[RELEASE] InterstellarRescue.oxp

[Okti]

What is the most feared event for a Commander. Having a miss jump and ending in interstellar space with out fuel.

This equipment is an end to this fear, can be bought from TL 12 + systems for 10 000 Credits. You must try this magic OXP to get to a nearby system from interstellar space.

This equipment can be primed by Shift n and can be used by pressing n in interstellar space.

Enjoy

The OXP can be download here

[lohwengk]

What is the most feared event for a Commander. Having a miss jump and ending in interstellar space with out fuel.

This equipment is an end to this fear, can be bought from TL 12 + systems for 10 000 Credits. You must try this magic OXP to get to a nearby system from interstellar space.

This equipment can be primed by Shift n and can be used by pressing n in interstellar space.

Enjoy

The OXP can be download here

More is always better, I suppose. Not that I'm complaining, but how is this different from http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Interstellar_help_OXP ?

[Okti]

More is always better, I suppose. Not that I'm complaining, but how is this different from http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Interstellar_help_OXP ?

Interstellar Help is a bit different than this OXP, In Interstellar Help, either you are helped by an NPC, if you don't have enough fuel, or you can help a NPC by transfering fuel or let him jump through your wormwhole.

This one uses a special device to take you into safety.

[Commander McLane]

This one uses a special device to take you into safety.

According to its readMe and to its equipment.plist it uses magic, not a special device.

As far as I'm concerned, magic doesn't exist in Oolite. Therefore I won't be installing this OXP, I'm afraid.

Or you could come up with a slightly more elaborate and meaningful explanation.

[Okti]

This one uses a special device to take you into safety.

According to its readMe and to its equipment.plist it uses magic, not a special device.

As far as I'm concerned, magic doesn't exist in Oolite. Therefore I won't be installing this OXP, I'm afraid.

Or you could come up with a slightly more elaborate and meaningful explanation.

It uses a station and magic is build in to oolite.

[Okti]

Though player.ship.launch() does not work in the way I thought, so I had to use a mission screen to force player press F1.

[Commander McLane]

It uses a station and magic is build in to oolite.

A station that magically appears out of nowhere just in front of the player?!?

No thank you, I prefer my own game experience to make a minimum of sense. The word 'magically' in the description of this OXP and its device is just a euphemism for 'cheat', I'm afraid.

[Okti]

It uses a station and magic is build in to oolite.

A station that magically appears out of nowhere just in front of the player?!?

No thank you, I prefer my own game experience to make a minimum of sense. The word 'magically' in the description of this OXP and its device is just a euphemism for 'cheat', I'm afraid.

Same as NPC appearing in interstellar space

[DaddyHoggy]

I see no reason why a NPC ship, also pulled into a Thargoid trap a little while after the Player (but who has dealt with all the nasty bugs) might appear in the same spot of Interstellar space as the player (started at the same system, was targeting the same destination) but a Station? A non-jump capable immoveable station? Hmmm.....

[Okti]

I see no reason why a NPC ship, also pulled into a Thargoid trap a little while after the Player (but who has dealt with all the nasty bugs) might appear in the same spot of Interstellar space as the player (started at the same system, was targeting the same destination) but a Station? A non-jump capable immoveable station? Hmmm.....

Well it is up to the player to install or not to install the OXP at the end of the day. I just wanted to show, there may be other ways the player can survive through a difficult situation. That is a behavior in oolite, which I found yesterday. And it seemed like a good Idea to work on that behavior. I used the station entry from Thargoids PlanetFall(nicked it ) and that is not a behavior of oolite as well, but at the end of day, the next version may be interstellar escape pod version of that small oxp.

But to stamp an OXP as a cheat is rather anoying.

[DaddyHoggy]

Commander McLane can sometimes be a little forthright and his ideal of the Ooniverse often differs from many on the Forum. I'm sure no offence was intended, but I understand why it could be taken as such - text is not a great medium for the transference of actual meaning or intent...

Does it have to be a station? A special ship perhaps - issued by Galcop, to keep traders happy that they'll be rescued in Thargoid heavy zones and thus keep the trade lanes open...

[Okti]

There was a discussion about that in oolite 2 thread, which can be done in current version. But my intention was to use an unrealistic behaivor built in the current version.

[Commander McLane]

... to use an unrealistic behaivor ...

... which is my whole point. It's unrealistic that the player would dock with an invisible station out of the blue in interstellar space. Which explanation can be given for a station popping up out of nowhere and sucking in the player ship? I can't think of one.

The comparison with Planetfall misses the point. While you may just have copied the technical aspect, you seem to have overlooked that in Planetfall.oxp this technique makes sense. There is a planet, and there are landing ports on that planet. That these landing ports are technically realized through a barrel-sized station is irrelevant. The point is that it does intrinsically make sense to land on a planet. It doesn't make sense, however, to land on (or dock with) nothing in the middle of nothing, and again the technical realization is irrelevant to that point.

The comparison with Interstellar Help misses the point again. It does make sense that there are other trade ships in interstellar space. They can have mis-jumped themselves, either accidentally or intentionally. You wouldn't expect the player to be the only person in the Ooniverse who sometimes mis-jumps, would you? And as we all know how deadly mis-jumps potentially are, it also makes sense to assume that pilots would help each other in this dire situation.

In other words: both Planetfall and Interstellar Help add a feature to the game which is well thought-out. Their creators thought about a back story and integrated their features into the known facts and features of the Ooniverse. Therefore their OXPs make sense within the framework of what we know about the Ooniverse (although of course everybody is free to disagree with their back story and therefore to not install the OXPs).

What I'm missing is a similar attempt with Interstellar Rescue. It offers a feature for which there is no back story, no explanation at all within the framework of how the Oolite-universe works. It is indeed simply magic. It is counter-intuitive. Personally I can't imagine why a station would suddenly pop up out of nowhere right in my ship's path, ten meters ahead. Because I have pressed a button? I didn't know that a station-creation button existed in GalCop space. GalCop probably doesn't know as well. Why would they go through the hassle of building stations, if each ship could easily carry an instant-station with it, popping into existence whenever the pilot wants it to? What about all the people who run this station? The station master? The workers in the docking bay? The equipment-shop-keeper? The traders on the station market? Do they all pop into existence out of nowhere as well? Or do you carry them with you as micro-miniaturized nano-particles until you press the 'N' button?

If your OXP wants to fit into the framework of the Oolite universe, it should give answers to at least some of these questions. It doesn't yet. Perhaps you can imagine why a station would suddenly pop up out of nowhere right in my ship's path, ten meters ahead. That's fine. I would love to read your explanation of how that works within the laws of physics which make up the Ooniverse. Unfortunately you haven't given your explanation, neither in the OXP itself nor in its readMe.

What I'm suggesting is that you can (and should) think about it and find some answers. Put some effort into integrating your new feature into the world of Oolite as we know it. As it stands now, it gives the player a game-changing advantage without any discernible in-game reason or logic. And that is pretty much the definition of 'cheat', at least in my book.

Note that I'm not opposed to cheating as such. Every player is free to cheat as much as he wants. But we should at least be honest about it. If something is effectively a cheat (because it isn't explained—even cannot be explained—within the framework of the game rules), it should be called a cheat.

[Okti]

Any way, You are free to make comments according to your understanding of oouniverse, but don't forget it is not real at all

[JensAyton]

... to use an unrealistic behaivor ...

... which is my whole point. It's unrealistic that the player would dock with an invisible station out of the blue in interstellar space.

The station is a mechanism; it’s not important. What’s needed is a good backstory/motivation.