OXP idea: Escape capsule locator

[Capt. Murphy]

Fair comment......would be worth building the functionality into the existing Police Scanner Upgrade and releasing a separate non-compatible and cheaper Rescue-Ship Scanner Upgrade for those that don't want the other Police Scanner functionality?

[Oathbreaker]

The OXP in preliminary, barely tested form (actually, not tested at all with 1.75.3), has been uploaded here:
http://www.box.net/shared/hngzh2jmx67royok2npo
I do not intend to maintain it, anyone who is willing to take it and develop it further, feel free to do so.

I'm testing it right now, seems to work just fine for me. I'll post if I come across a problem.

[Capt. Murphy]

It needs a bit of tweaking - for example to uncolour the escape pods in the event the equipment is damaged.

[Capt. Murphy]

Just a quick heads up that I'm working on this as a stand alone piece of equipment. Aswell as the custom scanner colours for Escape Pods, the intention is that the player will get a consoleMessage when an Escape Pod is launched anywhere in the current system giving the distance and approximate direction/heading to the pod. Unfortunately can't assign a beaconCode via JS so can't make pods appear on the Advanced Space Compass without replacing all escape pod shipdata entries.

edit: why did I just say giving the distance and approximate direction/heading to the pod. Did I momentarily forget that working with Vector3D is a big pain in the head . Ah well it's a learning experience. Don't hold your breath.

Another edit: a cunning plan has just hatched for a work-around to use the Advanced Space Compass.....

[Kaks]

Let me guess: escape pod locator beacon to spawn automatically in the vicinity of the pod when said pod ejection is detected?

[Oathbreaker]

Just a quick heads up that I'm working on this as a stand alone piece of equipment. Aswell as the custom scanner colours for Escape Pods, the intention is that the player will get a consoleMessage when an Escape Pod is launched anywhere in the current system giving the distance and approximate direction/heading to the pod. Unfortunately can't assign a beaconCode via JS so can't make pods appear on the Advanced Space Compass without replacing all escape pod shipdata entries.

edit: why did I just say giving the distance and approximate direction/heading to the pod. Did I momentarily forget that working with Vector3D is a big pain in the head . Ah well it's a learning experience. Don't hold your breath.

Another edit: a cunning plan has just hatched for a work-around to use the Advanced Space Compass.....

Umm I think this is *kind of* a good idea. It's a great idea that it would notify a user of an Escape Pod launch in the immediate vicinity (short range radio, I assume). I'm not so sure I would see a system-wide message as fully immersive, internally consistent gameplay as the Advanced Space Compass is crowded enough as it is (Rock Hermit Locator, Fuel Stations, Random Hits bars etc ad nauseaum).

Then again, I like my gameplay to feel like I'm running around in an internally consistent and believable world where there are real consequences for your actions, e.g. the way the game handles player "death" and how stupidly often you die just running around is a bit too-console-gaming for me.

I understand others just want their game to feel like a "game" though, so to each their own.

[Capt. Murphy]

Spot on Kaks - tiny low mass/density entity, invisible on scanner, scripted to be non target-able.

Decision to make - Do escape pods broadcast an initial system wide distress call on launch to ships with the appropriate equipment so the beacon stays static and marks the launch spot or should the beacon be scripted to follow it's escape pod on it's journey i.e. an ongoing distress signal.

I'm thinking the latter, having worked out in my head the method to keep a beacon tied to the escape pod in various scenarios (accidental destruction of the beacon by collision with another entity etc.)

Edit for OathBreaker: - I think this is kind of a specialist bit of equipment for those that want to make a living as a professional rescuer. Will also come in handy for players of Random Hits whose mark sneakily ejects whilst it's cohorts are distracting the player. And it would need a little more than custom scanner colours to merit the moniker escape pod locator.

[CommonSenseOTB]

I have a question Capt.Murphy.

Is it not possible to have a timer check equipment status every 2 seconds and have all escape pods either replaced with ones with beacon code in their shipdata.plist if the equipment is there or vice versa and as well have a function that when a ship is spawned that is an escape pod it is removed and replaced with the one that has a beacon code?

Just a thought.

[Capt. Murphy]

A good one at that....but I would need to like_ship to something and that will cause problems if people have for example griff's installed and don't want to see core model pods in game.

[Cody]

A good one at that....but I would need to like_ship to something and that will cause problems if people have for example griff's installed and don't want to see core model pods in game.

A simple overrides.plist for specific shipset users could be available as an addin.

[Capt. Murphy]

I don't think an override would work El Viejo, it would give all escape pods a Beacon Code irrespective of whether the player had installed the equipment.

I could do something with shipdata.plist and role probability though......only issue would be if there is any other OXP with a custom named model with an escape-capsule role - it would certainly make for a much simpler script.

[Cody]

I don't think an override would work El Viejo, it would give all escape pods a Beacon Code irrespective of whether the player had installed the equipment.

Heh... that's why I'm just a pilot.

[CommonSenseOTB]

A good one at that....but I would need to like_ship to something and that will cause problems if people have for example griff's installed and don't want to see core model pods in game.

Ah, well your probably right. Was just a thought.

[Capt. Murphy]

Nope it is a good idea, and I may be able to work around the issue. Although have now thought of another one....
Question for the devs - are the messages on scooping pods and report screen bounties based on the scooped item having the escape-capsule role? Does it have to be the primary role?

edit - answered my own question....CSOTB - I think your suggestion can be done.

[Kaks]

CSOTB, there's one more thing to take into account too: if the escape pod locator is damaged, all the beacons need to be killed off too (and turned on again if you've got repair bots, etc...).