Lave Academy OXP

[Micha]

I certainly never saw anything of that size.. that looks quite reasonable. Will try again this weekend.

[Eric Walch]

I certainly never saw anything of that size.. that looks quite reasonable. Will try again this weekend.

yes, it is possible to spot once you know were to look for. I succeeded today in finding it with side view and than I switched back to front view and used the <>-keys to move my ships nose sideways to catch target again. (When using up-down you have to start the search all over again.)

Definitely to difficult for a cadet.

and on docking practice I got a bit reckless. The first 6 targets I all passed at full speed but on the moving one I realised to late I wouldn't make it:
press-space-commander.

[Micha]

Ok, cheating with an Advanced Space Compass I finally found it - and hardly surprising I never saw it! From the Coriolis it was a mere twinkle of a star. Looking back at the Coriolis once I got there, the Coriolis was only a handful of pixels as well.

I'm guessing something is playing up and placing the Lave Academy rather further away than scripted.

Coriolis Position: -49515.3, 60769.4, 427622
Lave Academy Position: -43610, 72300, 651520

Actually, having just had a quick look at the OXP code, the Academy is always placed in an absolute position. So I'm guessing it's my Coriolis which is at a non-standard position.

Relevant (?) OXPs:
* Lave
* Lave Academy
* Famous Planets
* Dictators

If I get more time I'll try to isolate what's causing my problem. In the meantime, what position -should- the Lave Coriolis be at?

And is there any particular reason the Lave Academy position is hard-coded rather than calculated? I don't know what could cause things to move about, but it sounds to me like a calculated position will always be a lot more robust..

[Eric Walch]

If I get more time I'll try to isolate what's causing my problem. In the meantime, what position -should- the Lave Coriolis be at?

Your coordinates are correct. The corriolis is always at that position. I also calculated the distance on the console:

Code: Select all

this.academy.position.distanceTo(system.mainStation) = 224272.078125

Far away and probably visible with a brighter colour or shaders. But I understood Thargoid fixed it by adding a directional buoy. I hope this buoy will first lead you away from the mass lock of the planet before pointing to the academy. Because that was what I had to do to get there in a reasonable time by J-drive. It mend to loose the academy out of sight again but I found it back by carefully remembering my ships turnings.

The oxp now just starts with an advanced course in navigation and star spotting.

The distance itself is not greater than during a salvage mission with the deep space dredger, but there you can start by following the derelict ship. And then by looking in its flight direction you'll spot the dredger because it tells you were in the sky to look.

[Eric Walch]

I encountered another problem. I did the flight course this time. For better navigation I used the zoom key but than when a buoy sends its message "I am the next" this was not on screen and by zooming out again and pressing ` you won't get it anymore. It was only after a while that I realised I cold target a buoy and see its name. (they are all numbered) But still difficult to target on a great distance.

But than the main issue: On arriving at buoy nr 5 I got a brief message that my time was expired. I just managed to read it and than Oolite itself crashed.

Oolite last log entries were:

Code: Select all

Oolite [script.javaScript.exception.206] OOJavaScriptEngine.m:136: ***** JavaScript exception: Error: Vector3D.distanceTo: Could not construct vector from parameters (undefined) -- expected Vector, Entity or array of three numbers.
Oolite [script.javaScript.exception.206] OOJavaScriptEngine.m:147:       /Applications/Games/Oolite/AddOns/Lave Academy 1.00.oxp/Scripts/laveAcademy_pilotCircuitBuoy.js, line 29.

btw, I see no code error in that line 29.

The crash reporter wrote:

Code: Select all

Thread 0 Crashed:
0   libobjc.A.dylib                	0x90a4aca0 _objc_trap + 0
1   libobjc.A.dylib                	0x90a4ac14 _objc_error + 76
2   libobjc.A.dylib                	0x90a4aba4 __objc_error + 64
3   org.aegidian.oolite            	0x000f1990 -[OODebugMonitor(Private) jsEngine:context:error:stackSkip:withMessage:] + 260 (crt.c:355)
4   org.aegidian.oolite            	0x00059874 ReportJSError + 588 (crt.c:355)
5   org.aegidian.oolite            	0x001382bc js_ReportUncaughtException + 540 (crt.c:355)
6   org.aegidian.oolite            	0x00180934 JS_CallFunction + 96 (crt.c:355)
7   org.aegidian.oolite            	0x000599cc -[OOJavaScriptEngine callJSFunction:forObject:argc:argv:result:] + 80 (crt.c:355)
8   org.aegidian.oolite            	0x000edd0c -[OOJSTimer timerFired] + 112 (crt.c:355)

[Thargoid]

Eric - I've seen your other post about problems with timers, I'll tweak the code to make sure they're stopped before the buoy is removed. That should I hope sort out the problem with this OXP, although as you say it does seem to be something more fundamental underneath that would merit from reporting/investigating further.

As to the Academy position, as stated given that the Coriolis and the nav-buoy always seemed to be in the same place, it seemed to make sense to have the Academy (and its three course buoys) always in the same place too. Hence the hard-coding, as I wanted the academy at the edge of the S-zone, and the buoys in the orientation that they are from the academy when you launch from it. Plus if everything's calculated dynamically, it makes setting up the pilot course a real pain as that's all relative to the course buoy, which in turn is relative to the academy...

What I've done is added a buoy also at a fixed location, which is on a line between the nav-buoy and the academy, towards the edge of scanner range when parked at the nav-buoy. So all you need to do is fly to the nav-buoy, orient yourselve to the new buoy then fly towards it and carry on the same direction and you'll find the Academy. But as I said on my system the Academy is clearly visible behind the new buoy anyway (at the same size as in my screenshot), so there's something weird going on somewhere.

For the pilot course the review of the comms log should make the next buoy sing-out again, but as you say they're all numbered anyway. Plus generally (but not always) there should only be a couple of buoys on the scanner, the one you need to go to, the one you're at and possibly the one you came from. Like I said in the readme, it's an astro-navigation test as well as a piloting one

I'm a little surprised that you got the expired message, that should only trigger after 15 minutes (it's only in there to prevent people starting the course and then wandering off and things running on forever). I'll look into that one a little more.

Oh, and -

and on docking practice I got a bit reckless. The first 6 targets I all passed at full speed but on the moving one I realised to late I wouldn't make it:
press-space-commander.

I did specifically put a warning in the readme and in this thread about taking the docking practice slow I tried to make those inserts "smash-glass" (ie that if you mess up you crash through them and destroy them, taking a little damage but not dying) but the engine won't let me as they're sub-entities. There's no way I can find to make them any less deadly I'm afraid

[Thargoid]

Ok, cheating with an Advanced Space Compass I finally found it - and hardly surprising I never saw it! From the Coriolis it was a mere twinkle of a star. Looking back at the Coriolis once I got there, the Coriolis was only a handful of pixels as well.

I'm guessing something is playing up and placing the Lave Academy rather further away than scripted.

Coriolis Position: -49515.3, 60769.4, 427622
Lave Academy Position: -43610, 72300, 651520

Actually, having just had a quick look at the OXP code, the Academy is always placed in an absolute position. So I'm guessing it's my Coriolis which is at a non-standard position.

Relevant (?) OXPs:
* Lave
* Lave Academy
* Famous Planets
* Dictators

If I get more time I'll try to isolate what's causing my problem. In the meantime, what position -should- the Lave Coriolis be at?

And is there any particular reason the Lave Academy position is hard-coded rather than calculated? I don't know what could cause things to move about, but it sounds to me like a calculated position will always be a lot more robust..

My Coriolis position (system.mainStation.position) is:

(-49515.3, 60769.4, 592262)

So we seem to have a huge difference in Z-axis positions?

Are you using something that re-arranges the system and the planet positions/orbits (Farsun, Orbits or somesuch)? I just tried the Academy on a 1.72.2 without any OXPs (except it and Debug) and the position is the same as above?

Or are you using 1.73 and there's something changed there?

[Micha]

Are you using something that re-arranges the system and the planet positions/orbits, like Farsun? I just tried the Academy on a 1.72.2 without any OXPs (except it and Debug) and the position is the same as above?

Or are you using 1.73 and there's something changed there?

I don't think any of my other OXPs rearrange the system - not using Farsun or Orbits. Using 1.72.3 (WiP) (1.72.2 with marginal tweaks). Also running a few of my own hacks but they don't change anything with the system setup.

Removing all OXPs except Lave Academy:
Coriolis Pos: -49515.3, 60769.4, 427622

So I don't know why it's different to yours. Eric Walch also said his Coriolis is at the same position as mine.

[Thargoid]

How are you reading your position? Mine's from system.mainStation.position when in Lave system. I guess yours is the same to get the 1st two figures the same...

Also have we a platform-dependent issue here? I'm on Windows and I know Eric is on a Mac. What are you on?

[Screet]

How are you reading your position? Mine's from system.mainStation.position when in Lave system. I guess yours is the same to get the 1st two figures the same...

Also have we a platform-dependent issue here? I'm on Windows and I know Eric is on a Mac. What are you on?

Vista 32 here...the position is, according to shift-h:
[dumpState.entity]: Position: (-49515.3, 60769.4, 592262)

Screet

[Screet]

Hmmm.

This is an oxp for Jamesons, right?

I just tried to do "target practice" - and often there were only 0-5 seconds of the target becoming visible as a tiny dot before it was destroyed. The reason is that the target drones are so tiny that the 15 seconds are eaten up before I can get close enough so that it's a simple pixel dot! With the distance they are created in, I can fly full speed for a long time while they stay invisible.

Surely, with injectors this would be massively different, but which Jameson could afford them?

The "best times" are written as strange variable names instead of showing times. Maybe they need to be initialized?

Screet

[Thargoid]

OK, subject to this station position question, I have issued v1.01 of the OXP. It's on the same URL as in the first post, or you can get it here from Box.

Updates/bugfixes are :

• Scanclass of the target drone corrected to prevent legal status issue.
• Waymarker buoy positioned en-route between the main station nav-buoy and the Academy (at least on my system!). To use it, just fly to the Nav-Buoy, aim at the new waymarker buoy and then continue on the same course to reach the Academy (which should be visible anyway).
• Pilot course scripting tweaked to stop the crash-to-desktop from removing ships (the buoys) with active timers.
• The target drone lifetime is now variable between 30s and 60s, depending on the players ship equipment (laser range and presence/absence of fuel injectors) and their number of kills (rank).
• Mission variable assignment changed to prevent null setting appearance for new Jamesons.

The station position one looks strange to me though, I wonder if it's a bug that's been introduced in 1.72.3 WIP?[/color]

[Thargoid]

Hmmm.

This is an oxp for Jamesons, right?

I just tried to do "target practice" - and often there were only 0-5 seconds of the target becoming visible as a tiny dot before it was destroyed. The reason is that the target drones are so tiny that the 15 seconds are eaten up before I can get close enough so that it's a simple pixel dot! With the distance they are created in, I can fly full speed for a long time while they stay invisible.

Surely, with injectors this would be massively different, but which Jameson could afford them?

The "best times" are written as strange variable names instead of showing times. Maybe they need to be initialized?

Screet

It's an OXP for everyone. Veteran player should be able to enjoy the sub-game courses too.

The "too difficult for new Jamesons" plus the variable names are both known issues (now), and are fixed in v1.01 which I just uploaded. See my previous post

[Screet]

The "too difficult for new Jamesons" plus the variable names are both known issues (now), and are fixed in v1.01 which I just uploaded. See my previous post

Yes. I've been confused...hit submit and then there was a bugfix for those bugs I just mentioned...did I miss other reports in this thread on those or did you just wait for someone to report them in order to have an instant bugfix?

Those Thargoids should never be underestimated! (Also final thought of a Caduceus commander)

Screet

[Thargoid]

Eric reported them on the previous page (last week). I've just got back from a weekend away so only just had time to put some code fixes together (plus one for the issue with the pilot course removal).

The station position one seems odd to me though, it's either 1.72.3 vs 1.72.2 or a platform difference perhaps. Neither of which are appealing!