Station Approaches and manual docking

[another_commander]

In order to keep things simple and efficient, I think I'm going to try to introduce a penalty for unauthorized docking, which will be a percentage of the player's credit amount (say 10%), with a ceiling of 5000 credits. I will try to experiment with this later today and see if it can live up to the expectations.

The script event handler playerRequestedDockingClearance has been added as well. This has one string argument, based on the outcome of the request:
- "DOCKING_CLEARANCE_GRANTED", if all goes well.
- "DOCKING_CLEARANCE_DENIED_SHIP_OFFENDER", if the player has offender or fugitive legal status.
- "DOCKING_CLEARANCE_DENIED_TRAFFIC_INBOUND", if there are ships in queue to dock.
- "DOCKING_CLEARANCE_DENIED_TRAFFIC_OUTBOUND", if there are ships in queue to launch.
- "DOCKING_CLEARANCE_DENIED_NOT_MAIN_STATION", if the docking request is not addressed at the main station.

The plan is that docking using the Docking Computer will automatically imply clearance, thus giving an extra reason for the player to seek to buy a DC.

Docking clearance request will not be available at all in strict mode.

I hope that all this will not disturb current game balance. But you know, it might just work after all...

[JensAyton]

Y’know, I’m somewhat uncomfortable with adding this sort of complication by default. Fiddling with station communications strikes me as un-Oolitey.

[JohnnyBoy]

I think I'm going to try to introduce a penalty for unauthorized docking...

More bureaucracy, more taxes... Has the Ooliverse become part of the European Union???

[ClymAngus]

These's already a penalty for unauthorized docking. Several in fact.....

There's the zap, boom splat! Penalty,
The terminal game of chicken penalty,
And lets not forget the left a bit, right a bit, No, NO NO!!! Penalty for dyspraxic pilots.

[Lestradae]

In order to keep things simple and efficient, I think I'm going to try to introduce a penalty for unauthorized docking, which will be a percentage of the player's credit amount (say 10%), with a ceiling of 5000 credits. I will try to experiment with this later today and see if it can live up to the expectations.

I think it`s a good idea. Not every new idea is a bad idea ...

More bureaucracy, more taxes... Has the Ooliverse become part of the European Union???

You mean, you miss the good old times when the only taxes you had to pay were war taxes to enable your feudal overlord to try and stomp on other countries or be stomped upon, not loads of taxes to pay social systems with for trivialities like health insurance for the masses or the like?



L

[drew]

I may be wrong here, but I'm sure I recall on the Spectrum version of Elite that if you had become a fugitive in a particular system and you tried to dock in that system, you died on impact with the station.

The explanation in the play ground (!) at the time, was that the 'door' on the front of the space station was closed and you smashed into it. Obviously with only wireframe graphics, it wasn't possible to tell the difference...

Didn't FE2/FFE do something similar? Closing the front door if you were a bad boy?

There is even a canon reference to this type of behaviour in 'The Dark Wheel' at Cirag.

Cheers,

Drew.

[JohnnyBoy]

You mean, you miss the good old times when the only taxes you had to pay were war taxes to enable your feudal overlord to try and stomp on other countries or be stomped upon, not loads of taxes to pay social systems with for trivialities like health insurance for the masses or the like?

Lestradae - as an Oolite commander, my 'health insurance' is bolted to the front of my SuperCobra and has a range of 25km...

[pagroove]

Didn't FE2/FFE do something similar? Closing the front door if you were a bad boy?

Yes and it did more. A nice animation from the bay to the door by use of a lift. That sort of thing I liked. I liked almost everything from FF2 and FFE except the combat that was flawed by Newtonian flight but that's another topic.

But yes you had a nice door which could close.

[Lestradae]

Lestradae - as an Oolite commander, my 'health insurance' is bolted to the front of my SuperCobra and has a range of 25km...

I can see it now: "This is my SuperCobra. The mil-Laser on the front is called "Health Insurance". The baby on the back? "Private Pension Accumulator"



L

[another_commander]

Y’know, I’m somewhat uncomfortable with adding this sort of complication by default. Fiddling with station communications strikes me as un-Oolitey.

I can see where you are coming from. This is why the entire feature is inside #ifdef / #endif guards. If we ever decide to go and add it in, it will be just a matter of defining a macro in the code or removing the guards. Alternatively, we could build it in as a Game Option. But I know what you mean when you say "un-Oolitey".

Further news: It now works. The fine is now 5% of the credits amount, up to 5000Cr. Offenders are given clearance, fugitives are not (to be compliant with the docking computer behaviour), which means that if you are fugitive, there is no way to enter a main station without a fine. In case of the sun going nova, there are no penalties for docking without clearance due to the emergency situation. The station now responds to clearance requests by selecting messages for each case from a list defined in descriptions.plist. This way we avoid seeing the same message again and again every time clearance is requested.

This is almost ready, but it is NOT currently planned for next release, as indicated above. Whether it will be part of the next release or not will be decided in the future, depending on how much it changes the feeling and balance of the game and always with Ahruman's approval.

[Lestradae]

Could this docking approach scenario not be given some kind of switch that is "off" by default, but can be switched on by oxps?

That way, someone who deems this should not be in the core game doesn`t have to use it/see it, and whoever wants to have it in installs the oxp?

Viable compromise?

L

[JensAyton]

can see where you are coming from. This is why the entire feature is inside #ifdef / #endif guards. If we ever decide to go and add it in, it will be just a matter of defining a macro in the code or removing the guards. Alternatively, we could build it in as a Game Option. But I know what you mean when you say "un-Oolitey".

I’d rather make it an OXPable feature.

• Add requireDockingClearance() : Boolean and allowDockingClearance(ship : Ship) : Boolean callbacks to station scripts.
• Add a default, require-docking-clearance, to planetinfo.plist.
• Allow a “default default” to be specified in the universal section.

An OXP to enable docking the docking clearance system would then consist of the following planetinfo.plist:

Code: Select all

{
    universal =
    {
        require-docking-clearance = yes;
    }
}

[Thargoid]

Or how about as a key in station's shipdata.plist (with default to false when the key isn't present, to allow for standard stations etc to be unmodified).

Then OXP stations could specifically be created to request and require it?

[another_commander]

Or how about as a key in station's shipdata.plist (with default to false when the key isn't present, to allow for standard stations etc to be unmodified).

Then OXP stations could specifically be created to request and require it?

Given that the system only works between main station and player (no general ship-to-ship clearances at the moment), I find that this solution could really work well. I think I would like to give this a try.

[DaddyHoggy]

Isn't just fantastic how this forum works - this thread is a particularly good example! I love Oolite and all it represents.