equipment randomness

[richard.a.p.smith]

Hello. I am not sure where to put this one but it's some kind of bug - maybe. I am currently in G4 doing Deposed. So far so good but on a visit to, whatsitsface, Dicebe (TL14 on the left) the equipment shop told me I could buy, er, things I already bought. Okay . . . no, not really. I noticed similar things a year or so ago, sometimes I could have sworn that Oolite said I could buy stuff when I thought I already bought it. This one I could see more specifically; I know I had an ore extractor already but there it was telling me I could buy one. So, either they were destroyed in combat requiring replacement not repair or they were removed from the save game. Any ideas? Cheers. Richard.

[Capt. Murphy]

A possible explanation - If you have temporarily removed an equipment OXP and saved the game in the meantime, the equipment is lost.

[Eric Walch]

A possible explanation - If you have temporarily removed an equipment OXP and saved the game in the meantime, the equipment is lost.

At first Ii wanted to say that you are wrong, but a quick test shows you are right. With 1.76 you loose equipment when you temporary play with an uninstalled equipment oxp. In the past you could always uninstall the oxp and when you wanted the equipment back that you already paid for, you could install the oxp again. I just tested with 1.73 and there you didn't loose it and with 1.74 you do. I never noticed this change that is a bug in my opinion. Although you can argue that of cause, and maybe it was even an intentional change, but I can't remember it being announced.

I can't find the change in any of the 1.74 release notes. Seems an unknown side effect of an other change.

[Gimi]

I seem to remember a discussion about bloated save game files a while back. Could be that something changed during the course of that discussion.
Also, while I have no personal opinion on whether this is a bug or not, cleaning up the save game file sounds like a good idea. If OXPs are thrown out because they are not updated, or if equipment changes name there is a justifiable argument for Oolite to remove references to no longer installed equipment. At least for the regular player that doesn't do any testing.
Arguably, the right thing to do would be for the player to sell/remove the equipment before getting rid of the OXP.

[richard.a.p.smith]

Hi. Thanks for looking. I didn't remove the ore processor OXP, it was in the appropriate folder all the time, getting quite regular use. I didn't realise it wasn't on the ship until I docked at that planet (Dicege?). I also had to buy the q-drive again although as far as that goes there was a bit of a blur the other day with the TCAT mission and I know the q-drive got damaged so was half-expecting to have to do something. The ore processor's a different matter, though. I have moved a couple of other oxps; yesterday I ditched TCAT 1.10 and put in 1.11, put in random ship names 1.1, put in deposed 1.3.4. Shift-restart and it was after that at some point I noticed the problem. Does equipment ever get destroyed for any reason (apart from fuel scoops with the pods OXP)? Cheers. Richard.

[cim]

I've seen this happen before occasionally with OXP equipment mysteriously disappearing (Planetary Landing, in my case). Is it possible that a piece of OXP equipment that depends on (e.g.) EQ_FUEL_SCOOPS may get removed if the ship instead has EQ_FUEL_SCOOPS_DAMAGED? (And if so, at what point does that happen, since it definitely doesn't happen instantly in flight). I'll have a look at this possibility tonight, if no-one else does.

[Commander McLane]

My fuel scoops get damaged or destroyed quite regularly (in fact it seems that they are getting destroyed far more often than just damaged) due to Pods.oxp, but that never had any effect on my ore processor. So I'd say that there is no dependency.

Is there perhaps another type of ore thingamajig from one of the newer OXPs, and you got offered that one?

Also, in order to get more precise information on what is actually happening: if it happens again, could you carefully compare the item you're offered with the equipment you have already installed? It's just a matter of switching between the F3-screen and the F5-screen. There is a (small) chance that you're not in fact offered the same equipment, but a similarly named, but different one. For ruling this out, it would be helpful to know the precise name of the stuff.

[Gimi]

I've seen this happen before occasionally with OXP equipment mysteriously disappearing (Planetary Landing, in my case). Is it possible that a piece of OXP equipment that depends on (e.g.) EQ_FUEL_SCOOPS may get removed if the ship instead has EQ_FUEL_SCOOPS_DAMAGED? (And if so, at what point does that happen, since it definitely doesn't happen instantly in flight). I'll have a look at this possibility tonight, if no-one else does.

I also have this issue with planetary landing equipment. Seems to be the first one that goes when I take damage in combat.
Planetary landing requires heat shielding and docking computer. What happens if any of these get damaged? It should just cease to work, but remain installed in my view. Could it be that it then gets removed, and by that increasing the overall chance of the planetary landing equipment disappearing from the ship?

[Eric Walch]

Does equipment ever get destroyed for any reason (apart from fuel scoops with the pods OXP)? Cheers. Richard.

By the core game, equipment is never destroyed but only damaged in normal play. In strict play equipment always is destroyed an never damaged.

But, there has been a bug in Oolite that sometimes destroyed equipment instead of damaging it. This was because of handling the conditions wrong. That was only fixed since Oolite 1.76. With older oolite versions, equipment with conditions (like the ore processor that depends on the fuel scoop), the equipment was sometimes fully destroyed as result of this bug.

[snork]

Thargoid explained somewhere that Planetary Landing is a temporary equipment - something along that it includes a licence that expires after a while. (can't find that post)
So that one is supposed to vanish and be re-offered, and can be taken out of considering mysteriously vanishing equipment.

[cim]

Ah - found it. When you reload a save game, it validates your equipment. The check for prerequisites is done as if it were being added to your ship, so if the prerequisite is damaged, it removes - completely - any pieces of equipment depending on it.

Will fix - thanks for reporting the problem.