UPS-Courier

[Ivan]

In G1 I'd accepted a cargo contract at Teraed, to deliver computers to Leleer. En route, I'd hyperspaced from Bivea to Qurave, and was heading to the sun to refuel when I noticed in the Manifest screen that "The Anxeonisian UPS branch rates your courier reputation as good". Thing is that Anxeonis is 16.4 LY away, and I don't think I'd been there recently if at all, and hadn't selected it as a target in the galactic chart.

Did someone at UPS press the wrong button?

(Btw I've installed UPS but haven't done anything with it yet, and haven't seen any UPS messages apart from the courier reputation.)

[Eric Walch]

"The Anxeonisian UPS branch rates your courier reputation as good". Thing is that Anxeonis is 16.4 LY away, and I don't think I'd been there recently if at all, and hadn't selected it as a target in the galactic chart.

This is intentional. According to the readme ups has only offices at governments higher that feudal. And reputation is only re-evaluated when docking at a main-station with ups presence. (read: higher than feudal)

[Ivan]

Ah, I see. Thanks. Looking forward to my first job...

[Chaky]

There's one typo:

***** ERROR: the AI "upsSlaveConvoyJSAI.plist" uses 1 unpermitted method: saveScriptActionOnTarget:

Should be safeScriptActionOnTarget

[Eric Walch]

There's one typo:

***** ERROR: the AI "upsSlaveConvoyJSAI.plist" uses 1 unpermitted method: saveScriptActionOnTarget:

Should be safeScriptActionOnTarget

Thanks for notification. Another fix would be to completely remove that line. It is a leftover from my pre-js code. Now this player detection is handled with a ship-script and that variable it was trying to set seems not to be used anymore. That's probably the reason this faulty command has no bad effect. I will remove it in the next release.

[Eric Walch]

I just uploaded my final version 1.7 of ups-courier.oxp

When using the new Oolite version 1.74 you should use this ups-courier version.

Main change
- the new missionscreen handling
- one new transport mission is added.

As long as the wiki is read only, you can access some of my oxp's directly from my signature below. (from the 1.74 only section)

[Eric Walch]

Last week I found an error in the "medicine delivery" mission. Result was that you got the offering screen, but the mission itself did not start. But an other random mission was offered during the same docking, so nothing got corrupted.

Its fixed last week with version 1.7.2. Its one of the missions that only shows up after building up quite a career.

[Eric Walch]

I thought it said 'slave hunter'. But you could be right.

The term is actually just "slaver": someone who engages in the slave trade.

A slave-runner would be someone who smuggles slaves past border / duty controls in cultures where slavery is legal.

A slave hunter would be someone who goes out specifically to get free people to turn into slaves, which I presume is done in Oolite by scooping escape pods. These days we call this "human trafficking".

Hmm. Now I'm confused. In my RealWorld™ existence, I find the concept abhorrent, but with my Oolite head on, should the game be imposing value judgements on the player about slavery when the game also permits gun-running, drug trafficking and murder?

Does the "You don't like slave-hunters ..." message only appear when one is Clean? Now I might just have to go Fugitive for a bit and see if the message still comes up.

I don't want to derail the 'Tales from the spacelanes...' topic, so I continue here.....

The witnessed 'slave hunters' are generated by UPS-Courier. The first one found in a galaxy starts the slave missions, the next ones scooped are just for the atmosphere.

SandJ, by your definition it could be both as the mission is about a multi government planet in internal war. From this planet normal citizens are captured and send out of the system as slaves. 'slave hunters' after your definition.
But in most occasions you will see the slaves in other systems and the slaves are thus smuggled into new systems. 'slave runners' after your definition.

I wrote this mission long ago, in legacy code at that time. But I remember that I had difficulty finding a good name for them and now think that 'slave runner' would be a better description for those pilots with slaves in their cargo. I probably will change the names.

The message comes always, clean or not. But now the script is in JS I could keep the current sentence for clean pilots and let fugitives sell them as slaves just because they like the money

[cim]

The message comes always, clean or not. But now the script is in JS I could keep the current sentence for clean pilots and let fugitives sell them as slaves just because they like the money

Or want to eliminate the competition

[Ark]

Hi Eric long time no see!!
(It seems that a new stable version was enough to bring me back )

I have ups oxp alongside with Griff remakes and it seems that the first one is the main reason for spawning original boas, anacondas ect. No really a big deal but it breaks the aesthetic consistency (if you know what I mean).
When I look inside the shipdata plist I saw that in the great majority of the cases you use the” like ship” command with very small changes from the original (mainly in the cargo). I am wondering if it is possible for someone to have an alternative shipdata plist (in his personal hard disk) in which the like ship command will pinpoint to griff’s remake ship. Would the cause any malfunction to the operation of the oxp. Is there any change that via oxp config we can have a more permanent solution?

[SandJ]

Well, razzle blinking frazzle.

I installed this OXP ages ago and have not heard a peep from it. I worked hard to make sure my cargo carrying reputation was best-in-galaxy and still nothing. So I forgot about it, and stopped carrying cargo. My reputation fell as I got on with other activities.

I just happened to pick up a small, 1 jump cargo contract. I stopped half-way to reduce the travelling time and docked with every dockable, did some trade, bought some stuff for the ship, did some repairs and ... failed to get to my destination on time and nobody wanted to buy the 46 tonnes of Furs. I was sad. I don't think I have ever failed to deliver on time before. Yes, I've sold the cargo on the way by accident, but never been late.

Next thing I get: "Goodday Captain, I am from the Universe Parcel Shipment. Could you deliver these documents for us please?"

Typical, absolutely typical! Prove to the Ooniverse I'm a dodgy, unreliable, delivery agent, and a courier company gives me a job!

[Eric Walch]

Typical, absolutely typical! Prove to the Ooniverse I'm a dodgy, unreliable, delivery agent, and a courier company gives me a job!

A courier deserves a second chance, don't you think?

And they only trust you with document transports when your reputation went down. To get the parcels transports or the more lucrative transports, you do need a better reputation.

failed to get to my destination on time and nobody wanted to buy the 46 tonnes of Furs

Better than trying to sell 20 ton of gold. Could take ages.

[SandJ]

And they only trust you with document transports when your reputation went down. To get the parcels transports or the more lucrative transports, you do need a better reputation.

What I don't understand is why my F5 screen has said "The Lavemaian UPS branch rates your courier reputation as excellent" ever since I installed the .OXP ages ago.

[Eric Walch]

What I don't understand is why my F5 screen has said "The Lavemaian UPS branch rates your courier reputation as excellent" ever since I installed the .OXP ages ago.

Should not happen. I use the message for the parcel mission to display the reputation when there is no active or pending mission. Probably there is a pending mission that never starts. You could look into your mission variables of your saved commander and look for the value of : "mission_ups_parcel". When it reads "NO" or "NOT_NOW", there are no missions and the reputation is updated. For every other value there is a mission active or pending.

I don't know why I wrote it that way, but in a next release I make sure that it updates when there are pending missions that are not actually started yet. I think the value with you is "YES" or "LOGGING". Most likely "YES", that triggered on your first jump out of Lave, but will only lead to the first parcel mission when you delivered 20 documents.

[SandJ]

What I don't understand is why my F5 screen has said "The Lavemaian UPS branch rates your courier reputation as excellent" ever since I installed the .OXP ages ago.

Should not happen. I use the message for the parcel mission to display the reputation when there is no active or pending mission. Probably there is a pending mission that never starts. You could look into your mission variables of your saved commander and look for the value of : "mission_ups_parcel". When it reads "NO" or "NOT_NOW", there are no missions and the reputation is updated. For every other value there is a mission active or pending.

I installed the UPC Courier.oxp on Xmas Day last year. It is current (version 1.7.7). The oldest saved game I have, from 33 saves go (23rd Jan, and a lot of dockings ago) contains these lines:

Code: Select all

    <key>mission_ups_c1count</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_c2count</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_ccount</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_container</key>
    <string>BOA</string>
    <key>mission_ups_dcount</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_difference</key>
    <string>61</string>
    <key>mission_ups_docs</key>
    <string>YES</string>
    <key>mission_ups_ecount</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_galaxy</key>
    <string>4</string>
    <key>mission_ups_galcop_punishment</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_parcel</key>
    <string>YES</string>
    <key>mission_ups_pcount</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_reputation</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>ups_parcel</key>
    <string>The Lavemaian UPS branch rates your courier reputation as excellent.</string>

At that point I had absolutely definitely never seen the UPS Courier package screen offering me any UPS missions.

Eight saves later this change occurred:

Code: Select all

    <key>mission_ups_difference</key>
    <string>24</string>

It then does not change for another 22 save games until I get to the one where I have been offered my first UPS mission:

Code: Select all

    <key>mission_ups_c1count</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_c2count</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_ccount</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_container</key>
    <string>BOA</string>
    <key>mission_ups_dcount</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_difference</key>
    <string>24</string>
    <key>mission_ups_docs</key>
    <string>ACCEPTED</string>
    <key>mission_ups_docs_appearance</key>
    <string>seven glossy paper Usinribeian</string>
    <key>mission_ups_dplanet</key>
    <string>120</string>
    <key>mission_ups_ecount</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_galaxy</key>
    <string>4</string>
    <key>mission_ups_galcop_punishment</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_parcel</key>
    <string>YES</string>
    <key>mission_ups_pcount</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>mission_ups_reputation</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>ups_docs</key>
    <string>Deliver seven glossy paper Usinribeian documents to nearby democratic station.</string>
    <key>ups_parcel</key>
    <string>The Lavemaian UPS branch rates your courier reputation as excellent.</string>

I don't know why I wrote it that way, but in a next release I make sure that it updates when there are pending missions that are not actually started yet. I think the value with you is "YES" or "LOGGING". Most likely "YES", that triggered on your first jump out of Lave, but will only lead to the first parcel mission when you delivered 20 documents.

I was in Galaxy 5 when I installed the .OXP so it is not referring to Lave but to Lavema. I have not been offered 20 documents to deliver, just the 7 glossy ones mentioned above.


Edit: Actually, I have recovered a saved game from my recycle bin, from 1st Jan, about 70 saves ago, which says:

Code: Select all

    <key>mission_ups_difference</key>
    <string>excellent</string>

Looking into the JavaScript, I see the variable 'mission_ups_difference' gets used for an awful lot of different things in different places.