Oolite Bulletins

No prob - you can simply use setScreenBackground(). But maybe it's time to think about the whole mechanism to allow more flexibility.

I've mentioned this elsewhere but for anyone who missed it - there are some problems with Oolite 1.82

The first is that you need to land a LOT slower, which I gather is a change in how atmospheric heating works. It's still possible, just VERY slow.

The second is that the market no longer works; there are no goods on sale, and the price shown for all goods is zero. I gather that this is because the OXP doesn't use the new market format yet.

Any chance of a fix?

One possibility that occurs to me for any future release - just going down anywhere on the planet feels a little bit unrealistic, maybe there should be planetary landing strips that show up on the compass or something, if you don't land at one of them you crash and burn.

I'd like a fix too.

A quick fix is uploaded in Planetfall Markets v0.1 with a similar marketplace on all planets than the main station market.

If someone want's to make a straight conversion to the new market system, take a look at the WildShips oxp. It has a multiple market conversion script that could 'easily' be tweaked for PF. I could do it, but I'll be away from my computer for 2-3 weeks. If no one has taken the job by the time I get back, I'll do the market conversion.

spara wrote:

a straight conversion

Thanks for the help. We can think a bit more than simply restore the old markets. My ideas:

1. Currently the landing place is selected randomly. This allow launch and land back many times until all cargo is transferred within the planet to the best place, making money without risk if the old markets will be restored without other improvements.

2. The "landing anywhere" feature allow to land directly below the main station, transporting between the planet and the station without risk. This suggested to me to set the planetary markets equal with the station.

3. With Stations for extra planets the additional planets should get the same distance-based markets than the additional stations to avoid easy transports there.

4. If position-based landing will be implemented (nav buoys with beacon names at about 100m over the planet surface to avoid collision, start landing sequence when arrive within 500m) then the city below the main station should get the same market but very far positions on the planet can get different markets. Maybe worth to check if deep space pirates is installed to allow different prices.

5. The various planetary places are well selected based on system economy and government but if all will have its own positions then the total number of places can be restricted by the population and/or planet size.

6. There is a special place at exactly the opposite position on the planet than the main station which worth a landing place and different market due to make interesting trips aroud planets and space couriers are surely faster between these cities than airplanes.

7. In a separate oxp I can imagine a secondary station over the opposite city which serve the other side of the planet even without Planetfall.

Norby wrote:

4. If position-based landing will be implemented (nav buoys with beacon names at about 100m over the planet surface to avoid collision, start landing sequence when arrive within 500m)

You may be better using waypoints for this, rather than a physical buoy.

Norby wrote:

A quick fix is uploaded in Planetfall Markets v0.1 with a similar marketplace on all planets than the main station market.

Many thanks!

Unfortunately it won't install, I'm getting:

02:00:36.000 [oxz.manager.error]: Downloaded OXZ does not contain a manifest.plist, has been left in C:\Oolite182/oolite.app/GNUstep/Library/Caches/org.aegidian.oolite/Oolite-download.oxz

Great, Norby .

One thing that might need a little considering is that reading through this thread clearly reveals that the original author intended the landing to be abstract instead of locational. Main reason seemed to be different planetary textures and possibly strange landings to sea sites.

There's also some debate about actual landing sites and how they would look strange in comparison with the size of the planet.

Anyway, great to see this oxp being developed further .

spara wrote:

Great, Norby .

One thing that might need a little considering is that reading through this thread clearly reveals that the original author intended the landing to be abstract instead of locational. Main reason seemed to be different planetary textures and possibly strange landings to sea sites.

There's also some debate about actual landing sites and how they would look strange in comparison with the size of the planet.

Anyway, great to see this oxp being developed further .

Correct. The issue was that depending on the texture, you could end up landing the middle of an ocean, or other features on the planet texture that would make it look very strange. Especially when combined with the actual location generated, ending up for example with a planet whose capital city is in the middle of the ocean.

This plus back when I originally wrote this OXP there wasn't waypoints available, and putting beacons would get complex in not having the beacon affected by the atmosphere/surface collision (same with anything else, like landing strips as we originally considered), and also of course don't forget the planetary rotation. Doing location landing would probably require that location to also rotate so it stays matched with the planet surface.

In the end I just kept it simple, but it will be interesting to see how others take on the code with the newer features currently available in the updated core.

ffutures wrote:

02:00:36.000 [oxz.manager.error]: Downloaded OXZ does not contain a manifest.plist, has been left in C:\Oolite182/oolite.app/GNUstep/Library/Caches/org.aegidian.oolite/Oolite-download.oxz

This message appear when you try to install a package stored in the wiki during the daily wiki backup downtime (~1:30-3:20 GMT).

Thargoid wrote:

landing the middle of an ocean ... don't forget the planetary rotation

Places can be justified by local race specialities (aqua/subterran) or jobs (a mine is worth to keep up in harsh environment) imho but the rotation mean a wide ring on the planet which positions often pass near the main station, so all places within this ring should be equally priced than the main market.

Moving waypoints are possible using the rotationalVelocity of the planet, or show temporary "traffic control" waypoints upon request with short time limits while the planet can not rotate too much.

Norby wrote:

Places can be justified by local race specialities (aqua/subterran) or jobs (a mine is worth to keep up in harsh environment)

How does/will PF work with gas giants? What's the lore/handwavium?

Cody wrote:

How does/will PF work with gas giants?

If they are correctly set-up in their tags and properties (so that the OXP can recognize them as such) it issues a warning that you're trying to land on a gas giant and to pull up as landing is impossible. If you continue then you crash as "normal".

A thought about the markets. The old one was like a giant wheel of fortune. You might get a good market or you might get no market. That is somewhat characteristic to the oxp IMHO. Changing the markets to be more permanent and predictable will also change this gameplay aspect. I enjoy the market roulette, but there are most likely other opinions out there too.