[UPDATE RELEASE] Xeptatl's Sword OXP

[Smivs]

The target is not the spikes, but the tiny red heat exchanger at the base of the front spike.

But you must admit that its an extremely difficult target. And it needs several blows that hit it correct within a certain time before the ships becomes active again.

Yes
It's the end-game of a long and challenging mission, so we made it hard. Very hard! Not only is the target tiny, but it has a projecting ledge above it forcing the player to fly dangerously close to the dorsal surface of the Annihilator to even be able to see it, let alone get shots on target.
You wouldn't believe the twisted thoughts and malicious ideas that featured in the debate amongst the team that went into designing this part of the mission.
This is one reason we strongly recommend keeping previous saves - to allow repeating parts of the mission. Sometimes you may need to repeat to be successful or because you made a mistake, sometimes you might choose to because it's fun, and sometimes you might just want to repeat parts because some of the action just looks spectacular and you don't want to miss anything.

[Cody]

Get in close, blow the target, pull a victory roll as you weave through the spikes... piece of cake!

[Eric Walch]

Get in close, blow the target, pull a victory roll as you weave through the spikes... piece of cake!

I never use energy bombs or custom bombs for missions. That feels like cheating . When it is intended for lasers, I try to clear it with lasers and one military laser shot is definitely not enough.

but it has a projecting ledge above it

I assume jou mean protecting

[Cody]

I never use energy bombs or custom bombs for missions.

Damn things... sometimes useful for testing purposes, but not for anything else.

one military laser shot is definitely not enough.

It's been a while, but from memory I'm thinking three or four solid hits from the mil laser does the job.

[Smivs]

I never use energy bombs or custom bombs for missions. That feels like cheating .

The Annihilator has countermeasures against all WMD in any case, so using them against it is a waste of time The energy bomb shouldn't have killed it...I need to look at that.

When it is intended for lasers, I try to clear it with lasers and one military laser shot is definitely not enough.

Indeed. You can empty a military laser into it and it will still need a bit more.
<Tip> During testing I found emptying the front lasder into it, then switching to rear laser did the trick...and left you nicely lined-up to run like hell as soon as the target blew

but it has a projecting ledge above it

I assume jou mean protecting

Yup, it does both those things.

[richard.a.p.smith]

Hi - thanks for the comments.

Smivs

From what you said I think the problem was caused by not having a GalDrivePod mounted on an active pylon at the time of making the jump

It's possible but I was fairly sure I had it on an active pylon.

The target is not the spikes, but the tiny red heat exchanger at the base of the front spike. If you destroy this the Annihilator goes dead and something happens

I suspect I know what happened here. I couldn't see it at all. I have a texture problem so some things don't show up unless I'm at the right distance. Most obvious is the circle around a Coriolis entrance, it flickers and is mostly invisible. I saw something at the base of a spike which did a similar thing but up close I don't think I could see it at all. Anyone else have that problem with graphics? It's a little bit irritating from an aesthetic point of view but here it seems to have spoiled the mission.

You should have been prompted all through the Chase with each stop pointing you to the next one

No, there were a few points where there was no text on docking. Would the occasional, er, accidental use of Okti's jump planner kill a script? That said, I used it for every jump instead of doing things properly. I know, I know . . .

The energy bomb shouldn't have killed it

Let me think . . . I should have made more of an effort to record exactly what happened as there was a problem, it's already a few days of work and helping them kids with their homework so it's hazy. I hit tab and thought that I'd done whatever needed to be done, I can say that for sure.

Eric

I never use energy bombs or custom bombs for missions. That feels like cheating

I agree with you! I think I got to a "wtf" point so hit tab to see what happened before exiting and trying again. It did something so I carried on. I use things like the jump planner - even though it feels a bit like cheating - no offence Okti! - because I just don't have the hours in the day to do it properly, ie, hyperspace, fly to the station, kill things along the way, etc, so I try to work out if I can skip time-consuming bits to concentrate on the important aspects of a mission. Go back if it seems like I missed something (as happened in this mission).

Currently enjoying a bit of assassination in galaxy 7, another good one! Thanks!

Richard

[Capt. Murphy]

Most obvious is the circle around a Coriolis entrance, it flickers and is mostly invisible. d

Bit like this? https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... 55#p162124

[Okti]

I use things like the jump planner - even though it feels a bit like cheating - no offence Okti! - because I just don't have the hours in the day to do it properly, ie, hyperspace, fly to the station, kill things along the way, etc, so I try to work out if I can skip time-consuming bits to concentrate on the important aspects of a mission.

That is why I wrote LRS and JP at the first place, mainly to test mission OXP's. It is a great tool for debugging. Well it helped me a lot during scripting Xeptatl's Sword as well .

[Smivs]

The target is not the spikes, but the tiny red heat exchanger at the base of the front spike. If you destroy this the Annihilator goes dead and something happens

I suspect I know what happened here. I couldn't see it at all. I have a texture problem so some things don't show up unless I'm at the right distance. Most obvious is the circle around a Coriolis entrance, it flickers and is mostly invisible. I saw something at the base of a spike which did a similar thing but up close I don't think I could see it at all. Anyone else have that problem with graphics? It's a little bit irritating from an aesthetic point of view but here it seems to have spoiled the mission.

I'm sorry if that was the problem. I can believe that if your computer struggles with the Coriolis's ring, something like the target arrangement on Annihilator could do the same
This looked/worked fine on all the testers' computers including my own which has notoriously dodgy graphics! I'm afraid there is no solution to issues like this.
Whatever it sounds like you completed the mission with a good result, so, Right-On Commander!

[richard.a.p.smith]

Thanks chaps. Yes, that link - the pictures of the coriolis - that's what I get. So the Intel chip set can't cope, is it? Cheerio for now. Richard.

[Capt. Murphy]

I'm afraid there is no solution to issues like this.

Don't be so pessimistic Smivs, there is no such thing as a problem without a solution ...

Thanks chaps. Yes, that link - the pictures of the coriolis - that's what I get. So the Intel chip set can't cope, is it? Cheerio for now. Richard.

Not quite - just a little bit of incompatibility between 1.76 and Intel HD chipsets. If you'd read a little bit further down the thread you'd see it's been fixed in trunk and ported to maintenance. So a nightly build should cure the problem. If you don't want to use trunk, I've PMed you re an alternative solution.

[Smivs]

I'm afraid there is no solution to issues like this.

Don't be so pessimistic Smivs, there is no such thing as a problem without a solution ...

[another_commander]

I'm afraid there is no solution to issues like this.

Don't be so pessimistic Smivs, there is no such thing as a problem without a solution ...

The quickest solution to this particular problem (that does not involve downloading anything) is to go to the graphics card's driver settings and set depth buffer to 24 bits. That fixes the Coriolis rings issues on my laptop with Intel X3100.

[richard.a.p.smith]

Hi. The graphics are sorted out now, thanks. There is a possible glitch. I am currently assassinating various people in G7 and while flying about looking for trouble with Okti's long-range scanner I saw something named "Xeptatl's Sword", behaving like a missile, heading towards a police or system ship. I couldn't scoop it. It blew up like a missile on the ship and disappeared. Any ideas what that is about? Cheers. Richard.

[Smivs]

I seem to have left a couple of errors in the shipdata.plist, namely giving the Sword a

Code: Select all

roles = "missile(0.0001) EQ_X_SWORD_MISSILE";

which could lead to a Xeptatl's Sword being spawned if a regular missile is called by the game. However with a chance of 0.0001 this would be an incredibly rare event, so you have witnessed something that nobody else has ever seen, and may never see.
But just to reassure you that you're not going mad, you possibly did see what you thought you saw.
It's not a big deal so any correction can wait till the next update release.