Oolite Bulletins

Hi spara, thanks for the report/question. You may well be right - it has not been straightforward to get this OXP working with all the new addition/replacement sets.
I've been pretty busy with RLtm lately, not to mention my current OXP project, but I'll try to find time over the weekend to confirm the situation, and I can then make any changes/updates that are needed.

OK, now I'm confused!
No not really (quite). The for Griffs' version is for use with the Addition version of Griff's ships, and the idea is that you use it in conjunction with TG3 standard. The standard handles the core ships and any shipset replacing the core ships* and the forGriffs will handle Griff's ships. The two OXPs are not mutually exclusive and should work simultaneously. However this is not something I've actually tested myself, so if anybody out there is using Griff's Addition and TG3 I'd appreciate some feedback.
*The SmivsShipset edition of TG3 should work with both the Addition and Replace version of my shipset, so in theory anybody using mine and Griff's should install both the forGriffs and forSmivs editions of TG3 (I think).
Again feedback/confirmation of this would be helpful.
The Wiki/Smivsonline are probably not strictly correct in terms of advice, but I am reluctant to start editing them until the situation is clear.
Apologies for the confusion, but this has got confusing!

If I have understood this correctly, there is no working TG for Griffs replacement set.

* Basic TG will evoke double forward laser thingies.
* TG for Griffs is for addition, not replacement version of Griffs.
* TG for Smivs is obviously for Smivs.

ATM I have hacked TG for Griffs to work with replacement version. I have named the datakeys from TG to match Griffs. Not really sure this works, but at least no errors appear in the log and no funny coloured double forward lasers have appeared.

Good luck with sorting this out. I've been really enjoing this oxp. It's one of those must have oxps in my book.

spara wrote:

* Basic TG will evoke double forward laser thingies.

Ah, yes, that's the problem really, isn't it? As that's the edition that should fit here.
But of course what is happening is that the Griff ships have a sub-entity gun. So when say an NPC Cobra fires its weapon, the more powerful TG3 laser fires from the 'normal' Cobra gun (position), but the Griff sub-ent gun is also firing.
Now here's the rub. The only easy way I can see to sort this out is to include a shipdata_overides.plist in the standard TG3 which disables the sub-ent guns on the Griff ships. In other words the ships will fire their (single) laser from the core ship's postion which may not be exactly the same as the gun sub-ent position on the Griff ship. The sub-ent gun itself will still appear of course, so the model won't be spoiled at all visually, but there may be times when very close to an NPC that the beam doesn't quite seem to come from the right point on the ship.
I may just have to go with this, imperfect though it is, but I don't think it will be too noticeable in-game.

I've updated the standard version to v3.1.1. This update includes the fix for Griff's 'replace' shipset to cure the double laser issue, so unless you are using Griff's 'replace' set you will not need to update.
To confirm, then, users of Griff's 'replace' set (and the non-shader version) should use the standard version of TG3, not the forGriffs set which is for the Addition set only.
The documentation has also been updated.
Many thanks to spara for alerting me to this problem and for testing the fix for me.

Just a quick mention that one of the changes in Oolite v1.77 affects NPC lasers and will have an affect on this OXP.

NPC laser specifications have been unified to player spec. This significantly increases the fire rate and heat capacity of NPC beam and military lasers, while slightly weakening the NPC pulse laser. Again, combat balance may be affected: while the intent has been to keep generic spacelane combat balance roughly equivalent to 1.76 - and we'd like to hear your feedback on this - OXPs with heavy use of military laser NPCs will find they are much more dangerous.

As all the ToughGuys have beam and military lasers they will be even nastier. This, of course is a good thing so I'm intending to leave things as they are for now.
As the 'skill' of NPC pilots can now be controlled, it is likely that I will add this feature and re-balace the ordnance together in a future ToughGuys 4.

... OXPs with heavy use of military laser NPCs will find they are much more dangerous.

Heh... I presume this affects the Green Gecko too. One of them absolutely savaged me this afternoon!