Oolite Bulletins

Wow, I missed this thread. Landing Wow!

congrats, Thargoid!

pagroove wrote:

Some other thing I noticed was that products on the surface are more expensive than on the station.

I bought food at 2.4 credits on the surface and it was 2.0 on the station. Shouldn't this be reversed. If you buy food directly from a farmer it should be cheaper than if it is transported to the station.

Have you ever tried to buy stuff from a farmer, compared to a supermarket? Economies of scale old chap, economies of scale

As the good commander says, it's not something that's easy to do something about. There are sometimes some good deals to be had on-planet for equipment (and sometimes some bad ones), but commodities is more by luck...

I've get the point
A bit random is allright

Is it possible to apply a background image when landed instead of the black background. I remember to that the GRS demo had some background images. In that way I could do background images for the famous planets.
I have Terragen and could render some nice backgrounds then.

Sorry for doing so many suggestions. But this script you made is terrific!

pagroove wrote:

Is it possible to apply a background image when landed instead of the black background. I remember to that the GRS demo had some background images. In that way I could do background images for the famous planets.
I have Terragen and could render some nice backgrounds then.

I must admit there I have no idea. The trick used is to actually spawn and dock the player with a station when they cross the planet surface event boundary, so they never actually get to the "planet proper". But as you're docked with a specific station, there may be some possibility. I'll have to leave it to people who know the mechanics of the game better to give some input there.

pagroove wrote:

Sorry for doing so many suggestions. But this script you made is terrific!

No problem at all. Many of the suggestions are being noted and incorporated into plans for a second OXP which will potentially give more specific planetary places to go visit, and may well need a little more skill to reach.

My script was just a little utilisation of an event opportunity. Indeed I'm a little surprised it hasn't been thought of before (including by me ).

Thargoid wrote:

pagroove wrote:

Is it possible to apply a background image when landed instead of the black background. I remember to that the GRS demo had some background images. In that way I could do background images for the famous planets.
I have Terragen and could render some nice backgrounds then.

I must admit there I have no idea. The trick used is to actually spawn and dock the player with a station when they cross the planet surface event boundary, so they never actually get to the "planet proper". But as you're docked with a specific station, there may be some possibility. I'll have to leave it to people who know the mechanics of the game better to give some input there.

You could quickly check whether function setBackgroundImage(backgroundImage : String) works without showMissionScreen.

I seem to recall that in poorly legacy-scripted mission screens that background image could stick even after you left the mission screen, which indicates that background images do not need a mission screen all time. So if JS doesn't do it, a legacy script could do the trick. The background image would then be visible on all screens while docked on the surface. I think it should be worth some trials.

Good stuff Thargoid - it's just the kind of simple yet effective scripting trick that makes Oolite so fun to work with. It opens up some good possibilities for mission writing as well.

Commander McLane wrote:

Thargoid wrote:

pagroove wrote:

Is it possible to apply a background image when landed instead of the black background. I remember to that the GRS demo had some background images. In that way I could do background images for the famous planets.
I have Terragen and could render some nice backgrounds then.

I must admit there I have no idea. The trick used is to actually spawn and dock the player with a station when they cross the planet surface event boundary, so they never actually get to the "planet proper". But as you're docked with a specific station, there may be some possibility. I'll have to leave it to people who know the mechanics of the game better to give some input there.

You could quickly check whether function setBackgroundImage(backgroundImage : String) works without showMissionScreen.

I seem to recall that in poorly legacy-scripted mission screens that background image could stick even after you left the mission screen, which indicates that background images do not need a mission screen all time. So if JS doesn't do it, a legacy script could do the trick. The background image would then be visible on all screens while docked on the surface. I think it should be worth some trials.

Yes, Commander McLane thats exactly the effect I had in for example the GRS Demo. It had a nice background. It could be nice to have a sort of background to show that you are on the surface.

Commander McLane wrote:

You could quickly check whether function setBackgroundImage(backgroundImage : String) works without showMissionScreen.

I seem to recall that in poorly legacy-scripted mission screens that background image could stick even after you left the mission screen, which indicates that background images do not need a mission screen all time. So if JS doesn't do it, a legacy script could do the trick. The background image would then be visible on all screens while docked on the surface. I think it should be worth some trials.

It doesn't work under Javascript, the image only shows up when you set the showMissionScreen (and disappears again when you leave it).

I'll give a legacy script a try, but I'm a bit loathed to start mixing up too many scripts and making things too complex.

Thargoid wrote:

It doesn't work under Javascript, the image only shows up when you set the showMissionScreen (and disappears again when you leave it).

All legacy components to set up a mission screen have a equivalent JS version. Until 1.71 you had to do build up the screen yourself in JS. But it didn't take long before all 3 "pioneers" in Oolite-JS (Kaks, Svengali and myself) build a JS function to do the job for you. For 1.71 this JS function was build into Oolite. But you still can call the underlying methods like: mission.setBackgroundImage('myScreen.png')

I just don't know if you can add a picture on a normal screen with it. Like McLane said: In the past the picture could stay stuck as background. I remember the trumble offer screen being there for forever on the normal F5 screen when you launched from within the mission screen. But, actually this was a bug and could have been fixed by now.

Looks like a bug that we actually did not want to be solved

this is very cute - although I admit I did tip-toe towards the planet surface wondering what I was supposed to be looking for - and then some very nice-coloured docking rings I dont know how others want to progress this but how about a site - a derelict Krait ? - with a short-range beacon next to it that can be found on the advanced space compass, then we have an easter-egg hunt sort of OXP ?

Thargoid wrote:

.... would suffer from the same issue as Eric's thoughts on a landing strip, in scale terms if you could see it on the planet, it would be hoooooooooooooooooooooooooge!

I disagree. A landing strip can me made quite small at a realistic size.

Just to show a landing strip can be made and need not to be huge I added it to thargoid's planetfall.oxp.

- Below every mainstation it adds a landingstrip. Just launch and head towards the surface (don't hit the buoy please!).
- Halfway the surface your radar will pick up the tower near the strip.
- The strip itself will be hidden by clouds. At a height of a few hundreds meter you will break through the clouds and see the tower with strip.
- Landing speed must be below 30% of maximum speed and landing angle should be less than 45 degree.
- I didn't add a distance check so you still can ignore the strip and land everywhere. Just watch your speed and angle.

Planetfall.oxp with landingstrip

EDIT:
I forgot. My added code only works with 1.72. (It could even can crash 1.71)