I haven't played Oolite for a year and it could be a long time before I get back to it, if ever. I worked on this expansion for about three months last year. It's fully functional (if I remember correctly), but it needs a lot of optimisation. I didn't want it to go to waste, so it's available in the Expansion Manager now.
If the OXP devs like my work, then feel free to pick up where I left off to optimise and maintain it. The source code is documented thoroughly.
Now for a brief description of the OXP...
This expansion introduces three equipment items that add more features to the player ship's targeting system. These items are intended to be compatible with any target selector the player prefers.
1. The Short Range Snapshot (SRS) counts the targets within the player ship's scanner range, divides them into seven categories and displays the tallies in its MFD. Requires the Scanner Targeting Enhancement.
2. The Target Memory Interface (TMI) displays a list of up to eight of the most recently targeted objects sorted by distance from the player ship in its MFD. It can also indicate the category of each target if the SRS is installed. Requires the Target System Memory Expansion.
3. The Target Banking Module (TBM) is primeable equipment that utilises the SRS target categories as memory banking modes. The player can select a category on the SRS MFD with the mode button, then press the activate button to assign up to 8 targets at once to the memory bank through the TMI. Requires the SRS and the TMI.
All of these items require some core game equipment before they will work. This equipment must be functioning at all times. In other words, if the dependencies are damaged or missing, then the plugins will fail and they will let you know about it.
Any of the functioning plugins will alert the player if a cascade weapon like the Quirium Cascade Mine is within the player ship's scanner range, so the Q-Bomb Detector OXP is not recommended, unless you want to pay 5000 credits to hear two audio alerts at the same time.
The plugins will display some helpful information about themselves on their MFDs when no targets are in scanner range.
There's a readme.txt file in the OXP that includes more detailed information: the tech levels and credits required for each equipment item; how the categories, tallies and symbols work; and a long-winded development history at the end that acknowledges the OXP authors who inspired this project.
It's my turn to dock now. Have fun.
