Oolite Bulletins

Ta - I included the scripts and AIs from liners but none have been modified.
I'll work on improving the graphics - someone mod the scripts please.

Giving it a try. Any comments on the relative rarity of seeing one, i.e. a specific system one would be in?

Compare the other starliners OXP ... otherwise use your own judgement.
The idea is to create the impression that they have a specific route... possibly taking in the good sights in a galaxy.
I'd hope that if a player followed one through a jump, they be able to follow through a route.

Well slag. Haven't been flying long enough to really get a feel for that. Guess I'll just have to hope. Luckily, I'm about to acquire the Long Range Scanner That should help.

Ah - perhaps I misunderstood ... the oolific ship is experimental, I don't even know if it is set up to appear unforced.

I see Weeeellll.... I'm a pilot, not a coder. Could you write up some code so that it appears in a specific system and let me know where? That way I can at least try out the dock and such.

OK - I went and had a look ... seems I've given it role "liner" and goniffed thargoid's liner scripts and AIs, including the one that populates the ooniverse with liners - so you should see them naturally. I havn't flown around enough to tell how often they show up. From the liner's oxp you'll find them on main routes in the traffic lanes so if you stay clear of those you'll never see one.

They don't do much outside of looking cool. You can dock, and that looks pretty good, but you can't do anything.
Basically - I want someone to do the scripts, then I'll do more liners and add special effects and so on.
This is supposed to be open source after all. So far, everyone is happy to help me do the work - provide hints etc... however, real life is currently intervening.

Simon B wrote:

OK - I went and had a look ... seems I've given it role "liner" and goniffed thargoid's liner scripts and AIs, including the one that populates the ooniverse with liners - so you should see them naturally. I havn't flown around enough to tell how often they show up. From the liner's oxp you'll find them on main routes in the traffic lanes so if you stay clear of those you'll never see one.

Rese249er, you can find the "main routes" by checking out the Galaxy Vector Maps available via the wiki. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page) The routes are colour-coded, and you can zoom into the maps as much as you like for more details.

Thanks, Diziet. Has the OXP been updated with that particular bit of code, or should I wait for the update?

EDIT: Am I to see the brighter colors as higher on the main/less-used spectrum?

I read Simon's post as saying the ship is currently using the Liners script, so it should be found traversing the routes, as shown in the maps. The colours simply relate to the different routes, which are planned so as to avoid dangerous systems which might result in the Liner being attacked. Tourists being blown to bits or sold into slavery tends to be bad for business..

So far as I recall, when a Liner reaches the end of a route, it turns around and heads back to the other end. You should be able to find a Liner on any of the routes. A little luck with timing may be involved. If you spot a really massive witchspace cloud with extremely long closing times given, it was most likely made by a Liner. Jump in, and you'll probably catch up with it at the next system.

Down in the bottom-left corner of each map there's a key that matches route-names to colours.

My computer must suck; the key was nearly completely pixel-blurred. I saw the basic colors, that's it. But thanks. I do have the Liners OXP, so I should be able to see it. On my way to Zadies to sniff around in my new Firefly-class, the Gosu.

EDIT: LR Scanner name?

Worth a mention that Liners OXP has recently been updated with a new populator script (as the liners were far too common), so the version you are using may be out of date.
Also the Liners OXP uses the role 'liners_liner', not 'liner' so will only populate with ships using the 'liners_liner' role. If 'Big Ships' is installed, that populator is used and not the Liners' in-built populator.

I have Liners 1.4 and Big Ships 1.02

OK, in that case the Big Ships populator will be used as the Liners populator will give way to it. The Big Ships populator will spawn ships with the role 'bigTrader', so the ship you are looking for will need this role.
The liners have both specified in shipdata so either populator will spawn them. For example the Aurora has where 'liners_aurora' is a specific role for this ship, bigTrader(0.15) is the role that Big Ships will pick up on and use, and 'liners_liner(0.2)' is the role the Liners populator script will use.
So to re-itterate, if you want this ship to appear using the Big Ships populator, it must have the role 'bigTrader'.

I think I understand. Hmm... this pilot is learning OXP troubleshoot. Who knows what's next?

EDIT: I'm seeing this in the Oolific shipdata.plist. Is this what I should be seeing? Or do I need to either a:) update Oolific Princess or b:) rewrite the roles line to something?