Oolite Bulletins

Pleb wrote:

but for now is this basically a scriptable way of adding a define pilot to a ship?

Yes. The crew definition in the core has been a crew array for years, but I'm not sure anything currently makes use of that.

Re the new equipment.plist thingy: it now mixes OXP kit in with native kit on F5, whereas before OXP kit was listed after native kit (I think) which put it on the second page; and my customised equipment.plist no longer seems to work. I presume I'm missing something again, yes?

Cody wrote:

Re the new equipment.plist thingy: it now mixes OXP kit in with native kit on F5, whereas before OXP kit was listed after native kit (I think) which put it on the second page; and my customised equipment.plist no longer seems to work. I presume I'm missing something again, yes?

It used to display just in the order it was in the file, which would file OXP kit after native, in whatever your OXP loading order was.

Rather than reordering the file to customise, add a sort_order = xx; entry to each one - and to the OXP items as well, potentially - the higher the number, the nearer the top of the F5 list it appears (and the nearer the end of the F3 list).

Thanks, cim - I've actually managed to do that successfully (for the native kit, which is the crucial stuff).

I forgot to mention - my custom equipment.plist now works from within my personal Config folder, which is very handy.

The ship library option on the main screen will be upgraded a bit in tonight's build


At the moment a lot of the information is coming from a new shiplibrary.plist file with various options for specifying what should be displayed. What I'd like opinions on is what to do with the demoships.plist files from OXPs - there are essentially two options:
1) Ignore it: this isn't the old demoships screen, so it doesn't apply
2) Use it: try to set reasonable default values for the ships listed, and leave the more descriptive bits blank.

The difficulty is that setting reasonable default values isn't entirely straightforward - it works okay for a ship, but looks very strange for stations ("Turn rate: very fast") or missiles ("Weapons: 4 fixed, 0 pylons"). I can try to set this automatically (mainly from scan class) but that's not reliable - for example, most OXP rock hermits do not have a scan class specified (they rely - as did the core game in 1.77 and earlier - on the system populator setting CLASS_ROCK) and even if they did, CLASS_ROCK would put them in with the "miscellaneous objects", not with the other stations. Or the astromine in Commies - CLASS_POLICE, but it should be treated as a station, not a ship.

So ... which would you prefer, as OXP writers and as players?
1) Ships from old OXPs don't appear until/unless those OXPs are updated
2) Ships from old OXPs appear, but sometimes in an inappropriate context or with inappropriate information, until/unless those OXPs are updated

cim wrote:

1) Ships from old OXPs don't appear until/unless those OXPs are updated

I think this is the best option. Better to have a consistent game than one with bits in that don't make sense.

Pleb wrote:

cim wrote:

1) Ships from old OXPs don't appear until/unless those OXPs are updated

I think this is the best option. Better to have a consistent game than one with bits in that don't make sense.

+1. Consistency over everything IMHO.

I would prefer option 2). Some basic data is better then none. At least I can view the ship up close. Although this is also on the demoships list, the library is easier to use.

One can always edit in a description if it becomes an eyesore. I imagine a copy-paste DIY update will added to the relevant threads on the forum for OXPs that won't be updated.

I try to maintain a consistent Ooniverse, so it's consistency for me.

I also prefer consistency.

Consistency all the way.
An announcement to make OXP authors aware of this could be a good idea.

cim wrote:

1) Ships from old OXPs don't appear until/unless those OXPs are updated

would be my choice. Ships being missed out is a form of inconsistency, too, but it's harder to notice!

@Cim:
Sometimes you would want a ship to appear in the library only after a certain event or after the player encounters the vessel for the first time.
Equally, sometimes only parts of the information on the ship should be visible at first, and the rest revealed upon a mission event.
Is this possible?

Gimi wrote:

@Cim:
Sometimes you would want a ship to appear in the library only after a certain event or after the player encounters the vessel for the first time.
Equally, sometimes only parts of the information on the ship should be visible at first, and the rest revealed upon a mission event.
Is this possible?

The ship library is accessed before the game loads so there is no way of implementing this. The only way this would work is if you could only access the library after the player has loaded a saved game or started a new one.