Dredger Trader-Bug (AddOn)

[Thargoid]

The REALLY strange thing, though, is that I still have the impression that the same laser on different ships has much different fire power?!? Maybe the agility of the ship does allow me to hit that much better...but an adder typically only survives 1-2 seconds when exposed to laser fire, that appears MUCH too low.

That depends solely on the energy of your target. Laser hits reduce the energy of the ship (NPCs don't actually have shields, so from the first strike your laser eats their energy banks). An Adder has comparably little energy, so it dies quickly.

Not quite, although the energy levels are certainly true. It is also possible to adjust the laser (and missile warhead) strength for a given ship or entity using the weapons_energy shipdata.plist key. It's more normally used for missiles than ships, but it can be done.

[Screet]

You may be right here, and it is directly related to the size of the ship. You will have noticed that you can see your own laser emerging from the bottom of the screen and then end in the crosshairs. Why is that so? Because your viewpoint is above the laser-exit point of your ship. As your view and the laser both are pointed exactly forward, they actually never meet. They are parallel. Your crosshairs, however, are centred for your viewpoint. Which means that the point where your laser hits your target it always a little below the actual centre of your crosshairs. If your target is exactly in the centrepoint of your crosshairs, chances are that you won't hit it, but fire below its belly. Of course the difference is the greater, the more off viewpoint and laser-exit poit are. Which in most cases is directly related to your ship's size.

Hmmmm....as with any rifle. Well, that explains VERY much...even why I was having quite troublesome times with far-to-small ships in the DT and my laser sometimes visually just goind straight through their hull, without hitting the craft.

If it's about resizing the ship, it's not quite that easy. You would need to convert its dat-file to a readable format for the 3d-modelling application of your choice, resize the ship, and convert it back.

If you're on a Mac, it is a little easier: there is DryDock, a small application written by Ahruman, which allows you to inspect Oolite's ships by opening their dat-files. It's very basic, but it features a resize-option, and can re-save directly as dat-file. Problem is that the wiki stills seems to be down, so I can't give you a download link.

*GRRR*....I'm on PC here...my Macs are 80 MHZ NuBus PPC ones (60MHZ modified by addition of a speed override chip)...I guess they don't even have enough memory to open a complex model. At work I had quite a nice mac (was programming both on Win and Mac), but since my burnout, I do not have access to that machine anymore.

Concerning 3D programs, I've really no experience with those, except the wireframe-3D Editor I wrote myself back on the Atari ST...anyone with a suggestion on where to start?

That depends solely on the energy of your target. Laser hits reduce the energy of the ship (NPCs don't actually have shields, so from the first strike your laser eats their energy banks). An Adder has comparably little energy, so it dies quickly.

Uhhh...that's not too nice to hear, as this sounds that
- the NPC ships could never benefit from randomly assigned shield boosting EQ
- the NPC ships could have EQ failures right from the beginning
...maybe I'm wrong there...but it sounds to me as if it would be a good idea to set "add shields to NPC ships" as a "nice to have" thing on the programmers todo list

Screet

[Commander McLane]

Not quite, although the energy levels are certainly true. It is also possible to adjust the laser (and missile warhead) strength for a given ship or entity using the weapons_energy shipdata.plist key. It's more normally used for missiles than ships, but it can be done.

Yes, but I was assuming that Screet killed different ships with his same ship, so different weapon_energies would be out of the equation.

[Commander McLane]

Concerning 3D programs, I've really no experience with those, except the wireframe-3D Editor I wrote myself back on the Atari ST...anyone with a suggestion on where to start?

Wings3d seems pretty standard (and it's free).

That depends solely on the energy of your target. Laser hits reduce the energy of the ship (NPCs don't actually have shields, so from the first strike your laser eats their energy banks). An Adder has comparably little energy, so it dies quickly.

Uhhh...that's not too nice to hear, as this sounds that
- the NPC ships could never benefit from randomly assigned shield boosting EQ

They do. It's just that in case of NPCs it's their energy that gets boosted (+256 for the Shield Booster; +256 and 1.5 times the recharge rate for the Military Shield Enhancement)

- the NPC ships could have EQ failures right from the beginning

You lost me here. I don't think that the engine calculates equipment failures for NPCs. They just die when they have no energy left. I think it would be overdoing the realism if your opponent, after surviving the match with you, would go to the station, get his ECM, Shield Boosters, and Fuel Injectors repaired, and launch again. (Although it is definitely very nice to imagine that. But then, always remember Commander McLane's first rule for the Ooliteer™: the more important part of gameplay happens in your head. .)

...maybe I'm wrong there...but it sounds to me as if it would be a good idea to set "add shields to NPC ships" as a "nice to have" thing on the programmers todo list

I think it's mostly an issue of programming economy. Basically shields and energy are the same thing anyway. So in a way the player's shields are just an extension of his energy. Therefore the main question is whether the result will be worthwhile the extra effort.

[Screet]

Not quite, although the energy levels are certainly true. It is also possible to adjust the laser (and missile warhead) strength for a given ship or entity using the weapons_energy shipdata.plist key. It's more normally used for missiles than ships, but it can be done.

Yes, but I was assuming that Screet killed different ships with his same ship, so different weapon_energies would be out of the equation.

I noticed very different "difficulty" between the Dredger Trader and the Merlin, as if the Merlin has higher powered lasers. If that's true...I'd say it's either a bug or something that should dramatically increase ship prices, up to an amount where it's pretty insane to buy an overpowered ship.

Concerning Thargoids post, I'll have a look myself if I find those entries, probably you are faster though, when you know where to look...

And I definitely want that Merlin resized...for NPC ships with two beams, I can manage to fly between those beams! Switching to outside view it really shows how insanely small that ship is...and it's a pity because it's really drawn nicely, just as the Kestrel is.

Screet

[Screet]

You lost me here. I don't think that the engine calculates equipment failures for NPCs. They just die when they have no energy left. I think it would be overdoing the realism if your opponent, after surviving the match with you, would go to the station, get his ECM, Shield Boosters, and Fuel Injectors repaired, and launch again. (Although it is definitely very nice to imagine that. But then, always remember Commander McLane's first rule for the Ooliteer™: the more important part of gameplay happens in your head. .)

I would not even bother if they are such great mechanics that they get their eq up and running within some "recharge" time....but it definitely would be nice if I could see the effect of destroying an opponents injectors

I think it's mostly an issue of programming economy. Basically shields and energy are the same thing anyway. So in a way the player's shields are just an extension of his energy. Therefore the main question is whether the result will be worthwhile the extra effort.

Since shields are split into front and aft, that might provide some additional fun, however, the AIs would have to pay attention to that fact - and I am pretty sure that there are more important things to take care of.

Screet

[Eric Walch]

....but it definitely would be nice if I could see the effect of destroying an opponents injectors

Look at Griffs krait. When you shoot his injectors he drops to normal speed. I think it is the only ship currently with equipment failure. (But to achieve that failure for the ship there is cheated. Fuel is set to zero what also disables injectors and looks the same for the player)