[UPDATE RELEASE] Xeptatl's Sword OXP

[Hoopy]

Ah right OK. What's fast, fighty and can have fuel scoops then? Time to go shopping...

But it took me ages to find an Asp! Can I ask that the next release includes a few comments from your friendly agent so when they ask about equipment they mention fuel scoops as well as GalPods?

PS Why does the ASP have no cargo space - it had loads in FFE?

[Smivs]

Hi Hoopy,
Ha, you might have found a wee bug, but it's not causing your problems.

The mission has been designed so that it can be carried out with any of the commonly used 'core' ships. The only requirement is that the ship must have at least two pylons, and be able to scoop items.

There are several times during the mission where you will need to scoop stuff, so to continue you will need to change your ship I'm afraid. Sorry.
The small bug is that Xeptatl's Sword does not take into account Auxiliary Fuel Tanks (it was released before I invented them ), so this section of the mission might need a tweak at some point.

Advice to Players:- Avoid having/using any extra OXP fuel tanks during the Wormhole Run' section of Xeptatl's Sword.

Edited to add:- original message deleted and redrafted - sorry for any confusion

@ Hoopy, the Team tested the OXP in a variety of ships from a Python up to a Contractor. Staer9's Chopped Cobra proved very adept and is a lovely ship.

[Hoopy]

I was getting tempted to tweak my ASP to give it scoops but since you say I need two missile pods it's probably time to sell all the equipment on it, find a nice high tech planet and replace everything on a new ship.

Thanks

[Hoopy]

Think I might have found another wee bug - again it's a minor 'clash' with another OXP and is nothing major

At one stage you have to try and get a GalPod from somewhere. But on the way there I passed a Communist Worker Factory that sold Galactic Hyperdrives.

[Smivs]

Ha, yes I think we had this one before. In practice there is nothing I (or any OXP author) can do about things like this, as we have no control over other peoples' work, and there are so many potential issues that they cannot all be allowed for. It is actually one of the reasons I use so few OXPs myself - far too many skew the game in various ways and they can play merry hell with other OXPs! as well as the obvious consequences they have on normal gameplay.
For what it's worth this part of the mission is actually one of my favourites, so is worth doing even if you don't really have to

[Hoopy]

Of course I did go and do it 'properly' afterwards and it was good fun Even if I was miffed that I was 5000Cr down on the two GalPods I'd had. Only got 1.75 million Credits left now!

I guess it's the 'problem' with an Open Source game like this - there's no one to say 'No!' whenever two OXPs clash.

[Smivs]

In theory most of these things could be avoided. In a case like this it could be handled by predicting what other OXPs will add to a system, checking for any that might cause a problem, then removing them. The problem is scale...there are so many OXPs with so many features! And I don't suppose anybody knows in detail what each and every one does.

Keep the GalDrivePods...you might need them

[sdrubble]

The problem is scale...there are so many OXPs with so many features! And I don't suppose anybody knows in detail what each and every one does.

How to **REPLY** without hijacking a thread...

Cheers

sdrubble

[Hoopy]

The warhead is pretty hard to find! Especially when it flies away from the Boa at a speed of about .4 (could catch it with Witchspace injectors but not without them) but then couldn't see it the first 10 times.

And I love the weapon assembly bit

[Smivs]

Ha, yes, I learnt to 'cheat' a bit during testing. I'd stop and switch to rear view before releasing it I didn't suggest this though, as it spoils the fun a bit.

[Smivs]

Just a quick note about a few problems experienced by some players.
Several times during the mission events are triggered on witchspace exits, and things are getting broken when the player arrives at the target system and then goes to the main station and Saves. Upon re-launch the characters and entities are no longer present and the mission is broken.
This is clearly due to shortcomings in the mission design and will be addressed in due course, but will require a re-write of the main script which is a massive job and will take some time.
In the mean time then some general advice to players. Saving often is a good thing, but avoid saving at target systems unless you are told specifically to go to the main station there. Good times to save would be at a main station where you are given instructions to go somewhere, or to save en route, perhaps at the system before your target system. As much of the mission has been designed around the need to save often this should be easy to do.
The index page of XeptatlsSword.com has been updated to include this advice.

[Tichy]

I was getting tempted to tweak my ASP to give it scoops but since you say I need two missile pods it's probably time to sell all the equipment on it, find a nice high tech planet and replace everything on a new ship.

Thanks

Try the Red Racer: https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12928

A little slower than the Asp, but with 5T cargo and three missile slots

[DKSE]

I have a small problem with the selling of pylon based equipment (when selling missiles individually) with XeptatlsSword-Main-Remover.js under Oolite v1.76. It lets me sell missiles for 10 times the purchase price, and I had to edit this script to replace all incidences of .price with .price/10. Was wondering if this was a general issue that others had encountered, or just a personal incompatibility due to my having 72 other oxps installed?

[Smivs]

Hi DKSE, and welcome to the Friendliest Board this side of Riedquat.
While I have not come across this particular problem at all, there are known issues with the 'Sell pylon based equipment' feature. This feature was designed for this mission, but has never worked properly due to (we believe) a bug in the main Oolite code. Sometimes it works, sometimes it has been known to cause a Crash-to-desktop, and it sounds like you may have found another problem with it. From what you say this might be a simple coding error, and I will take a look at this when I get a moment, but the feature is known to be not reliable.
Despite this it was included in the OXP as a 'Last Resort' for those who had not cleared pylons in more conventional ways, but its routine use is NOT recommended.
You will be prompted in advance throughout the mission when pylons will be needed so that you can ensure that they are free when required, so my best advice is to try to clear pylons as soon as you are told that you will need an empty one, or depending on your ship, always keep one or two empty.
Thanks for your report - these are always useful and help to keep OXPs up to date and reliable, and I hope in this instance that your enjoyment of the OXP has not been affected.
Regards,
Smivs.

[cim]

This feature was designed for this mission, but has never worked properly due to (we believe) a bug in the main Oolite code. Sometimes it works, sometimes it has been known to cause a Crash-to-desktop

Assuming this wasn't a completely different "crash to desktop when removing missiles by script" bug, then that should no longer be a problem in 1.76.1

There is a less neat way to remove individual missiles safely before 1.76.1, if you want to support earlier versions: remove all of them, then add back the ones you still want. Examples of this are in Feudal States (the lodge fights) and Rescue Stations (the solar lab mission), and perhaps other OXPs.