(WIP) Hermitage

[Cody]

The best dessert after a sumptuous feast is mango sorbet topped with coconut mousse!

[Cholmondely]

The best dessert after a sumptuous feast is mango sorbet topped with coconut mousse!

Umm - I'm not sure we can do mangoes in Digebiti... not dismal enough...

[phkb]

Progress:
I found a scenario with the installed equipment where I was allowing multiple copies of something to be installed (in this case, energy units). What I hadn't catered for was the need to individually identify and work with all those items. I'd being using the equipment key I'd defined, but if there are multiple copies, then that key is not unique and it's impossible to know which one is which.

So I had to re-engineer a lot of the internal functions to work with a unique identifier, rather than the key. That's taken up a lot of my time in the last few days.

But now, the energy stored in the energy units matches the hermitage's "energy" property. If the station is attacked, energy will drop in the energy units, and as the energy recovers, it will go up in the units as well.

I've also implemented an auto-repair facility (kind of like repair-bots), which can automatically repair some core modules if the right resources are on hand.

And fixed a number of bugs along the way.

[Cody]

I'm not sure we can do mangoes in Digebiti... not dismal enough...

What? No mango chutney? Perish the thought!

[JiCeyCraft]

Progress:
I found a scenario with the installed equipment where I was allowing multiple copies of something to be installed (in this case, energy units). What I hadn't catered for was the need to individually identify and work with all those items. I'd being using the equipment key I'd defined, but if there are multiple copies, then that key is not unique and it's impossible to know which one is which.

So I had to re-engineer a lot of the internal functions to work with a unique identifier, rather than the key. That's taken up a lot of my time in the last few days.

But now, the energy stored in the energy units matches the hermitage's "energy" property. If the station is attacked, energy will drop in the energy units, and as the energy recovers, it will go up in the units as well.

I've also implemented an auto-repair facility (kind of like repair-bots), which can automatically repair some core modules if the right resources are on hand.

And fixed a number of bugs along the way.

Fluttershy Mode On ...yay...

[phkb]

Progress:
I've reworked the damage methodology a bit more. Having separated the damage probability from the reliability of an item, it became clear in testing that the same items kept breaking down, over and over again, which didn't make a lot of sense. If I've just repaired something, wouldn't that give the item a bit of life before possibly breaking down again?

So I've borrowed the "serviceLevel" concept from the player ship and applied it to all the upgrades you can add to your Hermitage. Over time the service level of each item will degrade (the speed of which is determined by the reliability setting), with the chance of failure increasing as the service level decreases. Once an item is repaired, it will return to (almost) perfect, then start degrading again.

Together with this, I've also implemented a "Maintenance Overhaul" you can purchase, which will restore most things to a good working order, depending on the TL of your station.

[hiran]

Progress:
I found a scenario with the installed equipment where I was allowing multiple copies of something to be installed (in this case, energy units). What I hadn't catered for was the need to individually identify and work with all those items. I'd being using the equipment key I'd defined, but if there are multiple copies, then that key is not unique and it's impossible to know which one is which.

It sounds good you have some progress. Just a blunt question: if you have several items that are sufficiently equal so you cannot tell one from another, does it matter to identify every single one of them? After all you say you have several copies of the same item - so it might be sufficient to simply talk about the first, the second, ... if that is required at all...

I've also implemented an auto-repair facility (kind of like repair-bots), which can automatically repair some core modules if the right resources are on hand.

Actually I was wondering whether, when and how the autorepair functions work. Now that I forced every expansion to have some wiki page I might want to read myself if my questions actually get answered. And if now, I'd be more than happy if you could add some explanation.

E,g. what triggers the autorepair to get active? How can I see it's progress or how would I know when it stops working (because repairs are done or because it ran out of resources)? What resources are actually required, and how much?

[phkb]

if you have several items that are sufficiently equal so you cannot tell one from another, does it matter to identify every single one of them? After all you say you have several copies of the same item - so it might be sufficient to simply talk about the first, the second

At the moment the only thing I allow duplicates of are energy units. Each unit provides 2000 units of energy to the hermitage, and is therefore directly related to the defensive posture of the station. More energy units means the station is harder to destroy.

In order to be able to have the sum of the energy units correspond exactly to the maxEnergy of the station, I need to be able to directly reference each unit and either increase or decrease the energy it is providing. But as they are also damageable, so I need to be able to change the status of each unit individually. And you can also turn on and off individual units in certain scenarios (eg to reduce the load on the reactor).

Actually I was wondering whether, when and how the autorepair functions work.

At the moment it runs on a schedule. It’s still early days in the implementation so things are kind of in a state of flux, but every 5-10 minutes it will scan all the installed equipment it is capable of repairing. If it finds one that’s damaged and the resources are on hand for the repair, it will initiate the process. If there’s another item to be repaired it will wait until the next cycle before trying to repair that one. As for notifications, there is a station log and any repair work carried out (or not, if the resources are not on hand) is logged there. If you are present in the station you will hear a “success” tone for each auto-repair job completed.

The management console for the station will highlight any damaged equipment and show the resources required for repair, including pointing out which resources are not on hand.

Once I get this to a stable alpha build I’ll add a wiki page for it. Things are changing too much at the moment to make that worthwhile, though.

[phkb]

Further progress:
I’ve been playing around with the opening scenarios and discovered a bit of an issue. Depending on what OXPs you have installed that change the size of the local system, the sun distance could be dramatically bigger. The flow-on effect is the scenarios that start with the player in the Rock Hermit fail to locate the RH at the coordinates specified in the scenario file, and the player ends up back at the main station instead. Not a huge issue, as you’re still in the system, but confusing when the set up states you’ll be starting at the RH.

So, to make the scenarios start predictably, I’ve just gone with the player starting at the main station, display some opening story to explain why you now own a RH, and let the players first action be to travel to their new base. That seems like a reasonable compromise.

[hiran]

However, my respect phkb, this idea is fascinating, offers many possible improvements and, most likely, will influence the way Oolite could be played in future.

Yes this really opens up a new dimension. Oolite is not just about flying a ship.
Plus I still have not given up hope to interconnect all the players. So if they meet in a station's bar, owning a RH could mean you are the barkeeper...

[Milo]

I've caught up on this thread and read part of the older thread from 2012 about personal space stations.

It seems to me that it is imperative that the hermitage be able to generate negative cashflow (lose money). The hermitage should be a resource management challenge, but not a "busy work" challenge. The player should be able to leave it alone for extends periods of time, while receiving remote reports about it, and sending management instructions to it.

Since being able to remotely control something implies some capable local intelligence to implement your commands, a hermitage should in fact have employees that work for the player, are paid salaries, and "automate" the day to day operations. Such employees could get sick, decide to leave when a better opportunity comes along, etc. They could also be disloyal, and decide that a local pirate gang promising them protection is strong enough to protect them from you -- so the hermitage now "belongs" to that pirate gang, and you may have to knock some heads to reclaim it. You could discourage this by employing your own flotilla of guards or doing things to increase employee loyalty, but of course such risk mitigation strategies would raise your operational costs...

Regarding the starting premise (how do you become the "owner" of a hermitage, and what is the condition at that time). I would think that rock hermits usually come about as a byproduct of mining operations - after all, they are hollowed out asteroids, so a large asteroid must have been there before (unless it was moved there) and digging equipment must have been brought to bear on it, followed by construction of a dock and other station-like facilities (which may also have a prerequisite of further digging as you need to have empty space that you can expand into). Likewise, it seems unlikely that you would be the only miner in that asteroid field while all of this is happening. More likely, there would be miners around, who might like to use the nascent hermitage as a convenient nearby market for mining byproducts (including unrefined ore, if they lack onboard ore processors) and buying fuel (saving them a longer commute to another station). Having a hermitage around also represents potential security for the miners, as any pirates who might try to extort the pilot of a mining ship for credits would think twice about doing so within range of a hermitage that may at any given time be providing housing for a combination of paid (mercenary) guards and freelance bounty hunters, plus the occasional bulk hauler with fighter escorts, all of whom might be happy enough to supplement their income with the pirate's bounty...

Of course, a hermitage could change ownership ... by force (pirates need somewhere to live, this hollowed-out asteroid would be a good base) or by abandonment after the market supporting it dries up (asteroid field has been fully mined, miners move on, income stream dries up because the hermitage owner didn't manage to attract enough business unrelated to mining -- or didn't manage to conceal illicit income streams from GalCop, resulting in a police raid)... and later, an abandoned hermitage could be adopted...

So, one could imagine starting scenarios ranging from a new hermitage just getting started in an active asteroid field with many NPC miners, to acquiring a well-developed hermitage in an active field that is up for sale because the previous owners mismanaged it, to acquiring a personal private "palace" station owned by some eccentric Aronar minor noble that runs at a massive loss supported by peasant agri-labor taxes from the noble's planetary fief...

[phkb]

Well, I'm not getting the testing time I wanted to on this one, so I think I'd better get what I have out there and get some other opinions on where I'm up to.

I think I've definitely swung the pendulum the other way from the "everything will break regularly and often" starting point - the only question is whether I've gone too far and removed the threat of equipment failure completely. It's something that I've made relatively easy to tweak in macro and micro ways, though, so there will undoubtedly be more tweaking required. The up-side of this release is that it will probably be a lot easier.

I wouldn't recommend using any previous saved games using this OXP. I've changed enough things under the covers that I couldn't guarantee the saved data will translate nicely. Best to start fresh.

Still no story elements yet.

Link for v0.7 in first post.

Here's the change list for v0.7:

• Added new item that can be purchased for the station: and Auto-Repair facility, which will automatically repair damaged items.
• Added multiple types of energy unit, with differing reliability scores.
• Added a switch to allow for refined materials to be sent to storage, rather than to the market.
• Repairs can now be initiated remotely, if there are sufficient resources in the station storage.
• Bug fixes for scooped cargo.
• Fixed issue where credits were not being correctly added/removed when moving cargo between your ship and the Hermitage market via the F8 market screen.
• Switched text randomisation code to utilise GNN, making it a requirement for this OXP.
• Extended the amount of time one batch of process commodities will last for.
• Turned off the "auto-launch" system if Life Support fails on a station. Will now just shut down station operations.
• Added numeric value to energy units, which will (in total) correspond to the current energy level of the station.
• Values of energy units will reflect the current energy level of the station.
• Fuel reserve value is now stored as a direct LY value, rather than as a percentage.
• Fixed issue with not being able to purchase upgrades when required commodities are in storage.
• Extensions to the data definition.
• Re-engineered the entire damage/reliability system to make it more logical and visible.
• Decreased the chance for thefts to take place.
• Fixed issue with Life Support Type 1 repair commodities, that was making it very hard to repair.
• Added success and failure sound effects for certain actions.
• Docking protocol is now turned on by default on each of the scenarios.
• Changed starting scenarios to begin at the main station in each system, and added some explanatory story to show after the scenario begins.
• Changed initial ships in starting scenarios to match the difficulty.
• Tweaked the resources and TL required to construct a station beacon, to make it available in a starting Rock Hermit.
• Added a waypoint to the rock hermit in the starting scenarios, so the player can easily reach it the first time.
• Added some provision for refined materials hitting capacity at both the target destination and in the ship's hold.
• When moving between days on the Profit and Loss statement, the paging wasn't being reset correctly.
• Integrated with Docking Fees OXP.
• Added custom texture for Krait and Mamba utility ships.
• Code refactoring, script file reorganisation, and data definition clean-up.
• Readme file updates.
• Bug fixes and UI tweaks.

[JiCeyCraft]

"My preciousss!"
[GRAB!]
*footsteps and mischievous laughing fading in the dark..

[JiCeyCraft]

After a proper re-installation of Hermitage and an update of all the OXPs I had, I decided to test it seriously.
So, this time, I chose not nto cheat and take the easy start.
(...and now, I'm wondering what phkb means when he thinks : "Easy". I am even suspecting he is a sadistic mind in a benevolent guy disguise.)
Anyway! Let's cut to the case...

ABILAMA take #1 (yep, here we go again)
With my new ship (a Cobra Miner, eh, please, that's good, right?), I decided not to wait too long and i directly left the station.
All I knew is that I had to find a "spinning rock isolated in the void" to get close to my Rock Hermit.
Relying on my explorer looooong expertise, I chose to fly to the Sun. Far from the main Planet, isolation and peace granted.
I met a few ships on the run, they ignored me, for that I was grateful, and I arrived in the sun's vincinity after a loooooong jump...
*cough* (hum-hum!)
I spent about half an hour, my eyes glued to the screen in hope I could find this bloody rock, searching and searching...
... and I decided I needed some equipments to ease my Quest.

(grrrr! back to cheat... again)
- [F2 key]/back to the Menu/load player -
... and I used Oocheat until I got enough credits for Telescope, Advanced Compass and Rock Hermit Locator.

[JiCeyCraft]

ABILAMA take #2
Before leaving, I saved a second time my player's datas and...
...like in #1, I left the station without hesitation.
Once in space at full speed and flying to the Sun, I use the Compass. The first Rock Hermit that appeared was near the Sun.
As I suspected, there has been someone located there.
So : JUMP! ...
I was close to the target (I was seeing the buoy!) when I met a group of hostile "rebel" ships...
*sigh* (argh
I tried to fight.

ABILAMA take #3
Once my Player reloaded, I chose to pause a bit and THINK.
It was supposed to be easy, right? I shouldn't have been attacked, right? With a serious thought in mind, I checked the informations of the Abilama system ([F7])...
phkb?
... Multi-Governments.
(GRRRRR)
I took a little time breathing deeply and keep my "zen attitude" balanced. Then I aggreed that my Cobra was not powerful enough for the travel.
I closed the game, edited my save with Notepad++, gave me 300,000 credits, saved and re-launched the game. The only cheapest ship I could buy was a D.T.T. Mk-I. I did it and gave it the very same equipments as the Cobra. Except one thing : I couldn't find a mining laser like the previous one, so I opted for a pulse laser instead. Also, I bought a Torus-to-Sun drive in order to fly faster. I saved all that and...
... back in space! Woohoo!
I flew directly to the Rock Hermit and docked it.. to find out that "the owner was willing to sell the Rock". Err, what?
Its name was Colin's Hunger
It took me some time to think about it and I decided to leave the Rock and seek if there wasn't an other. I fact, I found 2 new buoys. .yay. Close to the Main Planet. Okay, fine (argh), let's go.
On the way to Alibama Prime, I met a Night Adder. We fought. Just before it exploded (finally!), he sent me missiles...