[RELEASE] Zeke Mining Transporter 1.0

[Captain Patrick]

==========================================================================
ZekeMiningTransporter is an add-on for
Oolite by Giles Williams
Author: Captain Patrick; Rock Hermit spawn script by Micha; customized version Models and Textures by Smivs
Version: 1.0
Summary: A ship and savegame to start the player as a well-equipped miner.
==========================================================================

This introduces the Mining Transporter as a ship available for purchase by the player from Technology Level 10 main stations. It is very slow (0.1 LM), and lacks a hyperspace engine, but at 55K CR is cheaper than an Adder and with far more cargo space (12 TC), and includes Fuel Scoops and a Mining Laser as standard equipment.



Also included is a savegame for the player to start as a miner with a customized version of this ship (view with shift-V after launch). When your Uncle Zeke was killed by pirates, he left you his Mining Transporter all ready to prospect in the Zaonce system – a reasonably safe, advanced and profitable place to work, and only one jump away from the Lave Academy. Your uncle's old friend and executor advises you to carefully make your way to some nearby Rock Hermit base, where you can take refuge at any sign of trouble, and where you can sell your hard-won gains to passing traders through its co-op (a membership is included with each Rock_Hermit_Locator) rather than face many long and risky journeys back to Zaonce Station; should asteroids run out here, then, until new ones drift over, you can follow another ship's wormhole to another system for awhile. He envies you your own ship with its newfangled "extras", that'll let you "make your pile" far faster than he ever could – perhaps to ultimately wreak vengeance on the type of people who murdered your beloved uncle?
Part of "The Legacy of Uncle Zeke" anticipated series of stand-alone OXPs.

Requires:
Oolite 1.76 or later.

Dependancies:
The starting ship of the "ZekeMiningTransporter" savegame comes equipped with an Ore_Processor (by Dr. Nil; see http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Ore_Processor) and Rock_Hermit_Locator (by Frame and Eric Walch; see http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Rock_Hermit_Locator) if the corresponding OXPs were previously installed into the AddOns folder, but will still run without them. Consider also a recent version of Save_Anywhere.oxp (by Frame; see http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Save_Anywhere), if you want to save/load elsewhere than at a main station.

Known conflicts with other OXPs:
Shady_Sungs (by Sung Mehta & ADCK; see http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Shady_Sungs) inflates ship resale price.
This OXP defines and reserves "zeke-transporter-miner-player", "zeke-transporter-miner-player-buyable and various other new "zeke-..." keys, and a new script ZekeTransporterMinerPlayer.js, and redefines the key "transporter-miner".

Installation:
From https://www.box.com/s/0549d86cc62dd62ee007, download and unzip the file "ZekeMiningTransporter_1.0.zip". From inside the resulting folder, copy or move "ZekeMiningTransporter_1.0.oxp" into Oolite's AddOns folder, and "ZekeMiningTransporter_1.0.oolite-save" into the "oolite-saves" folder. Ensure, if you want them, that the Ore_Processor and Rock_Hermit_Locator OXPs have also been installed. Start the game with shift-key down; at "Load Previous Commander (Y/N)?", type "Y", select "ZekeMiningTransporter_1.0", then immediately save under a more convenient and appropriate name. To uninstall (including, before installing new versions), delete these files and folder.

Questions, Comments and Bugs Reports:
Please post to https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11384, or PM Captain Patrick from that same board.

Versions:
1.0 Removed max_version from requires.plist; changed version numbers throughout.
0.3.1 Further refinement and integration of inheritable (customized used), buyable (generic new) and npc (generic used) ships (more thanks to Smivs).
0.2.0 Added Script (thanks to Micha) and Models and Textures (thanks to Smivs) for the inherited ship.
0.1.1 Changed download and other details in readme.
0.1.0 Initial test release.

[JazHaz]

Sounds good, but where is the download link?

[Captain Patrick]

Ran into issues with box.net . They said 12-24 hours. Alternatives?

[JazHaz]

Ran into issues with box.net . They said 12-24 hours. Alternatives?

box.net has become box.com. try that?

[Captain Patrick]

Ran into issues with box.net . They said 12-24 hours. Alternatives?

box.net has become box.com. try that?

Thanks, I know.

The problem was, after I registered yesterday and uploaded the .zip file, I started getting behaviour I didn't want (kept saying "Could not preview the file" on attempted download, when I didn't want it to offer a preview in the first place - all very unaesthetic and unprofessional), that I thought I could resolve if I closed the account and started over again. Turns out, if one closes one's account with box.whatever, one can't re-register on one's own without going through their Service Department, and not its First Tier either: so, delay, and listing this as a Work In Progress until all is fixed (which, finally, according to them, will involve me switching browsers). I see pretty much everyone here uses The Box (when not their own sites), so I'll try to make it work, and am on my way to doing so. I apologize, and beg your patience another day or so.

[DaddyHoggy]

You can't preview ZIP files.

Box will automatically "preview" quite a lot of files now - PPTs, PDFs, JPGs, PNG, GIFs etc...

I've been using box for perhaps 5-6 years and never had a problem - the only minor issue I had was resolved via email after less than 12 hours - so forgive me, but I think you're doing them a disservice.

[Captain Patrick]

I knew that zip files can't be previewed, didn't want to preview them, don't know how the "preview" setting came to be switched on in the first place, and couldn't see how to switch it off – as I said, that's probably because the browser I was using wasn't showing all the relevant buttons. Box.com was fairly responsive by phone, once they understood what my problem was, and I'm not averse to working with them, except that I'm still locked out from their service for now, and this is delaying me getting this file to you all until they've sorted that out at their end. Until this happens, there's little to be done or said, except perhaps a general warning that old-school "restart from scratch" is not advisable in any troubleshooting related to this particular service. Fair enough?

[Cmdr. Maegil]

old-school "restart from scratch" is not advisable in any troubleshooting related to this particular service. Fair enough?

Not only on this service, unfortunately it's widespread.
They dislike when people try to do that as it allows for anonymity and disrupts their data gathering and analysis. And you know, in gaming it gets worse... much, much worse.

[Switeck]

Can you upload it to www.mediafire.com?
This can be done without a registered account.
I do advise blocking the flash-related stuff there for both speed and improved security.

[sdrubble]

Ran into issues with box.net . They said 12-24 hours. Alternatives?

I've been using adrive.com's free account for my public files - I found it very fast and responsive, both for upload and download.

One caveat though: everything you share publicly thru adrive has the share blocked after 14 days. The uploaded file does remain there forever, but you do need to log in to your account twice a month, navigate to your folder / file inside and reshare it (takes less than 60 seconds each time).

Looks (IMHO) like a good temporary alternative to The Box (unfortunately for me, I've had harder issues with The Box, so I'm using adrive on a more permanent basis).

It has a lot of advantages over mediafire / megaupload / rapidshare and similar ones - no flash stuff for the downloaders (here it even beats The Box ), no download timers, and while it's free, it's indeed a registered account with login and password.

Cheers

[maik]

added to the WIP section of the [wiki]OXP List[/wiki]

[Captain Patrick]

It took a bit of nudging (after they lost track of my work ticket), but I now have access again to Box.com, and my release of Zeke Mining Transporter 0.1.1 has been posted there for your downloading/asteroid-blasting pleasure (see first message of this Topic). For general interest, this was the solution to my earlier "Preview" problem: https://support.box.net/entries/2035944 ... hared-link .

[Captain Patrick]

For the Elite Wiki, some OXPs can fall under more than one Category (ex. as Feudal States is mentioned on pages for Ships, Missions and Systems), but its entry in the OXP List (http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/OXP_List) shows only one (ex. Feudal States has Systems). Besides Ships, are there any other Categories under which this OXP, with its starting scenario, should appear: Activities? Missions? other? And which then would take priority in the OXP List? Or should I separate the Ship and the Savegame (but, the latter needs the Ship, and the former can be ignored)?

[JazHaz]

For the Elite Wiki, some OXPs can fall under more than one Category (ex. as Feudal States is mentioned on pages for Ships, Missions and Systems), but its entry in the OXP List (http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/OXP_List) shows only one (ex. Feudal States has Systems). Besides Ships, are there any other Categories under which this OXP, with its starting scenario, should appear: Activities? Missions? other? And which then would take priority in the OXP List? Or should I separate the Ship and the Savegame (but, the latter needs the Ship, and the former can be ignored)?

Ships first and foremost. If the OXP has its own wiki page, then that can be on multiple categories, but if it just has an entry on the OXP List, then it should just appear under Ships.

I think its nice for an OXP to have its own page, but then you have hassle to update it too when you update the OXP.

Don't split the savegame from the OXP.

[Smivs]

The OXP table was designed so that each OXP can be listed once only under its primary catagory. This was done to avoid the list becoming overly long. Decide which catagory the OXP most logically fits into, and list it under that heading.
The discussion thread here should help to point you in the right direction.