Escape pods on 4668

[Svengali]

but its thrust is thrust to low to have a serious effect.

Which gives some odd results - I shot a fleeing Fer-de-lance while it was using its injectors, and I ran out of fuel for my own injectors before I could catch up with the resulting high-speed escape pod. I did see a Moray SAR racing after it, so it might have been caught before it left the system...

This is why the escapepods in Vector are using a higher thrust to stop them flying for minutes at high speed. There I'm using thrust = 45; and this is a good value it seems. The pods can still go out of scanner range, but won't fly endless (ok, feels like) on high speeds.

[Kaks]

Making the escape vessels themselves out of paper both boosts profits and makes it less likely anyone will actually live to claim on the insurance.

Sound financial advice that!

I suppose a future StrongPods.oxp would have to increase the escape pods price quite considerably...

Come to think of it, there should also be the - remote - possibility for a player to die inside an escape pod when in a normal system too... Not to mention 'you're captured by pirates that will only let you go if you give them half your money', etc... I think it's all doable using the existing escape pod events...

Hmmm, I'm very tempted to add an escapePod.oxp to my too-long TODO list...

[Cmdr. Maegil]

Hmmm, I'm very tempted to add an escapePod.oxp to my too-long TODO list...

For the "fight to the death" crowd such as higher bounty criminals, how about adding a pod with a rear-mounted popgun - nothing really effective against a fully shielded ship, but still enough to give a damaged pursuer second thoughts.

[Cody]

Come to think of it, there should also be the - remote - possibility for a player to die inside an escape pod when in a normal system too.

I'd agree with that... by the ship's clock, you can be in an escape pod for quite a long time, and 'accidents' do happen!

[RyanHoots]

Yeah, I agree with EV. Besides, I remember as a young Jameson I ran in the escape pod at the first sign of danger, or if I had no cargo and was willing to pay 1,000 credits to dock.
It would be nice if the Escape Pod was less of a sure-fire way to get to the nearest station "quickly".

[Cmdr. Maegil]

It would be nice if the Escape Pod was less of a sure-fire way to get to the nearest station "quickly".

How hard would it be to make the escape pod flyable?

Being the smallest fish in the food chain would force the player to run the gauntlet with the pod, AND make the "hey, those are my spoils" thieving SAR ships actually an welcome sight.

[Fatleaf]

And just to throw a spanner into the works! Most of the pods I have seen disappear have not collided with anything. They were just happily sailing along and as I drew near to picking them up they just vanished like a fart in the wind. So the weak pod theory doesn't fit to the majority of cases I have seen.

[Disembodied]

Come to think of it, there should also be the - remote - possibility for a player to die inside an escape pod when in a normal system too... Not to mention 'you're captured by pirates that will only let you go if you give them half your money', etc...

I'd be wary of giving the Escape Pod a chance of failure, myself. By the time you've hit the eject button you've already failed – but you are at least still alive without having to reload from saved. It just seems to me like adding an arbitrary "Tough luck, you're dead" moment. What's the benefit? All it'll do is annoy players, who will then just reload from saved – which they could have done anyway without bothering to buy an Escape Pod and eject on time. Real life is cruel and arbitrary but these elements don't sit well in games, in my opinion.

"Captured by pirates" *could* be an option ... maybe not losing half your cash, though! Perhaps something like "having to do a favour": they can't steal your Credits because of yadayadayada, but they can lock up your account ... if you want to get access to more than (say) 100Cr/day, you have to make a few smuggling runs for them, or kill a competitor, or fetch them X tons of firearms, etc. It would be a challenge for the player, but one they could get out of and have a new tale to tell at the end of it.

[Cmdr. Maegil]

you have to make a few smuggling runs for them, or kill a competitor, or fetch them X tons of firearms, etc. It would be a challenge for the player, but one they could get out of and have a new tale to tell at the end of it.

Not to mention that'd be impracticable (the banks wouldn't freeze a client's account without a legal order, and if hacked they'd restore the account as soon as this were reported), that might go against the player's ethos, or cause the loss of ongoing contracts... I'd say it'd be better to demand a ransom for clean pilots, or offer a job if the player is wanted...

Hooking with another idea, the player then gets a pirate wingman, and earns "respect" for successful piracy runs - improving on the quality and quantity of followers.
Yes, I'm talking about that old vapourware called "Pirate Kings" OXP that gets mentioned every now and then.

P.S.: I'm perfectly aware of the feature lock, and I'm sorry for so many "how abouts"; I'm just playing my role on CSOTB's sig - "Take an idea from one person and twist or modify it in a different way as a return suggestion so another person can see a part of it that can apply to the oxp they are working on."

[Smivs]

I don't have an escape pod. As a member of the 'Church of the Last Save' I'm guaranteed a resurrection

[Fatleaf]

I got a PM from Svengali and he provided me with this code to give a go with. And the pods stopped disappearing. They soon end up dead in space but at least they still remain in-game. Hope it helps to figure what is going on. I used the same test oxp I gave to Kaks with no other oxp's in my AddOns folder.



just a thought. Please retry with a changed homeAI.plist.

Code: Select all

{
	GLOBAL =
	{
		ENTER = ("setSpeedFactorTo: 1.0", "setStateTo: MOVE_AWAY");
	};
	"HEAD_FOR_PLANET" =
	{
		ENTER = (setCourseToPlanet, checkCourseToDestination);
		"NOTHING_FOUND" = ("setStateTo: MOVE_AWAY");
		"COURSE_OK" = ("setSpeedFactorTo: 1.0", performFlyToRangeFromDestination);
		"DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED" = (landOnPlanet);
		"APPROACHING_SURFACE" = (landOnPlanet);
		UPDATE = (setCourseToPlanet, checkCourseToDestination, "pauseAI: 10.0");
	};
	"MOVE_AWAY" =
	{
		ENTER = (setDestinationToCurrentLocation, "setDesiredRangeTo: 7000.0", checkCourseToDestination);
		"COURSE_OK" = ("setSpeedFactorTo: 1.0", performFlyToRangeFromDestination);
		"DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED" = ("setAITo: dumbAI.plist");
		UPDATE = (checkCourseToDestination, "pauseAI: 10.0");
	};
}

[Capt. Murphy]

Mmm, I wonder if they are getting an incorrect "DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED" = (landOnPlanet); or
"APPROACHING_SURFACE" = (landOnPlanet); message in the original homeAI.plist?

Edit : Confirmed... spawned 20 capsules by the witchpoint with AI logging enabled. One (number 536) disappeared very quickly in response to a DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED message. I notice it received a WAYPOINT_SET message in response to checkCourseToDestination. Does this reset the desired_range? Maybe it needs a "WAYPOINT_SET" = ("setAITo: gotoWaypointAI.plist"); line? Also seems odd that it got a COURSE_OK and a WAYPOINT_SET message at the same time. How does that happen?

08:11:17.750 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action setCourseToPlanet
08:11:17.750 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action checkCourseToDestination
08:11:17.750 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action pauseAI: 10.0
08:11:17.765 [ai.message.receive]: AI homeAI.plist for Escape capsule 536 in state 'HEAD_FOR_PLANET' receives message 'WAYPOINT_SET'. Context: handling deferred message, stack depth: 0
08:11:17.765 [ai.message.receive]: AI homeAI.plist for Escape capsule 536 in state 'HEAD_FOR_PLANET' receives message 'COURSE_OK'. Context: handling deferred message, stack depth: 0
08:11:17.765 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action setSpeedFactorTo: 1.0
08:11:17.765 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action performFlyToRangeFromDestination
08:11:17.765 [ai.message.receive]: AI homeAI.plist for Escape capsule 536 in state 'HEAD_FOR_PLANET' receives message 'EXITED_WITCHSPACE'. Context: handling deferred message, stack depth: 0
08:11:30.625 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action setCourseToPlanet
08:11:30.625 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action checkCourseToDestination
08:11:30.625 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action pauseAI: 10.0
08:11:30.625 [ai.message.receive]: AI homeAI.plist for Escape capsule 536 in state 'HEAD_FOR_PLANET' receives message 'COURSE_OK'. Context: handling deferred message, stack depth: 0
08:11:30.625 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action setSpeedFactorTo: 1.0
08:11:30.625 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action performFlyToRangeFromDestination
08:11:30.625 [ai.message.receive]: AI homeAI.plist for Escape capsule 536 in state 'HEAD_FOR_PLANET' receives message 'DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED'. Context: handling deferred message, stack depth: 0
08:11:30.625 [ai.takeAction]: Escape capsule 536 to take action landOnPlanet
08:11:30.625 [planet.collide.shuttleLanded]: DEBUG: <ShipEntity 0x86e9790>{"Escape capsule" position: (-3153.41, -1930.94, -4243.89) scanClass: CLASS_CARGO status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT} landed on planet <OOPlanetEntity 0x14ea0028>{ID: 450 position: (0, 0, 733680) type: STELLAR_TYPE_NORMAL_PLANET radius: 61.140km}

Fatleaf - if you want to reproduce this test (with the extra logging) with your OXP add the following to the script and run with the original homeAI.plist

Code: Select all

this.shipSpawned = function (newship)
{
	if (newship.primaryRole === "escape-capsule")
	{newship.reportAIMessages = true;}
}

[Kaks]

Err, that HomeAi is an exact copy of what's in trunk (last changed in rev3809, a bit over a year ago), and it should be identical to what you have inside oolite.app.

Anyway, what Capt. Murphy says is exactly what's happening, but there's nothing 'wrong' there. Any NPC 'landing on a planet' simply vanishes from the universe.

The way I figured it out, was to add an extra message to the homeAI:

Code: Select all

      "DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED" = (landOnPlanet);
      "APPROACHING_SURFACE" = (landOnPlanet);

became

Code: Select all

      "DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED" = ("commsMessage: Landing!", landOnPlanet);
      "APPROACHING_SURFACE" = ("commsMessage: Landing!",landOnPlanet);

Restart with shift pressed, and you should get a "Landing!" message on the HUD a millisecond or two before the pod in question disappears forever.

The various pods try and find a convenient spot near the planet's surface, and each is assinged an individual - random - landing spot. That spot sometimes is on the other side of the planet, sometimes very close to where the pods were launched. It can then take between minutes and seconds for a pod to 'land'.

In short, since you're testing close to the main station, you're basically testing very near the average landing zone...

[Capt. Murphy]

Kaks. The problem is the the pod in that log excert 'landed' out by the witch bouy a long way from the planet. I spawned it just after exiting witchspace and it dissappeared within 10 to 20 seconds. This is a genuine bug.

[Fatleaf]

So what you are saying is that the pod thinks it has reached the planet, before it actually does? So that is why they disappear from way out when I am no where near the planet. Sounds like a bug to me...... But at least we know what is going on.