would make sense. You could only check info on ships that are in the internal database.

I'll steer it to this direction and let's see how it feels.

For the info available, I was thinking that the equipment would by default hold info on all ships that have legit core roles, such as of "trader," "salvager" etc. Info on ships with the role "pirate" would need to be downloaded. Vessels with roles of "police," "interceptor" and "thargoid" would not be available for security reasons. All custom roles would be ruled out too as unknown.

Back to tinkering.

[Fatleaf]

This implies that there is an internal database of vessels in players ship and if a match is not found, a connection to the Galcop database is established. Above information is printed to the hud. The last sentence implies that more information is also accessible.

But you are assuming that Drews work is official Oolite cannon. Which (as good as it is) it is not. For what works officially install Oolite with no OXP's and see what is in the core game. Everything else is somebody's interpretation of their Ooniverse and what works for one person will not work with another. Which is why it would be good to have the functionality for ship builders to be able to have their ship come up as not known. A little bit more work but it will make for better immersion and also make the OXP more versatile and other OXP friendly.

[Commander McLane]

Great stuff! I always wanted a Status Quo-like scanner information.

But you are assuming that Drews work is official Oolite canon.

Status Quo pretty much is, I'd say, and the same type of scanning is in that novel, too.

[spara]

Oh my, what have I started . The core game shows ships' cargo capacity and speed in the shipyard and of course the name of the ship when targeted. So I would say that those infos are commonly known.

As for Drew's novels, I would say that they are written in the spirit of the Oolite. So they should not be seen as a definite source of info. That said, if I take the scanner behaviour from there, then it will be an expansion to the Ooniverse. Just like the status quo q-bomb.

Gameplay wise and for ambiance I would definitely want to know something more of the other ships than just a name. And I would like to get that info in-game. Probably the info handed in 0.1 is too much, but it could be toned down. I'm still not sure about what info to reveal and of what ships, so that it does not break the 'magic.' Cobra mkIII is the most troublesome as it has significantly different stats for different roles.

And yes, if this oxp evolves further, I'll make sure that it interferes with other oxps as little as possible and that there is a proper mechanism for other oxps for exclusion. Haven't done those assassins guild missions yet, I'm assuming there might be something to hide there .

[Fatleaf]

But you are assuming that Drews work is official Oolite canon.

Status Quo pretty much is, I'd say, and the same type of scanning is in that novel, too.

But if it were the case then why does the core game not include this information?

But that is the great thing about Oolite. What one persons view is different from another's and they both are equally valid.

[Wyvern Mommy]

more than likely, the target scanner would have a databank with all the common ship types. that would include known bug ships, even if the capabilities would be based on observation, so there might be some surprises.
then there are aftermarket modifications to take into account. for example, there no knowing what type of weapons a ship has installed, unless there's telltale signs the scanner can identify.
then there's one-of-a-kind ships the scanner wouldn't know, or common ships modified so much the basic data on the base ship is useless.

and there could be new ships appearing the data for which is updated every so often.
and new bug ships nothing is known about them at first, but after a few encounters at least some data can be put into the system.

[spara]

more than likely, the target scanner would have a databank with all the common ship types. that would include known bug ships, even if the capabilities would be based on observation, so there might be some surprises.
then there are aftermarket modifications to take into account. for example, there no knowing what type of weapons a ship has installed, unless there's telltale signs the scanner can identify.
then there's one-of-a-kind ships the scanner wouldn't know, or common ships modified so much the basic data on the base ship is useless.

and there could be new ships appearing the data for which is updated every so often.
and new bug ships nothing is known about them at first, but after a few encounters at least some data can be put into the system.

Nice ideas. I especially like the idea of a learning system. If you shoot a ship down, that ship's energy banks would be known. If a ship shoots you, that type would be known to have weapons. If it launches a missile in the scanner range, it would be known to have pylons. Speed and mass would be known, if target lock is held long enough.

There's some good ideas here. I'll ponder them over while making a new version. Thanks a lot.

[spara]

Cheers for all the ideas and comments. After a lot of pondering and testing I decided to make it a simple ambiance oxp to bring some of that Status Quo to the game. Hence the name change. It's very simple, so there should be no big problems, but you never know. I'll let it be a WIP for a while and if no weird stuff is found, then make it a release and put it to the wiki.