Burning police

[Eric Walch]

Yesterday I discovered a very old AI bug in the route2patrolAI.plist. I met a police on its way to the sun and put the target inspector on for that police. Then I noticed the viper just stopped at the turning point. In the log I noticed it did receive the "DESIRED_RANGE_ACHIEVED" message but did not react on it.

When looking in the AI itself I noticed that this reaction was never added. Looking back to my oldest Oolite version (1.55), it seemed this bug was always present. Not that it matters much, as on the turning point the temperature already was 95%. And yes, after fixing the AI, the police exploded on its way back. This test was with a fast interceptor in a system with a small sun.

I repeated it with the same viper and heatshielding=3. Now it became never higher than 69%. I will repeat it in an other system with a larger sun and a normal, slower police ship to see if that heat insulation will be enough.

Sunskimmers always burning in the sun is a bug already posted on Berlios for Oolite 1.69. One can add route-2 police to it. This bug can be fixed by defining a heat insulation for all sunskimmers and police but this will only work for the internal defined ships. Therefor I think that it should be fixed in the populator. All police and traders added on route 2 should get a heat insulation of 3 (maybe even 4 for traders) by the populator when the defined one is smaller.

However, it becomes more complex as traders and police can have escorts and those will burn in the sun while following a trader or police.

[Eric Walch]

I did a few flights with heat insulation. I looked for a system with a large sun. Radius a bit above 200,000 meters

With 3x insulation the viper-interceptor turned at 93% temperature and the way back it rose till 99%. the normal viper burnt even before its turning point.

With 4x insulation the viper-interceptor turned at 60% temperature and the way back it rose till 84%. (No normal viper tested)

With 5x insulation the normal viper turned at 74% temperature and the way back it still overheated.

Conclusion: without using unrealistic heat insulation, only interceptors should fly route 2.

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But there is an alternative. In Oolite 1.71 the sun also gave an AEGIS_CLOSE_TO_PLANET message. This message was emitted at 3 sun radii distance. This is a safe distance as the outside temperature only starts to become lethal when closer that 2.5 sun radii. In buoy repair I used this message for the solar ships to park their escorts and to pick them up again on the way back.

Since 1.72 this message is removed. I don't know why. Maybe the message was considered a bug near a sun. However, when the sun would generate this message as in 1.71, the route-2 police could use this message as turning point. This would even be the easiest fix for this problem. (It won't fix the burning sunskim traders)

[Frame]

The AEGIS_CLOSE_TO_PLANET message

is indeed bugged
Planetfall OXP link

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t= ... c&start=57

I think we discussed this somewhere else too. just cannot recall where,...

But the message AEGIS_CLOSE_TO_PLANET is not triggerd correctly and is therefore also not sending the scriptevent EnteredPlanetaryVicinity, unless a moon or another planet is overlapping the 3 x radius.

I bet if you place a planet or a moon inside the 3 sun radii, and come from that planet/moon.. the message will be send.

[Kaks]

Just trying to quote from memory here, but I believe that from 1.72 onwards a new CLOSE_TO_PLANET message should work for all planets, moons & sun, while AEGIS_CLOSE_TO_PLANET would only work for the main planet...

I'll try & double check it, and if that's the case, I'll update the wiki with this important bit of information.

Frame, I thought that the js event was firing properly, but I'll try all possible circumstances when I double check that bit of the code.

[Eric Walch]

Just trying to quote from memory here, but I believe that from 1.72 onwards a new CLOSE_TO_PLANET message should work for all planets, moons & sun, while AEGIS_CLOSE_TO_PLANET would only work for the main planet...

I'll try & double check it, and if that's the case, I'll update the wiki with this important bit of information.

It did in 1.71 but not anymore in 1.72. I checked by setting AI logging on. The ships never received any aegis message near the sun.

[Frame]

Just trying to quote from memory here, but I believe that from 1.72 onwards a new CLOSE_TO_PLANET message should work for all planets, moons & sun, while AEGIS_CLOSE_TO_PLANET would only work for the main planet...

I'll try & double check it, and if that's the case, I'll update the wiki with this important bit of information.

Frame, I thought that the js event was firing properly, but I'll try all possible circumstances when I double check that bit of the code.

I think it was discovered in 1.72.1 and thus still in 1.72.2.. which is what i'm using...

[Thargoid]

I think it was discovered in 1.72.1 and thus still in 1.72.2.. which is what i'm using...

That's my memory too. First seen with Traffic Control OXP, and laterly with Planetfall. In that I went with the same "write your own event" that you did to get over it as it was vital to the operation of the OXP.

[Eric Walch]

Just trying to quote from memory here, but I believe that from 1.72 onwards a new CLOSE_TO_PLANET message should work for all planets, moons & sun, while AEGIS_CLOSE_TO_PLANET would only work for the main planet...

I just checked for the current revision. It is not working for the sun. Actually it is explicitly checking the planet is no sun. However Oolite 1.71 did send aegis messages for the sun.

Code: Select all

	if (d2 < cr2 * 9.0f && [UNIVERSE sun] != the_planet) //to  3x radius of any planet/moon
	{
		result = AEGIS_CLOSE_TO_ANY_PLANET;
		warnedPlanet = the_planet;	// Avoid duplicate message
	}

Personally I don't see any reason why the sun is excluded. I even see not why the different messages as the AI knows were it is heading to, so when it gets the aegis message it knows it arrived. Specification is not necessary. It would be very useful when the AI had again a way to tell it reaches the sun, before it burns away. In buoy repair I could let fuel ships patrol between grs station and sun. Since 1.72 their escorts always burn away. The ship itself has high enough heat-shielding to survive.