Random Hits OXP

[Eric Walch]

The spawning in the wrong role bug being down to showShipModel is stange. I don't seem to hit this on the PC Build though.

I tested this with military fiasco (both legacy and JS version). There I saw no entity adding on rotating ships in messages.

[JensAyton]

By the way: It took me a way to figure it out, but the number increases by 0, 5, or 10 (randomly, it seems), each time I flip to another announcement. So the longer I browse the board on my hunt for a convenient kill, the more ghost ships are in the system. Finally it occured to me that the culprit might be in the showShipModel-method. I removed it, and the entity-increase was history. Seems something's broken.

I can confirm that this appears to be happening (it’s always a bit tricky because of the noise of objects being added and removed for other reasons), but not in the way that would make sense. The ship which is generated for the backdrop is in fact being removed again when it should be, so I’m not sure what it is that’s leaking.

(Testing methodology for future reference: add [ship performSelector:@selector(inspect)]; to -[PlayerEntity showShipModel:]. This is only useful with the OS X debug plug-in, though.)

[Eric Walch]

I can confirm that this appears to be happening...The ship which is generated for the backdrop is in fact being removed again when it should be, so I’m not sure what it is that’s leaking.

The leaking ships are escorts of the shown ship. Every time a ship with escorts is shown in the display, the escorts are actually added to the system. You always see escorts in the entity dump with an AI belonging to the shown ship. When you go to the next ship, I see the escort AI switching to that of a worm. They switch AI when they find no mother.

The displayed ship is removed, but not its escorts. I just don't see why they are added in the first place. They should only be added whit a mother that had status STATUS_IN_FLIGHT. And the entity dump clearly shows the displayed mother has status: STATUS_COCKPIT_DISPLAY.

[JensAyton]

The leaking ships are escorts of the shown ship.

D’oh. Fixed.

(The reason it was happening is that status is being set to STATUS_COCKPIT_DISPLAY after adding the ship to the universe. Rather than change this and possibly run afoul of weird side effects, I just set the escort count to 0 before addEntity:.)

[Eric Walch]

I just chased a level 3 target. Killed his many bodyguards and followed the target through a wormhole. There I killed his ship. He escaped. Then I disintegrated his pod. Only thing left was to collect the reward money.

On the way to the station I met a super cobra. I was so in a winning mood and had already killed a super cobra two jumps before, that I attacked the super cobra from very close behind without a doubt.
Full lasers fried him but he hit injectors and dropped a mine. I don't know what mine but I was history. (My new SB 1.3 modification has now 3 mines on board. 1 q-mine and 2 mines with normal charge. The normal charge is only dangerous when you are very close during detonation. But because you don't know which mine is dropped a player has to abort his pursuit. And when flying to close behind gives no time to react.)

Okay, new game, same target ship but with no bodyguards this time. He hit me full, and my ecm blew away. Even worse, he fired two missiles at me. (one ecm hardened but that didn't matter as I didn't have a ecm at all). I didn't see a solution other than flee and hit him with my back laser. Target was fast, I couldn't outrun him. My shields kept lowering until BIG BANG. History again.

Third try. This time I didn't find the target on the way to the station. I checked all yellow blips but alas. I was inside the docking zone when a white laser hit me. It wasn't coming from a yellow blip... It is comming from a white blip... Targeting... It is my target in an escape pod. Revenge.... It just took me 2 seconds to toast him. YEH. Bye Bye admiral Reno!!

[Eric Walch]

I just encountered a bug. I killed the ship "purple Haze" (a fer-de-lance type of ship) and Commander "fish killer" Frantic jumped out in his escape capsule.

I targeted the capsule but for some reason I could not hit it with my laser. I didn't think long and armed a missile. I choose a less powerful one from the new missile_rack. It did its job and blew the pod into bits.

BUT, on docking I get a message the pod survived and the captain escaped.

Probably they try to keep their prize money. Currently I am loading a torpedo with a q-bomb warhead. At an earlier occasion I noticed the spacebar can't counteract against those despite their slow speed. In the neighbouring system I saw a spacebar. I just want to announce that this bar will stop existing in a few minutes.

EDIT: The spacebars in Ladigeso and Celearen don't exist anymore. Sorry guys.
I don't know what went wrong with the code. It was target nr 41. I now spawned the pod with the console and when killing it with the same missile as in-game, I now did get credit for the kill.

[Commander McLane]

Probably they try to keep their prize money. Currently I am loading a torpedo with a q-bomb warhead. At an earlier occasion I noticed the spacebar can't counteract against those despite their slow speed. In the neighbouring system I saw a spacebar. I just want to announce that this bar will stop existing in a few minutes.

EDIT: The spacebars in Ladigeso and Celearen don't exist anymore. Sorry guys.

Do you tend to get emotionally involved too much in your game???

[LittleBear]

Could be the Oolite Ghost Ships Bug. The ships script worked OK as the pod was spawned and mission status variable correctly set to PODDED. This is why you got told off for docking with the variable still at PODDED. Death of the pod should switch (with its own script) the variable to KILLED. As your lasers didn't have any effect I suspect a game bug causing the pod to be generated as a ghost ship. The pods all work on the same JS script, so if you've killed pods before I reckon the pod script itself is OK. The thisShipDied in the Script didn't get run at all (hence the variable still at PODDED), but that may be the Ghost Ship Bug as you couldn't kill it was lasers.

[LittleBear]

Version 1.3(alpha).

I'm still working on a 1.3 and have got quite a bit done, but still have some things to finish off for a full release. If you want to give the WIP version a test though, I've put a link to the full test version at the bottom of this post. If you want to test it can you delete the old version of Random Hits OXP and install this one. You won't lose your progress but as a lot of the code is re-written it needs a deletion and new install in AddOns rather than overwriting the old version.

Done so far:-

1) Relatives or Hit Man hired by victims families will start chasing you when you make a kill. It will take them some time to catch up with you though. For testing this always happens when you make a kill. In the released version it will be a random chance.

2) The Name of the Mark is now shown on the ID computer. Randomised names and titles for henchmen and bounty hunters also shown.

3) Big overhall of the JS scripts. Should now be much more accurate at recording who killed and how.

4) Escorts of marks AIs improved. They should now rarely lose their mother and fight more as a group.

5) The BB post now shows how far away the victim's system is. Please note ATM this feature is only enabled in Galaxys 1 and 2. If you are in G3 - 8 the OXP works normally but you won't get this feature as I haven't done the code for this yet. It would be handy though if some peeps playtest G1 and G2 as my method is the same for all Galaxies. If you are in G3 - G8 in this test release the "Subject :" section will show a mission variable rather than any text, cos I haven't defined this yet!

6) Bug with Ghost Ship versions of henchmen cropping up fixed. (Thanks Commander McLane and Eric for tracking this down). I got round it by making clones of the victims ships without any escorts which are displayed on the BB.

7) Bug in optimised script fixed.

8. Docking at a bar will now cost your a couple of credits for your bar bill as shown in the screenie.

9) Some case-senstive texture problems fixed.

10) Pirates now somtimes attack bars.

11) Bug with bits of the space bars floating around occasionally fixed. All templetes now have roles. (Thank Eric!)

Still to do:-

1) Code for Galaxys 3 - 8 to calculate where the Mark is on the Galactic Chart.

2) Optimise AIs for the Bar and Hunters. (Hunters who are jumping out currently try to jump even when they are mass-locked by the bar. This slows the game down as the game keeps calculating the jump several times a second even though the hunter can't jump. Need to add a GO_TO_JUMP_DISTANCE state so only one calculation is done. The bar and hunters also do way too much target scanning, so a big fight by the bar can slow the game down. Opmimising should mean no loss of frame rate when a big scrap by the bar is going on.)

3) Spell Check Descriptions.plist!

Download for the full 1.3 alpha version (including models and textures is at the end of this post).





Dowload link to V1.3 (alpha test);-

http://www.box.net/shared/h1ubl5311a

[FSOneblin]

Can't wait till all of the galaxies are done, but 3.25 CR?!?! I could buy 1 tone of food with that! Oh well, It looks awesome!

Don't Panic: FSOneblin

[Disembodied]

Okay, here's what I got from a runthrough of the (frnakly epic) descriptions.plist:

Find and replace (some of these appear more than once, and some have a mixture of upper- and lower-case: hopefully I've caught these where they appear):
goanna – should be gonna
battle scared – should be battle-scarred
blood thirsty – should be bloodthirsty
Blood thirsty – should be Bloodthirsty
Blood-thirsty – should be Bloodthirsty
As quick as lightening – should be As quick as lightning
wreaks – should be wrecks (it's in <key>random_hits_notwelcome_destroyed7</key> along with "destroys", "melts" etc.)
Press ENTER to turn tale and flee from – should be Press ENTER to turn tail and flee from
Aster la Vista – should be Hasta la Vista
Kessal run – should be Kessel run (if you want to be really pedantic...)
For hates sake – should be For hate's sake
The Bounty Hunters Guild – should be The Bounty Hunters' Guild
The Bounty Hunters Union – should be The Bounty Hunters' Union
faint hearted – should be faint-hearted
lily livered – should be lily-livered
vaporized – should be vaporised
vaporize – should be vaporise
Vaporize – should be Vaporise
vaporization – should be vaporisation
bizzare – should be bizarre
Head Hunter – should be Headhunter
Head hunter – should be Headhunter
head hunter – should be headhunter
head hunters – should be headhunters
Ill fated – should be Ill-fated
case hardened – should be case-hardened
well proven – should be well-proven
cold heartedly – should be cold-heartedly
personal introduced to the Lord [mark-fighting3a] – should be personally introduced to the Lord [mark-fighting3a]
RESPONCE – should be RESPONSE
Law Abiding – should be Law-abiding
shows public spirited behaviour – should be shows public-spirited behaviour
the most wanted list – should be the most-wanted list
low life – should be lowlife
well paid – should be well-paid
eye-sight – should be eyesight
blue-tack – should be blu-tac (if you want to use brand names... or you could just say "toothpaste and bogies")
The Killing of – should be The killing of
cold blooded – should be cold-blooded
Cold blooded – should be Cold-blooded
cold hearted – should be cold-hearted
Cold hearted – should be Cold-hearted
hit beings – should be hitbeings
Friendly fire incidents – should be Friendly-fire incidents
Reverent – should be Reverend
Arch Bishop – should be Archbishop
well equipped – should be well-equipped
Bloody minded – should be Bloody-minded
time wasters – should be timewasters
organize – should be organise
organizer – should be organiser
Peoples Popular Front – should be People's Popular Front
Gaundlet Security Incorporated – should be Gauntlet Security Incorporated
Thain – should be Thane
'Curly Tale' – should be 'Curly Tail'
small minded – should be small-minded
well dressed – should be well-dressed
narrow minded – should be narrow-minded
level headed – should be level-headed
[random_hits_grog] swilling – should be [random_hits_grog]-swilling
lesser spotted – should be lesser-spotted
double jointed – should be double-jointed
dread furred – should be dread-furred
[random_hits_appendage] nosed – should be [random_hits_appendage]-nosed
[random_hits_colourc] feathered – should be [random_hits_colourc]-feathered
armour [random_hits_armour] – should be armour-[random_hits_armour]
[random_hits_appendage] eared – should be [random_hits_appendage]-eared
[random_hits_sent] scented – should be [random_hits_sent]-scented
[random_hits_appendage] tailed – should be [random_hits_appendage]-tailed
[random_hits_appendage2] scaled – should be [random_hits_appendage2]-scaled
[random_hits_colourc] tentacled – should be [random_hits_colourc]-tentacled
[random_hits_temper] tempered – should be [random_hits_temper]-tempered
short sighted – should be short-sighted
long sighted – should be long-sighted
telephone sanitizer – should be telephone sanitiser
counter spinwards – should be counter-spinwards
giggling in an annoying manor – should be giggling in an annoying manner
pot bellied – should be pot-bellied
unauthorized – should be unauthorised
force fed – should be force-fed
pulverized – should be pulverised
agonizing – should be agonising

Others
I think under <key>mark-fleeing2</key> and <key>mark-fighting2</key>, where the entries end with [mission_random_hits_playertitle], there should be a comma before [mission_random_hits_playertitle] – so e.g. it would read "Prepare to die, [mission_random_hits_playertitle]" instead of "Prepare to die [mission_random_hits_playertitle]"

Extra space after Corporal in <key>assassination_board_poster_titleb</key>

[TGHC]

Actually Vapourise/ize, are both correct, "ize" is the American way of spelling whereas "ise" is the French spelling As far as British is concerned the "ize" has always been the preferred spelling but both are accepted. The Oxford English Dictionary (the UK dictionary bible) has always preferred the "ize" and not printed the "ise" untill recently! Despite this the "ize"is rarely used in the media and newspapers so you takes your choice, either way it needs to be standardised.

[FSOneblin]

Actually Vapourise/ize, are both correct, "ize" is the American way of spelling whereas "ise" is the French spelling As far as British is concerned the "ize" has always been the preferred spelling but both are accepted. The Oxford English Dictionary (the UK dictionary bible) has always preferred the "ize" and not printed the "ise" untill recently! Despite this the "ize"is rarely used in the media and newspapers so you takes your choice, either way it needs to be standardised.

Really? I'm american, and I don't think I've ever herd it spelled that way (ize). I really don't care about spelling (unless it's Fre itens plz, and some other things the Brazilians say in the first star online games) I would rather have you work on getting galaxies 3-8 than working on something like spelling.

Don't Panic: FSOneblin

[Disembodied]

"–ize" endings are Oxford (as in Oxford English Dictionary); "–ise" endings are Cambridge. The "z" is more common in the USA, although a lot of UK academic publishers use "–ize". Both are indeed correct; standardis/zation is the main aim! The reason I flagged a few "–ize" endings is because most of the others in the description.plist (neutralise, authorise, sterilised, etc.) use the "–ise" ending.

[LittleBear]

Cos its quite a wordy OXP I would like to get the spelling right for a final version. The Descriptions.plist has about 35,000 words in it and as my .plist editor does not have a spell check its a bit of a pain. I'll have to C&P it into word, then run spell check with a lot of Ignore Alls for the names of systems and other Elite / Oolite words. Then paste it all (spell checked) back into a .plist. Disembodied corrections will make that a lot easier though. I'm planning to do a spell check at the end though, since as I work on the OXP I'm adding the odd thing to descriptions and I don't want to have to spell check the 300 pages or so it forms in word more than once!