[RELEASE:] Interstellar Tweak OXP

[Cholmondely]

A new version of Interstellar Tweaks - namely, version 6.6 - is available from the in-game download manager.

Interstellar Tweaks already did things with the Missionaries OXP by Dr Nil; but now my OXP does more with that other expansion pack than it did before.

In short, there is now a greater abundance of . . lobsters. Here is some more detail about that.
* The chance of encountering worshippers of the 'witchspace lobster' (these being critters supplied by the Missionaries OXP) has been increased (and you are most likely to meet them, in interstellar space, in galaxies 4 and 8, and if you have a very high combat rating).
* There are liable to be more of these criters in any one encounter than was the case before, especially in one of the aforementioned galaxies.
* There are now some special lobster enthusiasts . .[/list]

In small groups - *small* groups - these holy warriors pose little threat to a well equipped and skillful combattier ('combater'? How does one spell that?).

Now the Missionaries OXP is an OXP strictly so-called, i.e. it is not in the OXZ format. So it needs to be installed into one's AddOns folder manually. Here is the download link and here is a (somewhat bare) information page.

There have been a few other updates to Interstellar Tweaks lately too. Each of those updates tried to make some small improvement - sometimes to performance, sometimes in other ways.

Note that coming to encounter the lobster-fanciers may take some time, but I've tried to increase not only the chance of meeting them but also the chance of a few other interesting things happening in interstellar space, in that I've upped the probabilities of some of my more outré scenarios. A bit.

Apologies. Exactly how many of the older unlicensed oxp's does this now update? There are (i) Fuel Collector & (ii) Missionaries. Are there any more?

[UK_Eliter]

Cholmondely, thanks for your post, but I have trouble understanding you. My OXP does not really 'update' any other OXPs. Rather, and as the README file says:

This expansion pack makes various uses of numerous other expansion packs, when they are installed. Most of those expansion packs are listed below. The ones marked '*' are especially recommended for use with Interstellar Tweaks.

Moreover, the 'manifest' file singles out two other OXPs - other OXPs by me - as 'optional_oxps' (namely, ferdelance_3G and ExtraThargoids).

[Cholmondely]

Cholmondely, thanks for your post, but I have trouble understanding you. My OXP does not really 'update' any other OXPs. Rather, and as the README file says:

This expansion pack makes various uses of numerous other expansion packs, when they are installed. Most of those expansion packs are listed below. The ones marked '*' are especially recommended for use with Interstellar Tweaks.

Moreover, the 'manifest' file singles out two other OXPs - other OXPs by me - as 'optional_oxps' (namely, ferdelance_3G and ExtraThargoids).

1) You seem to have included some sort of override function which builds on what Missionaries does - pace vide your comments about lobsters in the quotes above. I understood this as an update, but may be wrong!

2) Your comments on the Expansions Manager Description: Adds variety to what happens in interstellar space ( and makes Frame's FuelCollector OXP more compatible with Oolite >= 1.8 ).
And this post of yours:

Fuel Collector (which my code hacks in order to make the collector work well with Oolite 1.8; note also that, by the design of this OXP, fuel collection is very slow in interstellar space)

By the way, I've been working on your wiki page for this OXP - putting in Links to the other mentioned oxp's - especially important for the ones not on the Expansions Manager!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Edit: replaced "pace" with vide as I have managed to misunderstand the real meaning of "pace" for yonks!

I wonder whether you are using the Latin pace correctly. That word means, literally, 'peace (to)', i.e. 'be silent', i.e. despite. So pace has the same meaning as contra, though perhaps the connotation is a bit softer. For example:

God is no lobster (pace the lobster-worshippers)

means: 'God is no lobster (be quiet, lobster-worshippers)', i.e. despite what they say. I think you used pace to mean vide, i.e., 'see'.

[UK_Eliter]

Cholmondely:

I suppose that any making use of an OXP is a modification of that OXP, in that the making use makes the OXP (the one made use of) behave in a way that it otherwise would not. That said: sometimes my OXP does not so much change the behaviour of an existing OXP as expand that behaviour, in that I give the other OXP a witchspace dimension that it lacked. An example is the lobster missionaries. But, yes, sometimes the modification goes further than that - as in the case of the hacks that my OXP performs upon the Fuel Collector OXP. So, one could indeed call hacks of the latter sort 'updates' (though of course I do not modify the actual files comprising any other OXP).

Thank you for your work on the wiki page for my OXP.

[Cholmondely]

Cholmondely:

I suppose that any making use of an OXP is a modification of that OXP, in that the making use makes the OXP (the one made use of) behave in a way that it otherwise would not. That said: sometimes my OXP does not so much change the behaviour of an existing OXP as expand that behaviour, in that I give the other OXP a witchspace dimension that it lacked. An example is the lobster missionaries. But, yes, sometimes the modification goes further than that - as in the case of the hacks that my OXP performs upon the Fuel Collector OXP. So, one could indeed call hacks of the latter sort 'updates' (though of course I do not modify the actual files comprising any other OXP).

Thank you for your work on the wiki page for my OXP.

Thank you for updating Fuel Collector - and for adding to Missionaries!

[UK_Eliter]

I should add the following.

1) I recall now that actually Interstellar Tweaks used to require the patching of the Fuel Collector OXP (and of another OXP). That is (if I recall correctly): one had to place a file from my OXP into the directory of the other OXP(s). But that was some time ago - I don't recall exactly when - and it is no longer the case: these days, my OXP alters and/or augments the behaviour of other OXPs without the need for that sort of patching.

2) In a strong sense InterstellarTweaks does update Fuel Collector. For, among other things, Interstellar Tweaks makes that OXP - the Fuel Collector OXP - work properly with various types of ship 'role' that were added to Oolite (to the Oolite core game) after Fuel Collector was written.

[Milo]

According to the expansion manager, version 6.8 exists but is no longer available for download. The box links in the opening post did not work for me (the first one asks for a login, the second one doesn't have the latest version).

I found 6.8 on the wiki here: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File:O ... Tweaks.oxz

There is also no change log. What is new in 6.8?

[UK_Eliter]

Interstellar Tweaks version 6.81 is now available. That version is identical to 6.8 except that I've ensured now that there are no packaging problems. [Edited.]

Changes between 6.6 and 6.8 include:
- adjustments to the liklihoods of various scenarios;
- optimisations;
- bug fixes (and some of the fixed bugs would have prevented various scenarios, or at least versions of various scenarios, from occuring);
- possibly other things, but I forget. (For, version 6.6 was a while ago now.)

I do not undertake to post changelogs for each upgrade but I will to remember to post a changelog - here - for each more-or-less major upgrade.

[Cholmondely]

Thank you for your work on the wiki page for my OXP.

UK_Eliter:

you seem to be the only OXP author who has done anything with the Logcontrol.plist‎‎ ... would there be any chance of your just casting your eye over this new wiki page (Logcontrol.plist) to see if there are any simple improvements to be made?

[UK_Eliter]

Hi Cholmondely - nice to hear from you.

I'm completely confused - for the following reasons.

Why did you post in this thread? Does my Interstellar Tweaks use the/a logcontrol file?

Indeed: can OXPs customize the logcontrol file? The text within the logcontrol file that comes with Oolite (or at least I think that's how I got it) says (and, er, your wiki page says): 'It can be selectively overridden using a separate logcontrol.plist file in your AddOns folder' - and that is ambiguous. For, is a user placed file, in the root of the AddOn directory, at issue? Or is a file within an OXP at issue?

Also, what are you doing on that wiki page? Adding comments to the logcontrol.plist that comes with the game? But that file seems to come with comments already. Are you altering those comments?

[Cholmondely]

Hi Cholmondely - nice to hear from you.

I'm completely confused - for the following reasons.

Why did you post in this thread? Does my Interstellar Tweaks use the/a logcontrol file?

Indeed: can OXPs customize the logcontrol file? The text within the logcontrol file that comes with Oolite (or at least I think that's how I got it) says (and, er, your wiki page says): 'It can be selectively overridden using a separate logcontrol.plist file in your AddOns folder' - and that is ambiguous. For, is a user placed file, in the root of the AddOn directory, at issue? Or is a file within an OXP at issue?

Also, what are you doing on that wiki page? Adding comments to the logcontrol.plist that comes with the game? But that file seems to come with comments already. Are you altering those comments?

1) According to the Search on my computer, your OXP is the only one (other than cim's) which contains a reference to the logcontrol.plist

2) I created that wiki page: all I did was put a by-line at the top, cut and paste the logcontrol.plist from Oolite's vanilla code, and then add in some links at the bottom. I don't know what any of the stuff really means, but thought that there should at least be a wiki page for it. (And it seems to contain stuff relevant to OXP writers who wish to test out their OXPs - hence my perceived need for a wiki page).

Hence my query here.

3) I've altered nothing (other than the spacing) - my lack of comprehension inhibits knowledgeable tweaking.

[UK_Eliter]

Cholmondely

Digging a little further would have indicated that I know as little as you. Here is why. If I am not mistaken, the Interstellar Tweaks OXP mentions logcontrol thrice - once in each of three ship-scripts; and in each case the mention is as follows.

Code: Select all

this.logging = false;
//	Corresponds to, or needs, settings in logcontrol.plist?

I am sorry not to be of help!