Shields but no energy

Helvellyn · Post by **Helvellyn** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:22 pm

I was flying around for a bit in a ship with no extra energy unit, and what with combat and so on by energy had drained down to zero (IIRC the recharging shields were draining it, which is a bit tough - on the Beeb version with no energy unit the shields wouldn't recharge until the energy was back into bank 2 IIRC; both shields charging above this bank would drain it down to that level). Anyway, the result was that I had some shields but no energy, yet I was killed by a single hit. I'm reasonably sure it wasn't a missile I'd not noticed hitting me at the wrong time.

Helvellyn · Post by **Helvellyn** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:40 pm

Well, I see no-one has replied, so clearly no-one thinks it's a bug (it's happened again, BTW, so is real).

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 5:28 pm

Well, just to indulge you with an answer, when I'm in the middle of a furball I don't give more attention to the energy levels than to know if they are full, average or low, so I never really noticed it.

Helvellyn · Post by **Helvellyn** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 6:44 pm

On a similar subject I can't find an extra energy unit for sale anywhere, even after fiddling with equipment.plist, but I was going to do a bit more experimentation before getting around to posting that as a bug. Except I've gone and done it now. It's not OXP-related, because they still don't appear with all the OXPs removed. WOndering if it's 1.69.1 related, but going back to an older version is the experimentation I've not yet done.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 8:19 pm

The no energy but shield sounds like a bug, although I've not personally hit it. Sounds like Oolite only expects you to be out of energy if the shields are also down. On the Energy Unit, in 1.68 and below you could have both an Standard and Naval Energy Unit fitted. In 1.69 (nice touch), if you've already obtained the Naval Energy Unit from the relevant old school Elite mission, then the Naval Energy Unit can be purchased but you can't have both at the same time. My commander has already competed the relevant mission so I can exchange my Naval energy Unit for a standard one (yeah right!), but maybe a bug if you don't already have the Naval energy Unit available to you.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 8:21 pm

I Think Hellvellyn means the extra energy unit, not the naval energy unit,

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 8:30 pm

Sorry didn't explain it well!

I can buy an Extra Energy Unit or a Naval Energy Unit. If I have a Naval fitted then a shipyard with sufficent tech, gives me the option to buy an Extra Energy Unit. If I chose it my Naval Energy Unit is replaced by the normal Extra Energy Unit and I get the difference in price credited. May be though this new feature is causing the problem in that, if you don't have the Naval Energy Unit fitted, the standard Extra Energy Unit is not being offered in the shipyard?

Helvellyn · Post by **Helvellyn** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:47 pm

I've not got as far as earning the Naval energy unit (from the sounds of things it's the same mission as in the original Elite), so I'm talking about buying the plain, bog standard, extra energy unit. This is probably related to a post I made a week or two back about repairing it. I suspect, still without having checked for certain, that it's a 1.69 related issue. I've not been playing Oolite for long, but started with 1.65, when I could buy an extra energy unit with no problem. Now I can't, even if I remove all OXPs and re-start. I've not proved this is 1.69-related, but it's the only (untested) possibility still left that I can think of.

What seems to be happening is that it doesn't like the EQ_ENERGY_UNIT reference in the equipment.plist file. If I replace that with another piece of equipment then the energy unit appears in the list of buyable equipment (but obviously gives me what I changed it to, not an energy unit).

If it wasn't for this lack of energy unit I probably wouldn't have noticed the shields thing. For all I know the original Elite may have done the same, but because the original handles shield recharging differently (it will never drain the final bank to recharge shields, but slows the recharge rate down instead) it would be almost impossible to notice.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:46 pm

I’m not immediately sure when this change was made, but the current “cleaned up” equipment screen code helpfully requires you to have a naval energy unit in order to be able to buy a normal energy unit (instead of requiring you not to have one). This is why we have test releases. :-) I’m going to move equipment requirements into equipment.plist where possible, and add a new extra info key, incompatible_with_equipment, to represent this type of relationship.

While I’m fiddling with that, I’ll let requires_equipment and incompatible_with_equipment take arrays of strings as well as strings, so more than one value can be specified.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:59 pm

LittleBear wrote:
On the Energy Unit, in 1.68 and below you could have both an Standard and Naval Energy Unit fitted.

If this is new, it probably happened in 1.67, not 1.69.

Cmdr Wyvern · Post by **Cmdr Wyvern** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:29 pm

Like Maegil, I don't pay much attention to the energy gauge. The energy systems of most ships is fairly robust, especially with an EEU or NEU installed.

What's important to me is the fuel gauge, ordinance stores, laser heat gauge, and the shield monitors. When the shields are discharged, then your ship's ability to absorb further laser fire goes way down, a single missile hit will be lethal, and it's time to take extreme evasive. Of course, a hot laser and running out of missiles puts a dent in your ability to fight back, and no fuel for the injectors limits evasive.