Oolite Bulletins

cim wrote:

Paradox wrote:

I actually added that specifically to allow testers and I to ":spawn wraith" with the debug version, rather than to spawn pirate after pirate in hopes that a wraith would appear }:], however, I seem to have forgotten to mention that fact. I think it will probably be a strictly pirate and rare player ship in the final release. Thoughts?

Quick tip: in 1.77 or later you can add a specific ship to the universe by doing ":spawn [$dataKey]" (e.g. :spawn [cobramk1]) or similarly with system.addShips, etc.

Oh, ok, thanks Cim, I will remove those then. };]

Paradox wrote:

I haven't had any troubles around asteroids, though the only times I tried, were to get a couple bounty contracts at the seedy space bars, and they are usually in asteroid fields. But no, she wasn't built to be a miner. }:]

And that's way it should be! She's a freighter through-and-through, and feels like one too. Enjoying this ship a lot. I had to tweak the escape pod texture though. The human peeking from the window looked a tad too goofy for my taste, so I copied the other end of the barrel over the window...

Paradox wrote:

The video looks like the autodock was trying to dock her sideways? Gosh, she looks good with all her glowie parts glowing! Thank you!};]

I used the Camera Drones OXP and "flyby mode", so it looks a bit funky when the ship speed is low. I also noticed I uploaded the unedited version of the clip, Bah...

Thermonuklear wrote:

Paradox wrote:

The video looks like the autodock was trying to dock her sideways? Gosh, she looks good with all her glowie parts glowing! Thank you!};]

I used the Camera Drones OXP and "flyby mode", so it looks a bit funky when the ship speed is low.

If you reduce the speed of the drones, as detailed in the Camera Drones OXP thread, it helps considerably..

Diziet Sma wrote:

Thermonuklear wrote:

Paradox wrote:

The video looks like the autodock was trying to dock her sideways? Gosh, she looks good with all her glowie parts glowing! Thank you!};]

I used the Camera Drones OXP and "flyby mode", so it looks a bit funky when the ship speed is low.

If you reduce the speed of the drones, as detailed in the Camera Drones OXP thread, it helps considerably..

Next time I release that OXP, I'm splitting "flyby" into "slow" and "fast"...

cim wrote:

Next time I release that OXP, I'm splitting "flyby" into "slow" and "fast"...

Cool... that would be very handy.

Dear Honorable Members of the Guild of Test Pilots

Anyone fancy testing the latest version of my Interstellar Tweaks OXP? If so, please download it from here (it's in a folder labelled 'InterstellarTweaks - new *BETA* version'), install it, force some misjumps, and . . see what happens! If anything seems broken, or strange, or undesirable, please let me know, either on this thread or by PM. (That said, some of the things this OXP does are meant to be strange . . Also, the first place to look for the resolution of perplexity is the readme file within the OXP folder.)

By the way, I recommend that, if you test this OXP, you install that latest verion of my Fer-de-Lance 3G OXP and my Extra Thargoids OXP (both available from the same page as above).

Here's the relevant part of the changelog for InterstellarTweaks:

Changes since 4.1
- Added better support for the 'fuel collector' OXP, via a *revised* version of the patch that is listed below [EDIT: in the actual readme] under the title 'PATCH FOR THE FUEL COLLECTOR OXP'. Please note that (because the Fuel Collector OXP lacks a license) the patch **must be manually implemented**.
- Changed-cum-fixed the behaviour of derelict ships.
- Made naval ships less likely to immediately jump out when they are alone in witchspace.
- Fixed a bug that stopped wreckage appearing sometimes when enter a battlescene.
- Optimisations.
- A few other small changes, including to a certain hijacked ship.

Thanks!

UK_Eliter wrote:

Dear Honorable Members of the Guild of Test Pilots

Anyone fancy testing the latest version of my Interstellar Tweaks OXP? If so, please download it from here (it's in a folder labelled 'InterstellarTweaks - new *BETA* version'), install it, force some misjumps, and . . see what happens! If anything seems broken, or strange, or undesirable, please let me know, either on this thread or by PM. (That said, some of the things this OXP does are meant to be strange . . Also, the first place to look for the resolution of perplexity is the readme file within the OXP folder.)
Thanks!

Everything seems to be working just fine! (It also helped me test out my new ship! ) I installed it and "misjumped" five or six times, and everything seemed to be okay. (Also, I just checked the .log file, and it didn't have any errors listed either.) I don't know how it compares to the other versions, though, since I haven't used the others. My computer runs Linux Mint 16 with a quad core Intel i3 2.3 GHz processor and 5.8 GB RAM. (Plus 7GB Swap.) If you need some more information, just let me know.

On another note...

Introducing the Plasma Mark I from Silver Knight Shipyards! *drum roll*

(No, not the cool looking Thargoids... The one in the middle.)

From Silver Knight Shipyards on Diqudi in chart 3 comes the Plasma Mark I, a small multi-roll craft designed primarily for a pilot who is trying to make a living in the business of passenger carrying, and who, to be able to get contracts, must take the ones through more dangerous systems than most pilots would be willing to. From it's speed of 0.4 LM to it's patented SpaceCamo(tm), it is a craft that, wherever you go, assassins would have a hard time spotting you.

It turns out it's also great for combat... Not for a trader though, as it can only carry 10TC, and only with a cargo bay extension.
If you all could fly it a bit, and let me know what you thing of it, I would be very grateful.

SirArian wrote:

Everything seems to be working just fine! (It also helped me test out my new ship! ) I installed it and "misjumped" five or six times, and everything seemed to be okay. (Also, I just checked the .log file, and it didn't have any errors listed either.) [. . . ] My computer runs Linux Mint 16 with a quad core Intel i3 2.3 GHz processor and 5.8 GB RAM. (Plus 7GB Swap.) If you need some more information, just let me know.

Thanks for doing that! Might you tell me a little more, though? What did you see on your misjumps? Sometimes just thargoids? Sometimes just navy? Sometimes empty space? Sometimes other things? If you ever saw a huge amount of ships, and you suspect that my OXP was responsible, could your graphics card cope with that?

As to the Plasma, I've downloaded it. I'll report back here!

@SirArian

First thoughts on your ship are as follows.

- I like the way it looks (which is a bit like my SuperSidewinder ship . .), and its engine trail. Nice work!

- I had only five tons of cargo space, even with a bay extension fitted (but with the standard two passenger births). Is that as it should be? I'm unsure it is, especially since selling the large cargo bay (and, I wonder, can I do that only because I have the 'sell equipment' OXP?) seems to have no effect. Indeed, once I've sold it I am still offered the chance to sell it (again!). There may be some error in your shipdata and/or shipyard files - or in your script files?

- You've made Plama NPCs very rare. Indeed, perhaps rarer than you realise, in that, at least in the current (1.77.1 - not trunk) version of Oolite, the game itself does not, I think, spawn ships with the 'hunter' role. Nor is there a hunter AI (although the game does do something with ships with the hunter role . .). One must use a populator script to spawn your own hunters, and design an AI for them. My Fer-de-Lance 3G OXP does those things.

- I wonder whether the ship is overpriced. Compare the price, and abilities and standard equipment, to the standard Cobra Mk III. I suggest either beefing up the stats (improved recharge rate? More speed and/or manoeuvrability?) or lowering the price, or a combination of the two.

- The ship does seem slightly hard for opponents to hit, which is a good feature.

I hope these comments are helpful. They are only first thoughts.

UK_Eliter wrote:

- You've made Plama NPCs very rare. Indeed, perhaps rarer than you realise, in that, at least in the current (1.77.1 - not trunk) version of Oolite, the game itself does not, I think, spawn ships with the 'hunter' role.

In 1.77.1 "hunter" is the only role used for adding bounty hunters to the game, so that should be fine.

route1patrolAI.plist is the general AI given to bounty hunters (and police patrols) in 1.77.1; if the game adds them and auto_ai is enabled (which is the default), then they'll get this AI anyway.

cim wrote:

route1patrolAI.plist is the general AI given to bounty hunters (and police patrols) in 1.77.1; if the game adds them and auto_ai is enabled (which is the default), then they'll get this AI anyway.

Ah. My mistake. But in what wise (how, when) does the game add them - bounty hunters - please?

UK_Eliter wrote:

Thanks for doing that! Might you tell me a little more, though? What did you see on your misjumps? Sometimes just thargoids? Sometimes just navy? Sometimes empty space? Sometimes other things? If you ever saw a huge amount of ships, and you suspect that my OXP was responsible, could your graphics card cope with that?

As to the Plasma, I've downloaded it. I'll report back here!

Twice I misjumped into empty space, once with only three Navy ships, and at least once with only thargoids. (I guess I must have misjumped more than six times...) There were three (I think) new thargoid ships, and the FDL 3G at least once, when there were just Navy ships. I don't know about the rest of the times, because I was too busy trying to stay alive to check to see who else was there with me! One thing I meant to mention before is that the Navy does stick around for a while after the thargoids are dead, but it looks slightly odd, since they don't do anything while they are there. I don't know if this is possible, but maybe you could make them dock with the behemoths, or something such as that.
It ran smoothly every time I went into witchspace, so no problems there. There have been times when Oolite got a little choppy, but that was because of the 15 or so Nuit stations that I ended up having at once, and all the ships that go with them, and then also when I installed the Extended Shipyards with too many player flyable OXP ships installed, but the later at least was a RAM problem.
I'm not sure if this was added by your OXP, but there were some asteroids in interstellar space, which I have never seen before. However, I did not see the hijacked ship you mentioned, but I am guessing that is supposed to be rare.

As for the Plasma, the base cargo is 5 TC, and the extension is 10, so that probably is why, when you had two passenger bays, it messed up the selling. I may take out the passenger bay from optional equipment and make it so you can only have the one that is built in.
I think the price is about right for the ship... It is approximately the same as an Asp (24,000 more) and has similar specs. The Asp has five energy banks to the Plasma's 4, but the Plasma has cargo space, and the asp has none, and four missile slots to the Asp's 1, and it is smaller, (about the same size as a Sidewinder, actually) and so, as you said, is hard to hit.

SirArian wrote:

I don't know if this is possible, but maybe you could make them dock with the behemoths, or something such as that.

Making them dock is hard. I can make them some of them pootle around a bit more, though; that's a good idea. Thanks for the feedback. EDIT: perhaps I can make them (ships with various AIs . .) dock . .

Asteroids: yes, added by my OXP. The hijacked ship is very rare; but I can PM you a hack to encounter it, if you like. But here's a hint: look around in seemingly empty interstellar space (although, most of the time, it will be wholly empty - but occasionally you might discover various things, such as e.g. derelict ships).

As to the price of your ship: yes, your ship seems well priced compare to the Asp. But/so perhaps the Asp is itself overpriced!

UK_Eliter wrote:

Ah. My mistake. But in what wise (how, when) does the game add them - bounty hunters - please?

In 1.77.1, the core game (populateSpaceFromHyperPoint in Universe.m, if you're curious) adds them only at initial system population, to random positions on the planet-witchpoint lane (always initially patrolling towards the witchpoint), and less often, the planet-sun lane with route2patrolAI instead (50:50 patrolling initially towards the sun or the planet). They are added as lone ships and patrol their route indefinitely until destroyed. No replacement occurs after the player enters the system.

cim wrote:

In 1.77.1, the core game (populateSpaceFromHyperPoint in Universe.m, if you're curious) adds them only at initial system population, to random positions on the planet-witchpoint lane (always initially patrolling towards the witchpoint), and less often, the planet-sun lane with route2patrolAI instead (50:50 patrolling initially towards the sun or the planet). They are added as lone ships and patrol their route indefinitely until destroyed. No replacement occurs after the player enters the system.

Thanks for the information, cim. Might I ask on what probability hunters are added (to any route) and whether that probability is affected by system government type?