(Release) Station Dock Control OXP

[Norby]

Useful?

I'm lovin' it.
You should upload betas exactly to get more feedback, I do it also.

I already suggested a new WIP category into the oxz admin page for uncertain authors to set this at the first upload of a new package and change to the real category after some time for betatest and fixes. The alphabet is on our side due to the WIP category will be at the end of the list so somewhat separated.

[Selezen]

LOVE THIS OXP!

Great idea, and looks like it's very well executed. Great for immersion and something to just sit and watch and let one's imagination run wild.

Well done.

[phkb]

I've been playing around with shuttle destinations prior to loading version 0.8 to the download manager and I'd really appreciate some feedback. Up til now I've just taken a list of stations with "system.stations" and randomly picked one for the shuttle. That's a bit simplistic, and potentially exposes some otherwise hidden stations to the player (eg Slaver bases). Now, I've put in an exclusion for those obvious ones, but then I though perhaps I should limit the shuttle destinations to those stations with "hasNPCTraffic" turned on. But stations like "Seedy Space Bars" have this turned off, which means that no traffic would ever go there, which seems unusual. Can anyone suggest a better method of picking (or excluding) stations to send shuttles to?

Would it make more sense to find all the stations that are advertising their location via a beacon?

[cim]

Would it make more sense to find all the stations that are advertising their location via a beacon?

That's probably a reasonable attempt.

Another option is to use station.allegiance, though I don't know how many OXP stations have it explicitly set.

[phkb]

With beacons, some stations appear to have this set to null, and have a nav buoy that is the beacon. Thus, when I cycle through system.stations and check for "isBeacon = false", a few stations turn up that I'd rather they didn't (eg the main station in most systems!). Is there an easy way of linking a nav buoy to the station?

[Norby]

"Seedy Space Bars" have this turned off, which means that no traffic would ever go there, which seems unusual

This probably worth a hard-coded exception in your code.

In addition you can allocate a script_Info key for your OXP (please insert into this list if you do it), for example if station_dock_control=1 then NPCs can go into the station regardless of enabled traffic, but if -1 then avoid in all cases. Better if you avoid 0 and boolean values in script_info ("no" return true).
To surely get out a number from shipdata.plist:

Code: Select all

var d = 0;
if( station.scriptInfo ) d = parseInt( station.scriptInfo.station_dock_control );

Is there an easy way of linking a nav buoy to the station?

Distance check, but if there are more buoys within 11km then position check also: before the face of the station within some +/- values to do not miss if not exactly lined up.

[Wildeblood]

With beacons, some stations appear to have this set to null, and have a nav buoy that is the beacon... Is there an easy way of linking a nav buoy to the station?

I asked this same question about three years ago. Back then you needed to write a function that scanned for the nearest station. I helpfully suggested at the time that docking buoys should have their "owner" property set to point to the appropriate station.

[phkb]

OK, Station Dock Control is now available via the download manager. In version 0.8:

• Prevented shuttles from heading to otherwise hidden in-system destinations (Slaver bases, hacker outposts), plus some other locations.
• Shuttles will now occasionally hide their in-system destination.
• Balancing of shuttle destinations. Closer stations will have higher probability of being selected over distant ones.
• Added dock versions of ships from the UPS Courier OXP.
• Added station roles from UPS Courier OXP.
• Split out the debug mode on the interface screen, so "this._debug" controls output of comments to the log, while "this._mode" controls what functions are available to the player.
• Fixed bug with storing additional ship roles for escorts, where roles were being stored repeatedly, instead of just once.
• Converted some strings into arrays.
• Fixed issue with MFD occasionally showing "NaN" errors after jumping into a new system and before the populator function has run.

[Mazur]

Great OXP, really expands the atmosphere of the game.

Just now caught up with the whole thread (and previous thread), and one thing immediately sprang to mind when the first listings were shown:
Captains with empty Passenger berths would want to advertise that fact. In the listing that simply might be shown by an asterisk behind their destination name, since anyone looking at those lists would already know what that means, or be told when they start looking for a way to travel elsewhere.

It could be a nice tie-in for Missions where the player gets approached by someone eager to get away.

Just a thought, do with it what you will.

[phkb]

Captains with empty Passenger berths would want to advertise that fact

So if I understand you, this would be some sort of indicator that the ship has a passenger berth available, purely for immersion reasons. That is, I can't see (at the moment) how it could affect game play. If I can work out how to make it work, it could add some further realism to the dock list.

The thing is, I don't think any NPC ships get equipped with passenger berths, which means I couldn't just look for the presence of that piece of equipment to determine when to show the information.

In fact, (having just had a quick look) the passenger berth can't be given to NPC's due to this config item in the core equipment.plist:

Code: Select all

			available_to_NPCs = false;

That means I would have to guess at which ships could theoretically have a passenger berth, which would be anything that has at least 5t of cargo, but realistically I think it would be Pythons, Anacondas, and Boas in the majority, with occasion Cobra III's and maybe Fer-De-Lances. For OXP ships, I'd probably limit it to ships that have escorts, on top of the cargo space limit.

It could be a nice tie-in for Missions where the player gets approached by someone eager to get away.

Although I'm not sure how it could tie in, other than as a passing reference like "I was looking for a ship to take me to X, but none of the captains of the ships in dock want to take me there." With or without the OXP installed that kind of message will work. Is that the kind of thing you were thinking of?

Anyway, I'll keep thinking about how to make it work.

[Mazur]

Captains with empty Passenger berths would want to advertise that fact

So if I understand you, this would be some sort of indicator that the ship has a passenger berth available, purely for immersion reasons. That is, I can't see (at the moment) how it could affect game play. If I can work out how to make it work, it could add some further realism to the dock list.

Yes, purely for the look of it.

The thing is, I don't think any NPC ships get equipped with passenger berths, which means I couldn't just look for the presence of that piece of equipment to determine when to show the information.

In fact, (having just had a quick look) the passenger berth can't be given to NPC's due to this config item in the core equipment.plist:

Code: Select all

			available_to_NPCs = false;

That means I would have to guess at which ships could theoretically have a passenger berth, which would be anything that has at least 5t of cargo, but realistically I think it would be Pythons, Anacondas, and Boas in the majority, with occasion Cobra III's and maybe Fer-De-Lances. For OXP ships, I'd probably limit it to ships that have escorts, on top of the cargo space limit.

Yes, for NPC ships it can be pure fiction, and need not even be remembered from docking to docking. But larger cargo ships would have (a)
passenger cabin(s), and happy to take along passengers along to their destination, shuttles and taxis would not always be fully booked. Those two might get filled up near launching time, though. (And I was thinking of a double star meaning "multiple places available".)
Cargo ships would often have a berth free, as they may not have a fixed route and therefore be too unpredictable to book before they arrive in-system.

It could be a nice tie-in for Missions where the player gets approached by someone eager to get away.

Although I'm not sure how it could tie in, other than as a passing reference like "I was looking for a ship to take me to X, but none of the captains of the ships in dock want to take me there." With or without the OXP installed that kind of message will work. Is that the kind of thing you were thinking of?

Anyway, I'll keep thinking about how to make it work.

The tie in would also be fictional, like you just exemplified above: "I noticed on the ship boards you are going to X and have a berth free, could you take me there or even a system further towards Y? I'd pay well."

Actually, cargo ships would also give notice of free space left in their holds, but since that kind of thing is likely handled through an on-station shipping office, it would not be listed on the public boards.

[mohawk]

First let me start by saying that I love this oxp.

One thing that I noticed is that when I request docking clearance, and then cancel it, my name doesn't disappear.
and If I request clearance again, my ship appears 2 times inbound.

one last thing. Is the shorting of the list indicating of the position in the cue? or is it arbitrary?
many times I have noticed that when I request clearance, my ship does not appear in the bottom of the inbound vessels, and sometimes I get clearance before I make it to the top of the list. also I have noticed that sometimes the "ships docking" number is not the same as the ships that I count "inbound" in the list.

hope that this might help. Thank you for this wonderful oxp. keep up the good work

[phkb]

One thing that I noticed is that when I request docking clearance, and then cancel it, my name doesn't disappear.
and If I request clearance again, my ship appears 2 times inbound.

Sounds like a bug. Thanks for the heads up!

one last thing. Is the shorting of the list indicating of the position in the cue? or is it arbitrary?

There is no practical way (that I've discovered) to work out the order of ships inbound to the station. So, while I can (mostly) know what ships are on approach, I don't know who's first in the queue, who's second, etc. So, I just order the inbound ships alphabetically by their name. Thus, when you request docking clearance, your position in the "Inbound" list will be based on your ship type/name.

[Layne]

So, I just order the inbound ships alphabetically by their name. Thus, when you request docking clearance, your position in the "Inbound" list will be based on your ship type/name.

Right-o. Time to change the name of my ship to the Aardvark Abracadabra.

*eyebrow waggle*

[Mazur]

So, I just order the inbound ships alphabetically by their name. Thus, when you request docking clearance, your position in the "Inbound" list will be based on your ship type/name.

Right-o. Time to change the name of my ship to the Aardvark Abracadabra.

*eyebrow waggle*

And I rename mine after the "Holy Grail" Casgtle of Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

One small suggestion, if possible, it might be easier to have the next.previous pages links to hte left and right arrow buttons, like the Expansion Pack lists. That would also be nice for the various contract subpages, where previous/next contract could be similarlly reached. If it is even possible.