1.72.1 troubles

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After more extensive tests with putting commies in/out, it was commies that made there was no buoy. I tested this at a non-comunist system. With me it was always the first launch after startup were the N-buoy was missing. The W-bouy was always there with me. But that makes sense. Commies adds a lot of N-buoys with a condition not to appear in other systems than communist.

The commies are definitely the source of the missing "N" buoy since the version upgrade of the main application. Wish I could put them back in, though....I like those modified systems for the atmosphere, even though I think that the thought police is talking way too much. I am curious how they want to fullfill the 5 years plan, if they talk so much

However, I do still miss all W buoys, I've encountered several Dredgers without D (not all!) and the Salvage gang can also only be found due to the size of their asteroid.

B is the only really reliable thing, guess, because it does not use a buoy.

If the wiki comes back on and I can install buoy repair...how long does it take for a W buoy to be replaced? Since I do like bounty hunting on contract, it's getting really difficult without the W buoy: jump into the system, fly towards the station, refuel, jump out of the system, refuel, jump back into the system, fly towards the station...

So far I do not have YAH installed...was considering it for more fun, but then the wiki became inaccessible.

However, 1.72.1 really runs MUCH better than the previous version on my vista PC. The regularly garbled textures now most often appear correct, and if not, they typically are not drawn at all. Garbled textures only very seldom appear, the memory usage is typically down to 2/3 of the previous version and the crashes (probably due to OXPs, though!) after hyperspacing do not happen as often as before. Thus, I'd rather go without the buoys and unreliable advanced space compass.

I still have all shader effects disabled, though. If I enable them, it's luck to see a ship...typically I have to fire at the black hole in front of the engines exhaust blast.

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[Commander McLane]

...and the Salvage gang can also only be found due to the size of their asteroid.

That's intended. The Salvagers don't use a beacon. No need to attract too much interest from GalCop (and the Galactic Revenue Authority ). And interested privateers will find them anyway.

Actually this would make even more sense for the Hackers, their activities being even more illegal. However, there is the practical problem that they are so far from the spacelanes that the player couldn't find them without a beacon. So I decided to give them one, but it is not revealed to everybody (you have to meet their Henchman in order to get the code; actually, the whole Hacker Outpost is only created once you get the code).

Which brings me to an idea: Why should the Henchman reveal his valuable information to every random guy? Perhaps he should only give it to a player with a certain bounty on his head (hint among fellow criminals). And if you're clean you would have to 'tease' him a little bit, until he would beg for his life and offer a valuable piece of information if you let him go. Hmmm...

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That's intended. The Salvagers don't use a beacon. No need to attract too much interest from GalCop (and the Galactic Revenue Authority ). And interested privateers will find them anyway.

That astonishes me, as I am pretty sure that I had the "S" for salvage gang on the compass a few times?!?

Actually this would make even more sense for the Hackers, their activities being even more illegal. However, there is the practical problem that they are so far from the spacelanes that the player couldn't find them without a beacon. So I decided to give them one, but it is not revealed to everybody (you have to meet their Henchman in order to get the code; actually, the whole Hacker Outpost is only created once you get the code).

...and after telling me about the outpost and that I should visit it, the hacker viper turns red and attacks me. Everytime.

Which brings me to an idea: Why should the Henchman reveal his valuable information to every random guy? Perhaps he should only give it to a player with a certain bounty on his head (hint among fellow criminals). And if you're clean you would have to 'tease' him a little bit, until he would beg for his life and offer a valuable piece of information if you let him go. Hmmm...

That would also be consistent with the behaviour above, if you make them silent if the player is clean....as currently they first make their offer and THEN attack me...that's stupid. They could rather have me enter their outpost and then attack me when I'm out of my ship...

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[Commander McLane]

That's intended. The Salvagers don't use a beacon. No need to attract too much interest from GalCop (and the Galactic Revenue Authority ). And interested privateers will find them anyway.

That astonishes me, as I am pretty sure that I had the "S" for salvage gang on the compass a few times?!?

For your convenience I quote from the wiki-entry on beacons (in the documentation on shipdata.plist). I took the time once to figure out which codes are in use, and to put up a list. Should still be pretty much up-to-date:

beacon

A special feature for beacons and navigation aids. The string can be anything - the first letter is what's displayed in the advanced space compass.

Example:
<key>beacon</key>
<string>X-code</string>

The following characters are known to be used as identifiers for stations and other fixed objects (listed with their respective OXPs):

Code: Select all

A = Astromine (Commies)
B = Black Monk Monastery (Black Monks)
    A Seedy Space Bar (Random Hits)
    Nemeanian Military Base (Assassins)
C = CoachWhip hOopy Casino (Hoopy Casino)
    Pi-42 Con Store (Your Ad Here)
F = Collective Zero-G Factory (Commies)
    Collective SLAPU (Commies)
    Imperial AstroFactory (Dictators)
G = Griff Research Ltd Orbital Base (Assassins)
    GRS Buoy Factory (GRS Buoy Repair)
H = Hacker Outpost (Anarchies)
    Deep Space Hoopy Hotel : Hades Branch (Assassins)
L = The Link Base (Ionics)
    Deep Space Hoopy Hotel : Lernean Branch (Assassins)
N = Main Station Beacon
P = Tianve Pulsar Monitoring Station (Tianve)
R = Rock Hermit (Rock Hermit Locator)
    Augeaian Orbital Repair Facility (Assassins)
    Rebel Outpost (Assassins)
Q = Hesperides Wiseguy Way-Station (Assassins)
S = Navy SecCom Station (Galactic Navy)
    Special Branch Orbital Headquarters (Assassins)
T = Taranis Corporation HQ (Taranis)
W = Witchpoint Buoy
Z = Free Trade Zone (Free Trade Zone)

The following characters are known to be used for non-station objects that may appear anywhere:

Code: Select all

H = Homing Beacon (ett Homing Beacon)

The following characters should not be assigned easily to stations or ships that are supposed to appear anywhere, because they are likely to be used for ships in other OXPs:

Code: Select all

M = Mark
T = Target
V = Victim
X = general marker
+ = general marker

So I guess what you were seeing was the beacon of the Navy's Sector Command (from Galactic Navy.oxp).

[Screet]

For your convenience I quote from the wiki-entry on beacons (in the documentation on shipdata.plist). I took the time once to figure out which codes are in use, and to put up a list. Should still be pretty much up-to-date:

So I guess what you were seeing was the beacon of the Navy's Sector Command (from Galactic Navy.oxp).

I've been flying through some planets with such stations, yes, and probably I mistook the sign from a sentinel station in anarchy systems?

Concerning "B" you could add the weapons platform from ionics to the list...unless I'm so tired from 12 hours sleepless playing that my memory fails I think I placed it as "B" for "build site" in my memory when I first encountered it.

I am also VERY sure that I've seen Dredgers occasionally as "D"...maybe it's there about the role the Dredger plays in that system. In those cases where salvage runs are possible, I do not remember ONE dredger appearing on the compass, maybe because that would make things too easy.

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[Commander McLane]

I've been flying through some planets with such stations, yes, and probably I mistook the sign from a sentinel station in anarchy systems?

No, they don't have beacons either.

Concerning "B" you could add the weapons platform from ionics to the list...unless I'm so tired from 12 hours sleepless playing that my memory fails I think I placed it as "B" for "build site" in my memory when I first encountered it.

Correct, missed that. According to Ionics' shipdata it's supposed to stand for 'Battlefield', by the way. I guess because the system ships head over there, and then there is supposed to be a battle around the platform. Hm, I never got that, cause I always killed them as soon as they left the station vicinity. I think I would suggest to Galileo to place them somewhere closer to the platform in a next version. Unfortunately he hasn't been around for ages.

I am also VERY sure that I've seen Dredgers occasionally as "D"...maybe it's there about the role the Dredger plays in that system. In those cases where salvage runs are possible, I do not remember ONE dredger appearing on the compass, maybe because that would make things too easy.

Nope. Dredgers don't have beacons, at least not in Dredgers 2.2oxp. Perhaps you were (are) running some other version (there are quite some around)? EDIT: Yes, there is the Superdredger from Dredgers.oxp (which is an abandoned and incomplete in-between version in the Dredger's version-jungle).

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According to Ionics' shipdata it's supposed to stand for 'Battlefield', by the way. I guess because the system ships head over there, and then there is supposed to be a battle around the platform. Hm, I never got that, cause I always killed them as soon as they left the station vicinity. I think I would suggest to Galileo to place them somewhere closer to the platform in a next version. Unfortunately he hasn't been around for ages.

...and then it does perfectly explain my trouble finding the enemy for as long as I kept shooting that platform to dust. I wanted to make things more safe for the "allies", but that way prevented myself from patrolling the way on which the enemy would approach.

Yes, there is the Superdredger from Dredgers.oxp (which is an abandoned and incomplete in-between version in the Dredger's version-jungle).

I've got the 2.2 installed...however, I once had an encounter with a MASSIVE ship, if I recall correctly, it was HMS Churchill...looked like a Dredger, but on the scanner it did not only appear as the common sign, but with a VERY LARGE shape around that...and from a distance roughly as N to W buoys, it was still an impressive sight. Guess that thing could run over a whole moon without noticing, except that the ore processor might get something to do

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[Commander McLane]

There is nothing called 'Churchill' in Dredgers2.2. So this one must be from some other OXP (RS?).

Oh, and if you want to see something massive, I'd suggest you install genships.oxp. (It's a little difficult to get hold of these days, though. Fortunately somebody (Hesperus?) uploaded it to box.net.)

[Eric Walch]

I've got the 2.2 installed...however, I once had an encounter with a MASSIVE ship, if I recall correctly, it was HMS Churchill...looked like a Dredger, but on the scanner it did not only appear as the common sign, but with a VERY LARGE shape around that...and from a distance roughly as N to W buoys, it was still an impressive sight. Guess that thing could run over a whole moon without noticing, except that the ore processor might get something to do

That one is definitely from Dredgers 2.2. There all ships have similar names, starting with HMS or similar, random chosen from a large text file. (Little Bear added this nice name giving part). RS and the original dredger only have one dredger in it, Dredger 2.2 has two larger models in it and this very large model. None of the these dredgers have a beacon. I consider the beacon as a bug. All the original dredger releases of sabre had this beacon in it, but none of these releases had a working script. e.g the first dredger only appeared near the station and just hang there. This was clearly a test version and the beacon was only there for Sabre himself and other testers to find the ship. Sabre never released a working version were the ships had a real AI script. For a working version I saw no reason to give it a beacon.

For the salvage missions I see it even as one of the challenges to spot the dredger. Without estimation the flight path of the activated derelict first, it will be extremely hard (impossible?) to find the dredger. It becomes even worse after eliminating the first pirate wave as this actions screwed up your orientation and you have to re-orient again. But that part you already figured out and at that point you are already closer to the dredger. When searching the sky long enough I always managed to spot the dredger from this point.

[Commander McLane]

That one is definitely from Dredgers 2.2. There all ships have similar names, starting with HMS or similar, random chosen from a large text file. (Little Bear added this nice name giving part).

Ah! I didn't think of random names. Just searched in shipdata and found no 'Churchill'. Okay, then it is from Dredgers.

BTW, Eric: The OXP is called 'Dredgers 2.2oxp'. Don't know whether the missing dot in front of 'oxp' can do harm on any machine. It seems the file extension '2oxp' is at least recognized correctly as OXP.

[Eric Walch]

That one is definitely from Dredgers 2.2. There all sBTW, Eric: The OXP is called 'Dredgers 2.2oxp'. Don't know whether the missing dot in front of 'oxp' can do harm on any machine. It seems the file extension '2oxp' is at least recognized correctly as OXP.

It's my mistake. On the mac the name looks different than the true name. That is a mac only thing. When you look in the fileinfo on the mac with the filename Dredgers 2.2oxp you'll see that the real name has become Dredgers 2.2oxp.oxp and that the hide extension is activated. When you place the dot at the right location as intended the hidden extension is removed and it changes in a visible .oxp. This happens without a warning. (Probably changeable in the preferences). I think window users will see Dredgers 2.2oxp.oxp for this file as this is the real name. Unless they do the same as the mac. In any way, it won't harm now and I'll look better at it next time.

[Thargoid]

I think window users will see Dredgers 2.2oxp.oxp for this file as this is the real name.

Yes we do, or at least I did.

[another_commander]

Just a quick update on a bug that has been annoying pilots since the 1.72 release.

Bad news for GRS Inc., I'm afraid. The bug that was causing nav buoys - plus other ships as it happens - to not appear under certain conditions (when e.g. Commies is loaded) was isolated, and summarily terminated last night. As a result, it is expected that the recent shortage of nav buoys is about to come to an end. GRS has now the option of focusing its operations to maybe salvaging and tugging disabled ships or providing replacement buoys in the rare cases when suicidal pilots suffering from various forms of Escort Pilot's Depression Syndrome (EPDS)* drive their ships to crash on the buoys. Alternatively, GRS can wait until the next non bug-fix release, where for sure we'll find a brand new way of giving them work.

* To experience EPDS, try flying escort next to an Anaconda from the witchpoint to the station in a Corporate State system. You are advised to not attempt it more than once.

[Ark]

Just a quick update on a bug that has been annoying pilots since the 1.72 release.

Bad news for GRS Inc., I'm afraid. The bug that was causing nav buoys - plus other ships as it happens - to not appear under certain conditions (when e.g. Commies is loaded) was isolated, and summarily terminated last night. As a result, it is expected that the recent shortage of nav buoys is about to come to an end. GRS has now the option of focusing its operations to maybe salvaging and tugging disabled ships or providing replacement buoys in the rare cases when suicidal pilots suffering from various forms of Escort Pilot's Depression Syndrome (EPDS)* drive their ships to crash on the buoys. Alternatively, GRS can wait until the next non bug-fix release, where for sure we'll find a brand new way of giving them work.

* To experience EPDS, try flying escort next to an Anaconda from the witchpoint to the station in a Corporate State system. You are advised to not attempt it more than once.

Very good news another_comander (at least if you are not in GRS board of directors)

[Svengali]

Very bad news. I've just found a nice star system for sale, but the contract hasn't been signed yet. So when the press gets this news I can forget it.

PS: Nice another_commander.