Dark Rainbow 2011.09.14 - OXZ for Oolite 1.82 now available

[Capt. Murphy]

Hi sdrubble - Eric made the changes so can answer with more authority, but it looks like that prior to 1.76.1 (including all 1.75.x) weapon_range and weapon_energy shipdata keys in turret definitions were being ignored and default hardcoded values used instead (25 for weapon_energy, 6000 for weapon_range).

[sdrubble]

Eric made the changes so can answer with more authority, but it looks like that prior to 1.76.1 (including all 1.75.x) weapon_range and weapon_energy shipdata keys in turret definitions were being ignored and default hardcoded values used instead (25 for weapon_energy, 6000 for weapon_range).

Oh, thx a lot for the feedback Capt. Murphy!

I also took a look at the current version of http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Shipdata.plist and checked some of its past changes in order to get a better understanding on this.

I'll PM Eric shortly in order to possibly get his own confirmation on this. But judging from your clarification, my own conclusions for the moment regarding the current status of The Dark Rainbow are as follows:

- the DR does NOT employ any weapon_range coding, meaning that all turrets will start firing when a locked foe gets within the DEFAULT 6-click range (i.e., exactly the same behaviour as before).

- the 6 lateral turrets which have weapon_energy=15 were actually, up to 1.76, firing at the default value of 25 - and from 1.76.1 onwards they'll revert to their intended value of 15. That means: the 6 WEAKER turrets will now inflict 60% of the damage that they did before.

- the 4 main turrets (up-down-forward-backward) which have weapon_energy=50 were actually, up to 1.76, firing at the default value of 25 - and from 1.76.1 onwards they'll revert to their intended value of 50. That means: the 4 STRONGER turrets will now inflict TWICE as damage as they did before.

- due to the way that turret facing has been arranged around The Dark Rainbow, whenever a locked foe gets inside its 6-click SPHERICAL range... ... , at least one (and possibly two) of the 4 STRONGER turrets will be pounding the poor fella (and now each of the main turrets will become twice as deadly as it was before).

- the 6 lateral turrets, which will now become somewhat weaker, always work together with one (and possibly two) of the 4 main turrets, so that their 40% loss of power will be largely over-compensated by the 100% increase in main turrets power...

So that my overall conclusion will be that 1.76.1 will turn The Dark Rainbow into a quite more powerful beast, without any action from my part.

What remains to be seen is whether the increased turret power will have any substantial draining effect on the DR's energy banks. However, on all my playing & testing sessions, I never saw any noticeable impact from the turrets on the energy levels... and I vaguely recall having read something on this board about turrets actually causing ZERO energy drain due to some coding quirk yet to be corrected. I would appreciate any confirmation on this by Oolite's flight engineers...

Thx y'all again and cheers !!!

[Eric Walch]

The keys must be set with the new subentity definition. Before 1.76.1, any value set here was later overwritten with the default value. It is correct that it only works correct since 1.76.1. But that can result in existing turrets now having a unwanted value because shipbuilders left any not working values in.

[sdrubble]

Thx a lot Eric, for the clarifications !!!

The keys must be set with the new subentity definition.

Indeed, that's how it's done in The Dark Rainbow.

Before 1.76.1, any value set here was later overwritten with the default value. It is correct that it only works correct since 1.76.1.

...and that's when the DR will start pouring an even more awesome firebreath !!!

But that can result in existing turrets now having a unwanted value because shipbuilders left any not working values in.

Which, AFAICT, will not be the case of the DR. [b]weapon_energy[/b] is coded with either 15 or 50, both of which are legal values; [b]weapon_range[/b] is totally absent, so that the default value of 6000 should apply.

What remains to be seen is whether the increased turret power will have any substantial draining effect on the DR's energy banks. However, on all my playing & testing sessions, I never saw any noticeable impact from the turrets on the energy levels... and I vaguely recall having read something on this board about turrets actually causing ZERO energy drain due to some coding quirk yet to be corrected. I would appreciate any confirmation on this by Oolite's flight engineers...

Well, this possible issue remains still unclear for the moment... unless someone can provide some hints programming-wise, the question might be clarified later on thru the battle reports of daring Commanders.

Cheers

[sdrubble]

...and in case you're wondering **WHAT HAPPENED** to the author of this mod OXP...

[sdrubble]

Hi fellas!

I've just noticed that Oolite v1.77 became available 5 days ago.

If anybody cared to follow the link I gave in post above (highly unlikely... ) they'd have learned about me not being very close to Oolite recently.

Anyway, I'm posting today just to let it clear that I'm not currently in the position to test The Dark Rainbow over Oolite v1.77 and evaluate how well it flies & fights under the new game version... ...hopefully some overjoyed - or pissed off - Commander will post on this thread commenting about his findings.

Anyway, may I remind all Commanders to be attentive when flying The Dark Rainbow over Oolite v1.77.

Cheers !!!

[Duggan]

I have briefly piloted the dark rainbow in 1.77 and find it to work satisfactorily, the new bright laser cannon colour still forms a cross effect on firing (as expected) and the plasma turrets kick in when an enemy is within 6000 clicks range. I have not tested the DCN's functionality yet. It's a shame i cannot do anything about the laser position to remove the fried pilot brain effect. it all seems read only in the oxp.

In the interim I have returned to the core boa class cruiser with custom lasers and a naval energy grid along with ironhide, target tracker and military fuel injectors, which it seems, so far is quiet uber as it is , except in the face of a Thargoid Thargon Battle Ship..In which case it's plasma turrets melt my iron clad's shields.

[sdrubble]

Thx Duggan... nice to know that the DR is still alive and kicking ass under 1.77.

As to the strange laser effect, well... it's been there since before its inception, inherited from its papa the Caduceus, and it's a 'trademark' of sorts for the ship. Not sure though what you mean by

... the new bright laser cannon colour...

Anyways, to this [former] Commander at least, it all amounts to fighting style. IIRC I had a lot of uber armor & weapons on board, and - together with the turrets - I mostly used the lasers for the 'finish him' conclusions.

Thx a lot, matey and take care !

[Diziet Sma]

I have briefly piloted the dark rainbow in 1.77 and find it to work satisfactorily, the new bright laser cannon colour still forms a cross effect on firing (as expected)

As to the strange laser effect, well... it's been there since before its inception, inherited from its papa the Caduceus, and it's a 'trademark' of sorts for the ship

If I recall, it's a side-effect of the view-position looking out through the laser-barrel, as it were.. great for sniping accuracy, as it removes all parallax, but looks weird.

[sdrubble]

If I recall, it's a side-effect of the view-position looking out through the laser-barrel, as it were.. great for sniping accuracy, as it removes all parallax, but looks weird.

Right on, Dizi - and...

... the fried pilot brain effect.

...whatever the handwavium might be behind the technology that allows that, it also brings with it an unmatched FEEL of man-thru-machine firepower.

It only takes a few sorties to get used to and feel attached to that...

Oh, and BTW while we're here:

I have not tested the DCN's functionality yet.

A while ago someone published an improved script for the Caduceus DCN (which, mind you, is coded somewhat differently than the equivalent coding found in the stand-alone OXP which performs a similar function for other ships). I had tested it at the time, and validated it for the Dark Rainbow (as a matter of fact it DID solve fully a performance issue which my netbook was having with some other heavy script from a HUD OXP).

I'll do some homework shortly and update here add a new post with the relevant info & links.

Stay tuned...

[sdrubble]

A while ago someone published an improved script for the Caduceus DCN (which, mind you, is coded somewhat differently than the equivalent coding found in the stand-alone OXP which performs a similar function for other ships). I had tested it at the time, and validated it for the Dark Rainbow (as a matter of fact it DID solve fully a performance issue which my netbook was having with some other heavy script from a HUD OXP).

I'll do some homework shortly and update here with the relevant info & links.

Actually I'm making a new post instead of amending the previous one. Things should become more clear that way.

So, for anybody willing to take The Dark Rainbow for more than a single test-drive test-flight, there's a simple HACK which should be done to the DCN script. It should greatly improve the overall performance of Oolite, and this is mainly noticed when flying The Dark Rainbow on a low-spec machine.

Now, the DCN script I'm talking about is NOT a part of The Dark Rainbow OXP - it comes from the Caduceus OXP, and pls remember that The Dark Rainbow OXP's install process is a sort of 'piggyback' atop the Caduceus OXP. As I'm writing this, the Caduceus OXP currently available for download - Caddy wiki page HERE and Caddy zip file HERE - is still at the same 2010 version that I originally based The Dark Rainbow OXP on.

For everybody's convenience (including mine, of course) I'll paste below not only some relevant links but also the applicable code and instructions. This post might become a bit long but should encompass all the important stuff in one fell swoop. Here we go:

***BACKGROUND***

1. This is my ORIGINAL POST reporting an issue I was having: the DCN script from the Caddy / Dark Rainbow was being choked under the ChupacabraHUD.oxp. After this post, a LOT of people chimed in with advice.

2. Fast forward (on same thread of #1.) to THIS POST by Eric Walch where he performed some awesome magic and proposed a change to the DCN script from the Caddy / Dark Rainbow. That's where the relevant code (see #C. below) comes from.

3. Then I made THIS POST in the Dark Rainbow's own thread, drawing the attention of DR's Commanders to points #1 and #2 above and giving some instructions on how to go about all this.

4. And finally we make things a lot simpler by pasting all of this shebang right here in a (hopefully) helpful manner. So what needs to be done is:

***RECIPE***

A. WHAT to update:

the DCN script contained in the current Neocaduceus download

which

BTW it's the script.js file in the Config folder.

B. HOW to update:

It's just a matter of commenting (with leading [b]'//'[/b] ) all the lines of the this.checkSystems function (i.e. , up to the start of the this.repairSystems function), and pasting Eric's code in its place. EDIT: duuuh... rather, paste the new code BELOW the commented lines, actually!

C. CODE to be pasted: (this comes from Eric Walch - see #2 above)

Code: Select all

this.checkSystems = function()   
   {
   this.playerDamagedList = [];
    var equipment = player.ship.equipment
   var listCounter = 0 ; // reset the counter
   for(listCounter = 0;listCounter<equipment.length;listCounter++)
      {
      if(   player.ship.equipmentStatus(equipment[listCounter].equipmentKey) !== "EQUIPMENT_DAMAGED")
      {continue}
      var scriptEqInfo = EquipmentInfo.infoForKey(equipment[listCounter].equipmentKey).scriptInfo;
      if((scriptEqInfo.thargoidRepairBotChance === undefined
            || isNaN(scriptEqInfo.thargoidRepairBotChance))
         || (!isNaN(scriptEqInfo.thargoidRepairBotChance)
            && scriptEqInfo.thargoidRepairBotChance > 0))
         {
         this.playerDamagedList.push(equipment[listCounter].equipmentKey); // if it's broke and fixable, add it to the list.
         }
      }
   }

Puff - I think that covers everything now. If anything isn't clear enough, pls gimme a shout !

[sdrubble]

Hi all,

I've just noticed one more iteration of new-oolite-version [1.8.0 as I write this]... and in this particular Oolite version a new packaging scheme for OXPs [OXZs] has been introduced as well.

At the same time, while browsing some other recent posts, I've just found some people having issues with LICENSING terms, while trying in good-will to fix & update some abandoned OXPs from MIA Commanders.

Considering that "The Dark Rainbow" is for all practical purposes abandoned (its author, i.e. , myself, hasn't touched the Oolite game for 2 years or so), I'd like to make all the necessary provisions so that it can be legally and lovingly 'adopted' - and again duly supported - by anyone willing to do so.

Towards that end I intend to EDIT the first post in this thread to include whatever statements that would be required to state very clearly that:

I hereby give permission to anyone willing to modify, improve, expand, re-code, re-document, re-pack, rename, and re-upload "The Dark Rainbow" pseudo-OXP, to do so as he might wish, without requiring any further explicit request to me or explicit consent from me.

However, as I'm totally unfamiliar with the legalese wordage involved, I'd like to request anyone more knowledgeable in this area to offer some advice requiring the proper formulation of my will. Would the statements in bold red above be clear and sufficient enough to express that and allow any interested party to proceed with an eventual 'adoption' ?

A secondary issue about the same subject stems from the fact that, in reality, "The Dark Rainbow" was created as an adaptation of another author's OXP files (ClymAngus' Caduceus), and published after obtaining the proper explicit authorization from said author. So I'm not entirely sure how that would fit in with my desire to leave for public adoption such contents that were only PARTLY a creation of mine, and for which I was granted one specific, PERSONAL authorization to publish.

So... I'd very much welcome whatever advice you might offer, so that "The Dark Rainbow" might continue its mighty flights without any technical or intellectual-property issues.

Thx & Cheers !

[ClymAngus]

I believe that creative commons licencing would be sufficient.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

[Diziet Sma]

I believe that creative commons licencing would be sufficient.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

With the new Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) generally being regarded as the current best in this respect.
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=224390#p224390

[Thargoid]

The Caduceus OXZ is licensed as CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0, so the Dark Rainbow (as a derivative of it) should also have the same licensing.

Of course offering it up for adoption by someone else could be considered as a separate point to the license itself, as whilst ownership of the OXP is transferrable the license itself shouldn't be influenced by that.