[WIP] Life in the Frontier OXP

[Cholmondely]

HUD

Would it be feasible/sensible to develop a "docked HUD" for LitF?

It could show the "commander status" gubbins: current system, money, wounds, health, strength, status, & alignment.

There could also be a little box for the ship merely showing fuel & missile bays.

This could then all be at the bottom of the screen and "out of the way".

It could also be a pointless diversion from the more important job of getting v1.0 out!


By the way, if I'm at Digebiti, can I create a "Digebitian" or a "feudal alignment"? Can I just declare it, or must I do something? And if so, what?

[Cholmondely]

Critique of 0.04

Minor "buts":

•Music (Arquebus's jukebox oxp) & station noise (BGS oxp) cuts out while LitF-ing.

•RH's: Got so lost waltzing around in the Rock Hermit that I had to quit the game to get back to my ship!
- maybe some signage (eg to the bar which can be followed back to the ship - or else find someone who tells me how to get back to my ship?
- maybe the opportunity to knowingly choose to return to my previous corridor/room?

•Dodo - how about layers rather than a spiral? Umpteen levels as you have it with escalators/stairs going up and down one level at a time, lifts with more access, and 5 directions (not 3) for the 5 faces of each side.

The layers would be massive, even with a massive hollow core at the centre of it all. So the 5 arms reaching out would each have a plethora of smaller fingers branching off, each leading to even smaller tributaries, etc. etc.

Much of this might well be accessible only to those with appropriate passcards (or whatever) as there is no reason to let a visiting pilot (pirate?) access residential quarters, for example.

If the dodo fills a space roughly 1km x 1km, then the top layer will be roughly 0.7km on each of the five sides (Central Park in Manhattan is 0.8km wide).



Geography

I would be tempted to re-organise the geography of the ico, dodo & coriolis in onion-like layers around the hangers.

Then, what you already have for the dodo would work fine for the ico (20 triangular faces with 3 main avenues/hallways).

Ico
Maybe only one of the 20 faces would be open to casual visitors, the others being kept separate for residence, factories, hydroponic farmland, storage, etc. So we would only have to worry about the levels in that one face. And maybe not even all of those levels would be open to visitors. How many levels? What percentage of visitors would decamp and use the station hotels? What percentage would sleep on board their ships? What percentage would not even spend a night? Influencing factors would include species, cost, whether time passes while in hyperspace flight, intent to immediately go downplanet, need for work on ship, etc.

Dodo
And we would now want 5 avenues for the dodo. Comments above apply equally here too.

Coriolis


And for the coriolis (a confusing mix of squares and triangles - each square only touches triangles, and vice-versa), maybe easier to copy the Dark Wheel's description and have buildings jutting out into the interior of the docking area which one can fly between? Imprint may also be helpful.

Coriolis stations have powerful defensive shields (against pirate attack and inept docking) and a large fleet of Viper fighters. The inside of the station is free-space, and on each inner facet of the station there are berthing and refueling facilities for up to 2000 ships, as well as cities, hospitals, farmlands and leisure-scapes. Coriolis Station (classic)

A Coriolis station is nothing less than a vast city built on six planes and spread, around the wide empty sky of its interior, facing inwards. From South City, the roof on the world is North City. At night, the lights that glow above your head are the lights of streets and buildings.
Alex checked out of the ship's berth and took a sky taxi across the void. The tiny automatic ship slid delicately and smoothly between the incoming and outgoing ships. Alex watched in fascination as the towering buildings of South City dropped away below and the grey sky edged closer. To his left, he could see the pattern of streets and parklands on the inhabited plane known as Commander City. Facing the entrance to the station, on that particular level lived the high ranking officials and various planetary envoys and ambassadors. They enjoyed a landscape which included lakes, rivers and ski-slopes with real snow.
Below him, his ship became a tiny dart-shape on the broad landing pad. Above him, the towering offices and living blocks reached down towards him like geometrical stalactites.
There was an abrupt moment's disorientation and suddenly the roof was the ground and now his ship was a single, winking light in the heavens. The taxi dropped swiftly to street level, between the grey and black monolithic structures. Lights of different colours blinked and shone, and when the atmosphere began, a strange dusty shimmer seemed to envelop the city.
The streets were crowded here and it took Alex only moments to realise that the South City of this particular Coriolis station was the 'down town' area. Illegal trade abounded, in narcotics, robots, slaves, sensuastims, prostitution and frozen organs. Spacers walked slowly, cautiously, most of them still wearing near-full suit, a certain sign that this was the rough quarter. Hookers, of all sexes (the Galaxy counted seventeen at this time) and races, but mostly humanoid, solicited from hovering platforms, ready to escape fast from any over-welcoming, unwelcome client. Advertising hoardings here were almost completely devoted to proclaiming the illicit pleasures which were available in South City. Police cars and remotes roared overhead, as did med-ships. The streets were alive with noise and bustle and filth.
The Magellan building, a dark, squat cube, sat amongst this confusion like a great, brooding monster. It had no visible windows. Lifts rose and fell on its outer walls, slow-moving green lights that gave it an uncanny sense of being alive.
Alex had come without a hand weapon, and now began to regret it. Practically everyone—and everything—he saw carried a gun, in contradiction of orbit-space law. He walked cautiously through the crowds of reptilioids, cloaked amphibioids, armoured insectoids, squat, bristling felines, and the grotesque robo-tanks in which things that looked like giant molluscs, or worms, or branches of heather, moved within the safety of their own environment.
He entered the Magellan building and noticed the stench for the first time, the combined body odours of a thousand alien life-forms; surprisingly some—those who drank raw methane gas— managed to excrete sweat that smelled as sweet as apple blossom. But most did not.
The private trading centre was a vast hall, surrounded by the entrances to offices and warehouses. What was sold in this crowded, noisy place, was anything that was considered too risky, or bizarre, or commonplace to sell on the open market. The trader who loaded up his cargo bay from a private purchase had better check with the planet's export monitoring system before leaving, or his reception, at the other end, might be a little more violent than he'd expected.
Alex scanned the high walls for a hint of McGreavy's warehouse. The Dark Wheel, Chapter 6

The Station docks ran in levels behind the free-space at station-core. Beyond and below the Station egress gaped planetwards, powerful shields operating a safety vortex both for, and against, traffic in the tubes. In a honeycomb of wedges behind the dockside were the cargo warehouses where a specialised transport network supported the auto-trading system. Autoscam modules plied their intermediary trade along these routes. The life-cycle of the Station was a peculiar one. The docks never grew still and the Station authorities were active even when sections of the Station with something approaching a diurnal routine fell quiet as they moved darkside. Imprint, Chapter 3

[Cholmondely]

To Do (Stage 1 - updated!)
So, as far as expanding LitF goes, looking at the map, there are, by BB's floorplan,



Docks - not sure that this needs more work at the moment. I think it makes more sense to expand it for v2.0 where it would be nice to add Phkb's relevant bits and bobs together with moving the F3 screen transactions to the LitF ship's chandleries.

Main concourse - a, b & c
Concourse A Passenger Lounge, Hotel
- ideally one should see the passenger contracts listed on the screen in the passenger lounge. And maybe local station news too. And GNN news. Also LitF - Revival has a more believable bulletin board with local station events on it, but if it were a doddle to unify that with this, BB would have already done it. All this would be very involved. A good idea for v2.0?
- hotel: it would be nice to have a couple of other hotels for variety and believeability. There are the large chains (Sheratoons, etc) which would be standardised across the galaxy.

Concourse B Medical Centre - not sure that this needs more work at the moment
Bookshops & Churches (in hand) Maybe more churches for other species (felines, avians, etc).
Concourse C Govt offices: see long post above. Also maybe a posh hotel for visiting dignitaries. And an expensive cocktail bar.

Recreation Bridge - DA, OS & MC
DA (Delight Avenue) Local Bar, Wild World Virtual Tour - Bar! But not sure that WWVT needs more work at the moment.
OS (Olympian Square) Fit Centre/Gymnasium - not sure that this needs more work at the moment.
MC (Mycenate court) Art Gallery, Opera House, Cinema Hall - not sure that these need more work at the moment. Unless I create more flavour text for the LITF_EventsCatalog.js ... which is tempting (I need to fix the typos there).

GalCop Precinct- not sure that this needs more work at the moment.

So:
Finish variant Geography (lengthy ruminations in post immediately above).
Decide what needs to go into a Rock Hermit.
Finish off what's there (bookshops/churches/Govt offices): Aquatic witchspace lobster variant, Govt Offices ruminations.
Add lots of Bars, another couple of hotels of varying degrees of poshness, maybe some restaurants, maybe a playground for children/larvae/tadpoles/kittens/caterpillars. Add in locked-away residential etc districts.

Individuality
More musings: The GalCop stations are run by GalCop. I would presume that they would rather do business with large corporations which can guarantee rates etc rather than small individual local businesses. And I would expect to find small individual businesses more at the Feudal/Anarchic end of things ("Moody Maynard's" the famous Extreme Dominoes sportshop at the Galactic Prince orbital station in Digebiti). I would also expect to find Communist (GOoM?) and Dictatorship businesses (TOodt & Siemens) dominating the stations of those respective systems.

Species
And now that Redspear might be letting us peer at bits of his Station Variations oxp, we can add in more for the different species too.
Human Colonials - covered ("colonials" because not indigenous to the Eight, unlike the others!).
Humanoids - what about water-breathers? See Aquatic Lobster temple post above
Avian/Birds - open spaces to fly? Eggs. Feathers: preening & moulting. Water-birds. Night-birds (owls). Migration. Flocking. Roosting.
Batrachians/Frogs - aquatic element. Spawning grounds? Explosive breeders. Eggs. Tadpoles. Tree frogs? Prediliction for croaking sounds? Torpor/hibernation?
Felines/Cats - Hibernation? Alpha males? Hunting ranges? Grooming. Purring vs meowing. No sweet taste. Issues with commodity fur?
Insectoid/Insects - queens, workers, drones, larvae. Hives. Use of pheromones. Minimal heating? Sussurus? Flying and aquatic. Bee's dance. Pollination role.
Lizards/Reptiles - Eggs. Caterpillars. Aquatics? Skin-shedding. Camouflage. Hissing. Can "hibernate" in the cold.
Lobstoid/Lobsters - aquatics. Live in the murk at the bottom of the ocean. Grow by moulting. Aged lobsters more fertile.
Rodents/Rats - competitive breeding events (from Redspear). Warrens? Hibernation? Good sense of smell. Cheek pouches? Underground life.

And for all but human colonials: enhanced IR/UV sight. Subsonic/high pitched sounds (making & hearing). Sensitive feeling of vibrations. Bizarre tastes. Smells?

[Cholmondely]

More stuff (old stuff mixed in) for the LitF Events Catalogue (mostly created from wiki page lore on Church of St Giles, the Rough Guide, sector system pages etc.) I've kept mostly to Galaxy 1.

Code: Select all

this.arrLiquors = [ "Trumble Bubble", "Thargoid Slingshot", "Witch Red Wine", "Injector Thunder", "Shadow Rum", "Thyme Hopper", "Double Halo Talon", "Ginger Blitzer", "Cosmic Fluff", "Perfect Storm", "Radioactive Phantom", "Perfect Scooper", "Vodka Square Wave", "Milky Engine Twister", "Imaginary Alien", "Gin Octopoid Walk", "Sherry Robo Punch", "Shield Light Ale", "Glowing Asteroid", "Gleaming Q-Whiskey" "Ceesxe Cordial", "Isonorian Eyeball", "Tianvean Pulsar", "Laveian Lockout", "Qutirian Iceball", "Crepusculan Cobra", "Febrile Feudal", "Laser Light", "Disembodied Daemon", "Redspearian Rocket", "El Viejo", "Aegidian Aegis", "Ahrumanian Avalanche", "Aramintan Rum", "Rrogerrian write-off",]; //understood as a list of cocktails

this.arrCharity = [ "Cosmic Cosmo Peace", "Piracy Rehabilitation Program", "Save the Usleian Tree Ant", "Trumble Protection League", "Save the Star-Jellies - Ban Astromining!", "Historical Buildings Fund", "Save Our Species", "Isveveian Isolationist Movement", "Friends of Uscela - Sponsor a mollusc!", "Amnesty InterGalactic", "All-Seeing Eye", "Society for the Recovery of Fallen Lobstoids", "Xeptatls Sword", "Real Tennis Enthusiasts", "Canine Protection League", "Society of Socialist Labourers", "Revolutionary Comoonist League", "Museum of the First (Lave)", "Leesti Science Museum", "Tionisla Orbital Graveyard", "Association for Truthful Broadcasting", "Vetiticean parking-meter Museum" ];

this.arrGossip = [
	"'You shouldn't talk with those dirty beggars. I've heard they're all undercover government agents. Don't let them touch you!'",
	"'My mother said me that if you point your ship far from any star, to the darker area of space, look at your reflection on the windscreen and say 'Witchspace' three times, something horrible will happen...'",
	"'You should be careful what you drink. I've heard of a new liquor that they are selling now. You put a finger in it - only the bones will remain!'",
	"'Once I heard a pilot told me of an another pilot stranded in space after a collision with a luxury liner. The owner of the liner offered to pay damages, and gave 50K₢ to the pilot! It was some billionaire...'",
	"'I know someone who has seen Thargoid ships many times. And he said me this: there's one ship, different from the others, near impossible to encounter, but still you can see, on certain transparent sections, thousands of people in cryopods... This story always makes me freak out...'",
	"'You must remain on the upper sectors. Don't go down. Lower station sectors are very dangerous. Chemical companies discharge every type of waste down there. You can't imagine what crazy type of mutants can live in that stuff...'",
	"'He was carrying this guy for a business meeting, and when he arrived the berth was empty! Nothing! He never find him! How crazy is that!'",
	"'It was in $SYSTEM$... so he was far from the planet, but it was so sleepy he decided to stop the ship behind some asteroid, sensors on, and take a nap. And while he sleeps, he feels something licking his hand. He awake but there was noone. Noone!'",
	"'Oh yes I've seen it. It's a trumble snuff movie. Yeah I know the cousin of a trader that I met some time ago that had an entire collection of those.'",
	"'Clown droids? I hate clown droids! They should be packed and thrown into the sun. Did you know who is responsible for the majority of droid murders? Clown droids!'",
	"'You can't believe me, but I tell you that this station is haunted. I know it, because I know one that worked on its construction. And you know one thing? He says that under the main level there is a sort of gap, and it was filled with cemetery soil. Do you understand now?'",
	"'I don't believe in ghosts. I think they're all holograms. Or maybe it's the contrary. Frankly I don't know. This is a little bit creepy, don't you think?'",
	"'They say that you buy on odd day and sell on even day. And every fourth day you buy on organic, and every eighth day you buy on artificial. So do you have to get a software to define every date of launch and the length of every travel. They say you can become rich in two weeks with this method.'",
	"'I received this mail yesterday, and it says I have to re-send it to other five persons in five days, or a virus will destroy every system on my ship. What I have to do? Alien and androids count?'",
	"'Every time I look this strange human beings I remember the stories my grandmother told me when I was an egg. You know, the Gurzulla. Small and large, two eyes and two arms, all covered in hair. Do you remember? It was disgusting!'",
	"'If someone with red clothes asks you for a passenger trip towards $SYSTEM$, go away as fast as you can. That person is dead. I tell you, it happened to me.'",
	"'You can remove ice crystals with warm water and vinegar.'",
	"'The friend of a friend told me that is going to be an economic change because of certain turmoils on the planet. I don't know for sure, but my friend told me to monitor $COMMODITY$ for a while.'",
	"'The news are fake. Don't follow the news. When you listen to a broadcast, understand it as the exact contrary. Do you understand?'",
	"'Remember, don't give your password to ANYBODY!'",
	"'Going around the station you could find contractors that needs pilot to transport wares or people.'",
	"'If you want to spend some time you could go to the Entertainment Area.'",
	"'Recently Galcop has installed a terminal in its precinct to clean criminal records for a price.'"
	"'You need to be careful down in the Storage Zones - the underworld run all those areas'",
	"'That bank, Lave First Finance Corp, has had it's money stolen by the local manager! They say that the Head Office will be shutting down our branch.'",
	"'One of the Archimandrites of the Church of Saint Giles is hiding here on the station with a lot of money nabbed from his local temple.'",
	"'No! No! You have been touched by the notorious knucklebones of negation. Keep away from me!'",
	"'According to that holy chap, Phibbo the Nacci, the numbers two and five are cursed! Avoid doing any deals which involve those numbers - they will go bad for you!'",
	"'Don't go dancing, whatever you do! Keep clear of dance floors. There is a nasty [species] who is looking for you and will tread on your feet if you let [him/her]'",
	"'They say that [Random Name] the [Species] is looking for somebody wearing your sort of jacket. Watch out!'",
	"'You look just like that Vacuum Cricket bowler - the really famous one! What are you doing here?'",
	"'Oh no! It's you, again! I told you, I don't have the money at the moment. I'll pay you back next week. Just leave me alone....'", // not sure how gossipy the gossip needs to be - and I've left the grammatical infelicities as not everyone speaks the King's English

];

this.arrMuseumPieces = [
    "by a collection of near-identical statuines coming from systems very far from each other, all representing some sort of wise creature giving knowledge.",
    "by a strange rock, worked and detailed with weird angle and perspectives that made you head hurt.",
    "by a metallic throne surrounded with curious appendages, that could be blades or tentacles, that you swear were moving when you don't looked directly at them.",
    "by a set of various spheres, probabily representing a solar system, moving without external influence in round patterns.",
    "by an ancient document inscripted in an exotic species of papyrus, documenting the epic history of a civilization disappeared aeons ago.",
    "by a set of mechanical figurines roughly moulded as fighters that repeatedly lead a charge against another set of opponents. The little play develops every time in a different manner.",
    "by a pile of bright gears, bars, knobs and levers, presumedly belonging to some strange machinery built by a race known as the 'Replicators'.",
    "by a collection of giant leaves where small colonies of insects draw shapes and pictograms.",
    "by a series of ancient weapons built from a volcanic formation that still preserve a slow and reddish glow.",
    "by a pair of dolls carved from animal bones, whose eyes seems to follow as you move in front of them.",
    "by a grand collection of parking meters, collected from all over the Eight.",
    "by a magnificent display of Duelling Pistols from the First and Third Galaxies",
    "by a pristine first edition copy of the Hermit Almanac signed by Red Chaldo himself.",
    "by the notorious fifty-thousand word epic poetic constitution of Xesoon in Galaxy Three",
    "by an ancient Pylon of Purity - reputedly owned by the Holy Jens, Vicar of The Eight of Saint Giles, occulted Co-ordinator of the Celestial Codes of Creation",
    "by a display of Bemearean walnut wood carvings",
    "by an ancient holostim depiction of Saint Giles, in his guise as Guardian of the Galaxian Gates.",
    "by a small collection of Tibecean Petrine Sculptures of archilocean poetry in alabaster and sandstone.",
    "by two triptychs painted for the Cathedral of St Giles in Geinona by the renowned Arbuthnot of Digebiti.",
    "by a painting of lost Khrawow, the long-sunken cloud city of Zarece, with its crystal towers gleaming in the light of the sun.",
    "by a collection of Isinorian cagoules made from a selection of materials.",
    "by a massive game set for Four-Way Pellery, carved from Bemearean walnut wood",
    "by a selection of sculptures of Reortean ziggurats - the display note indicates that the last was destroyed in an earthquake some five decades ago.",
    "by a display of Isenceaian teapots, in a variety of colours and with matching tea-caddys.",
    "by a room full of ropebridges from the Qutirian Republic of Maar - they smell somewhat!",
    "by a pure titanium head-mask from Tionisla with swivelling eye-balls and a triple-jointed jaw.",
    "by a miniature model of the Tionislan Orbital Graveyard with diamantine Graveyard Beacons and little golden tomb caskets.",
    "by a painted model of the Lave pilot's academy made out of little sticks of wood by a prisoner-of-war.",
    "by a collection of hand-made Real Tennis balls from the Royal Courts on Digebiti"
    "by a display of Lerelacese Atab-guns.",
    "by a pair of metal Uslese musical instruments."
];

[Massively Locked]

More stuff (old stuff mixed in) for the LitF Events Catalogue (mostly created from wiki page lore on Church of St Giles, the Rough Guide, sector system pages etc.) I've kept mostly to Galaxy 1.

Excellent! I ultimately want to have a BOATLOAD of gossip, lobby snippets, etc. I want repeated text to be a rare rather than common occurence.

Would it be feasible/sensible to develop a "docked HUD" for LitF?

It could show the "commander status" gubbins: current system, money, wounds, health, strength, status, & alignment.

There could also be a little box for the ship merely showing fuel & missile bays.

This could then all be at the bottom of the screen and "out of the way".

Yes. The most important thing that a HUD provides for LitF is the clock. As LitF develops, moar & moar activities on a station will take up time. There's the possibility that other data (e.g., money, health, etc.) can be displayed. I'll have to play around with customized dials. It'd be a plus if we can move some/all of the player status info to the HUD & free up some screen real estate.

It could also be a pointless diversion from the more important job of getting v1.0 out!

It's a worthwile feature but not for v1.0. I'd rather focus on layouts & locations for now.

By the way, if I'm at Digebiti, can I create a "Digebitian" or a "feudal alignment"? Can I just declare it, or must I do something? And if so, what?

Don't quite follow. Are you trying to make a "Digebitian"/"feudal alignment" HUD to appear while at Digebiti? If so, what are you looking for in a "Digebitian"/"feudal alignment" HUD?

Currently reading thru your feedback on 0.04

---------------------------------

•Music (Arquebus's jukebox oxp) & station noise (BGS oxp) cuts out while LitF-ing.

I didn't even realize this since I usually have the sound off while doing dev work. I'll take a look at it.

•RH's: Got so lost waltzing around in the Rock Hermit that I had to quit the game to get back to my ship!
- maybe some signage (eg to the bar which can be followed back to the ship - or else find someone who tells me how to get back to my ship?
- maybe the opportunity to knowingly choose to return to my previous corridor/room?

- The basic concept is that rock hermits start life as a hot mess. Still, one shouldn't have to shift-esc to get outta there. I'll rework the descriptive & choices text to make it clearer.
- Dynamically arranging choices based on the player's movement is something that I wanted to do while creating the rock hermit layout. There's a simple "brute force" solution which is to create multiple versions of any single location. How you move into the location will determine which version of the location is shown. Simple, a lot of work & not at all elegant. It'll be better to work out a solution that will mod any location on the fly. Ultimately, the first (and default) choice is always forward, the second (or last or whatever) choice is always backwards. This will take time & effort- can't promise it for v1.0.

Geography

Yes, we can definitely rework the Dodo & Ico layouts. For the Dodos, we can have five arms radiating from the core to the perimeter corridor. The perimeter corridor will be comprised of five segments to represent the borders of a pentagonal facet. We then do the same for Icos to reflect their triangular facets.

Regarding size: while Oolite stations are massive, it's not practical to create the entire internal structure. We're not aiming to make this an open-world sandbox.

Ico
Maybe only one of the 20 faces would be open to casual visitors, the others being kept separate for residence, factories, hydroponic farmland, storage, etc. So we would only have to worry about the levels in that one face. And maybe not even all of those levels would be open to visitors. How many levels? What percentage of visitors would decamp and use the station hotels? What percentage would sleep on board their ships? What percentage would not even spend a night? Influencing factors would include species, cost, whether time passes while in hyperspace flight, intent to immediately go downplanet, need for work on ship, etc.

Agreed. Not to be glib, but the percentages are whatever we say they are. If we decide that the player is not allowed on deck 15 (or whatever), then deck 15 won't be available. Sure, when we grow a station's structure, we can apply various factors that affect what locations are available or not (lock-downs come to mind). For now, we should focus on the basic, primary layout of a station.

Coriolis

Here's my feeling about the Coriolis layout: we should leave it largely as is. This is mainly out of respect for the work that BB did. There are plenty of other stations that we can go nuts on. Let me know how you feel about this.

[Cholmondely]

Excellent! I ultimately want to have a BOATLOAD of gossip, lobby snippets, etc. I want repeated text to be a rare rather than common occurrence.

How much qualifies as a boatload? (I think I doubled the number of entries in each case.) 20? 50? 70? 100?

And what are the implications for our bookshops and churches?

Would it be feasible/sensible to develop a "docked HUD" for LitF?

It could show the "commander status" gubbins: current system, money, wounds, health, strength, status, & alignment.

There could also be a little box for the ship merely showing fuel & missile bays.

This could then all be at the bottom of the screen and "out of the way".

Yes. The most important thing that a HUD provides for LitF is the clock. As LitF develops, moar & moar activities on a station will take up time. There's the possibility that other data (e.g., money, health, etc.) can be displayed. I'll have to play around with customized dials. It'd be a plus if we can move some/all of the player status info to the HUD & free up some screen real estate.
[/quote]

This could be a major problem, as adumbrated here:

Some further goodies from the thread above:
Ffuture's wish to spend the game's downtime in LitF activities
Mohawk's downtime in LitF activities, view contracts etc in LitF, getting hurt

The Vanilla Game Code's tendency to just eat time for F3 screen activities means that that time is stolen from LitF activities.

By the way, if I'm at Digebiti, can I create a "Digebitian" or a "feudal alignment"? Can I just declare it, or must I do something? And if so, what?

Don't quite follow. Are you trying to make a "Digebitian"/"feudal alignment" HUD to appear while at Digebiti? If so, what are you looking for in a "Digebitian"/"feudal alignment" HUD?

Very simple. I've no idea what "alignment" is supposed to mean, so as a loyal Digebitian I'm pushing the boat out! You're either a loyal pro-Digebitian, or you are one of those ghastly and gruesome revolutionary types... can there truly be any other possibilities for a meaningful "alignment"?

[Cholmondely]

First Post on Bars: collecting information

See here for vocab & randomised text.

Descriptions of Bars
*several in Coyote
*Gasparyan's Grill in Inside Straight
*Disembodied's Local Midnight in the Vacuum Bar
*Imprint
Imprint CHAPTER SIX
Just about everywhere you looked on Leesti Station 5, the imperial purple TLK logo would intrude your line of vision. The corporation sponsored, monitored, administered and generally wished you well whenever they received your money. Evolving out of a Leesti System Federation which governed by economic interest groups, the Technology Sector had thrived on early runs by newly licenced pilots from Lave and had subsumed other sectors into one mammoth corporation. Aggressive commercial policies and specialisation in agrotechnology, both planetary and Station bound meant that Leesti had a powerful presence in the local galactic area, with interests on Orrere and Ra as well as a Corporate arm on Zaonce. The TLK delegates to the GalCop Senate on Aruszati were often in the the news for their fractious run-ins with other GalCop groups. Hood followed GalCop politics on the most superficial level. Traders skimmed the news for potential profit and rumours circulated around dockside facilities across the galaxies of crop failures, accidents at processing plants, consumer booms. Anything that might speculatively affect supply and demand.
Hood had sold his cargo at attractive margins, showing a gross CorCom profit of 55.9 Cr on his first run. He felt that he had good reason to be pleased with himself as he sought out and sat at a small table in "Turbulence", a slightly more upmarket bar than he had expected. Consequently, Rif also felt uncomfortable; economically and physically; the former was entirely due to the cost of the thin glass of mixed-density liquids that he cradled in hand, still swirling slowly since being stirred into consort at the bar; the latter was due to him not being able to fit his legs under the immovable table which bore a, possibly intentional, resemblance to an upside-down egg in a vice.
There was a TLK Leisure Pad in a pocket of the seat, and Rif scanned through the list of Station activities. The various descriptions of sports and pastimes on offer,and the accompanying prices, were an entertainment in themselves. As Rif sipped at his Bifurcation, which had lapsed into uneasy entropic equilibria, the house lighting dimmed and the lower level of the amphitheatre split and moved into three cleongridded dance floors. Holo-effects lit the grids with cries-crosses of flame as a lava-flow cascaded under the floors, and customers were invited to have fun at the scene of one of Leesti's premier tourist traps. "Show me your fluid dynamics", encouraged a voice over the speakers. The screen to the leisure pad flicked to an ad; "Now at the Turbulence. Set your lavalite". It beamed to nobody in particular from the table top. Rif certainly didn't notice. He'd spotting a young woman in a flame dress slide away from the bar and sidle in his direction. Rif knocked back his cocktail, winced, and left.
Rif came out of the gravity well on the Cobra bridge and sat down, intent on replenishing his supply of quirium. He felt a lot more comfortable slipping into the pilot's seat than he had done back on Lave. For one thing, his Cobra was a refuge after the imminent excesses of turbulence. He called up the supplier section for equipment on Corcom. Quirium was available at 1.3 cr. Its prices and supply were carefully regulated by a complex set of Trade Bureau regulations. As Hood understood it there were several tariff filters on Quirium. A cut went to registered inter-system craft manufacturers to offset against their loss-leading prices for basic ship designs.
To make spacing affordable, basic models tended to be spartan, utilitarian creatures. Manufacturers made their profits on development and expansion, as well as from areas like Quirium tariffs. The market for inter-system jumpers was a second generation one. The first generation had been epitomised by the Starseekers and Founds that left old Earth in the 25th century in Earth time. The second generation of ships were available with fly-by-wire systems for jump. Hood had the GalCop Galaxy One approved plateau of systems already installed in his navigation units when he had bought his Cobra. Once GalCop had reconnoitred Galaxy One and began to colonise throughout the systems, they realised that by using the available knowledge of the galaxy they could introduce a bespoke jump map of GalCop worlds. It had been an important phase in GalCop history. Drives with the kick but not the brains reduced the expensive navigational processing equipment needed to plot and control jumps. There were numerous associated benefits. Nearly all spacers were now limited to activity inside GalCop boundaries which conveniently reduced interaction with other planetary federations or general over-expansion which GalCop might be unable to consolidate. Planets that were not designated as inter-system reception worlds were left off the jump map, as were a number of 'secret systems' and systems which were still undergoing monitoring and exploration under GalCop's after-the-fact conscience policies.
Rif had opened a message box at Leesti shortly after he had sold the cargo. He was surprised to see a message waiting, having left the link active unintentionally before he had left the ship.

YAH ads (Pack D)

[Massively Locked]

Cholmondely-

I just posted v0.05 where I reworked the Dodo layout. It's completely bare-bones. Check it out and let me know if it's in line with what you imagine. If it is, I'll continue work on it along with the Ico & rock hermit layouts.

[Cholmondely]

Cholmondely-

I just posted v0.05 where I reworked the Dodo layout. It's completely bare-bones. Check it out and let me know if it's in line with what you imagine. If it is, I'll continue work on it along with the Ico & rock hermit layouts.

Yup! I like your layout! Well done.

Have yet to find an ico. Funny thing, I knew where some of the dodos were, but have no idea at all about ico locations. Will try some of the TL12-14 sites.

Edited to add - found an ico. Had to go all the way to Zaonce! I'd not expected Zaonce to have one - or that Tionisla would have a dodo.

Yes. I like your Ico layout too. Can't pretend I understand it, but who cares! It is very definitely different, if a tad on the loopy side.

[Cholmondely]

More Musings about pubs (not my area of expertise).

Cody mentioned that they are all the same sort of thing with a bar and stools. I'm not sure that he really believes that.

I've seen a number over the years which were quite different. One in Manchester (the Mark Addy) built below the road into the side of a canal, with windows overlooking the shipping on the canal. One in the Tews north of Oxford with a phenomenal selection of snuff boxes festooning the bar. One in London (the Chairman) by the Admiralty Arch with a Georgian sedan chair in the basement. One in Hampstead in London with a room in the basement for playing the ancient game of London Skittles (with a quadrangular "ball" for heaving at the skittles). One in Charing Cross in London named after the venerable Marquess of Salisbury with magnificent Victorian glass panelling. One in Maida Vale in London with the interior divided up by wooden partitions awarding privacy to the clientele (and allowing the more disreputable elements to make a bee-line for the back door if the peelers turned up). A bar in Venice with bats painted all over it. A bar in Dublin with a painting of drunks by a minor Irish painter. One in a central London hotel which was open late at night where a chum and I could sit poring over ancient Babylonian legal texts.

But might one of the important differences be the clientele?

One with mostly pirates. One with mostly newly qualified pilots. One with mostly crews of the Anacondas, Boas and Pythons. One with mostly police.

And then one with mostly felines. Another with mostly people from Commie states. Another mostly populated by poor agriculturalists. Another with mostly people from the planet directly beneath.

[Massively Locked]

Yup! I like your layout! Well done.

OK- I'll start to flesh out this layout.

Yes. I like your Ico layout too

Actually, I was going to scrap this layout and make it similar to the Dodo. Whereas the Dodo has five radials, the Ico will have three. I do like the idea of the layout reflecting (or suggesting at least) the station's geometry. Let me know what works for you.

...if a tad on the loopy side."

That it is. BTW, if we decide to go with the "triangular" layout for the Icos, we can repurpose this layout for cylindrical stations (con stores and SIRF come to mind).

P.S., Galaxy 1 Icos are located at: Aona, Edinso, Edle, Inera, Inines, Teraed, Usrarema, Zaatxe, Zaonce.

P.P.S., I just added your random text snippets. I especially like your additions to museum pieces.

[Cholmondely]

Station Populations - how many?

I've been looking at Station Dock Control trying to use it as an estimate as to how many ships are on the station (having removed all OXP's adding ships such as Commies, Convoys or Murgh's ships oxp's).

Alas, it merely gives 3 screens of whatever comes top in the sort of all that is there. So the alphabetical screens for the coriolis at Reesdice (TL6, communist, rich agricultural) give 3 screens of 16 ships each. One can sort both ascending and descending, so that gives 6 screens on the total number.

So, alphabetically, there are currently
15 adders, 3 anacondas, 8 boas, 8 cobra mk I, 7 cobra mk III, 4 FdL's,
2+ geckos, ? kraits, ? mambas, 3+ moray medical boats,
9 moray star boats, 8 orbital shuttles, 10 pythons, 6 sidewinders, 8 transporters, 4 worms

And at least 8 vipers/viper interceptors (hidden from screen) also docked at Reesdice Coriolis.

In terms of crew numbers (filched from the Classic ships pages in our wiki),
Adders, Asps, Worms have 2
Anacondas have 40-72
Boas have 15-28
Cobra Mk I, Krait, Mambas all have 1
Cobra Mk III, Gecko, Sidewinder all have 1-2
FdL has 12
Moray, Shuttle have 6
Python has 20-30
Transporter has 5
Viper has 1-10

[Cholmondely]

Thoughts on Rock Hermits.

What would one expect to find on a Rock Hermit?

Well there are the three varieties: Mining bases, Smuggler's Dens, and Pirate Havens.

In each case one would expect a vestigial ship's chandlery with fuel, a bar, living accommodation for the operators and a market, and storage (for fuel, chandlery, market, etc.). Also life support.

Hermitage adds the following options :
Black Market
Distillery
Weapons Manufacturing
Narcotics Processing
Asteroid Splinter Refinery
Hydroponics Unit
Energy Storage & Reactors
Defensive stuff and security systems for the markets etc.
Restaurant

One can presumably also add accommodation to the mix.

[Switeck]

It might depend on how "mined out" the Rock Hermit is.
A newly-made Rock Hermit would still be mostly a solid asteroid, besides the docking bay and tiny accommodations.
An old Rock Hermit may have only a thin exterior wall-of-rock.

A final end-stage for Rock Hermits could be the Space Bars used in Random Hits -- buildings poking out of the asteroid.

[limbo]

has anyone here read The Gap Cycle" by Stephen Donaldson?