Explorers' Club updated for Oolite 1.80

[Wildeblood]

Download Explorers' Club 1.4.4 here.

Explorers’ Club OXZ ver. 1.4.4
Last updated on 19th August, 2014

Code by Capt Murphy, 2011-2012, & Wildeblood, 2013-2014
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 : Please visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ for more info.
Requires Oolite 1.80

Overview:

Once installed this OXP keeps track of unique systems visited and reports on the manifest screen (F5, F5) the total systems visited out of 256 in the current chart and the total systems visited out of 2048 in the whole Ooniverse. It also displays an Explorer ‘rank’. You need to visit all 2048 systems to be ranked an Elite Explorer.

In addition this OXP adds some functionality to the Long Range Chart (F6, F6) in that it can be set to different modes. To access the options go to the Interfaces screen (F4) when docked. The available options are:

1) Default - standard long range chart behaviour.
2) Long range chart shows animation of systems visited to date, in order of first visit.
3) Long range chart marks unvisited systems.

The options screen also allows you to choose when a system is recorded as visited. The options are.

1) Default – when docked at the main station.
2) Immediately on arrival from witch-space.
3) When reaching the planet's surface.

Options are persistent between sessions with the same saved game.

The options screen also gives access to two further sets of mission screens.

1) Displays a list of the system names that have been visited so far in the current Galaxy, followed by a list of the system names that are yet to be visited in the current galaxy.
2) Displays a list of mile-stones that the player has completed, or not completed, so far. Defined mile-stones are:

· Visited all of the ‘Old Worlds’ in galaxy 1.
· Visited all of the ‘Famous Planets’ in galaxy 1 (as per OXP of same name).
· Visited all of the ‘Famous Planets’ in galaxy 2 (as per OXP of same name).
· Visited the ‘Prodigal Suns’ in galaxy 3.
· Visited the ‘Lost Worlds’ in galaxy 6.
· Visited the systems beyond the ‘Great Rift’ in galaxy 7.
· Visited Oresrati in galaxy 8.
· Visited all 8 galaxies at least once.

The experimental feature to keep a photographic record of systems visited, only usable with development versions of Oolite, has been removed from this version of the OXP.

Change Log:

Version 1.4.4 (19/8/2014) Can now leave mission screens at any time, and fixed harmless bug introduced in 1.4.3.

Version 1.4.3 (5/8/2014) Counter now displayed on interface summary, jumping into a nova system is now always logged immediately, and fine-tuned the change made in 1.4.2.

Version 1.4.2 (27/7/2014) Code updated for Oolite 1.80: bug-fix for loading games saved at stations other than GalCop main.

Version 1.4.1 (21/10/2013) System data screen tweaked, micro-tweak to API functions, last text string moved to missiontext.plist file.

Version 1.4 (9/6/2013) Based on version 1.3.3, updated by Wildeblood. Code updated for Oolite 1.77, station interface added, photographic record feature removed, nearly all text strings moved to missiontext.plist file, new option for recording visit added, API functions added.

[spara]

Hello Wildeblood, nice to see you're back .

There's a lot of people here that could put your oxp to the manager, but then it would be under their account and updating would need to go through them. I strongly suggest reading Dizzy's comprehensive guide The All-in-One Guide to OXZ Packaging and Distribution and getting an account for yourself to the manager.

Hope you'll get your Distant Suns to the manager soon. One of my favourites.

[Wildeblood]

Hello Wildeblood, nice to see you're back .

There's a lot of people here that could put your oxp to the manager, but then it would be under their account and updating would need to go through them.

Well then what happens about the version 1.3.3 that someone has included in the OXZ manager? (I tried it last night and it seems broken.) Are you saying that if you added this version, it would not update that but instead produce two listings for Explorers' Club in the manager?

[spara]

Hello Wildeblood, nice to see you're back .

There's a lot of people here that could put your oxp to the manager, but then it would be under their account and updating would need to go through them.

Well then what happens about the version 1.3.3 that someone has included in the OXZ manager? (I tried it last night and it seems broken.) Are you saying that if you added this version, it would not update that but instead produce two listings for Explorers' Club in the manager?

Yes. To update the one in the manager, you need to find out who has put it in.

[Norby]

The OXZ is now updated and the wiki page also, thank you. The manifest is in my account, if you want then you can request it from cim in PM.

[phkb]

Got this error in my log after a forced misjump to fight some Thargoids:

Code: Select all

14:12:09.724 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]: ***** JavaScript exception (Explorers Club 1.4.3): TypeError: system.sun is null
14:12:09.724 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]:       C:\Oolite/oolite.app/GNUstep/Library/ApplicationSupport/Oolite/ManagedAddOns/oolite.oxp.CaptMurphy.ExplorersClub.oxz/Config/script.js, line 52.

I have my system set to mark a system as visited when I arrive from witchspace.

[Wildeblood]

Thanks, phkb. That's a noob error I introduced in 1.4.3 when I decided to do the right thing by people jumping into nova systems. This:-

Code: Select all

    this.shipExitedWitchspace = function () {
        "use strict";
        if (this.$xc_visitOption === 2 &&
            !system.isInterstellarSpace) {
            this._recordVisit();
            return;
        }
        if (system.sun.hasGoneNova) {
            if (this._recordVisit()) {
                player.commsMessage(expandMissionText("explorers_club_visit_logged"));
            }
        }
    }

should be this:-

Code: Select all

    this.shipExitedWitchspace = function () {
        "use strict";
        if (system.isInterstellarSpace) {
            return;
        }
        if (this.$xc_visitOption === 2) {
            this._recordVisit();
            return;
        }
        if (system.sun.hasGoneNova) {
            if (this._recordVisit()) {
                player.commsMessage(expandMissionText("explorers_club_visit_logged"));
            }
        }
    }

Fixed in version 1.4.4. Thanks again. More bug reports please, people!

[Wildeblood]

INTERFACE FUNCTIONS FOR OTHER OXPs

Other scripts can call these functions:-

worldScripts["Explorers Club"]._playerRank("chart")

Returns the number of systems the player has visited on the current chart.

worldScripts["Explorers Club"]._playerRank("total")

Returns the total number of systems the player has visited on all eight charts.

worldScripts["Explorers Club"]._playerRank("rank")

Returns a text string, e.g. "Novice Explorer" or "Master Explorer". Might be localized, so use the "total" or "chart" numbers to discern the player's experience, and the "rank" string only for insertion into dialogues.

worldScripts["Explorers Club"]._playerVisited(galaxy, sysID)

Returns true or false, depending on whether or not the player has visited the given system since installing Explorers' Club. E.g.

worldScripts["Explorers Club"]._playerVisited(0, 7)

returns false if there is no record of the player visiting Lave.

[Wildeblood]

I have three questions:
- Has anyone ever updated Explorers’ Club OXZ since ver. 1.4.4, last updated on 19th August, 2014?
- If not, does anyone still use it; does it still work?
- Has anyone heard from Capt. Murphy since 2012?

[Cholmondely]

I have three questions:
- Has anyone ever updated Explorers’ Club OXZ since ver. 1.4.4, last updated on 19th August, 2014?
- If not. does anyone still use it; does it still work?
- Has anyone heard from Capt. Murphy since 2012?

I usually have it loaded. I found it very useful for hunting the constrictor.

- There have been no updates that I'm aware of.

- On my AppleMac (v.1.90) it works but not all visited planets have always been marked. And I've never seen the overlays in-game (possibly due to use of XenonUI/The Galactic Almanac etc. which often suppress these things). I usually play with several hundred OXPs loaded.

- No word from Capt. Murphy that I'm aware of. And that was when he was last active on our wiki.

[Wildeblood]

It desperately needed improving back in 2014. The script that handled the mission screens was written for 1.75, and was more-or-less obsolete by Oolite 1.80. But mission screens always mystified me, and I couldn't improve it. All I could do with that script was reformat it to be more readable, and run search-and-replace on it a few times to change CaptMurphysPatentedExtraLongVariableNames.

The other script, that does the actual logging, I claim as my own. I re-wrote it from scratch, none of Murphy's original code remained in it.

I can't really remember how it worked in-game after all these years. I'd have to see it running to jog my memory and say, "That's not what it's supposed to do!"

I'm disappointed no-one has looked after it; for me it was the best OXP of them all when Murphy made it for me.

[Cholmondely]

It desperately needed improving back in 2014. The script that handled the mission screens was written for 1.75, and was more-or-less obsolete by Oolite 1.80. But mission screens always mystified me, and I couldn't improve it. All I could do with that script was reformat it to be more readable, and run search-and-replace on it a few times to change CaptMurphysPatentedExtraLongVariableNames.

The other script, that does the actual logging, I claim as my own. I re-wrote it from scratch, none of Murphy's original code remained in it.

I can't really remember how it worked in-game after all these years. I'd have to see it running to jog my memory and say, "That's not what it's supposed to do!"

I'm disappointed no-one has looked after it; for me it was the best OXP of them all when Murphy made it for me.

1) What did you see as needing improving?

2) I've been trying to add snippets to the programming pages on the wiki as I stumble across them in the BB. Some of it is about mission screens.




Other stuff you might not be aware of:

1) Hiran's https://ooliteproject.github.io/oolite- ... index.html allows you to look at every javascript script in a published oxz (ie on the Expansions Manager)

2) I believe that Svengali's library (he seems to have died during Covid, by the way) has helpers for missions screens (not just his animations) but you have to work out how to use them. The documentation was never finished.

3) Phkb has done a heck of a lot of work in the mission screen area over the past few years. He may be able to help. I think he's pretty busy with RL™ at the moment.



Meaningful exploration seems difficult in Oolite. The only oxp which (to me) seems do it even semi-properly is the SOTL Exploration OXP which cim created. Unfinished. Not really a game at the moment. (The unfinished AltMap has great potential but needs combining with eg. Zero-Map)

There's an essay on the wiki about Exploration with relevant OXP links: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Exploration

[Wildeblood]

There's an essay on the wiki about Exploration with relevant OXP links: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Exploration

Yes, I've just spent the last hour reading it. Switeck gets it (he usually did). Szaumix seemed to get it. It was an interesting, if frustrating, discussion to read. Edit: No, that's not what I was reading; I read the thread in the discussion forum about that essay.

[Switeck]

Meaningful exploration seems difficult in Oolite.
...

There's an essay on the wiki about Exploration with relevant OXP links: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Exploration

If you're really serious about adding content to Oolite and creating more places to well...explore...you have to carefully consider how much work you do in a particular area.

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... 03#p288303
"if only 1 system is done that way, that's a lot of work for a place few players will ever visit."

[Cholmondely]

Meaningful exploration seems difficult in Oolite.
...

There's an essay on the wiki about Exploration with relevant OXP links: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Exploration

If you're really serious about adding content to Oolite and creating more places to well...explore...you have to carefully consider how much work you do in a particular area.

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... 03#p288303
"if only 1 system is done that way, that's a lot of work for a place few players will ever visit."

I wonder about this.

The plethora of Tionisla OXPs (we're now up to 6! including the mission) must make the downloaders interested in visiting Tionisla. Sadly, in terms of things to do there is only the mission and a little sightseeing which once done is unlikely to be repeated (Alnivel had ideas about another Tionisla Chronicle mission based around TOGY).

But DGill's work on Feudal States is making the player's "chosen" feudal state much more interesting and more of a focus of the game. It would be nice to do something a bit more for the solar system OXPS (Lave, Riredi, Lerelace/Taranis & Tianve). And also to add a few others into the mix (Teorge has some interesting lore contradictions, for example: Home of the humanoid clones (The Dark Wheel), the Shulth dynasty (Oofiction) & 3.3 Billion (tedious) Black Bony Lobsters (Elite/Vanilla Oolite description)).

Stranger, in his essay, suggested that 8-16 systems could do the job.
...But the good news is that you don't need to meticulously design all 2048 systems. Cosmic wonders do not have to come across at every step. Interesting hand-sculpted locations, separated by routine procedurally generated intermediate points - why not? Let's drop it offhand. 16 individually configured systems on the map, maybe even only 8 systems - this is already enough to stimulate long-distance flights within the sector. And it will be a completely meaningful game goal as opposed to the meaningless infinity of No Man's Sky, where it doesn't matter where one flies...


I'd been banging on for some time about the need to retexture/remodel the systems OXPs. But apropos of your comments I wonder if more variation would be more important. Different types of Astrogulag. More variety for the CZGFs/SLAPUs (F3/F8 screens) - and a possibility you might get arrested for suspicious behaviour (buying/selling the wrong things)! And ditto for the other Systems OXPs too, of course. Some anarchies run by pirates as Phkb proposed. Pirate gangs.


[Wild speculation]

How about a GalCop/Ensorean mission to root out the pirates who have taken over Ararus?

"Mr Switeck, you are thankfully unknown in Ensoreus/Ararus. We need you to go to Ararus and pick off the following pirates who have taken over the system: Big Whig #1, Big Whig #2 & Big Whig #3. We will equip you with a special equipment which will hide those kills from the Elite Federation Registry - if you are not seen by others. And we will, naturally, credit you once you have succeeded."

And with each one knocked out, the defences improve but other things change too (some areas less well patrolled as inferior commanders take over, or poorer ship maintenance once the Chief Engineer bites the dust). And once one has done this one has a "home" with the GalCop/Ensorean types in Ararus/Ensoreus.