Cloak & Dagger Mission

[Frame]

While I could perfectly easy for me to go ahead and create one myself as an OXP I feel that this should be included in vanilla Oolite as a mission, since it apparently appears in several versions of Oolite Starting with its mysterious appearance on the Commodore 64 Version.

also because I have reconstructed the Cougar vertex by vertex, face by face from the original data

This is the outline of the mission..

Mission Prerequisites:

Player rank need be at least Deadly.

Player need to have done a trip round all 8 Galaxy Charts,(checked on using galactic hyperdrive)

fufufilled Seek & Destroy mission & Thargoid document mission

Mission Triggers..

Player is in Galaxy 1 or 2...

Mission scope

Player is contacted like in the constrictor mission
from what happens there on is at the authors discretion

Reward
Authors discretion,However should not be a stealth device as this come from the shape of the ship.

I Would be willing to do it... However it would require some change to the code to make a new stealth ability. like

Code: Select all

has_stealth = yes;

which should then not draw a lollipop on the scanner, like the cloaking device...

Yes / No ?

Cheers Frame...

[Lestradae]

... a stealth device as this come from the shape of the ship. ... I Would be willing to do it... However it would require some change to the code to make a new stealth ability. like

Code: Select all

has_stealth = yes;

... which should then not draw a lollipop on the scanner, like the cloaking device ...

Erm ... the fully functional Scanner Jammer perhaps, which has been lying dormant in Oolite's code since 2004?

[another_commander]

I think we've discussed the Scanner Jammer pretty exhaustively already. Les, feel free to have it fully functional in Oolite Extended.

The "no lollipop on scanner" can be already achieved in trunk by setting scannerDisplayColor1 (and scannerDisplayColor2, for extra certainty) to [0,0,0,0]. This will cause the lollipop to be drawn with full transparency, i.e. be invisible.

[Frame]

... a stealth device as this come from the shape of the ship. ... I Would be willing to do it... However it would require some change to the code to make a new stealth ability. like

Code: Select all

has_stealth = yes;

... which should then not draw a lollipop on the scanner, like the cloaking device ...

Erm ... the fully functional Scanner Jammer perhaps, which has been lying dormant in Oolite's code since 2004?

The Cloak I can understand(ala star trek), I have never understood where the cloak entrance into Oolite came from anyway.. I have never seen a cloaking device described anywhere in the classic elite versions.

There is not much point in making a ship stealthy during the construction if all you need to do is to just install a device..

however not a stealth ship, which very structure defines how well it is stealthy, this is true for the F 117 for example. which is perhaps the worlds only true stealth fighter.. while the others are just carrying radar reflection reducing technology.

While the F22 is just a smaller blip in the radar and not true stealth, and therefore automatic systems can mistake it for being not a fighter craft.. but maybe a rather large bird... or small missile

I still think this should be bound the the ship, rather than just being another piece of transferable equipment.

Cheers Frame

[Frame]

I think we've discussed the Scanner Jammer pretty exhaustively already. Les, feel free to have it fully functional in Oolite Extended.

The "no lollipop on scanner" can be already achieved in trunk by setting scannerDisplayColor1 (and scannerDisplayColor2, for extra certainty) to [0,0,0,0]. This will cause the lollipop to be drawn with full transparency, i.e. be invisible.

nice .
Hmm I assumed it would default to some color then.. Black on top of the red scanner

However regarding its inclusion into Vanilla Oolite ?, if such a Mission was written and tested ?.
Yes /No / Not until after MNSR / Other

Cheers Frame...

[Griff]

awesome bit of detective work there Frame remaking the Cougar from the C64 elite code! I'm pretty sure i met this ship too in C64 elite, i remember it blasting me rather quickly and i don't remember ever meeting it more than once although i spent ages searching for it again.

[Lestradae]

Les, feel free to have it fully functional in Oolite Extended.

OK, OK!

[Thargoid]

I think we've discussed the Scanner Jammer pretty exhaustively already. Les, feel free to have it fully functional in Oolite Extended.

The "no lollipop on scanner" can be already achieved in trunk by setting scannerDisplayColor1 (and scannerDisplayColor2, for extra certainty) to [0,0,0,0]. This will cause the lollipop to be drawn with full transparency, i.e. be invisible.

nice .
Hmm I assumed it would default to some color then.. Black on top of the red scanner

However regarding its inclusion into Vanilla Oolite ?, if such a Mission was written and tested ?.
Yes /No / Not until after MNSR / Other

Cheers Frame...

I can confirm that the code that A_C mentions works very well - a variant of it (changing the colour but not to invisibility) is in several of my 1.74 beta's.

If this does get included though I'll need to modify the new version of Target Autolock Plus, as that now automagically sets the lollipop of the players current target to flashing cyan/blue on the scanner. So that would rather go against the stealth capability by overriding it (either that or we'd end up with a script tug-of-war depending on how the stealth ship was coded).

I've no problem to do that (either for this as a trunk mission or as an OXP) but would need details when you get far enough in implementation.

[Thargoid]

And as it's now got me thinking, how did (or how should) the ECM jammer work? Is it specifically against the players missiles, or against the missiles of any ship?

For example if the player has an ECM Jammer and witnesses NPC a fire a missile at NPC B, should NPC B be able to jam the missile or not by default?

[Gimi]

And as it's now got me thinking, how did (or how should) the ECM jammer work? Is it specifically against the players missiles, or against the missiles of any ship?

For example if the player has an ECM Jammer and witnesses NPC a fire a missile at NPC B, should NPC B be able to jam the missile or not by default?

In order to not make this an "Über" weapon, I would suggest that it only works in relation to a targeted ship.

[Thargoid]

That's easily possible (it's just a variation on the new code in Target Reticle Plus), but I'm not sure having to keep a ship target-locked to suppress any ECM system they may have would feel right.

Plus it would also rather negate the whole usefulness of the concept, given the prevelent use of hard-head (or even less ECM-susceptible) missiles these days.

Can anyone remember (or test) if the original ECM Jammer affected all ships on scanner, or whether NPC-fired@-NPC missiles were still ECM'able. Although I guess inter-NPC ship combat in Elite didn't happen though.

[Cody]

In Elite Plus, the anti-ECM didn’t have to be targetted, but obviously the missile you were about to fire was locked-on… but it did drain energy, quite fast as I recall, much like the cloaking device does, I presume. As you say, it’s a bit pointless if you have ECM hardened missiles, but loss of energy in combat leads to careful and selective use. (And yeah, no NPC on NPC combat).

[Killer Wolf]

" I have never seen a cloaking device described anywhere in the classic elite versions. "
it was in one of the missions.

[Frame]

Regarding the Cougar, it is perfectly possible to do the following, as in to simulate a stealth ship, with the following weakness

Target Lock ala missile lock is possible when the cougar is in front of your ship.

It is not supposed to haunt the space lanes and should be only interested in attacking the player therefore it checks the players target every now and then with a timer..

If player has the cougar as target (or if there is a change target script event) , we can make the player loose target when the ship is not in front of the players ship.

My custom Plasma Turrets on The Polaris make extensive use of functions that check where the target is in regard to the ship, so it should be a matter of cut and paste..

I suggest the following

Invisible on Radar

Target Lock only possible in front of players ship, and even that we can limit... to how much from the centre it may deviate before a target loss event happens.. But some deviation is required so the we do not get the flickering of of target lock/target lost.

I thought about giving it a range to, however, since target acquirement is Hard Coded out until 25600 kms of range, we could end up having a flickering scenario, where it would go on and off all the time, like we used to with the cloaking device..

Same Energy as Constrictor (canon)
Same recharge as the Constrictor
no Injectors
no or little exhaust.. (dead give away)
dark paint scheme ala F 117 so it is hard to spot...

Thargoids Target Autolock Plus should check for a unique property: namely

Code: Select all

ship.isStealthy =  yes;

Cheers Frame

[Thargoid]

One question (thinking back to Solar System OXP and isGasGiant), is it generally agreed that own properties will be done in this kind of style, or are you thinking of this going into trunk as a new property?

Just for clarity, once things are agreed and the project is on the go I'll modify TA Plus accordingly.

Oh and on the parallel thread in this topic, can anyone remember which mission the ECM Jammer was linked to in the original Elite? I've decided to include mine as mission equipment in TCAT, as it seemed appropriate given I recall there was a link between the ECM jammer and an anti-thargoid mission (so you could use missiles on bugs) but I don't recall exact details.