Oolite test release 1.68

[Commander McLane]

I just arrived in Europe and enjoy a faaaaaast internet connection and could finally attempt to download and try the new version, but ...

the berlios-server seems to have a problem. When I use the link in the original post I either get a "you have no permission to open this site"-error (yesterday evening) or nothing at all (now).

[JensAyton]

Yeah, I had problems with it yesterday. It was available on and off.

I’ve mirrored the 1.68-mac updater temporarily on the Mac site, here. (This can be applied to 1.65 and later.)

Edit: note that this is exactly the same 1.68 updater that was previously available via BerliOS.

[Commander McLane]

Okay, thanks! I've downloaded the updater from the mirror-site.

[Uncle Reno]

OK, where can I get this special missile targetting equipment that some of the pirates are using? I've mentioned about salvos of missiles being fired at me, well recently it got even more interesting as I had 4 hardened missiles fired at me in one go!
This seems a bit odd compared with how the target lock is completely lost when the player fires just one missile! Can't the player at least keep the target lock once a missile is fired, even if he can't fire salvos?

[Wiggy]

Can't the player at least keep the target lock once a missile is fired, even if he can't fire salvos?

I did request a feature from Giles a while back, which he said he'd implement but I don't think he got round to.
As you can cycle between missiles, locking them onto multiple targets (or the same one 4 times), then wouldn't it be good if SHIFT-M launched all targeted missiles.

[LittleBear]

If you buy the Multi Target thing (can't rember the exact name), it allows you to lock each missile independatley. If you lock all missiles on the same target and then hit M the missiles launch as fast as you can hit M and so you can fire a salvo.

[Uncle Reno]

OK, fair enough, that would explain why pirates are able to do salvos but even when you cycle to the next missile you still lose your target lock which, to my mind, doesn't make sense, unless the Trumble Inside(TM) forgets what it was targeting when it is asked to pass the information to the Trumble in the missile.

I also think Wiggy's idea is a good one. Or even, if you only have one ship targeted then you can still shift-M to fire all your missiles at that one target, assuming that they aren't targeted at anything else.

[Commander McLane]

1.68 looks great! Very nice explosions, also the textured planets are great.

However I've run into a problem with backwards compatibility in the script of Anarchies.oxp. Unlike in 1.65

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"awardCredits: -[local_anarchies_bribesum]"

or

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"awardCredits: -[local_legal_reward]"

doesn't work anymore. That's bad.

If I happen to run into other problems I'll report them here.

[Commander McLane]

Another thing: I haven't yet fully understood the new logging feature and how I can use it. However in combination with Ahrumans test-oxp everytime I am docking I get this (or a very similar) entry in my logfile:

Oolite [jstest.alert]: Player alert condition changed to docked (mass locked)
Oolite [script.javaScript.exception.1]: ***** JavaScript exception: stationName is not defined
Oolite [script.javaScript.exception.1]: /Applications/Spiele/Oolite 1.68/AddOns/JavaScript test.oxp/Scripts/ahruman-test.js, line 87.

I guess there is something missing in ahruman-test.js.

[JensAyton]

awardCredits: hasn’t been changed, but was never designed to handle negative values gracefully. I’ll change it so that it does in future versions, capping at 0.

The second one is a bona fide bug in the OXP (due to changes to the scriping model during the development of 1.68) which I fixed a while back. The issue you’re seeing shouldn’t occur in the current version.

[JensAyton]

As for the new logging feature, the basic idea is that you can create a text file named logcontrol.plist[/o] in your AddOns directory, then use lines like:

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"rendering.opengl.extensions" = "no";

to disable specific messages, or

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"$troubleShootingDump" = "no";

to disable groups of messages. The dots in rendering.opengl.extensions represent more specific variations; for instance this:

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"dataCache" = "no";

will disable the messages of more specific classes such as dataCache.found, dataCache.notFound, dataCache.rebuild and dataCache.write.success – but not dataCache.write.failed, because that’s controlled by the group $error.

Ideally, you’d be able to see the groupings in the built-in version of logcontrol.plist, but due to technical problems the one in the Windows build isn’t very legible. You can see the Mac version, with a more technical explanation, from 1.68 here, or the current development version here. Note that these don’t use quotation marks; I suspect it is specifically the lack of quotation marks around group names starting with $ that is incompatible with GNUstep, although the names with dots might be a problem too.

[Commander McLane]

awardCredits: hasn’t been changed, but was never designed to handle negative values gracefully.

Really? The wiki recommends it:

markTargetForFines Deals out a fine to target.
Example:
"markTargetForFines: 100"
Will fine the target 10Cr. N.B. for commercial transactions "awardMoney -$" is a more suitable method.

It should of course be "awardCredits" instead of "awardMoney", but anyway, since the days of old awardCredits seems to be meant to deal with negative values as well. (And it did fine in 1.65.)

[JensAyton]

The use of “awardMoney” rather than “awardCredits:” (note colon) suggests it’s not from an authorative source. :-)

On further consideration, though, it should work – as long as the result wouldn’t be negative. A test case would be helpful.

On a related-ish note, I thought I’d done this before, but I’ve made awardCargo: reject negative quantities. The existing code kinda worked when docked, if you were prepared to wait for it to go through several billion additions for the result to wrap around. If a negative quantity was awarded while in space, it would instead fill your hold with the relevant cargo type.

[Commander McLane]

That's why I (together with Arexack_Heretic) requested a removeCargo-method. I tried the negative awardCargo and reported the ridiculously long times it needed to process somewhere in a thread (forgot where).

As a testcase for the not working "awardCredits: -X" I'd like to mail you an extract from Anarchies.oxp together with my test pilot who conveniently has exactly 100000 cr in the bank. Where do I send it to?

Just visit the next anarchy system, dock with the main station and visit the equipment screen. After a few seconds someone will offer you to clear your legal record for a bribe. If you accept the offer you'll be clean again, but still have the 100000 cr.

The same happens when you kill some pirates (there should be enough of them in the anarchy system). As usual you will get their bounty as a reward. But occasionally you will get a message that this bounty has been exchanged for a reduction of your legal status. The reduction happens, but the credits are not removed again. (Of course you have to be at least Offender to be offered this exchange.)

Both did and do work in 1.65, but not in 1.68.

[JensAyton]

Please to be using super-secret e-mail address of <PYMOLCLSXGQP squiggle spammotel point com>.