Oolite Bulletins

OK, testing passed successfully! Here's version 0.2.0:

• Added new equipment configuration item "Boosters" which give a boost to engines and thrusters (allowing your ship to reach higher speeds), but also generate cabin heat.
• Now compatible with Ngalo's NShields and NPC Equipment Damage OXP's.
• Fixed issue where buying a new ship was not resetting the stored equipment values on the configuration display.
• Adjusted the weights of the electrical buses.
• NPC fuel injectors now won't be upgraded if the auto-weapons routine didn't install them in the first place.
• Added equipment items from Solar Harvester OXP and Single-Use Witchdrive OXP.
• Improved the equipment space calculation, so that ships with more than 35t of cargo space will get at least 20t of equipment space, plus some extra.
• Added means by which non-standard primary roles can be translated into core roles so that appropriate equipment is applied to each ship, rather than just the default equipment.
• Added some additional equpiment space exceptions.
• Added some additional zoom factors for various ship types.
• Turned off debug messages.
• Adjustments to code design to allow for NPC equipment failure.
• Bug fixes.

Full details on the new boosters available on the  wiki. Download from there or from links in the first post.

"What do you mean I've got more equipment space now?"

The commander, a weathered looking man whose face was half taken up with an optical replacement of some sort, didn't look upset, but was obviously starled by the news I'd just given him.

"It was a misunderstanding with GalCop regulations," I explained as I put my socket wrench back into my toolbox. "Company bean-counters had told the engineers that the maximum amount of space that could be allocated to equipment was a bit less than what was actually in the ships original design spec. So, rather than try to re-engineer the entire ship, the engineers just built in baffles and blocks to limit the equipment space to the correct amount. Now, though, the regs have been re-examined, the error was discovered and hey presto - more equipment space. Merry Christmas."

"I don't know if Christmas is celebrated here," the commander replied drily. "But I'm happy to celebrate this. Is it just one make of ship affected?"

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "Lots of makes and models. If you've got more than 35t of cargo space, the liklihood is you can now have more equipment space."

"How much more?"

I shrugged. "It depends on how much cargo over the 35t point you are. You get 1t equipment space for every 5t of cargo space above 35t. So for a 60t ship, you'd get 5 extra tons of equipment space."

"Why didn't this news appear on GalNET? Surely it's important enough to warrant it."

"Not my call," I said. "We're pretty much run off our feet as it is, rejigging every ship that comes in for maintenance. If the word got out we'd have ships stacked ten deep out at the station beacon."

The commander nodded sagely. "Indeed. Well, from my crew and I, I'd like to thank you for making such a huge difference to our lives. Maybe I can get those additional shield units now."

"You're welcome, captain. Fly safe."

Decided to finally put this in my main game in 1.82. Just did first run of newest update, a station to witchpoint and back run in Oresqu. Escort Pilot Mance Ryder in the Moray Star Boat : Heimdall. Had to get rid of a few things being immediately overloaded of course Here's some screenies of what I went with except most of the power couplings and one showing off the kills I got. Pretty Basic setup.





I like the warning sound when boosters engage letting me know temp is starting to rise. Is it easy to change if I want to later? (I heard it a lot in a short time lol) The sound for when I redlined temp while injecting away from hardheads a couple times wasn't noticeable especially with battle noise/missles launching. It would be nice if it could maybe repeat every 5 seconds or so to catch my attention. (Or does it even do the red alert sound if your already in red alert during battle?)

All in all was a wonderful flight and my small ship didn't feel hindered although does leave me wanting something roomier for some of the equipment I had to ditch and some upgraded shields, engine, etc, which I think, is as it should be.

About the warning sound: my aim was to have something noticeable but not irritating, given it will heard quite a bit. I like the idea of sounding it every 5 seconds, although I might turn the sound down a bit for the secondary warnings. And maybe the visual warning every 10 secs.

As for changing it, it should just be a matter of replacing the current one with your own. Not at the computer at the moment but there's only a couple of files in the sounds folder so it should be easy to spot.

I'm so glad you had a fun time with this. Makes the effort worthwhile. Fly safe, commander!

PHKB, would it be possible to include the cloaking device in the list of equipment such that selling it would free up some cargo / equipment space?

CaptSolo wrote:

would it be possible to include the cloaking device in the list of equipment such that selling it would free up some cargo / equipment space?

It's certainly easy enough to do. But I just checked - if you sell it, you can't buy it again. The equipment has a techlevel requirement of 16, which makes in pretty much unavailable everywhere (although I think one of the changes in the famous worlds OXP turns one system into TL16).

I could add a means to buy it again, if it was ever sold (so it would only be available to buy if you'd actually had the device previously). Or should it remain an unobtainable unit if you sell it?

I reckon the cloak should be unobtainable if sold - once it's gone, it's gone. Time was when it couldn't be repaired, which irked me somewhat - I carried a broken cloak for months. Would've been far better had it been removed completely, instead of just sitting there on F5, annoyingly useless.

The cloak is obtained in very strange circumstances, and is normally assumed to be some sort of experimental military kit, possibly stolen. It is not a 'regular' piece of equipment, and in fact the one you get may even be the only one as far as anybody knows. If it can be sold the price should be yours to negotiate - this is a (possibly) unique and certainly very desirable item so it is, in a sense, priceless.
You should never see one for sale, so buying it back once sold is not really an issue - Once it's gone, it's gone.

I have not engaged the cloaking device in ages and since version 1.80, I believe, it no longer fools attackers. With this OXP installed, one has to be mindful of rising cabin temperatures. I would imagine trying to evade a pack of pirates or assassins with the cloak engaged while running on injectors and laser firing, it is possible to blow yourself up before the hostiles do. Not that I am relating that dishonorable fate myself.

So I am in favor of being able to sell the cloaking device with the added benefit of regaining a TC or two of cargo as well as small improvements in speed and maneuverability.

CaptSolo wrote:

I have not engaged the cloaking device in ages and since version 1.80, I believe, it no longer fools attackers.

It can still fox them if it's activated before they get a lock-on - but engage them and it becomes useless.

As for its value: I used to charge myself 50k to 'fix' it - still too cheap.

So I'm working out a way to negotiate the sale of the cloaking device (and any other equipment item that has an effective tech level >= 16), and I've found a potential loophole that would allow players to earn ridiculous amounts of credits by doing virtually nothing. Buy equipment at the main station (where the equipment price factor is 1), then fly to a rock hermit (where the equipment price factor is 4.5) and sell the equipment. Instant credit boost. Rinse and repeat as desired.

The question I'm working on is how to combat this. One option is to ignore the station equipment price factor when working out the sale price. Another option is to prevent the sale of equipment items at non-GalCop stations, in which case I could adjust the Black Market on Smugglers to have a "Sell Equipment" option, but in both cases you could only sell items in systems above their minimum tech level (so, to sell the Extra Energy Unit you'd have to be in a system at 9 or above). At the Black Market there would be a random amount of markup given (so you couldn't predict whether you'd be offered a bit above or a bit below base market values).

Edit to make the second option clearer: Another option is to prevent the sale of equipment items at non-galcop stations (or any station where the equipment price factor something other than 1). Coupled with this could be a check on the equipment tech level, limiting the sale to only those systems where that item can be bought or repaired. As an extra, I could add a new option to the Smugglers Black Market which would allow the player the sell any equipment item, but there would be a random amount of markup (so you couldn't predict whether you'd be offered a bit above or a bit below the base market value).

Edit: I noticed I had a logic flaw in the above suggestion if I prevent the sale of equipment items based on tech level. Because if you end up in an overloaded state in a TL1 system, you may not be able to sell anything to fix it, and the system will never allow you to leave the "Sell Equipment" screen.

Another element to factor in is what percentage of the original cost should be refunded. 100%? 90? 80? I'm leaning towards 80% or 75%, but I'd value other opinions. This would also apply to equipment swapped out on the Ship Config screen (ie engines, hyperdrive, thrusters, etc).

I think there needs to be a different selling price on e.g. a Rock Hermit, as well as a buying price. The buying price on a Rock Hermit is a lot higher because of the lack of availability and very limited choice of skilled engineers to fit the equipment: those same factors should make the equipment selling price much lower than on a main station. If you're on a main station, there are a number of reputable dealers competing for your business, and they all have a large number of potential customers for any items they remove, so they can offer you a decent price. On a Rock Hermit, there's very likely only one engineer capable of doing the work, and it might be days or even weeks before he can find someone who might like to buy e.g. a second-hand Passenger Cabin. Meanwhile, it's going to sit around clogging up his limited space, so if you're desperate enough to have some piece of equipment removed on a Rock Hermit, you're going to get a rotten deal.

Could it be done by a simple inverse of the equipment price factor?

I reckon 64% - sixty-four is an excellent number!

Disembodied wrote:

lack of availability

Maybe number of available equipments can be stored and price (both buy and sell) goes up if not enough. Even can add huge amount of time if bought when none in stock, like a preorder and forced wait to arrive.

About cost I think sell price must not be so far from the same on main station than buy price.
Some randomness would be good regarding system production, population ot other factors. When a new ship is arrived a change is possible due to the pilot buy or sell something which affect the supply so the price.

Thinking a bit more about the issue with selling the cloaking device (and not ever being able to buy it again), what about the concept of storing unneeded equipment in some sort of storage locker? That way, you can always return to where you stored the kit and reinstall it if you want, without having to repurchase it (particularly if it's an expensive and/or hard to find item). Any equipment item you've bought could potentially be stored in the locker, with costs calculated daily and going up based on the number of tons of equipment stored there. This would only cover non-configuration items (ie. energy boosters, naval shields, ore processor, various scanners, but not engines, thrusters, hyperdrive, etc).

What do you think? Worth doing?