Planetfall 2.0 (apparently)

[Commander Mick]

Made it in Planetfall...







Don't know why space bar doesn't work here. Nothing works. May have to relaunch or exit the game...

[Nite Owl]

Try using Enter instead of the Space Bar despite what the screen prompt may say. Would also advise to remove the Docking Fees OXZ and see if that helps with the Space Bar not working. Very Nice messages in the Docking Fees OXZ but it is also costing you extra credits that a Commander who is just starting his journey can ill afford to spend.

[another_commander]

In case anyone is wondering, the squares inside the atmosphere are due to incorrect nebula image format used by a sky-altering OXP. Nebula images are expected to be grayscale 8 bits per pixel, but they are probably RGB 24 bits per pixel in whatever OXP it is that is causing this. The issue is visible only inside atmospheres; in space everything looks normal.

Just be aware of this.

[RockDoctor]

Try using Enter instead of the Space Bar despite what the screen prompt may say. Would also advise to remove the Docking Fees OXZ and see if that helps with the Space Bar not working. Very Nice messages in the Docking Fees OXZ but it is also costing you extra credits that a Commander who is just starting his journey can ill afford to spend.

Probably completely unrelated, but I ran into a problem where I was instructed to "Press Spacebar to continue, Commander", to no effect. The context was trying to read my emails (F4, second screen R) and I'd get both the "next page / next message/ previous message" blurb offset from it's normal bottom of the screen position, AND the "Press spacebar" instruction. None of which work. Though another F4, or other F-key takes me to the expected screen and gets me out of there.
I just had a "night of the long OXP-knives" to throw away whatever I'd recently added (using year-old notes) and see if that resolved the problem. OXP management is probably better than doing it manually, but without any way to search for OXPs in the 40-odd screens, it's still sadly lacking.

[Cholmondely]

Copied here from elsewhere:

Excursus: Replicating the Submersible Capabilities of the Moray

What can we do inside Oolite about the supposed submersible capabilities of the Moray?

Touching the surface of the planet results in death.

Our two versions of PlanetFall cut in just before touching the planet surface to transport one to a space-port.

Is there any way of simulating aquatic immersion? Can we add "depth" above the planet surface and transmogrify it into water?

Do you mean, e.g. at the height where the altimeter colour changes to "panic", instantly increase the opacity of the atmosphere, and add a lot of retardation to all the ship's movements, to simulate a phase-change in the environment?

That sort of thing, exactly!

But what about the constantly changing depths of the sea-floor? And big fish (alien ones!)? And other ambient things to look at/interact with?

One could, presumably, also "land" at a real space-port rather than be forced into "using a shuttle", by using such contrivances.



Not sure if this is relevant, but we do have some stonking massive structures hiding out in our OXPs - Thargoid's G3 Aqualina ring-stations in his Aquatics OXP, the Colony in Colonization, KW's Isis Interstellar HQ and Eric Walch's Large Test Globe.



References:
Moray (classic)
Moray Star Boat (Oolite)
Famous Planets list of putative PF tweaks correlated with planet descriptions

[Wildeblood]

One could, presumably, also "land" at a real space-port rather than be forced into "using a shuttle", by using such contrivances.

You've always been able to land at a real spaceport, simply by placing the station low in the atmosphere, and rotating it 180 degrees to have the docking port facing away from the surface. Instructions from Eric Walch are here on the forum somewhere.

[Cholmondely]

One could, presumably, also "land" at a real space-port rather than be forced into "using a shuttle", by using such contrivances.

You've always been able to land at a real spaceport, simply by placing the station low in the atmosphere, and rotating it 180 degrees to have the docking port facing away from the surface. Instructions from Eric Walch are here on the forum somewhere.

So how does this work?

It must, because Phkb's external docking points seem to stay at the same spot above the planet surface.

But I thought that the reference point for any solar system was the witchpoint, with everything else moving around it.

In a static solar system, this is presumably less of a problem. But with either Orbits.oxp or the Stranger's World suite making the planet "revolve around the sun" and other planets "move around the sun" too, this might make placing docking points on the main planet tough and on the other planets a nasty exercise in juggling quaternions. (Hence, no landing sites on other planets/moons in Stranger's World).

A Quaternion for your collection:

[Wildeblood]

One could, presumably, also "land" at a real space-port rather than be forced into "using a shuttle", by using such contrivances.

You've always been able to land at a real spaceport, simply by placing the station low in the atmosphere, and rotating it 180 degrees to have the docking port facing away from the surface. Instructions from Eric Walch are here on the forum somewhere.

So how does this work?

I don't remember. I thought Eric told me how to do it, and I've been searching his posts, but can't find it. Anyway, I tested the rotating function in a little demo OXP called Priority Launch, which unfortunately is lost:

viewtopic.php?p=178057#p178057

- and it definitely worked. I wanted it for, and used it in, Save & Jump OXP. Lowering the station I had no use for, but I recall spending an afternoon testing it out in the debugging console thingamy. You could definitely lower it into the atmosphere. It might have been RyanHoots who asked for that, he was having fun with a personal hide-out/home-base station around that time (July 2012), IIRC.

It must, because Phkb's external docking points seem to stay at the same spot above the planet surface.

I think he fiddles the planet rotation to zero once the player ship is low enough for the fiddling to go unnoticed.

[Cholmondely]

Optical could work, shadertrickery from A_C, colorize, darkened, overlay.

But what should the engine show underwater, underwater stations? hmm...

I would have thought that underwater cities would be more likely than underwater stations. But to my mind the real problem is replicating the sea floor.

I presume that issues of too much water pressure (due to excessive depth) could be dealt with relatively simply.

[Cholmondely]

Old Thread: Suggestion: Aquaspace aka H2Oolite (2012-15)

[phkb]

I think he fiddles the planet rotation to zero once the player ship is low enough for the fiddling to go unnoticed.

Correct, although that job is being performed by "Planet Rotation Cosmetics", rather than PlanetFall 2.

It must, because Phkb's external docking points seem to stay at the same spot above the planet surface.

The points above the surface of the planet are not actually docks. From a technical point of view, it's just a flasher and a point of reference. The player "docks" when they get close enough to the point. What happens is that the *actual* dock (located at point a long,long way away) force docks the player. And because that real dock is in a static position that doesn't change from save to save, it allows the game to be saved at those docks.