Display_reputation.oxp v1.2 now available

[Commander McLane]

This is just a small addition for those of you pursuing a career in the passenger, parcel or contract market, who want to have a hint to how good their reputation currently is.

The OXP displays three lines in the "missions" section of your manifest screen (F5-F5), informing you about your respective reputation rating in a human (feline/insectoid/lobster/...) -readable way.

Available from the Elite Wiki: [wiki]Display reputation OXP[/wiki]

v1.2 adds the parcel deliveries that were added in Oolite 1.77. Other than that (and getting rid of a defunct event handler), there are no changes.

[Corny]

I do a lot of passenger transports, but wasn't all too interested in a precise "rating". But now that you made it anyway, I'll try it for sure

[Poro]

Right on Commander!

[Diziet Sma]

Thanks, Commander McLane, it's just what I had in mind...

[Commander McLane]

Taking up a suggestion by Eric Walch I made a minor upgrade to the OXP.

In the initial OXP, if you had a failed delivery and would jump from the report screen to the manifest screen immediately, your status change wouldn't yet be factored in. This could be addressed by simply adding another event handler.

Version 1.1 is therefore now available from the Wiki.

[Albee]

Commander, something strange seems to be happening with my rep when contract hauling. A few days ago I undertook a run from Inus to Reesdice. My rep was reported as follows (goods/passengers):-

Inus: medium trustworthy/starting to make a name
Isanlequ: good/unheard of
Anxeonis: ditto
Xequerin:medium trustworthy/starting to make a name
Esanbe: good/long way to go
Diedar: medium trustworthy/feeble beginnings

(and so on and so forth, down to...)

Reesdice: good but not yet top/feeble beginnings

Am I right in assuming my rep shouldn't be 'wandering' in this fashion? Please note that I'm not currently ferrying passengers, though I did do a few runs with my first ship early on in my career.

[Diziet Sma]

Must admit I've wondered about this myself.. I'm guessing it has something to do with the way reputation is calculated within the Oolite core, as the display reputation OXP itself is pretty unambiguous in the way it reports.

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_0</key>
	<string>Nobody has ever heard of you delivering a cargo contract.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_1</key>
	<string>You are in the feeble beginnings of the cargo contract business.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_2</key>
	<string>Still a long way to go for you in the cargo contract business.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_3</key>
	<string>You're starting to make a name in the cargo contract business.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_4</key>
	<string>You are generally considered a medium trustworthy cargo contractor.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_5</key>
	<string>On the cargo contract market you have a good, but not yet top standing.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_6</key>
	<string>Your cargo contract reputation is almost impeccable.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_7</key>
	<string>Congratulations! You're the most renowned cargo contractor in the galaxy!</string>
	<key>display_reputation_contract_minus</key>
	<string>You still have a lot to do to wipe out your bad reputation among cargo contractors.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_0</key>
	<string>Nobody has ever heard of you ferrying a passenger.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_1</key>
	<string>You are in the feeble beginnings of the passenger ferrying business.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_2</key>
	<string>Still a long way to go for you in the passenger ferrying business.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_3</key>
	<string>You're starting to make a name in the passenger ferrying business.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_4</key>
	<string>You are generally considered a medium trustworthy passenger carrier.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_5</key>
	<string>On the passenger ferrying market you have a good, but not yet top standing.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_6</key>
	<string>Your passenger ferrying reputation is almost impeccable.</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_7</key>
	<string>Congratulations! You're the most renowned passenger carrier in the galaxy!</string>
	<key>display_reputation_passenger_minus</key>
	<string>You still have a lot to do to wipe out your bad reputation among passengers.</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Granted, reputation fades by a small amount over a random amount of jumps, but that wouldn't explain why it sometimes improves by itself during a cargo run.

Is some kind of rounding error being introduced, when oolite core converts its' own internal 'reputation score' into an integer, then stores it in player.contractReputation? (Guessing here.. I haven't poked around in the source-code in a long time)

[Commander McLane]

Must admit I've wondered about this myself.. I'm guessing it has something to do with the way reputation is calculated within the Oolite core

Indeed. Internally, your reputation is represented by a simple integer number between 0 and 7. And there is a mechanism that lets this number fluctuate by +/-1 between jumps (additional to the mechanism that lets it slowly and randomly decrease over time). I can't say why this mechanism was introduced; perhaps just to allow for some variations in the contracts on offer (for instance, you can get lucky and be offered a valuable contract even shortly before you 'earned' it; and even with a high reputation there won't be the most valuable offers everywhere). All the OXP does is to expose this mechanism, which you else wouldn't notice. Insofar the OXP may break your immersion a little.

I'm sorry for that, but can't change it. It's the unavoidable side effect that comes with the ability to follow your reputation in the first place.

[Albee]

I'm sorry for that, but can't change it. It's the unavoidable side effect that comes with the ability to follow your reputation in the first place.

Thanks for the clarification, Commander. And it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that there should be some in-flight variation -- indeed, consistency of information between planets light years apart would be highly unlikely, I would have thought, especially since this particular information is little more than gossip.

I presume this means I could arrive at my destination with a lower rep than I started out with, even though I'd just successfully completed my contract. Again, not unreasonable in the 'real' world of space travel, but certainly disappointing! Can I ask, is it theoretically possible for a hauler who is supremely unlucky to complete a 7-jump voyage, only to find his rep has gone from 'You're the most renowned cargo carrier in the galaxy' to 'Nobody has ever heard of you'? Now that would be disappointing!

(Oh no, wait a minute... presumably there's a +1 on your final dock if the deadline has been met, so the worst you could ever see would be 'feeble beginnings'. Have I understood the mechanism properly?)

[cim]

I presume this means I could arrive at my destination with a lower rep than I started out with, even though I'd just successfully completed my contract. Again, not unreasonable in the 'real' world of space travel, but certainly disappointing! Can I ask, is it theoretically possible for a hauler who is supremely unlucky to complete a 7-jump voyage, only to find his rep has gone from 'You're the most renowned cargo carrier in the galaxy' to 'Nobody has ever heard of you'? Now that would be disappointing!

It's not completely impossible, but the odds against it are fairly high. (Your chance of losing rep is 1 in 32 every jump, so losing all 7 rep in consecutive jumps is 1 in 34 billion)

[Albee]

Your chance of losing rep is 1 in 32 every jump

What about the chance of gaining rep -- are the odds the same? If so, it doesn't seem to gel with the example I quoted above. In a 9-jump trip, my contract rep changed 5 times, while my passenger rep changed 7 times.

[cim]

Your chance of losing rep is 1 in 32 every jump

What about the chance of gaining rep -- are the odds the same? If so, it doesn't seem to gel with the example I quoted above. In a 9-jump trip, my contract rep changed 5 times, while my passenger rep changed 7 times.

That's not a gain to your rep as such - it's just variation in what the local population think of you.

[Diziet Sma]

Thanks for the clarification, Commander McLane.. that's helpful to know.. And Albee's bit of handwavium explains it nicely..

[Commander McLane]

Thanks to being pushed a little by Norby, I've amended the OXP to give information about your parcel delivery reputation as well.

All relevant information in the first post of the thread.


By the way: I am amazed to see that this seems to be my most popular OXP by far, with 2913 downloads of v1.1. I honestly wouldn't have expected that.

[Diziet Sma]

By the way: I am amazed to see that this seems to be my most popular OXP by far, with 2913 downloads of v1.1. I honestly wouldn't have expected that.

<chuckles> I remember that when I first requested such an OXP, you didn't think there was really even any need for it..

Thanks for the upgrade, btw!