Working on how we can get OXP equipment to interface better with key assignments and access to the HUD seems to be a better way forward at this stage.
Right now I think this is one of the main weaknesses of how Oolite handles OXP.
Assigning keys to OXP will be very hard. Who determines, witch equipment is assigned to a certain key? Most keys are occupied so all equipment creators will claim those few keys left. Not an option as it will lead to conflicts!
Maybe the player should define those keys himself in the option menu. The equipment only signals that it needs a special key but will do nothing until the player links a certain key to it in options. Than the game has to keep track of the link between key and equipment. Not easy programming but probably the only fool proof way for the player.
On used space with equipment: no idea if it once will be possible, but it will mean that it looses all backward compatibility with existing equipment when added. Still, when it will be added in future, better now already add the key to equipment and define the "requires_cargo_space" key? Even if the key is at the moment useless for normal equipment? Currently that key is only used to determine if it should show the equipment on the sales list, not for the actually used space.
Working on how we can get OXP equipment to interface better with key assignments and access to the HUD seems to be a better way forward at this stage.
Right now I think this is one of the main weaknesses of how Oolite handles OXP.
Assigning keys to OXP will be very hard. Who determines, witch equipment is assigned to a certain key? Most keys are occupied so all equipment creators will claim those few keys left. Not an option as it will lead to conflicts!
Maybe the player should define those keys himself in the option menu. The equipment only signals that it needs a special key but will do nothing until the player links a certain key to it in options. Than the game has to keep track of the link between key and equipment. Not easy programming but probably the only fool proof way for the player.
I'm aware of this problem. I had one suggestion where some sort of slots are made available (limited in number). These are given predefined keys allowing X pieces of equipment with access to keys (possibly more than X if the user is willing to edit keyconfig.plist and rearrange). Not perfect, but maybe.
Someone with more programming experience than my could elaborate on this approach.
I know this will cause some further issues such as how to assign an OXP to a certain key/slot and so on.
Anyhow, doing something to allow OXP's access to keys and HUD would be a huge step forward.
"A brilliant game of blasting and trading... Truly a mega-game... The game of a lifetime." (Gold Medal Award, Zzap!64 May 1985).
Hmm, a lot of stuff to digest!
I best concentrate on the less controversial/easier to implement stuff:
While I like the idea of a scrolling list very much, it would need implementing from scratch. I don't have the spare time but: _ds_, if you have a patch for that functionality, I'd be more than happy to include it in trunk.
Failing that, the safest thing to do is to add the << & >> arrows to the screen in a similar way to the ship & equipment markets. I suppose I can add that to my todo list in a week's time if nobody else will.
If you add additional pages to the equipment display, I would suggest the following:
1. Think for the future, make two or three pages or even a potentially infinite number of pages available, not just two. Or the same problem will arise in, let's say, winter this year again.
2. Perhaps break off the equipment display on the screen higher up - so that bigger huds no longer mingle with the actual display. When there are different pages of equipment, having it reach the bottom is no longer nescessary.
And, it might be a good idea to add the option for additional pages to the missions and contracts page too, when you're at it. It can suffer from the same problem if a lot of stuff is currently going on.
As per rev.2261 the status screen is using more than one page if the equipment doesn't fit on the screen. Switching between installed equipment pages at the moment is done with the left and right arrow keys.
All other standard paging methods to follow. Hopefully I'll get the time tomorrow, or on Sunday...
Lestradae, I almost forgot: I'm afraid the missions & contracs screen will have to wait, each screen is more or less a law unto itself. As Ahruman said a while ago - IIRC - we really need to redo the gui code from the bottom up! Something for after the MNSR!
Well done Kaks. Just a quick q: Is it my idea or the characters in the status screen up to the start of the equipment list appear to be thicker now? Looks like they are rendered twice, one time on top of the other.
You're right A_C! The gui has to redraw the status screen to draw the 'more & back' lines, so I put a gui redraw call after that code, but cleverly didn't remove the now redundant first call...
I should be committing the updated page switching code in the next couple of hours, I'll remove the first call in there.
Still, I should have noticed. Looks like I need to get glasses! And to stop coding late in the evening too!
As per rev.2261 the status screen is using more than one page if the equipment doesn't fit on the screen. Switching between installed equipment pages at the moment is done with the left and right arrow keys.
Great job kaks Method looks very consistent with other screens. I now have 9 pieces of equipment on my second screen. I can't hardly imagine anymore how this equipment ever fitted on one crowded screen.
I'm not quite done with the bugfixing this Saturday, but the status screen is now paging properly across 4+ pages using all arrows, enter and mouse input ( I haven't got that much equipment, I just changed items_per_column to 4 during testing ).
And this is what it looked like in the bad old days of ...well... yesterday:
Before...
After...
And here's page 2
Before anyone asks, the MASC is still unsupported, but it was ideal to test long equipment descriptions handling.
Last edited by Kaks on Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
It seems that is typical of you to come out of the blue with new feature and fixes.
I know that I am daydreaming but is there any chance to create a “Commander’s status” section in the info screen. A lot of oxps like random hits, ups, galactive navy could use that section for ranks, reputation or even awards and medals. Right now the oxps are using the missions section of the info screen for such things (ups courier ect). Just mentioned it in case you want to tamper with the GUI screen more extensively
Method looks very consistent with other screens. I now have 9 pieces of equipment on my second screen. I can't hardly imagine anymore how this equipment ever fitted on one crowded screen.
