Equipment level in the info screen

[Ark]

Some equipment have another equipment as a prerequirement. In other words there are more an upgrade or a modification to existing equipment than independent equipment.

Until now in those cases we had 2 possible solutions:

1.In the case of bounty scanner we can see it as an independent one in the info screen
Not very good since is not an independent equipment (not to mention the problem with the equipment’s info screen overflow)
2.In the case of target reticle the new equipment (upgrade or modification) is invisible in the info screen. Better that the first but you can not actually see that in the info screen

I am wondering if it is possible an equipment witch is actually an upgrade to another equipment to replace (override) the old equipment in the equipment info screen?

If this is possible it would open new ways of manipulating the equipment info screen. Military shield enchantment could be an upgrade to shield boosters. Once you have upgraded to military shield enhancement there is no need to be able to see shield boosters in the info screen.

Does anybody knows if this is possible?

[Commander McLane]

Not sure if it is possible to make equipment disappear from the F5-screen. The only way to achieve it with an OXP is to remove the equipment itself.

We could of course ask for the introduction of a new equipment property, something like isVisible. Question is whether it really makes sense, and for which equipment.

Your example of Shield Boosters and Military Shield Enhancement is actually not a good example, because they are independent of each other. You can have the Shield Boosters without the Military Shield Enhancement. But you can also have the Military Shield Enhancement without Shield Boosters. Or you can have both. Or none of them. They are just two different pieces of equipment.

A real alternative exists between Extra Energy Unit and Naval Energy Unit. But this case is already solved, because the one you have installed is automatically removed if you buy the other.

[Ark]

A real alternative exists between Extra Energy Unit and Naval Energy Unit. But this case is already solved, because the one you have installed is automatically removed if you buy the other.

That is my point.
Let’s expand this concept to other equipment. The example that I gave was a bad one but I did that on purpose
Can you see the potential here? More equipment with less space in the info screen

[Commander McLane]

Another problem is that one piece of equipment can have several different upgrades. For instance there are at least two upgrades for the Fuel Scoops: the Ore Processor is an upgrade of the Fuel Scoops, and the Fuel Collector is also an upgrade of the Fuel Scoops, but a completely different one. So which one should replace the Fuel Scoops on the F5-screen?

On top of that, both are not a modification of the Fuel Scoops itself, but rather something attached to the unmodified Fuel Scoops. Practically this means especially that all three items can break or get damaged, independent of each other. So your Ore Processor could break and stop working (Fuel Scoops and Fuel Collector not affected). Or your Fuel Collector could get damaged and stop working (Fuel Scoops and Ore Processor not affected). Or the Fuel Scoops could break and stop working (both Fuel Collector and Ore Processor stop working as well, although they are still intact). In the last case it would simply be false to write on the F5-screen 'Fuel Collector (damaged)' or 'Ore Processor (damaged)'. What we need is the correct information on all three items:

Fuel Scoops (damaged)
Fuel Collector
Ore Processor

So there is no way to save a line on the screen by suppressing the 'Fuel 'Scoops'.

[Ark]

I know that my concept can not be applied in all the cases.

What about military shield enhancement and shield boosters?
Maybe in the future somebody would like to create an upgrade to an exciting piece of equipment. An extremely expensive naval ECM system that will have a 40% change of destroying a hard missile but it will drain your energy faster than the normal ECM. It would be pointless (once you buy that) to also see the normal ECM in the info screen
JS opens new potential in equipment oxping but we have the barrier of the info screen. We should think alternaties with sence
I am taking about potential for the future

[Thargoid]

It's only a cosmetic barrier in terms of how the F5 screen looks. As has already been said most of the "add-on" equipment doesn't really replace the original, but just requires it (the already stated energy unit example is the exception).

We already know that there is an improvement potential here in the trunk by re-arranging the display screens a bit. It's nothing new nor something that can be done by non-dev coders, so there's not much point in keep going on about it.

It's only with 1.72 that things have begun to be addressed in this area, with the new JS events for equipment buying/removal/breakage. With those we can begin to do something about it (as Eric did with Missile Analyser and I replicated with Anti-Missile System), but it gets complicated with add-ons rather than replacement equipment.

The best case scenario is a "fine tuning" of existing equipment, for example one that makes the energy unit recharge rate even faster (think of it like an engine tune-up on a car), but that could be covered by the new events (as the only thing to break in-game would still be the original equipment). Except for that scenario the general argument is limited. A lot of equipment uses internal trunk code so can't easily be improved anyway (e.g. your better ECM couldn't happen directly, you'd have to modify the hardheads as well as it's actually their AI that deals with ease of killing by ECM). If it were easier to "improve" existing equipment, then a lot of us scripters would already have done so

[Dr Beeb]

Maybe just roll over to a new screen, like when ships are available for purchase, that usuallly occupies two screens?

[Commander McLane]

That's what I already suggested here.