Questions and Request for animation of landing gear script..

[dertien]

I have looked at Thargoid's butterfly animation, and was wondering if it would be feasible to transform it for use for a landing gear extend and retract animation. I have some landing gear doors, that could rotate to the open position (just a number of degrees), and then a collection of rods that perform a scripted set of movements until the gear is deployed.

A rudimentary video of the process of what I'd like to achieve can be downloaded here:

https://app.box.com/s/349qu3x6uvtqq9na08ng

I have not modeled them yet, since I don't want to waste time in case it is not possible, therefore the following questions:

1) Is this possible with scripting or not ?

2) Could this be triggered for the AI when they start their docking sequence ( a bit like my navlight flashers) and if they abort, go back the other way (like when they get shot for example ?) and for the player either

- by priming the landing gear and pressing B to deploy / retract
- when pressing the docking autopilot key

3)Is this resource heavy and a bit overkill ?

4) Who would be willing to script it if I provide you with the necessary obj/dat files ?

Questions regarding destroyable/subentity equipment:

Since I am building the new Cobra with a detachable Large Cargo Bay, it would be feasible to dock/undock with it ingame. A bit like the salvage with the towbar kind of thing oxp ?

And last but not least, can equipment subentities be added to visually look attached to the ship when they get purchased ? A bit like Griff's Proto Sidewinder that was altered by Eric Walsh.

Thanks for answering

[Thargoid]

1) Yes it's possible.

2) Yes, there are events that are triggered with the docking computer or it could be done as you say with a primable equipment. It may also be possible with docking clearance request granting.

3) It's not particularly resource heavy, but it is probably a bit pointless as your own landing gear is one thing you will never normally see. It could be done for NPCs though with a bit more visual impact.

4) I'm busy working on a few other things and will imminently be going on business trips and holiday for a month, so I can advise but I'm not the best candidate to author I'm afraid.

5) I don't see why it shouldn't be feasible.

6) You can remove and restore sub-entities from an entity model, but you can't add them to the model if they didn't begin with them (as defined in shipdata.plist). But there's nothing to stop them being defined and then the first thing that happens is them being removed, so they are not normally visible.

[dertien]

Hi Thargoid,

1) That is awesome news.

2) There are loads of possibilities if you could do it with primable equipment, but there could be others that can be triggered by already implemented keys; like for example the "weapons hot key" who could open the weapon bay doors and gimbal the guns out of their sockets and into position. Or the missile prime keys that could open up a missile launcher bay, just to name a few. The AI could indeed just have the landing gear lowered like you say.
Regarding guns on the AI; could be triggered by their "mode" if attacked, the guns swivel out, if green they swivel in.

3) Yes maybe, but there are also people (like me) who use the outside views when autodocking to make screenshots and the like, and narcists who drop your trackercam.oxp to make beautiful wallpapers. I used it constantly to create those nice screenshots for the BBS pack. Besides, it would be a bit of a shame to deny this to players and allow it for NPC' s since there is no such thing like a spinning target view in Oolite.

4) Well, since I am a dunce at scripting, and you are busy, I will just need to wait till someone else accepts the challenge. In the meanwhile, I will create the landing gear anyhow, and make it look spiffy.

5)... Then salvage missions where spawned battle scrap can be scooped up, (with a salvage scanner), a nice addition to mining, privateering and escort duty can be achieved.

Here are the equipment subentities that are already done and ready to float around to be scooped up:

ANA, Ecm, Naval ECM, Cargo Scoop, Pulse Laser, Shield Boosters, Military Shield Enhancement, Torus Drive, Witchdrive (mounted / freefloating) docking clamps and Escape Pod,.




The Cargobay Extension needs to be more detailed, but can basically be seperated from the main ship.

6) All the above are subentities and will be added to the player Cobra. Then I could create a few NPC templates (trader, scavenger, hunter, assassin etc...) in the shipdata.plist that would have several subentities, that would give feedback to the player on a combat computer as to which system was destroyed on the NPC. I can pretty much use Eric's example to achieve that. The only help I would need with the scripting would the be the creation of the script you say, that would remove all the installed equipment visually and then reattach it once the player leaves dock possibly with a text only rundown in the status window of the equipment installed.

On a further note (without getting ahead of myself) if primable equipment subentities were possible and if I understand correctly it would also be possible then to prime them when needed, and switch them off when not needed. For example when on escort duty in a safe system, you will not need the ASC, but switching on the ECM might be a good idea; or when hunting down a pirate with randomhits in an anarchy it would be wise to have the shield boosters and maybe a military shield enhancement active...

Anyway, that is another Pandora's box, I will finish to create the models, and put them all together in a model, and maybe someone else who feels like doing that part can pick up the flag and go from there.

Thanks for your answers Thargoid.

[Diziet Sma]

For example when on escort duty in a safe system, you will not need the ASC, but switching on the ECM might be a good idea

Actually, the ASC is how you keep tabs on the Mothership when doing escort missions. Otherwise, you'd be in big trouble if it gets out of scanner range.

[dertien]

For example when on escort duty in a safe system, you will not need the ASC, but switching on the ECM might be a good idea

Actually, the ASC is how you keep tabs on the Mothership when doing escort missions. Otherwise, you'd be in big trouble if it gets out of scanner range.

Quite... well, you know what I mean

[Zireael]

Dertien, I love the models for the floating stuff, what will happen next? Will we be able to scoop 'em up?

[Smivs]

if primable equipment subentities were possible and if I understand correctly it would also be possible then to prime them when needed, and switch them off when not needed....

This is already possible. My much publicised (and sadly even more delayed) Gorgon Cruiser uses a variation of this technique, and it works very well.

[dertien]

@ Zireael

That would be the general idea yes, then you would be able to sell them to a fellow that is in the same line as this one here ...



and get a percentage of the value of the thing in mint condition.

Some things (like the docking clamps will not be scoopable/salvageable, but destroyable on the player ship and can then be bought again or repaired). Something that I would like to implement (certainly with the Orbis station since I am going to change the model a bit and add the fuel tanks like I already mentioned) is the ability to pick up fuel without docking inside the station. To dock to the fuel station at the rear of the Orbis, external docking clamps are required and you will fly to a non rotating part of the station and come to a halt. A bit like fuel station OXP (http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Fuel_Station_OXP)

Without getting too anal, I would also like (if possible) to make a difference between a fuel scoop and a cargo scoop, which are at the moment one thing now. The fuel vapor should be collected with a fuel scoop :

Thus with this:

A cargo scoop (see picture above) is for cargo containers.
I don't know if this is a hardcoded feature or not, since the scoop the fuel leak thing is relatively new ??? But that will be for a future release, I want to stay on track here at the moment.

@ Smivs, have you got a link to your Gorgon Cruiser, so I can take a peek ?

[Smivs]

Scoops have always been for fuel and cargo/alloys etc. i think the conventional wisdom is that they are some sort of electro-magnetic field that channels stuff into a port or opening in the ship, and the internal machinery then sends whatever is scooped off to the right place ie fuel tank or hold. Very clever, these ships

The Gorgon is still a pre-release development project, and is actually getting a bit complicated. I'm not saying it is un-understandable, but filtering out the bits that would help you would take a long time.
In essence the primable equipment triggers scripting which removes or adds sub-ents. To be more specific, when you separate the ships you activate 'release attachment clamps' and this then removes the sub-ent (the mothership!) which is then added back as an NPC. When you re-attach, the primable equipment 'sends a message to the mothership' and this causes the NPC to stop and prepare for re-attachment, then at the moment of re-attachment the NPC is removed and the sub-ent is restored.
An approach similar to this should enable you to do what you want i think.

[dertien]

Scoops have always been for fuel and cargo/alloys etc. i think the conventional wisdom is that they are some sort of electro-magnetic field that channels stuff into a port or opening in the ship, and the internal machinery then sends whatever is scooped off to the right place ie fuel tank or hold. Very clever, these ships

The Gorgon is still a pre-release development project, and is actually getting a bit complicated. I'm not saying it is un-understandable, but filtering out the bits that would help you would take a long time.
In essence the primable equipment triggers scripting which removes or adds sub-ents. To be more specific, when you separate the ships you activate 'release attachment clamps' and this then removes the sub-ent (the mothership!) which is then added back as an NPC. When you re-attach, the primable equipment 'sends a message to the mothership' and this causes the NPC to stop and prepare for re-attachment, then at the moment of re-attachment the NPC is removed and the sub-ent is restored.
An approach similar to this should enable you to do what you want i think.

Smivs, thanks for clarifying, yes that would work exactly like it should.

Regarding the scoops, I will leave that can of worms closed and stick to vanilla for the time being.

As Thargoid pointed out earlier, I have to add all subents to the ship; but they must be removed/destroyed if unpurchased after launch, and be added to the ship and "restore" the subents after purchase as you put it.
The Large Cargo bay however, would become a destructible non moving NPC when ditched in space; and sit still while I do my business (maybe leaving a beacon there so I can find it again should it disappear off my scanners cfr Cargo Spotter). Maybe a ditched LCB would be hiding in some asteroid field waiting to be picked up...

The other scoopable battle scrap could be labeled as either computers, machinery or alloys, to keep things simple ? Battle scrap that spawns after a fight or at random...

Ok that works