[Release] Market Observer

[spara]

If you want to focus on the trading, then this tool is for you. It enhances your market screen with important trading data and gives you a trader's rating. And it does not cost you a thing, it's funded by advertising.

Download from the expansion manager.

[psuamier]

Well I simply say that I like the addon basically (as I did have such lists earlier manually created myself). But I'd sell this as an kind of in-game plugin (OXP ) for the computer equipped with your shuttle.

Finally it'd be interesting to know where the data will be stored if you buy a new ship. Is it in a kind of cloud (online (file) database) or has every commander a kind of memory card/crystal ?
It's difficult to find such an information in the wiki or here...

[tinker]

This looks very interesting, a bit like Vega strike but there it also records the place you saw the max and min prices, never the less I will be giving it a try.

@psuamier
As in Oolite there is no differentiation between a player and his/her ship It would be reasonable to assume the data transfers to a new ship, the same as it does if you manage to get yourself splatted.

[spara]

Thanks for the feedback. This was originally going to be a feature of the Troomp oxp, but as I hit the wall with it, I decided to release this as a separate oxp. I'll be going back to Troomp when 1.78 of Oolite is coming.

@psuamier
I'll have to ponder a bit about making it a buyable equipment. I'm not sure about that. The market data is actually already available in the Oolite reference sheet. This one tries to make you forget the reference data and the fact that the market values are between hard coded limits and to create a feeling of functioning markets.

@tinker
There is no other point than maybe immersion to track down the places that have the lowest or highest prices because of the randomization of the markets.

One thing that might be of use would be a way of resetting the data. Maybe one would like to do that when entering a new galaxy or something? It's also possible to gather data of let's say 10 latest market updates and show that data in the interfaces screen. I have feeling that this oxp has just started .

[psuamier]

Speaking of Troomp I find the New Cargo OXP a bit too hard, especially for beginners. I'd prefer a complete more dynamic replacement with prices changing up to a certain amount (but less dependent on how much of a certain good is available) depending on the system type (industrial, agricultural etc.).

I haven't looked into the technical details, but is this plugin useable for all kind of stock market influencing plugins ? New Cargo support is already a big help for many I guess. Also for resetting: On the long run there could be an (automatically?) selection of the galaxy trade data. It would be a nice addition to the game itself if you have different market data for each galaxy.

[spara]

Speaking of Troomp I find the New Cargo OXP a bit too hard, especially for beginners. I'd prefer a complete more dynamic replacement with prices changing up to a certain amount (but less dependent on how much of a certain good is available) depending on the system type (industrial, agricultural etc.).

Troomp does not require New Cargoes. Troomp firstly gives you a trader's rating and a market helper. If you have Sothis and New Cargoes installed, then it will convert Sothises to Trade centers relocating them and giving them some New Cargoes functionality.

I really enjoy the variety and deepness New Cargoes gives to the game. I also use Pods oxp in addition to get more variety to scooping. Bloomberg oxp is also a must, it gives nice changes to the markets time to time.

There has been some attempts to create a more dynamic economics, but I guess that in the end the difference seen by the player is very subtle. Changes would have to be more drastic for it to make any sense, like governments changing and like. Balancing that kind of changes would be quite a challenge.

I haven't looked into the technical details, but is this plugin useable for all kind of stock market influencing plugins ? New Cargo support is already a big help for many I guess.

This oxp only monitors prices of the standard market. If another oxp (for example Bloomberg) changes the standard market prices, it will be noted. New Cargoes lives it's own life, it's prices have nothing to do with the standard market prices (except that you can sell New Cargoes in the normal market for the standard prices).

[spara]

Thanks to Wildeblood, this oxp now works with the default hud too. Actually no problem with the original version on that area. New version (1.1).

* Message_gui settings are resetted appropriately.
* Small cosmetic change on layout.

[tinker]

I came across a couple of problems.

Commodity markets oxp gives a buy market price and a sell market price, Market Observer only uses the first market screen. So after checking one main station there should be a high, low and average price recorded but all three are the same value.

Market Observer also does not record prices from other stations in the same system. I had the anomaly of seeing the maximum food price seen recorded as about 8 credits while the station I was on offered to buy for 12.

With spoken messages on there is a short (less than half a second) message spoken every 10 seconds, it is impossible to know what was being said as the message is turned off as soon as it starts.

[spara]

Thanks for the feedback . New version is up (1.2). Works better with the Commodity Markets OXP.

Commodity markets oxp gives a buy market price and a sell market price, Market Observer only uses the first market screen. So after checking one main station there should be a high, low and average price recorded but all three are the same value.

Commodity Markets changes the prices when entering the market screen and Observer tracks the prices when docking. That's the reason for strangeness. The new version tracks min and max prices on market screen, so now it works with the Commodity Markets oxp. Average price is still tracked from vanilla prices on docking. You'll need a couple of station visits for sensible values.

Market Observer also does not record prices from other stations in the same system. I had the anomaly of seeing the maximum food price seen recorded as about 8 credits while the station I was on offered to buy for 12.

This is intentional. Observer only tracks the prices of the main stations, making it easier to compare prices to the oxp stations. The prices in oxp stations can be quite wild, so taking them into calculations would propably produce very strange statistics.

With spoken messages on there is a short (less than half a second) message spoken every 10 seconds, it is impossible to know what was being said as the message is turned off as soon as it starts.

This oxp uses message_gui to print the values to the screen. When spoken messages are on, it tries to speak the values when they are printed. This happens about every 10 seconds. To my current understanding, there's nothing I can do about it .

[Wildeblood]

With spoken messages on there is a short (less than half a second) message spoken every 10 seconds, it is impossible to know what was being said as the message is turned off as soon as it starts.

This oxp uses message_gui to print the values to the screen. When spoken messages are on, it tries to speak the values when they are printed. This happens about every 10 seconds. To my current understanding, there's nothing I can do about it .

Untested, but try making this little change. It's all I did to minimize this problem in Trading Assistant.

Code: Select all

this.$marketMessage = function() {
	if (guiScreen != "GUI_SCREEN_MISSION") {
		this.$gatherMarketInfo(false);	
		this.$printValues();
		player.consoleMessage("\n"); // <----------------
	}
	else {
		this.$sweepMarketHud();
		return;
	}
}

Code: Select all

this.$marketMessage = function() {
	if (guiScreen != "GUI_SCREEN_MISSION") {
		this.$gatherMarketInfo(false);	
		this.$printValues();
		player.consoleMessage("\n   ", 3); // <----------------
	}
	else {
		this.$sweepMarketHud();
		return;
	}
}

[tinker]

As I very rarely visit main stations to trade then this unfortunately will not be a lot of use to me.

[spara]

As I very rarely visit main stations to trade then this unfortunately will not be a lot of use to me.

It's quite a trivial change actually. I'll include a user switchable variable to the next release . I'll have to check Wildeblood's suggestion also.

I'm having an new idea again. Let's see, if it's of any use...

[barge411]

Would it be possible to add the price that you bought the commodity at.
So you can see straight away whether you are going to make a profit.
I know the prices do change.
At the moment I keep a excel file list of system prices.

[spara]

Would it be possible to add the price that you bought the commodity at.
So you can see straight away whether you are going to make a profit.
I know the prices do change.
At the moment I keep a excel file list of system prices.

I'll see if I can find some simple way of doing this. Don't want to do anything complicated like calculating the average price of bought goods or estimating the profit.

[spara]

A big update (1.3) with new features.

New stuff:

* Oxp stations are noted in min and max prices (toggleable from script-file)
* Purchace log
* Profit calculation and trader's rating based on that (only from trading in the standard market) (toggleable from script-file)
* Random Ads from Your Ad Here! added to the market screen (nothing's free )
* Reset option in script-file

This oxp supercedes Troomp, as I have implemented the most (IMO) important features from it to this. If someone misses the Sothis part of Troomp, I can release a different oxp.

Trade on, Commander.