Oolite Bulletins

DaddyHoggy wrote:

So will you be including an out? (without the need for an OXP I mean or a Gal-HD)

I’d like to, but I haven’t seen/thought of an option I really like.

At least you can’t save in interstellar space. ;-)

Ahruman wrote:

At least you can’t save in interstellar space.

You know, if you made the save/reload location based on the galaxy co-ordinates, rather than system number, we'd be able to save anywhere.

as an out i suggested a distress signal a ways back, a powerful blast that would take up, say, 90% of your energy. you then have to wait to see if rescue comes (ie another ship to sell you fule or open a cloud for you to piggyback), or pirates looking for an easy kill, or more Thargoids. seems in keeping w/ the game and gives you a definite chance of survival, or not if you're a cac combateer ~ which is about normal for system fighting too.

Eldon wrote:

If offering a get out option is seen as too easy then it would be "kindest" to send an unending stream of thargoids at a player who doesn't have enough fuel to reach a nearby system. Kill them off so that they can at least "Press space commander" rather than having to pause, begin a new game, then reload their last save (or just quit totally and restart).

If you're going to kill me, have the decency to do it properly please.

Hmm so perhaps spawn a Thargoid every 10 seconds. Then we see who/what dies first - the player in game, or the game itself (memory overflow anybody?)

How many Thargoids can fit into 2GB of RAM?

Ahruman wrote:

DaddyHoggy wrote:

So will you be including an out? (without the need for an OXP I mean or a Gal-HD)

I’d like to, but I haven’t seen/thought of an option I really like.

At least you can’t save in interstellar space.

There could be a difference between what happens in an accidental (i.e. randomly generated) misjump and a scripted/deliberate/player-induced misjump, where the accidental one contained a built-in way out and the s/d/p-i one didn't. That would mean that OXPs could do their own thing, anyone who actively went bug hunting would have to be prepared, and someone who was just unlucky could still have a chance to escape (ideally only if they managed to defeat all the Thargoids).

The accidental misjump would be vanilla only: four Thargoids versus the player. Then there could be a death_action for the final Thargoid which opens the escape hatch – by reopening the player's wormhole, or by burping out a couple of odd alien canisters which just happen to contain quirium, say (although that would mean the player would need a functioning fuel scoop ...). Or there could be, somewhere, a derelict something (Generation Ship?) a long way off (but big enough to see) that the Thargoids are guarding, which the player can dock with and escape with not only some fuel but a little reward too perhaps? Or maybe there could be multiple possible endings? A genuine accidental misjump isn't something that happens every day.

This is probably trickier to do, from a programming point of view anyway, but – given how much OXP stuff there is floating around in interstellar space – maybe it's time to separate them from the random, original mini-mission (and fix the mini-mission so it works properly)?

Bugbear wrote:

Eldon wrote:

If offering a get out option is seen as too easy then it would be "kindest" to send an unending stream of thargoids at a player who doesn't have enough fuel to reach a nearby system. Kill them off so that they can at least "Press space commander" rather than having to pause, begin a new game, then reload their last save (or just quit totally and restart).

If you're going to kill me, have the decency to do it properly please.

Hmm so perhaps spawn a Thargoid every 10 seconds. Then we see who/what dies first - the player in game, or the game itself (memory overflow anybody?)

How many Thargoids can fit into 2GB of RAM?

I'd prefer "spawn a Thargoid if there's none" in such a situation.

Zireael wrote:

Bugbear wrote:

Eldon wrote:

If offering a get out option is seen as too easy then it would be "kindest" to send an unending stream of thargoids at a player who doesn't have enough fuel to reach a nearby system. Kill them off so that they can at least "Press space commander" rather than having to pause, begin a new game, then reload their last save (or just quit totally and restart).

If you're going to kill me, have the decency to do it properly please.

Hmm so perhaps spawn a Thargoid every 10 seconds. Then we see who/what dies first - the player in game, or the game itself (memory overflow anybody?)

How many Thargoids can fit into 2GB of RAM?

I'd prefer "spawn a Thargoid if there's none" in such a situation.

I was being facetious but my point was that if you've got a player who is at least Dangerous, they would be able to handle a single Thargoids with ease, hence the ever increasing numbers until the player is overwhelmed.

For me, I've found that if you can get the Thargoids about 20km aft, they don't close on you to be able to open fire, so a player with an aft Military laser can snipe away with impunity. So you'd also want the Thargoids spawning in front of the player.

How about:

n = 1
While Player is alive { Spawn n Thargoids; n++; Wait for Thargoids to be defeated } Loop

(This sub-thread is getting sort of academic isn't it )

Is this to run the player out of interstellar space?
A way out for players "stuck" in interstellar space by an accidental misjump is if other traders used the player's wormhole and show up as much as 3 minutes after the player. So long as the player jumps near the main station or witchspace beacon, other traders are likely to use that wormhole to save themselves fuel + time.

Taking the all-or-nothing approach, misjumps to interstellar space drag EVERYTHING from the same wormhole there...should give the player more of a fighting chance against a few Thargoids as well as a possible escape on another trader's exit wormhole after/during the battle.

I like the once the last Thargoid is destroyed a new wormhole opens to the player's original destination option. Would need to able to switch the option off via script so that OXP's that want the player to do other stuff in interstellar space can still do so.

Perhaps "How to get out of Interstellar Space without dying, even if you win if you don't have any oxps" discussion (needs a snazzier title) should be split?

Oolite should be unforgiving and harsh, but not so harsh that there's no way to survive a situation that the player did not explicitly and wantonly get themselves into with full knowledge of how dangerous it was, such as taking a blank Adder into an Anarchy system.

OT:

A. WTB easy, simple way to have mouse-control enabled in windowed mode. Also a way to maximize that window on one screen. I know the first is doable via some editing of some file or other, but that's a wee bit technical for most average gamers.

B. Accidentally landing one or two shots on a cop or a station currently gets you Fugitive immediately. Maybe make it Offender instead?

C. When loading an autosaved game you currently get "Welcome Commader Jameson (autosave)". Seems a bit un-immersive, but I suppose it works.

Prior to splitting off the Oolite 2 GitHub project, I started a private wiki to help with designing and documenting new features. It mostly contains my design notes for intended features. I’ll be deleting it at some point, but until then it is here.

Ahruman wrote:

Prior to splitting off the Oolite 2 GitHub project, I started a private wiki to help with designing and documenting new features. It mostly contains my design notes for intended features. I’ll be deleting it at some point, but until then it is here.

It's an impressive list - but I'm wondering why you would delete it - perhaps the other Devs might agree (in whole or part) with your grand plan and would like to carry it on? And users/members could see stuff being filled in as it happens - or see confirmations that certain things will not.