[Release] Market inquirer

[Nite Owl]

Thank you phkb and spara. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

[Cholmondely]

Thank you for this - I confess to finding it inordinately useful.

There are three minor fixes which I suspect might improve the station interface (F4: Commodity Markets option):

i) Marking the current orbital station in which the interface is located (if it is indeed registered on the screen - Rock Hermits & SLAPUs allow the interface but are not of course registered on it!) - perhaps with a different colour?

ii) Indicating the Galaxial normative price for each commodity (this would probably require another column).

iii) The default setting at the bottom of the screen is Exit rather than Swap - which if one is whizzing between two pages comparing the prices over a number of different commodities leads to utter teeth-gnashing frustration. Could not one utilise the left/right arrow keys for this as one does with so many of the other screens in the game (F3/F4/F5/F7/Expansion Manager etc)?

I'm just dipping my toes into the .oxp programming thing: is there any way that I might be able to do any of this stuff myself? Any tips?

[phkb]

Could not one utilise the left/right arrow keys for this as one does with so many of the other screens in the game

Limitations on mission screens prevents the use of left/right/pg up/pg dn keys. The best we could do is default the menu selection to something other than "Exit"

[phkb]

I'm just dipping my toes into the .oxp programming thing: is there any way that I might be able to do any of this stuff myself? Any tips?

Try this out. In the "\Config\script.js" file, go to line 357. The section should look something like this:

Code: Select all

	//select correct options
	var options = {
		"0_SELECT" : "Select commodities to view",
		"1_NEXT" : "Swap",
		"2_QUIT" : "Exit"
	};
	if (stations.length <= maxCols || stations.length === 0) {
		options = {
			"0_SELECT" : "Select commodities to view",
			"2_QUIT" : "Exit"
		};
	}
	//finally, the mission screen
	mission.runScreen({
		title: "Commodity Markets of " + system.name,
		screenID:"marketinquirer-markets",
		message: text,
		choices: options,
		background: bgImage,
		exitScreen: "GUI_SCREEN_INTERFACES",
		initialChoicesKey: "2_QUIT"
	},

Change it to look like this:

Code: Select all

	//select correct options
	var options = {
		"0_SELECT" : "Select commodities to view",
		"1_NEXT" : "Swap",
		"2_QUIT" : "Exit"
	};
	var def = "1_NEXT";                    // << add this line
	if (stations.length <= maxCols || stations.length === 0) {
		options = {
			"0_SELECT" : "Select commodities to view",
			"2_QUIT" : "Exit"
		};
		def = "2_QUIT";                    // << add this line
	}
	//finally, the mission screen
	mission.runScreen({
		title: "Commodity Markets of " + system.name,
		screenID:"marketinquirer-markets",
		message: text,
		choices: options,
		background: bgImage,
		exitScreen: "GUI_SCREEN_INTERFACES",
		initialChoicesKey: def                      // << change this line
	},

And see how that goes.

[Cholmondely]

Thanking you!

[Cholmondely]

First attempt a dismal failure (the various liners visiting the Ensoreus system disappeared from the F4 Commodities Markets screen - they were very much there in the relevant MDF)!

I assume that since I hand-typed everything that I either overlooked one of your modifications - or that I made a typo.

Will have another stab at it!

Interestingly enough the unzipping of the .oxp would not convert back to a folder when I extirpated its .oxp suffix! I'll just have to go back to my copy of your original.

On the Mighty Mac I unzip the .oxz which transmogrifies it into a folder with the various goodies in it. When I've finished vandalising the contents I then bung on a .oxp suffix

[phkb]

I added some comments to the code above to make it clearer what changes are required. I'm sure you'd probably worked this out, but just in case.

[Cholmondely]

Thank you.

Cholmondeley

[spara]

Thanks phkb for providing help with issue iii. I'll update this fix to the oxp the next time I update it.

About the other questions

i) Possible to some extent for sure. Colors are not possible, but the order could be so that the first column is always the one the player is docked at. Then again, this service is envisioned as a broadcast from the central trading system for all legal stations and thus the order is static. Hmmm. Need to ponder this over a bit.

ii) Again totally possible. Maybe a link with the market observer, if that one is installed, could be established. It would be really crowded though, since for a busy system the screen is already packed with market data. I'll test this a bit, if I'll figure some nice solution.

[Cholmondely]

Thanks phkb for providing help with issue iii. I'll update this fix to the oxp the next time I update it.

About the other questions

i) Possible to some extent for sure. Colors are not possible, but the order could be so that the first column is always the one the player is docked at. Then again, this service is envisioned as a broadcast from the central trading system for all legal stations and thus the order is static. Hmmm. Need to ponder this over a bit.

ii) Again totally possible. Maybe a link with the market observer, if that one is installed, could be established. It would be really crowded though, since for a busy system the screen is already packed with market data. I'll test this a bit, if I'll figure some nice solution.

Faff about with the fonts (size/italics/different font...) ? Or is that also verboten?

But just to reiterate the point, I do find this .oxp very, very useful (even without every conceivable bell and whistle!): Thank you!

[montana05]

Thank you.

I will instruct Benedict forthwith to order your employers to double your salary.

I beg, Sir, to remain thy obedient servant ...

Cholmondeley

May I remind you that nobody on this project is your servant and, last time I checked, nobody got any money out of that. I would strongly suggest that you think twice before posting messages like that. While your posts, once in a while, make me smile I would recommend to post problems in facts, personally I am not in the mood to read a long story before I am finally see the problem.

[spara]

Faff about with the fonts (size/italics/different font...) ? Or is that also verboten?

But just to reiterate the point, I do find this .oxp very, very useful (even without every conceivable bell and whistle!): Thank you!

Alas, there is no control on the font other than changing the font for the whole GUI.

Pulling the market data from the current station to the inquirer is not a big change and well worth consideration. The galactic averages (hard-coded of from the market observer) on the other hand might not be that easy to add and maybe even not that handy. I'll have to ponder a bit on those.

[spara]

New version 1.14.1. Two small fixes.
* The station interface now always lists the current station and it's market even if the station is not registered to the system's market broadcast service.
* Implemented phkb's fix for defaulting swap over exit in the station interface.

[Josef]

Hi everybody,
I have some questions about the Market Inquirer:
At what TL is it possible to by the Market Inquirer and what is the price?
At what TL can I buy the Market Inquirer MFD and what is the price?

[Cholmondely]

Hi everybody,
I have some questions about the Market Inquirer:
At what TL is it possible to by the Market Inquirer and what is the price?
At what TL can I buy the Market Inquirer MFD and what is the price?

The MFD is paid for, but the in-station analysis is free (F4 screen, Commodities MArkets)

MFD: 1050₢. TL7