Another landing clearance "opportunity for improvement&

[zevans]

Hmph. 8 count them 8 ships in the queue before me - but only one ship on the radar...

Sure enough 8 ships eventually appeared, but only after quite some time - I think there should be some logic so that only ships within a sensible range can ask for clearance, rather than have to sit there and wait for them to fly in from the witchpoint or whereever they were!

[Eric Walch]

Hmph. 8 count them 8 ships in the queue before me - but only one ship on the radar...

Sure enough 8 ships eventually appeared, but only after quite some time - I think there should be some logic so that only ships within a sensible range can ask for clearance, rather than have to sit there and wait for them to fly in from the witchpoint or whereever they were!

This is fixed some time ago for the 1.73 release. In the past ships could ask clearance from everywhere. (And because of some oxp bugs this happened sometimes). In future ships must be inside the safety zone to get clearance. This is twice scanner range and therefor you don't see them immediately. But be fair, you as player also can requests docking when entering this zone.

[zevans]

I was playing on rev 2252, which is only about, what, a week ago...

Agree aegis makes sense. Anyway, am compiling 2256 now, thanks.

[zevans]

Well, that problem seems to be fixed, but now I seem to get clearance straight away even if there's another ship that I can see trying to dock, that was there before me...

[another_commander]

Are you sure this is repeatable? I just tried it multiple times, requesting clearance while another ship was on approach and until the very last moment I kept getting a "you are number 2 on the queue". Seemed to work as designed for me, but if you can reliably replicate it, please let me know how it can be done and I'll try to have a look.

[zevans]

Sorry a_c, that was indeed a false alarm. But have had another stuck ship on 2273.

I'd accidentally overwritten a plist and reset clearance back to "off." Since then had 6-7 ships in front of me in the queue and it's all worked flawlessly, new docking AI seems much quicker!

However, earlier today an Adder got stuck and I had to go and "buzz" it to jolt it into action. I wasn't in the way, I was right next to the Nav beacon.

Code: Select all

[dumpState]: State for <ShipEntity 0x11472e30>{"Adder" ID: 723 position: (-6551.07, -127059, 647314) scanClass: CLASS_NEUTRAL status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}:
  [dumpState.entity]: Universal ID: 723
  [dumpState.entity]: Scan class: CLASS_NEUTRAL
  [dumpState.entity]: Status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT
  [dumpState.entity]: Position: (-6551.07, -127059, 647314)
  [dumpState.entity]: Orientation: (0.885339 - 0.308008i + 0.0356944j + 0.346457k)
  [dumpState.entity]: Distance travelled: 134880
  [dumpState.entity]: Energy: 85 of 85
  [dumpState.entity]: Mass: 11317.4
  [dumpState.entity]: Owner: <ShipEntity 0x11472e30>{"Adder" ID: 723 position: (-6551.07, -127059, 647314) scanClass: CLASS_NEUTRAL status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}
  [dumpState.entity]: Flags: isShip, isSunlit, collisionTestFilter
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Name: Adder
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Display Name: Adder
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Roles: <OORoleSet 0xf4691b8>{hermit-ship hunter oolite-adder scavenger shuttle}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Primary role: shuttle
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Script: <OOJSScript 0xe1f4c98>{"oolite-default-ship-script" version 1.73}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Subentity count: 2
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Behaviour: BEHAVIOUR_FACE_DESTINATION
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Target: <StationEntity 0xa24a14a8>{"Coriolis Station" "Coriolis Station" ID: 251 position: (-4597.73, -130516, 644889) scanClass: CLASS_STATION status: STATUS_ACTIVE}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Destination: (-5004.89, -127050, 645686)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Other destination: (0, 0, 0)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Waypoint count: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Desired speed: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel: 70
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel accumulator: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Missile count: 1
[dumpState.shipEntity.ai]: AI:
    [dumpState.ai]: State machine name: dockingAI.plist
    [dumpState.ai]: Current state: GO_TO_COORDS
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think time: 3886.59
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think interval: 0.125
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Frustration: 6.89072
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Success factor: 96.4915
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Shots fired: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Time since shot: 101449
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Spawn time: 2437.13 (1449.44 seconds ago)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Hull temperature: 60
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Heat insulation: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Flags: isFrangible

[Eric Walch]

However, earlier today an Adder got stuck and I had to go and "buzz" it to jolt it into action. I wasn't in the way, I was right next to the Nav beacon.

With 2271 I had also such a situation and re-looked the code how it was possible because I was convinced it was definitely solved. Found a new reason for a hang: if two values were identical a solution would be missed. That bug was there also since at least 1.65. Fixed in 2272 so I assumed it was definitely fixed now. (Nothing is definitely in programming, I should have known better)

In your case there is another reason. When to close to a buoy or other object, faceDestination sometimes not works because turning interferes with the buoy. Reading your situation, I remember I had seen it once.

I see in your log that the frustration counter is raising. My initial solution was just fly ahead when the frustration triggered. But that was counterproductive as in most cases it was triggered by flyToDestination were frustration needed a halt as response.

In your case the problem is somewhere in the proximity_alert Somehow it is not triggering (it would have a flag set for it in your log) while the performFaceDestination seems to be hindered by it.

The bug is probably when 2 ships come closer that 10 times their radius, the proximity_alert is closer examined for both ships. (To be actually set they must be closer) But there is an exception for buoys:

Code: Select all

- (void) setProximity_alert:(ShipEntity*) other
{
	if (!other)
	{
		proximity_alert = NO_TARGET;
		return;
	}

	if ((scanClass == CLASS_CARGO)||(scanClass == CLASS_BUOY)||(scanClass == CLASS_MISSILE)||(scanClass == CLASS_ROCK))	// rocks and stuff don't get alarmed easily
		return;

Somehow this exception introduces a bug. I'll look if I can find it and find a decent solution for this.