[UPDATED RELEASE 03-07-2014] Superhub V1.6 OXZ

[pagroove]

Very nice Norby . Should give the extra planets more varied stations.

[pagroove]

I'll start with this, it's very straight forward to do.

Ok.

Let's get back to these later.They need to be thought out properly and if found worth it then coded and tested etc. I'll keep thinking.

Yes. But those special contracts/parcel combinations really sound like an interesting idea.

Or could we perhaps borrow something from Bloomberg Markets OXP so that randomly a random SuperHub requires a vast amount of random commodities and are willing to pay premium prices? There could also be some side products for sale with throwaway prices. We could think out some combinations and add some flavor to the game via Snoopers. Like "SuperHub at location A is producing B and is paying premium prices for C and D. As a side effect huge quantities of E are being produced and thrown out at ridiculous prices. Production will last till F. Hurry up and help them out!" And yes, someone with proper writing skills would be needed here . Also some nice jargOOn generator is needed.

Really good idea.

Example mission description:

Code: Select all

 " Commander. Superhub at Maraus G7 has secured a firm order of 200 solar power arrays. However stocks of supplies are running low. The Maraus Superhub now pays premium prices for each commander who ships in the following items: " Machinery, Computers and Alloys". Maraus Superhub are also glad if commanders could transport the following waste products away: "radioactives" 

What an interesting idea! We could offer some higher TL equipment at a lower TL system for a combination of commodities. Something like "A * Machinery + B * Computers + C * Alloys + D * Platinum = Scanner Targeting Enhancement". Some thought out formulas would be needed for this.

Yes and those items are cheaper than buying it but you have to supply the parts yourself. Do you think it is also possible to offer special items like a tunable laser in the Laser Center (see new lasers.oxp). I'm thinking of a menu where you can (sensibly) tune the laser in game parameters yourself.

But I think this is difficult?

[spara]

Let's start with a simple update that makes the oxp work correctly with Oolite 1.82.

* station AI updated from plist to js.
* old style station keys updated to new style.
* name of the station systematically changed to "Superhub".
* vertex shader renamed to avoid clashes with other OXPs
* subentities updated
* script updated with "use strict"
* defined dock subentity. dock model borrowed from rescue stations OXP by cim.
* market defined with capacity of 255. prices match main station prices. quantities get randomized.

Note, this version uses the higher resolution texture by default.

Version 1.6.1: https://app.box.com/s/poj33a55b79zw6cyopme94fugmhgj5zr

Norby PMd me that he holds the key to the manager. PAGroove, do you want to manage the manager as an author of this OXP or should I get the manager rights so I can update it when new versions are done? Anyway I'll be posting links to test versions here for anyone wanting to check them out.

[pagroove]

Let's start with a simple update that makes the oxp work correctly with Oolite 1.82.

* station AI updated from plist to js.
* old style station keys updated to new style.
* name of the station systematically changed to "Superhub".
* vertex shader renamed to avoid clashes with other OXPs
* subentities updated
* script updated with "use strict"
* defined dock subentity. dock model borrowed from rescue stations OXP by cim.
* market defined with capacity of 255. prices match main station prices. quantities get randomized.

Note, this version uses the higher resolution texture by default.

Version 1.6.1: https://app.box.com/s/poj33a55b79zw6cyopme94fugmhgj5zr

Norby PMd me that he holds the key to the manager. PAGroove, do you want to manage the manager as an author of this OXP or should I get the manager rights so I can update it when new versions are done? Anyway I'll be posting links to test versions here for anyone wanting to check them out.

Downloaded.
If you can manage the manger I'il be ok with it. .

[spara]

About the distribution. The original distribution is purely TL based and looks like this:

G1: 6
G2: 4
G3: 7
G4: 2
G5: 6
G6: 6
G7: 9
G8: 1

Looking at these numbers I think that 10 per galaxy I was thinking about earlier is too much. I think that Superhubs should remain rare and 10 is just too much for that. But that G8 with just one will not work with our other plans. So I did a little number crunching and propose that instead of TL, the distribution is based on productivity. I think it also makes more sense. With a limit of 45000 the distribution looks like this:

G1: 7
G2: 8
G3: 9
G4: 2
G5: 7
G6: 6
G7: 10
G8: 4

G4 will be a bit special, but I think it will work out just fine as those two systems are quite far from each other. A certain incident might change that though, but it just needs to be taken into account.

[pagroove]

Well that certainly looks sensible. I am in G7 at the moment and the current 9 feel ok but looking at your distribution it will be 10. I think I can live with that. The green flag is given to tweak the populator to distribute on basis of productivity.

[spara]

Version 1.6.2 should now be available from the manager.

* new population rule.
* new bigger dock model by Norby so that it works with BIG ships too. Thanks Norby .

[Norby]

it works with BIG ships too.

Up to 1300x1300x2000m, which is enough for me (Andromeda: 795x358x1368m) but still there are some bigger ships.

I searched roles with dock in all OXPs for my HD backgrounds (I gathered 203 independent roles so far so I need "a bit" more free images than I currently have) and I found one more object with larger dock than usual:  Super Dredger can load ships up to 1120x560x2400m.



Comparing sizes with Superhub:

[spara]

A test version, 1.6.3, adds special market events to Superhubs. Needs Snoopers to work as these are advertised through it.

In this test version

* special market event from a few posts above gets generated after a couple of jumps. in final version these will be much rarer.
* market events don't work in G4 for me being too lazy to think of a workaround. this will probably stay like this.
* main market has the same price ups and downs as superhub to prevent too easy profit from zipping between them.
* these are meant to be challenging missions so deadline is quite close. I was able to make money, but I'm very much interested on a second opinions. note that in comparison to bloomberg (now non-functioning) these have multiple bargains at one time.

PAGroove, more missions are needed. After a bit of testing I concluded that instead of randomly generated jargon there should be something like 10-20 thought out missions like the example you posted. The reason being that the product/situation is tied to the materials that are tied to the wastes. Would need a very clever word smith to make that work through a random generator jargon generator. All missions need to have at least one material or waste. There's no upper limit on either.

Download here: https://app.box.com/s/a6eh0x5kdz1qfhrweimli4l90o9i50h0

[pagroove]

Hi Spara. Thanks for the update. I now need some time testing the new mechanisms. After I have done that I hope to have a more detailed view on how the mission descriptions should be.

Give me a week to test the current version. When I'm done I will post here. Anyway very much thanks for updating this OXP.

[spara]

Hi Spara. Thanks for the update. I now need some time testing the new mechanisms. After I have done that I hope to have a more detailed view on how the mission descriptions should be.

Give me a week to test the current version. When I'm done I will post here. Anyway very much thanks for updating this OXP.

That's great. Take your time, make notes of bugs and weird behavior and I'll fix them. Maybe you'll even get a genius idea of randomizing the whole mission creation process .

[Mazur]

Hi Spara. Thanks for the update. I now need some time testing the new mechanisms. After I have done that I hope to have a more detailed view on how the mission descriptions should be.

Give me a week to test the current version. When I'm done I will post here. Anyway very much thanks for updating this OXP.

That's great. Take your time, make notes of bugs and weird behavior and I'll fix them. Maybe you'll even get a genius idea of randomizing the whole mission creation process .

I have SuperHubs installed, and twice now, approached one, both times I got the message, somewhat like: "All ships are denied access".
Do I need to configure something? Buy a license? Offend someone? They are listed in the Market Inquirer like regular stations, advertising their prices.

[spara]

Hi Spara. Thanks for the update. I now need some time testing the new mechanisms. After I have done that I hope to have a more detailed view on how the mission descriptions should be.

Give me a week to test the current version. When I'm done I will post here. Anyway very much thanks for updating this OXP.

That's great. Take your time, make notes of bugs and weird behavior and I'll fix them. Maybe you'll even get a genius idea of randomizing the whole mission creation process .

I have SuperHubs installed, and twice now, approached one, both times I got the message, somewhat like: "All ships are denied access".
Do I need to configure something? Buy a license? Offend someone? They are listed in the Market Inquirer like regular stations, advertising their prices.

Superhubs are not restricted in any way. Now to think about it, I think I've seen that behavior earlier somewhere too. Not sure it was Superhub though. Might even be a core game problem as the station uses the core station AI.

[Mazur]

I have SuperHubs installed, and twice now, approached one, both times I got the message, somewhat like: "All ships are denied access".
Do I need to configure something? Buy a license? Offend someone? They are listed in the Market Inquirer like regular stations, advertising their prices.

Superhubs are not restricted in any way. Now to think about it, I think I've seen that behavior earlier somewhere too. Not sure it was Superhub though. Might even be a core game problem as the station uses the core station AI.

But there is still noone who can shed any light on this? None of the creators has any clue? And none of the people who made and improve the core game?

I've still to encounter a SuperHub that'll let me in. And I've added Norby's SuperHubs for Extra Planets, as well. No change.

[Norby]

"All ships are denied access"

I can dock into any Superhubs on my machine. Are you tried "c", "shift+C" (I assume you have Docking Computer) and also simply going into without authorization?