Switeck wrote:I know about the distances in the game, or I wouldn't have asked. I also know about Ctrl+F, though I don't know how to translate the second trio of numbers into anything meaningful...
Just a small nitpick: it's SHIFT-F, not Ctrl.
Let's have a quick look at the coordinates:
For this screenshot I have positioned my ship straight in front of the witchpoint buoy (in fact I got
so close that the turning buoy pushed me away
). I also tried to be exactly on the side of the planet, so the x- and y-coordinates are close to 0.
The first triple is my
absolute position, indicated by the "abs". The "abs" coordinate system has its origin precisely at the witchpoint, in the centre point of the buoy. It's z-axis runs towards the planet, the x- and y-axes in perpendicular directions. These are, from the player's point of view, completely arbitrary, which means that there is no distinctive feature at all in the x- or y-plane. The only thing you have to know is that at the straight line from the buoy to the planet is the corridor, therefore, if the x- and/or y-coordinates get too big you know that you're out of the corridor. As long as they are resonably small (like below let's say 10,000) you know that you're in the middle of the corridor, and the z-coordinate is more or less equal to your distance to the witchpoint. It tells you how much ground you've already covered.
The second triple is in the "pwm" coordinate system. For our purpose it is practically the same as "abs", but the other way round. Strictly "pwm" means that the origin of the system is at the centre of the
planet, that the z-axis runs towards the
witchpoint, and the numbers are given in
meters. (Alternatively the numbers could be given in fractions of the distance between planet and witchpoint, or in multiples of the radius of the planet.) Again, because I have positioned myself (almost) exactly on the straight line between planet and witchpoint, the x- and y-coordinates are very close to 0, but this time the z-coordinate give my distance to the planet's centre, and you see that for this screenshot I jumped into a system where the witchpoint is relatively far out (not quite exactly 877975.19 m + 104.77 m). If I started on my way to the planet, the "abs" z-coordinate would grow, and the "pwm" coordinate would shrink.
Switeck wrote:There are big trader ships for which it's extremely hard or impossible to dock at the regular main station
I firmly believe that player ships that are too big to dock at (or launch from) a main station do not belong into Oolite. This is not to say that there shouldn't be NPCs bigger than that,
as long as their creator takes care that they never dock at a station too small for them, and never launch from one.
But that's just my personal standpoint.
The absolute precondition for being able to save or load in Oolite is that you are docked. Only when you're docked the save/load-screen (F2) is even accessible. How would you save if you can't press "save"? On top of that, the save/load screen in Oolite is only accessible if you are docked at the main station of the system, which is what this OXP is all about. What it does is to lift this additional restriction by some very clever scripting. Still, the basic condition is: you have to be docked somewhere. I guess being docked is what you are referring to with being "within (or in) a station or carrier".
, only it costs 900 credits, and that is cheap when you think about it is your get out of trouble free card..
