Oolite Bulletins

Cody wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2019 5:50 pm

Hangar, please!

Well, because it's you!

Potential Debris wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:55 pm

(just some further suggestions)

Thanks for that link. Apparently this has been a longer term idea than I originally thought! And I thought I was being new and original... oh well.

There also seems to be a lot of coughing going on! Drink more water, people!

<sips tea - ponders>


Buy yourself a hermitage, pay your dues, and become a member of SOHO (Society of Hermitage Owners - a loose collective of rock dwellers).
Once you're part of their network, rock hermit beacons will automagically appear on your ASC wherever you go.

Cody wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:36 pm

Buy yourself a hermitage, pay your dues, and become a member of SOHO (Society of Hermitage Owners - a loose collective of rock dwellers).
Once you're part of their network, rock hermit beacons will automagically appear on your ASC wherever you go.

or just install Rock Hermit Locator ( http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Rock_Hermit_Locator ) to achieve the same result

Back in the day, I came to suspect - rightly or wrongly - that RHL was spawning hermits rather than locating them. And it spawned them with nav buoys. Much as I love Cheyd's nav buoy, I didn't want them outside rock hermits. A simple shipdata-overrides.plist is much better.

phkb wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2019 8:47 pm

[...] Apparently this has been a longer term idea than I originally thought! And I thought I was being new and original... oh well.[...]

Just to put salt on the wound , this (and the earlier thread) reminded me of the station ownership in the X series (X Beyond Frontier, X-Tension, & co.).
If you only included some AI transactions (i.e. independent of the player actions) that would contribute to the cash flow, then this would definitely be it. E.g. while the player is doing a parcel delivery, AI would come, buy stuff, bring fuel at a cheaper price, mainly contribute to the players wallet. The player then would only need to enjoy Oolite-ing around, without too much care for spending big

Commander_X wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:23 am

If you only included some AI transactions

I have this in already. I haven't expanded this to include refueling from the equip screen, but plan to do that. <note to self - do refueling logic for NPC's>

phkb wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2019 3:00 am

- Select the allegiance, from (at the moment) either "neutral", "chaotic", "pirate" or "hunter". There are other options, but I thought those were the most applicable for a RH.

As much as I can see selecting and changing of the allegiance is nearly a must.

Cody wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:07 am

Back in the day, I came to suspect - rightly or wrongly - that RHL was spawning hermits rather than locating them. And it spawned them with nav buoys. Much as I love Cheyd's nav buoy, I didn't want them outside rock hermits. A simple shipdata-overrides.plist is much better.

Thanks Cody, I wasn't aware of that, will have a look at the code soon.

Commander_X wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:23 am

If you only included some AI transactions (i.e. independent of the player actions) that would contribute to the cash flow, then this would definitely be it. E.g. while the player is doing a parcel delivery, AI would come, buy stuff, bring fuel at a cheaper price, mainly contribute to the players wallet. The player then would only need to enjoy Oolite-ing around, without too much care for spending big

Since the idea includes the ownership of multiple Rock Hermits a AI-manager and automation for daily business will be required. I can't be at every place all the time leaving aside that probably I still would like to fly missions on the side.

how about a little bit of a sim city/theme park style management. where you would get reports come in every so often.
"Your visitors have been complaining of crime" - Hire more security.
"Your Visitors think the place is messy" - Hire more cleaning crews
"Your visitors are complaining about fuel prices" - screw the vivitors and keep the prices the same
Just as an example.
keeping everything in balance will mean more people will visit.

This is the oxp I've been waiting for! Ownership of a rock hermit, upkeep and maintenance and the opportunities/activities that are possible. As a combateer pilot, I always enjoyed and respected your oxp's for the fighters like Galcop's Most Wanted. I might have to write a tales from the space lanes story with this game changer oxp.

Balisongdalo wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2019 8:46 am

This is the oxp I've been waiting for!

Awesome! With a bit of luck and work it will hopefully live up to your expectations.

Progress report: finalising some interactions with pirates, getting security systems in place, balance testing

phkb wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2019 11:53 am

Balisongdalo wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2019 8:46 am

This is the oxp I've been waiting for!

Awesome! With a bit of luck and work it will hopefully live up to your expectations.

Progress report: finalising some interactions with pirates, getting security systems in place, balance testing

Hum-hum *cough* any news?

Progress has been made, just balancing RL mostly.

Status report: I implemented the life-support system, working with a mechanic where the higher TL you make your station, the more reliable the life-support system is. In low TL stations, I've made the life-support system spontaneously drop 5-10 percent, trying to simulate the system being a bit glitchy. It can also spontaneously break too. Normally, when the life-support system drops, it will slowly build up again naturally, unless it's broken, in which case it will slowly drop. If the life-support system hits zero, the station will auto-eject everyone.

That's the setup. So I did a couple of tests. I created a new game, with an unmodified station, and then left it running to see what would happen. And in 100% of cases, the life-support hit zero and auto-launched me. It hit zero via a number of those spontaneous glitches, which tells me that the frequency of that event happening is currently set a bit too high. Either that, or I need to implement a way to charge up the life-support at any time, regardless of whether it's broken or not.

That's where I am at the moment. More updates to follow.

OK, phase 1 of the Hermitage OXP is now ready to test. (links in the first post). You'll need to extract the OXP folder into your AddOns folder for the moment (I'll package it as a OXZ later).

What's in the box: basically, all the mechanics around owning and operating a Rock Hermit. Mineral processing and sale thereof, station upgrades, employees, scheduled transports - all the things I think would be part and parcel of the whole Rock Hermit gig.

What's not in the box: repercussions, random events, essentially anything that would add to some sort of narrative. So, at the moment, you can add a whole pile of questionable services to your station without any concerns about the flow-on effects of said service.

There are a couple of reasons while I've left out the narrative elements, but the main reason is for the moment, I just want to test this question: Is it possible to operate a Rock Hermit profitably? Is it too hard or too easy? Does it get easier or harder as you enhance your station? Getting these mechanics right is more important that fiddling with attack patterns and tracking story state.

There's a readme.txt file in the pack, which goes into all the nuts and bolts of how to operate your station, as well as detailing all the possible upgrades, but I'm hopeful it will be mostly self-explanatory. For a quick-start guide, there are two places you want to go: on the F3 screen, find the "Station Upgrades" item for buying new facilities, and on the F4 screen, find the "Rock Hermit Management" item for managing everything else. Some upgrades will require you to lodge a GalCop Administrative request in a close-by system. This wasn't to make life difficult, but a necessary mechanic to always allow you to save your game at your station. The reasoning is kinda complicated, but if anyone wants a more detailed explanation, I'm happy to provide it.

There are some scenarios included in the game package to allow you to jump straight into operating your own RH, or you can travel around in your preferred save game looking for one to buy/hijack. However, please note that this is an early beta, so if you use an existing save, make sure you've got a backup.

I know it's been a bit quiet around here recently, so this OXP might not get a lot of attention, but I'd appreciate any feedback or comments about the current state of this pack.

Thank you! It seems to work well so far. Unfortunately, I haven’t had an opportunity of extensive testing.

A few errors I notice off the bat:
At the main station, the hermit configuration button seems to be inoperable.
In the hermit’s market, you are not charged for buying but are paid for selling.
The adder has a single plume rather than two.

Other than these (which may be caused by other oxps) it seems to work perfectly. The UI can take a bit to master, but I think it is quite intuitive after a quick look through. I especially appreciate the list of profits / losses. I am looking forward to further testing.
Thank you!

P. S. — The G1 hermit is excellently located: after they take out a loan at the nearby Monastery, spacers can come and blow their funds at the station’s bar!

Downloaded, will run a test on the weekend. Btw phkb, from where you got the Adder and the Sidewinder ? Gsagostinho's textures are easy enough to identify.