[WIP] GalCop Missions

[phkb]

The email system is not required for the missions to work. It simply provides a means through which secondary missions can be offered.

Thanks for the feedback.

my english is not good!

Apparently my coding isn't that good either! It might take me a day or so to find the bugs, it being a public holiday and school holidays where I am, and the kids kind of want to see their dad. Hard to lock myself away on my computer for any length of time. Should get some time tomorrow, though. So, hang fire for the moment and I'll get back to you.

[javirodriguez]

Hi!
Don't worry, take it easy, take it slowly!
Thanks!!!

[phkb]

OK, version 0.0.5 is now available via links in the first post, or from the  GalCop Missions wiki page. I think I've rectified the mess I introduced when I did some rather careless re-factoring.

[javirodriguez]

Hi!
I have been playing “thargoid hunt” missions several times. I have completed the missions but although I can read “ 100% complete” on the screen and I press “complete mission”, nothing happens, it keeps being active on “galcop bulletin board”, I am not receiving email confirmation which should show “mission complete” or something like that.

“special delivery missions” seem to be working fine except for some issue when dumping the cargo all together, target sometimes is not capable of collecting it all and leaves.
It doesn't matter if i completely stop my ship, cargo canister escape from the target ship!

[phkb]

I have completed the missions but although I can read “ 100% complete” on the screen and I press “complete mission”, nothing happens, it keeps being active on “galcop bulletin board”, I am not receiving email confirmation which should show “mission complete” or something like that.

Hmm. That appears to be an error coming through the BB system. Can I get you to attempt to complete the mission again (that is, go into the BB, select the mission, and then select the "Complete mission" option). Then, can you have a look at your "latest.log" file and let me know of any errors in there?

[javirodriguez]

I will play the mission again, however, you may be referring to this:
12:18:02.401 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]: ***** JavaScript exception (BulletinBoardSystem 0.27): TypeError: sbm is undefined

[phkb]

I will play the mission again, however, you may be referring to this:
12:18:02.401 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]: ***** JavaScript exception (BulletinBoardSystem 0.27): TypeError: sbm is undefined

OK, this should be fixed in v0.0.6, now available.

[pagroove]

I have to give compliments to you phkb. Under the right circumstances these missions can be very atmospheric. Yesterday I had to drop 10 TC machinery at a secret meeting point. The point was near the sun just on the edge of the corona. Which gave of nice lightning (courtesy of other oxp's).

It was very nice to see the cargo being scooped up by the other party. The whole atmosphere was that of a secret meeting in deepspace. After completing I received an e-mail through the now working e-mailsystem which is so nice.

I can see a variant on this mission that you have to drop cargo and protect the other ship agains police or pirates. The story could be that there is little time as the other ship is close to being intercepted.

[phkb]

Under the right circumstances these missions can be very atmospheric.

That's great news, pagroove! Just what I was hoping for.

I can see a variant on this mission that you have to drop cargo and protect the other ship agains police or pirates.

That's a great suggestion! I want to add as many variants as possible to try to keep the missions fresh, so keep the ideas coming!

[javirodriguez]

Hi!
I have been testing “pirate hunt” missions and although I have been able to complete these missions I would like to report some minor issues:
1) Ships that use the escape pod are not counted as a kill.
2) I have to destroy 11, 14……… or more pirates. It’s really difficult to come across with so many pirates so that I had to use “telescope OXP” to find them.
I have the impression that telescope OXP” is not 100% compatible with “galcop missions OXP” but it helps me to find pirates.
I was testing “range finder MFD” but at first look I don’t find it useful to locate anything , sorry, maybe I haven’t got the hang of it.
Thanks!

[phkb]

Ships that use the escape pod are not counted as a kill.

Yeah, that's the core game mechanic at work. You could shoot the escape pod, I suppose!

I have the impression that telescope OXP” is not 100% compatible with “galcop missions OXP”

It's not "incompatible" in the sense that GalCop Missions should work fine with Telescopes. It all depends on how far along the "making it too easy" path you want to go. The Range Finder was an attempt to give the player a tool to help in tracking down some things that can otherwise be quite tricky to find, like black boxes or comms relays, without like, you know, putting a beacon on them. I hadn't actually thought of using it to find pirates, though - fly between the WP and planet and I always seem to find plenty. There are probably a number of other OXP's you can install to make some of the missions in this pack easier. That's fine! It's certainly worth noting, though, as your experiences will probably be shared, so, rather than coming up with novel ways of tracking pirates down, it might just be easier reducing the number than need to be found a touch.

Thanks for continuing to test these!

[javirodriguez]

Hi!
I am going to play the mission again. I seem to remember that I also destroyed the escape pod and it was not counted as a kill.
Thanks!

[phkb]

I seem to remember that I also destroyed the escape pod and it was not counted as a kill.

Ah, that's GalCop for you. So inconsistent!

Edit: Actually, after reviewing my code, I think you experience may have highlighted a small issue. When I first put the mission together, I used the ship role to determine if the ship was a pirate. What I then noticed when I was testing is that, if you have any OXP's that add "pirate" ships to the system, but don't necessarily give them a standard, core-system pirate role, then the kill wasn't being attached to the mission. Which might be OK if it's just an asteroid you've been chasing, but a tad more annoying if it's some hot-shot OXP pirate you've spent the last 20 minutes battling.

My solution was to move away from using the role, and instead checking the name of the AI in use. However, as soon as a pilot ejects their ship gets a "null AI" set, which also means a kill won't get attached to the mission.

I also can't assume a bounty means a pirate, as there are lots of ways standard traders could get bounties.

Hmm. Thinking caps on for this one.

...

I might have to use a combination of logic for this case: start with the standard role based check, then progress to the AI check. It probably won't rule out all instances, but there'd be far less of them. Thanks for the reports.

[another_commander]

Ships that use the escape pod are not counted as a kill.

Yeah, that's the core game mechanic at work. You could shoot the escape pod, I suppose!

The core game mechanic is that abandoned ships count as a kill. The code in PlayerEntity.m does this check:

Code: Select all

BOOL killIsCargo = ((killClass == CLASS_CARGO) && ([other commodityAmount] > 0) && ![other isHulk]);
if ((killIsCargo) || (killClass == CLASS_BUOY) || (killClass == CLASS_ROCK))
{
	// EMMSTRAN: no killaward (but full bounty) for tharglets?
	if (![other hasRole:@"tharglet"])	// okay, we'll count tharglets as proper kills
	{
		score /= 10;	// reduce bounty awarded
		killAward = NO;	// don't award a kill
	}
}

An abandoned ship is scan class CLASS_CARGO, but its commodityAmount is 0 and isHulk is true, so the conditional that sets the killAward to NO is not executed.

I would check whether there is an OXP installed that uses the "counts_as_kill = false" in shipdata.

[phkb]

I would check whether there is an OXP installed that uses the "counts_as_kill = false" in shipdata.

I think I found the reason (see my edit to my previous post). I think my proposed solution will catch more cases now.