Nova question

[Cody]

I just gal-jumped into G4 (for the fifth time), and found myself one short jump away from my nova system.
Does "galactic_hyperspace_behaviour" = "BEHAVIOUR_STANDARD"; avoid one's nova system, or could one gal-jump into it?

[Cody]

What, no-one knows, or you can't be bothered to answer a dumb-pilot's question? The latter, I expect - never mind!

[cim]

I just gal-jumped into G4 (for the fifth time), and found myself one short jump away from my nova system.
Does "galactic_hyperspace_behaviour" = "BEHAVIOUR_STANDARD"; avoid one's nova system, or could one gal-jump into it?

There doesn't appear to be any check (on any galjump behaviour mode) that the destination system is intact, no. BEHAVIOUR_STANDARD at least probably should avoid them, since that's the "safe" mode.

[another_commander]

I don't think that behaviour standard should avoid them. As it is, there is an added element of excitement: a wtf-moment entering a nova-bombed system following a galactic jump, which requires an immediate reaction by the player (see: jump the heck out of here!! Go go go !!)

Given the supposed rarity of nova systems, I would consider it an acceptable risk having the player arriving there. I do think that it is OK if Oolite remains with one or two very rare death traps and I thought it was OK even back in the Spectrum Elite days, when the dreaded "Ship boarded by pirates! - Game Over - Ha ha!" message appeared every once in a blue moon. You can never be fully safe in the Ooniverse. But maybe that's just me.

[cim]

I don't think that behaviour standard should avoid them. As it is, there is an added element of excitement: a wtf-moment entering a nova-bombed system following a galactic jump, which requires an immediate reaction by the player (see: jump the heck out of here!! Go go go !!)

True, and most of the time when galactic jumping the player will also have a full fuel tank, so escaping is going to be fairly easy. (And systems don't tend to go nova when the player isn't looking, so they can always make the jump from somewhere else)

[SandJ]

I thought it was OK even back in the Spectrum Elite days, when the dreaded "Ship boarded by pirates! - Game Over - Ha ha!" message appeared every once in a blue moon if you docked too many times without saving the game.

FTFY. To prevent the message ever appearing, one habitually told it to do a save whenever one docked; there was no need to turn the cassette player on.

This taught the player to save regularly. What a great idea!

Then next evening you would go to restore the saved game, and find you had never turned the cassette player on and lost 8 hours of playing time. What a great idea ... that did not work.

You can never be fully safe in the Ooniverse. But maybe that's just me.

I agree. The very occasional unavoidable death serves to maintain the Wild West / frontiers-of-space atmosphere.

Flying into a death-trap will happen sometimes. Life ain't fair.

[Disembodied]

Flying into a death-trap will happen sometimes. Life ain't fair.

Games aren't life: they're supposed to be fun. Games where the player can fly into a death-trap (e.g. a pirate-infested station) because they weren't paying attention and missed the visual clues are fine. Games where the player can fly into a death-trap from which there is a chance to escape via some sort of awesome mad skillz are fine. Games which at random intervals slap the player with a "ha ha, you're dead" are not fine. That sort of random tough-titty death is pretty much a basic definition of bad games design.

[another_commander]

I was expecting your response Disembodied

However, the situation here is not an actual death trap. Yes, a player arriving in a nova system with low fuel might be trapped, but the rarity of nova systems is very notable. In the core game actually, there should be precisely only one and it is well known by the player which one it is (or at least it should be). A galactic jump can be made from an area in G3 far from the area of the nova system in G4, in which case the player is epxected to be safe. And before anyone says "what if I gal jump to get out of combat and arrive at a nova system?": Cases where the player uses their Gal Drive as means of escape from a battle about to be lost are already rare as it is, even more so rare when that jump will land them in a nova system. This is why I talked earlier of acceptable risk. We are not talking about an unavoidable death situation where the game laughs at the player's face. Imagine, it's been at least six years since Oolite v1.65 came out and made the game well-known and this is the first time we have a report of this, and even more so, it is not even an actual event, but a near-miss. That's how rare we are talking about.

I think in this case it is actually very good game design making it possible for players to arrive via Gal Jump inside nova systems, as it awards the careful ones. Of course, OXPs can alter this balance, but then again OXPs have already done that before so there is nothing new here.

[Eric Walch]

I don't think that behaviour standard should avoid them. As it is, there is an added element of excitement: a wtf-moment entering a nova-bombed system following a galactic jump, which requires an immediate reaction by the player (see: jump the heck out of here!! Go go go !!)

I fully agree on this one.

.....even back in the Spectrum Elite days, when the dreaded "Ship boarded by pirates! - Game Over - Ha ha!" message appeared every once in a blue moon. You can never be fully safe in the Ooniverse. But maybe that's just me.

No, there are others. I think there is an oxp in the pipeline with some twisted minds:

Code: Select all

this.playerWillSaveGame = function ()
{
	this.deathTrapCounter = 0;
}

this.shipWillDockWithStation = function ()
{
	if (this.deathTrapCounter++ > 25)
	{
		//do: "Ship boarded by pirates! - Game Over - Ha ha!"
		this.deathTrapCounter = 0;
	}
}

Name will be "getRich.oxp". That will players convince to add this one. The readMe were it is written that the oxp is a joke won't be read, but thats their own fault.

[Disembodied]

I think in this case it is actually very good game design making it possible for players to arrive via Gal Jump inside nova systems, as it awards the careful ones. Of course, OXPs can alter this balance, but then again OXPs have already done that before so there is nothing new here.

I agree with you in this instance – I was really referring more to the old Spectrum pirate-boarding wheeze. I think it should be clear to the player what has happened, even if they die, though, because otherwise it'll seem like a bug ... I've never done it myself but I assume there is something to tell the player that they've just jumped into a nova'd system?

[Eric Walch]

... I've never done it myself but I assume there is something to tell the player that they've just jumped into a nova'd system?

It happened me once or twice when jumping in from a neighboring system. At first you don't notice, until the sirens start. I never died of it and always noticed the temperature rise in time to jump out again.

[Cody]

Thanks for the answer. I was well aware that I'd emerge very close to my nova system, if not actually in it, which is why I asked the question. I just wanted to confirm that Oolite hadn't 'diverted' me. I've visited the system in question many times, but not via a gal-jump.

I agree that it shouldn't be avoided. As mentioned above, risk is part and parcel of the game, and unless the player is forced to gal-jump to escape from interstellar space (then the lack of fuel would be a major problem), the player should be able to survive.

[Commander McLane]

I don't think that behaviour standard should avoid them. As it is, there is an added element of excitement: a wtf-moment entering a nova-bombed system following a galactic jump, which requires an immediate reaction by the player (see: jump the heck out of here!! Go go go !!)

I fully agree on this one.

.....even back in the Spectrum Elite days, when the dreaded "Ship boarded by pirates! - Game Over - Ha ha!" message appeared every once in a blue moon. You can never be fully safe in the Ooniverse. But maybe that's just me.

No, there are others. I think there is an oxp in the pipeline with some twisted minds:

Code: Select all

this.playerWillSaveGame = function ()
{
	this.deathTrapCounter = 0;
}

this.shipWillDockWithStation = function ()
{
	if (this.deathTrapCounter++ > 25)
	{
		//do: "Ship boarded by pirates! - Game Over - Ha ha!"
		this.deathTrapCounter = 0;
	}
}

Name will be "getRich.oxp". That will players convince to add this one. The readMe were it is written that the oxp is a joke won't be read, but thats their own fault.

There was already one of the board denizens (can't remember who) asking for an emulation of that spectrum behaviour, so I wrote a small script and sent it to him. I never released it to the public, though.

Funny thing is: the script snippet is still sitting in my test script folder, so every once in a while during playtesting I do get boarded by pirates, because I don't usually save while playtesting, and some scenarios require me to dock and launch multiple times. I guess you can call that "hoist by his own petard".

[m4r35n357]

Given the supposed rarity of nova systems, I would consider it an acceptable risk having the player arriving there. I do think that it is OK if Oolite remains with one or two very rare death traps and I thought it was OK even back in the Spectrum Elite days, when the dreaded "Ship boarded by pirates! - Game Over - Ha ha!" message appeared every once in a blue moon. You can never be fully safe in the Ooniverse. But maybe that's just me.

Wow, I keep forgetting about that! Hmm, perhaps it's time for an Elite.oxp which restores the energy bomb and has the player boarded by pirates every so often . . . .
And if that sounds a little ironic, it's meant to