[RELEASE] ~ Isis Interstellar's Sothis Stations

[Switeck]

A very strange problem I've noticed with the Sothis Station is it seems bigger than it appears for purposes of targeting or mass-locks. You'll notice the target box around it crams the station in one side of the box like there's an invisible extension in the other side.

[Kaks]

Convert the Sotis .dat to .obj, and you should notice that the model isn't centred on the origin of the x, y & z axes.

Move the model about in your 3d editor so that its centre is - err - centred on the origin, save it, convert it back to .dat, and voila', it's sorted!

[Killer Wolf]

it's not supposed to be centred, it was moved back so you can fly in and admire the docking bay model instead of docking as soon as you're through the dock mouth.

[Wildeblood]

does the buoy look ok? pretty different to the regular one, i thought a bit of a change would make things a little more distinctive.

I've not seen the Sothis station - and its associated buoy - before tonight. That buoy is a work of art. Brilliant, KW.

[Killer Wolf]

many thanks

[Captain Beatnik]

Very nice design, Killer Wolf! Downloading!

[Cholmondely]

OXZ now available for download

Includes Dizzy's market tweaks, Ship Library presence, Market Inquirer presence, and the "Wasp Buoy" has been renamed to "Sothis Buoy".

Thanks to Montana05 & Phkb for advice & help.

I hope to post this to the Expansions Manager once Switeck & Montana give the "thumbs up"!

[montana05]

OXZ now available for download

Includes Dizzy's market tweaks, Ship Library presence, Market Inquirer presence, and the "Wasp Buoy" has been renamed to "Sothis Buoy".

Thanks to Montana05 & Phkb for advice & help.

I hope to post this to the Expansions Manager once Switeck & Montana give the "thumbs up"!

Just had a quick look and, no offense meant, some suggestions for improvement:

* a unique prefix is missing, this could lead to unwanted interference with other OXP's and slows down error tracing
* the market is using spara's script, while this is working a definition in the shipdata.plist would be more flexible
* rather than using this.shipWillExitWitchspace for population this.systemWillPopulate would make saving on the station possible
* the populate script should actually be in Scripts folder and defined as a world script

If you like, I can make a small overhaul and send the link to you.

Btw, it might be a good idea to synchronize Sothis with spara's Sothis TC so that not both stations could appear in the same system.

[Switeck]

From my own sothis shipdata.plist ...with the changes to prices added:

Code: Select all

	"market_capacity" = 63; // maximum capacity for any good
	market_definition = (
		// empty array matches system prices
		// leaving the key out entirely is a blank market
			{
				// Narcotics sometimes available?
				"type" = "class";
				"name" = "oolite-medical";
				"quantity_randomiser" = 2.0;
				"capacity" = 31;
			},
			{
				// import cheap mining products
				"type" = "class";
				"name" = "oolite-mining";
				"quantity_multiplier" = 0.4;
				"quantity_randomiser" = 0.1;
			},
			{
				"type" = "default";
				"price_multiplier" = 1.05;
				"price_randomiser" = 0.1;
				"quantity_multiplier" = 0.8;	// Less traveled, less available
				"quantity_randomiser" = 0.7;
				"capacity" = 31;
			}
	);

Narcotics don't matter, unless you also include the next line that I added in my own Sothis OXP:
"market_monitored" = no;
...This is fitting with the line:
allegiance = "chaotic";

By "Import cheap mining products", I mean import TO the Sothis station. And the way to do that is to not have so many that you can't sell much there.

If you really want the price variations relative to the main station, I added those in my example script.
However, I think it's probably unnecessary for Sothis to have as much quantity available as the main station. It's a smaller station and since it's "off the beaten path", less traveled as well. This smaller size means it also doesn't need to allow anyone to sell more than 63 of commodity to it, unlike the main stations which can handle 127. (I do make that number greater for Superhub stations, since they are bigger than almost anything.)

That's good advice from montana05 about populator scripts. (I need to edit my own modified ones for Station Exclusions to match those rules...)

I would not recommend both this Sothis and spara's Sothis TC be installed at the same time. Are they using different models, shadow maps, etc?

EDIT: I almost forgot...the line:
script = "sothisscript.js";
...probably doesn't need to be in there twice.

[Cholmondely]

Spara's SothisTC is an override. It transmogrifies all Sothis into Sothis TC.

Thanks for the suggestions, gentlemen.

Will commence updating of what I can understand!

[Cholmondely]

From my own sothis shipdata.plist ...with the changes to prices added:

Code: Select all

	"market_capacity" = 63; // maximum capacity for any good
	market_definition = (
		// empty array matches system prices
		// leaving the key out entirely is a blank market
			{
				// Narcotics sometimes available?
				"type" = "class";
				"name" = "oolite-medical";
				"quantity_randomiser" = 2.0;
				"capacity" = 31;
			},
			{
				// import cheap mining products
				"type" = "class";
				"name" = "oolite-mining";
				"quantity_multiplier" = 0.4;
				"quantity_randomiser" = 0.1;
			},
			{
				"type" = "default";
				"price_multiplier" = 1.05;
				"price_randomiser" = 0.1;
				"quantity_multiplier" = 0.8;	// Less traveled, less available
				"quantity_randomiser" = 0.7;
				"capacity" = 31;
			}
	);

Narcotics don't matter, unless you also include the next line that I added in my own Sothis OXP:
"market_monitored" = no;
...This is fitting with the line:
allegiance = "chaotic";

By "Import cheap mining products", I mean import TO the Sothis station. And the way to do that is to not have so many that you can't sell much there.

If you really want the price variations relative to the main station, I added those in my example script.
However, I think it's probably unnecessary for Sothis to have as much quantity available as the main station. It's a smaller station and since it's "off the beaten path", less traveled as well. This smaller size means it also doesn't need to allow anyone to sell more than 63 of commodity to it, unlike the main stations which can handle 127. (I do make that number greater for Superhub stations, since they are bigger than almost anything.)

That's good advice from montana05 about populator scripts. (I need to edit my own modified ones for Station Exclusions to match those rules...)

I would not recommend both this Sothis and spara's Sothis TC be installed at the same time. Are they using different models, shadow maps, etc?

EDIT: I almost forgot...the line:
script = "sothisscript.js";
...probably doesn't need to be in there twice.

Switeck, do you have any views about adding in some of the newer commodities?
Oxygen (from SW Economy)
Fresh water (from SW Economy)
Medicine (from SW Economy)
Witchfire Whisky (from Darkside Moonshine Distillery) - the only regionally-priced commodity.
Coronal Plasma (from Solar Harvest OXP)
Quirium Plasma (processed Coronal Plasma, from Solar Harvest OXP)
Quirium Fuel (from Fuel Tweaks)
Quirium Crystal (from Montanas Resource Pack 01)

[Switeck]

Switeck, do you have any views about adding in some of the newer commodities?
Oxygen (from SW Economy)
Fresh water (from SW Economy)
Medicine (from SW Economy)
Witchfire Whisky (from Darkside Moonshine Distillery) - the only regionally-priced commodity.
Coronal Plasma (from Solar Harvest OXP)
Quirium Plasma (processed Coronal Plasma, from Solar Harvest OXP)
Quirium Fuel (from Fuel Tweaks)
Quirium Crystal (from Montanas Resource Pack 01)

No, I don't. I generally don't use those OXPs/OXZs.

Pricing them different than the main station sets up the delicate issue of in-system trading for profit. Too much of a price difference and it's just low-risk "free" money. It also depends on which station has those supplies. If Sothis is more expensive than the main station, then if it has any of the expensive commodity...you can't resell that at the main station for profit. Sothis isn't as far from the main station or planet as rock hermits or the witchpoint exit buoy is to justify larger price differences.

This is why it's so convenient to just copy the main station's prices and only vary the amount-for-sale and possibly how much you can sell to the station. It's more boring that way, unless you're using a freighter with 100+ TC capacity and need that extra cargo to fill out your hold...but game-balance wise it's pretty benign.

[montana05]

If a player has Sothis, Nuit and GN installed at some system it could become crowded. I think I need to change the coordinates for Sothis and Nuit so that they are farther from the main station.