UPS-Courier

[DeathKnyte]

** Might be some spoilers here - read at your own risk **


Hi,

I love this oxp, at least the concept of delivering something fast.

I guess I got good pretty quick, because they have now offered me a combat mission.
Not too thrilled with that, cause couriers don't really specialize in 'attack & retrieve' missions, but will see how tough the fight turns out to be.

On the regular delivery runs, maybe you could put in a criteria for when the parcels have to arrive.

I am saying this, because I once accepted something from a Communist system which had to get to the next Communist system A.S.A.P - or so I was informed. Then, when I checked things on my galaxy screen with the advanced space scanner, I was not going to be anywhere near one, for like 300 hours. Sorry, but I will fail a UPS contract for 150 credits, when over 400k credits in passenger contracts on board, already. I already run a really tight schedule, as is. (lol)
Any who, when I did finally dock at a Communist station, they said thanks, here's your 150 credits, and you are now considered as an outstanding UPS courier contractor, or something similar.

Now, another time, I was sent to the sun station and asked to get the parcels which were now tumbling towards the sun.
Well, okay. Ièll do it, just cause I am so dedicated after all, but really - what a job to ask someone to do. What if I did not have a heat shield (and I needed it for that one mission)? Those were very hard to locate, and I found just three, and my cabin temperature had just reached the red zone. Looks like the futur UPS company needs a better employee training program - lol

One last thing; you might consider expanding this oxp more, like actually be in full time service for UPS or something, and could make it a career choice in the Oolite Reference Sheet document. This type of work is excellent for someone who wants to pilot something small and fast, like an Asp Mk. II, or stay with the Cobra Mk. III for the game.

Thanks for your time.

[Amaranth]

I'm having troubles with one of the 'find the Boa with the stolen goods' missions - I cannot find the ship at all, despite multiple trips from the beacon to the station and killing all pirate ships - no Boas in the system. Are there any OXPs that may interfere with the correct spawning of the target ship? Im in G4 at the moment and also have Trident Down going.

If I get killed (or the game crashes), the message on reload tells me to go to a different system, but I get no help if I return to the station.

Thanks

[Eric Walch]

@ DeathKnyte: This oxp was originally written in legacy script. There was only a limited math possible. But even then, there were already a few mission that did have a time limit. After converting to JS I added many more challenging missions where the all the new Oolite features were exploited. This also makes that this oxp keeps interesting because in time new type of missions will be offered.
The easy and badly paid document/parcel deliveries are now mainly used as counter to decide when new mission types must be offered.

The tumbling parcels at the solar stations were already there in the legacy version. It is impossible to get them all. I gave each of them a beacon so you are able to catch at least one.

@ Amaranth: The boa is a ship that runs on a modified trader AI. So, it will head for the station and dock there. From there it will jump to a neigbouring system. If it happens, you should have seen a message though and also the description and the map are updated with the new location. I theory you could finish the mission by lurking around the main station long enough and waiting till the boa arrives.

[Amaranth]

Thanks for the advice. In the end I spent so long jumping around trying to chase the darn thing the mission timed out. Oh well... I guess I'll get another shot another time.

[JensAyton]

There are several cases of [%I] in missiontext.plist that should be plain %I. It would be convenient if these could be changed.

[Eric Walch]

I'll change those. And similar cases in “Random Hits“ and “Cargo Wreck Teaser“.

[JazHaz]

Here are some more issues, from v1.7.8 of UPS Courier, on trunk 1.77.0.5588.:


UPS Courier OXP issues by JazHaz, on Flickr

[Eric Walch]

Thanks Capt JazHaz,

Apparently I am playing to little Oolite lately, or I would have this noticed it myself as it affects every mission offer.

I never realised that also affects the [xxx_string] expansions. I fixed it now in my unreleased 1.8 version. I'm not sure if I should upload that one or prepare a new fixed 1.7.x version.

Probably the later, as I wanted to wait till Oolite 1.77 for the UPS 1.8 release.

EDIT: A fixed version 1.7.11 is on-line now. (Only needed for those working with trunk) Withdrawn !

[Eric Walch]

I thought it were some [] that went wrong in trunk, but it seems that the whole string becomes illegal in trunk:

Code: Select all

expandDescription("[commanderShip_string]")
Warning: Unpermitted legacy script method [commanderShip_string] in string.
    Active script: oolite-debug-console 1.77
    oolite-debug-console.js, line 844:
    	}

That means I need a completely different name for trunk. That makes things complicated because I don't want to have '1.76 only' or '1.77 only' versions. I see if I can fix this in a way that UPS_courier will keep working in both versions.

For now I reverted the version back to 1.7.10. That will still work correct with 1.76, but gives above problems with trunk.

[Diziet Sma]

That means I need a completely different name for trunk. That makes things complicated because I don't want to have '1.76 only' or '1.77 only' versions. I see if I can fix this in a way that UPS_courier will keep working in both versions.

For the just-released update of the Q-Bomb Detector, I was able to use oolite.compareVersion to use alternate code if the QBD detected that it was running in trunk. I realise that what you're doing is orders of magnitude more complicated than the QBD, but you might be able to make it work with that as a starting-point.

[Eric Walch]

Yes, using the compare version function makes it possible to keep changed things working across versions. But its a lot of work to add, and later on you want to remove that stuff again.

In this case is seems easier than I thought. It was not that the handling was replaced, but only the legacy version was abandoned. The substitution of legacy names into the new ones was already in 1.75:

Code: Select all

	struct { NSString *key; SEL selector; } selectors[] =
	{
		{ @"commander_name", @selector(commanderName_string) },
		{ @"commander_shipname", @selector(commanderShip_string) },
		{ @"commander_shipdisplayname", @selector(commanderShipDisplayName_string) },
		{ @"commander_rank", @selector(commanderRank_string) },
		{ @"commander_legal_status", @selector(commanderLegalStatus_string) },
	};

So, it seems to be just a matter to convert the legacy names and it will work at least in 1.75, but probably even older Oolites. I now just have to check if other work of mine uses those old names.

EDIT: I now uploaded a version 1.7.12 that should work with both 1.76 and trunk. I just replaced the legacy names by the official ones.

[JazHaz]

I thought it were some [] that went wrong in trunk, but it seems that the whole string becomes illegal in trunk.

That means I need a completely different name for trunk. That makes things complicated because I don't want to have '1.76 only' or '1.77 only' versions. I see if I can fix this in a way that UPS_courier will keep working in both versions.

For now I reverted the version back to 1.7.10. That will still work correct with 1.76, but gives above problems with trunk.

Because I had downloaded .11 already I went to your box to get .10, but found you have .12 in there. Is that right?

[Eric Walch]

JazHaz, my edit crossed with your post. Indeed, I just uploaded 1.7.12. Probably less than a minute before you tried to access it.

[JazHaz]

JazHaz, my edit crossed with your post. Indeed, I just uploaded 1.7.12. Probably less than a minute before you tried to access it.

Ninja!!!

EDIT: the Readme needs renaming, as it has v1.7.x on it

[Eric Walch]

Now Oolite 1.77 is out, it is time to also release [wiki]UPS_Courier[/wiki] version 1.8

Now new missions, but now some of the new Oolite 1.77 features are used. This means:

- Galactic maps for missions are now really implemented in the mission offering structure.
- Destinations for UPS missions on the map have their own shape and colour.
- In Communist and Democratic systems, UPS will now also offer some regular parcel contracts on the new contract screen. (F4)
- UPS reputation is no longer linked to Cargo contracts, but to Parcel contracts. This probably means the player has to start on building a reputation again.

Minimum Oolite is raised to version 1.75.1