The Assassins Guild OXP (Non-Functional 2007 Version)

[Griff]

oh dear, yes the alloys & wreckage oxp does replace the script.js files on the default shipset ships - sorry about all this! As a fix, I've editied the 'shipdata-overries.plist' file in the 'griff alloys & wreckage oxp' and taken out all the entries for the default shipset and reuploaded the oxp (it's now at v1.4.1)

[V12]

I'm glad you got it fixed!

It was not a repair, it was only DELETE But now, Assassins work well.

[moewe]

Hey,

there has not much been going on for a while here, so I hope there's somebody out there...

I've got a problem with Assassins Guild OXP:

I couldn't even finish the first mission. Found the Vintage Adder and shot it, but no mission screen, no change in F5 (still I am to ensure his retirement at Orramaor...).
So I startet again from that point when I installed Assassins Guild and found that the planet description modified by the oxp changed back to the old one after my first jump.

Any ideas...

I've heard so much about Assassins - I want to play it !!!

thanks!

[Cholmondely]

Does this still work?

Dybal apparently changed nothing other than the license back in September 2020 and then put it on the Expansions Manager.

[montana05]

Does this still work?

Dybal apparently changed nothing other than the license back in September 2020 and then put it on the Expansions Manager.

You are correct, except manifest.plist and license no modifications were done. As much as I recall a conversation with LittleBear the OXP would need a fresh up but still should be playable. Please correct me if my memory tricked me.

[Cholmondely]

Does this still work?

Dybal apparently changed nothing other than the license back in September 2020 and then put it on the Expansions Manager.

You are correct, except manifest.plist and license no modifications were done. As much as I recall a conversation with LittleBear the OXP would need a fresh up but still should be playable. Please correct me if my memory tricked me.

No, that's exactly what I surmised from cruising the boards and the wiki. My combat skills are still too feeble to think of leaving Chart 1! Trying this one out is some way in the future, methinks!

[LittleBear]

I think the code still works so you can play through the missions.

However, this was my first OXP written about 15 years ago. Back in the day NPCs were really dumb and Military lasers where much less powerful.The cloacking device was a bit of a game breaker as ships would completley ignore you even if you were shooting them if you were cloaked. I wouldn't have stopped the player from cloaking today as the cloak is now much less drastic as NPC are now smart enough to twig that if something is ripping their shields to bits they are under attack even though they can't quite make out where you are where you are on their scanner and will take approprate action The only way really back in the day to make a challenging mission target was to stick military lasers on it and give it tons of energy. If I was writing it today I'd have given the mission ships a little bit more energy than the standard ship of the same type and just made em smarter than the average bear to make the challenge.

I did play it through with a standard (but Iron Assed) Cobra Mk III before I released it and completed it (albiet with a fair few hefty repair bills). However, running on modern Oolite where the NPCS are automatically a lot smarter (and have absurdly high by todays standards enegry levels) it would be massively harder than I intended it to be. I think today the missions ships would rip even an iron assed cobra to bits pretty quickly and the difficulty level was set at hard but do-able in a standard cobra. Difficulty did assume a full iron ass but I felt that was balanced as getting blown out of the sky if you were unwise enough to try be a pro-assasin with nothing but a pea-shooter was the intended effect. This was also why its set in G7. If you can afford the hyperdrives to get there, then I'm assuming you have reach the point in your game where you have enough cash for reasonable combat equipment.

Equipment to protect the player though has come on a lot as well though. It will be much more difficult than intended. You might still be able to complete it but it might be very frustrating. And you're gonna need a bigger boat.

[Milo]

Latest.log complains:

13:57:15.979 [shipData.load.error] -[OOShipRegistry(OODataLoader) removeUnusableEntries:shipMode:]: ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "powerdown1" specifies non-existent model "cobra3_redux1.dat".

The reference comes from this OXP (I have version 1.3.3):

Code: Select all

<key>powerdown1</key>
  <dict>
	<key>like_ship</key>
	<string>cobra3-alternate</string>
	<key>bounty</key>
	<integer>0</integer>	
	<key>escorts</key>
	<integer>0</integer>
	<key>model</key>

	<string>cobra3_redux1.dat</string>
	<key>roles</key>
	<string>powerdown</string>	
	<key>name</key>
	<string>Cobra Mark III : Systems Shutdown</string>
	<key>has_escape_pod</key>
	<real>0.0</real>		
	<key>ai_type</key>

	<string>buoyAI.plist</string>

	<key>missiles</key>

	<integer>0</integer>

	<key>scanClass</key>

	<string>CLASS_ROCK</string>
	<key>smooth</key>
	<true/>
	</dict>

From limited research, cobra3_redux1.dat was once among the core Oolite models (in Resources\Models\) but it is no longer there.

In Resources\Models, there is a cobra3_redux.dat (no "1" variant). This loads a cobra3_redux.png texture (see Resources\Textures folder).
There is also a cobra3_redux1.png ("1" variant) in Resources\Textures, which has a different color scheme and some symbols.

I suspect it would be fine to switch this to use the cobra3_redux.dat (no "1")?

[Milo]

Latest.log also complains:

13:57:15.345 [shipData.load.error] -[OOShipRegistry(OODataLoader) canonicalizeAndTagSubentities:]: ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "hognose_moray" has unresolved subentity moraytug.

And "hognose_moray" is also defined in Assassins Guild 1.3.3's shipdata.plist:

Code: Select all

<key>hognose_moray</key>
  <dict>
	<key>aft_eject_position</key>
	<string>0.0 -16.1 -22.0</string>
	<key>ai_type</key>
	<string>dockingAI.plist</string>
	<key>bounty</key>
	<integer>0</integer>
	<key>cargo_type</key>
	<string>CARGO_NOT_CARGO</string>
	<key>energy_recharge_rate</key>
	<real>2</real>
	<key>exhaust</key>
	<array>
	<string>-5.4 -0.2 -40.03 4 4 2</string>
	<string>5.4 -0.2 -40.03 4 4 2</string>
	</array>
	<key>forward_weapon_type</key>
	<string>WEAPON_MINING_LASER</string>
	<key>frangible</key>
	<true/>
	<key>has_ecm</key>
	<true/>
	<key>has_escape_pod</key>
	<true/>
	<key>has_scoop</key>
	<true/>
	<key>likely_cargo</key>
	<integer>5</integer>
	<key>max_cargo</key>
	<integer>20</integer>
	<key>max_energy</key>
	<real>350</real>
	<key>max_flight_pitch</key>
	<real>0.5</real>
	<key>max_flight_roll</key>
	<real>0.5</real>
	<key>max_flight_speed</key>
	<real>120</real>
	<key>missiles</key>
	<integer>0</integer>
	<key>model</key>
	<string>hognose.dat</string>
	<key>name</key>
	<string>Hognose Tugship</string>
	<key>roles</key>
	<string>stugger</string>
	<key>subentities</key>
	<array>
	<string>tugline	0.0 0.0 0.0	1 0 0 0</string>
	<string>tugjaw	0.0 0.0 -85.0	1 0 0 0</string>
	<string>moraytug	0.0 -2.0 -117	0 1 0 0</string>
	<string>*FLASHER* -33.1 0 -9.5 22.0 2 0.5 5</string>
	<string>*FLASHER* -33.1 0 -9.5 60.0 3 0.6 8</string>
	<string>*FLASHER* 33.1 0 -9.5 22.0 2 0.5 5</string>
	<string>*FLASHER* 33.1 0 -9.5 60.0 3 0.6 8</string>
	</array>
	<key>thrust</key>
	<real>15</real>
	<key>weapon_position_aft</key>
	<string>0.0 10 -65.0</string>
	<key>weapon_position_forward</key>
	<string>0.0 0.0 40.0</string>
	<key>weapon_position_port</key>
	<string>-26.67 0.0 4.33</string>
	<key>weapon_position_starboard</key>
	<string>26.67 0.0 4.33</string>
	<key>track_contacts</key>
	<true/>
	</dict>

According to these posts, the missing model for the subentity will simply not appear in-game, but the ship itself will still appear, because the ship definition has the frangible keyword set to true.

[Cholmondely]

Latest.log also complains:

13:57:15.345 [shipData.load.error] -[OOShipRegistry(OODataLoader) canonicalizeAndTagSubentities:]: ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "hognose_moray" has unresolved subentity moraytug.

And "hognose_moray" is also defined in Assassins Guild 1.3.3's shipdata.plist:

Code: Select all

<key>hognose_moray</key>
  <dict>
	<key>aft_eject_position</key>
	<string>0.0 -16.1 -22.0</string>
	<key>ai_type</key>
	<string>dockingAI.plist</string>
	<key>bounty</key>
	<integer>0</integer>
	<key>cargo_type</key>
	<string>CARGO_NOT_CARGO</string>
	<key>energy_recharge_rate</key>
	<real>2</real>
	<key>exhaust</key>
	<array>
	<string>-5.4 -0.2 -40.03 4 4 2</string>
	<string>5.4 -0.2 -40.03 4 4 2</string>
	</array>
	<key>forward_weapon_type</key>
	<string>WEAPON_MINING_LASER</string>
	<key>frangible</key>
	<true/>
	<key>has_ecm</key>
	<true/>
	<key>has_escape_pod</key>
	<true/>
	<key>has_scoop</key>
	<true/>
	<key>likely_cargo</key>
	<integer>5</integer>
	<key>max_cargo</key>
	<integer>20</integer>
	<key>max_energy</key>
	<real>350</real>
	<key>max_flight_pitch</key>
	<real>0.5</real>
	<key>max_flight_roll</key>
	<real>0.5</real>
	<key>max_flight_speed</key>
	<real>120</real>
	<key>missiles</key>
	<integer>0</integer>
	<key>model</key>
	<string>hognose.dat</string>
	<key>name</key>
	<string>Hognose Tugship</string>
	<key>roles</key>
	<string>stugger</string>
	<key>subentities</key>
	<array>
	<string>tugline	0.0 0.0 0.0	1 0 0 0</string>
	<string>tugjaw	0.0 0.0 -85.0	1 0 0 0</string>
	<string>moraytug	0.0 -2.0 -117	0 1 0 0</string>
	<string>*FLASHER* -33.1 0 -9.5 22.0 2 0.5 5</string>
	<string>*FLASHER* -33.1 0 -9.5 60.0 3 0.6 8</string>
	<string>*FLASHER* 33.1 0 -9.5 22.0 2 0.5 5</string>
	<string>*FLASHER* 33.1 0 -9.5 60.0 3 0.6 8</string>
	</array>
	<key>thrust</key>
	<real>15</real>
	<key>weapon_position_aft</key>
	<string>0.0 10 -65.0</string>
	<key>weapon_position_forward</key>
	<string>0.0 0.0 40.0</string>
	<key>weapon_position_port</key>
	<string>-26.67 0.0 4.33</string>
	<key>weapon_position_starboard</key>
	<string>26.67 0.0 4.33</string>
	<key>track_contacts</key>
	<true/>
	</dict>

According to these posts, the missing model for the subentity will simply not appear in-game, but the ship itself will still appear, because the ship definition has the frangible keyword set to true.

Umm: does all this mean that this OXP is now broken?

[Milo]

The second issue is cosmetic. The first, I'm not sure.

The "powerdown1" ship type is using the cobra3-alternate template, which is valid (it's a core Oolite ship template), but this OXP is trying to override the model from that template with a non-existent one (cobra3-redux1.dat). The template uses model oolite_cobra3.dat, which also exists.

I don't remember whether a ship referencing a non-existent model defaults to the model defined in its template or just doesn't appear when spawned. If it defaults to the template, it means that ship will simply look different than intended. I didn't look into how this OXP uses the powerdown1 ship type. If it's used in a mission in some important way and it doesn't appear, its absence might cause a problem.

[Cholmondely]

oh dear

Whizzing around G7 to test DGill's expansion of the Feudal States to G7/G8



Is this what the Griff Research Limited Orbital Base is really supposed to look like?

It looks to me like an Archimedes Elite-style dodo with a brand new facade on the front only!

Is this a result of a surfeit of baked beans on the baked potato?

[Cholmondely]

I think the code still works...

Ateslete system with the following OXPs loaded (and zillions of other less relevant OXPs too!)

*The Assassin's Guild (Griff's Research Labs)
*Stranger's World (+ Planetary Compass) - distances and tweaks to planet and star
*Povray Planets (G7)
*Telescope (circles around stations/planets/moons)

but not Galactic Almanac (only works with Oolite v.1.91 which continually crashes on my AppleMac)

Top Left - the Ateslete star
Left - Planet named "Ateslete" not Stymphal
Bottom - Katla (one of several moons)
Right - Griff Research Limited Orbital Base
Top middle - Nephthys station

According to the blurb "The Ateslete system in galaxy 7 is reasonably noted for the ice-world, Stymphal. The well known robotics company, Griff Research Ltd, operates factories over most of the planet and maintains an orbital research station near Stymphal. "

I'm unsure why the planet is not named "Stymphal". I presume that The Assassin's Guild OXP is trying to do so and being blocked by either Stranger's World or by the Planetary Compass OXPs.

And I'd thought that the Povray textures were supposed to work with the various planet descriptions (Vanilla description is "This planet is plagued by deadly earthquakes.")

[Cholmondely]

Wonky shipdata.plist?

I found these error messages in my latest.log and understand that at least two of them come from this OXP:

Code: Select all

00:07:07.246 [shipData.load.begin] +[OOShipRegistry(Singleton) allocWithZone:] (OOShipRegistry.m:1689): Loading ship data.


00:07:07.595 [shipData.load.badEntry] -[OOShipRegistry(OODataLoader) makeShipEntriesMutable:] (OOShipRegistry.m:749): ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "subentities" is not a dictionary.

This one seems to be Assassins Guild ->
00:07:07.891 [shipData.load.error] -[OOShipRegistry(OODataLoader) canonicalizeAndTagSubentities:] (OOShipRegistry.m:970): ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "hognose_moray" has unresolved subentity moraytug.

00:07:08.072 [shipData.load.error] -[OOShipRegistry(OODataLoader) removeUnusableEntries:shipMode:] (OOShipRegistry.m:1005): ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "shaders" specifies no roles.

This one seems to be Assassins Guild ->
00:07:08.318 [shipData.load.error] -[OOShipRegistry(OODataLoader) removeUnusableEntries:shipMode:] (OOShipRegistry.m:1020): ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "powerdown1" specifies non-existent model "cobra3_redux1.dat".

The offending .plist is in XML - and I don't recall seeing these error messages before. And I'm on an AppleMac.

[phkb]

I found these error messages in my latest.log and understand that at least two of them come from this OXP:

Can you try this version of the shipdata.plist: assassins guild shipdata.zip

I converted the XML to OpenStep, and converted the subentities to the new format. Seems to work on my PC.