Oolite Bulletins

Someone will probably be able to provide you with an untampered version (not me, as I can't keep my fingers to myself).

It would really be a shame if new players would have to do without the occasional visit to the Casino, so hopefully it will come back up on Oosat. I can't imagine that the authors of OXPs that disappeared because of a crash and not because the authors removed them would mind having them resubmitted to the site.

Have resubmitted it to Oosat2, but it'll be a few days before it appears as Winston will need to OK it first. I'll try to put the other missing OXPs up over with next week or so (ie the ones that arn't on Oosat1).

Sounds good.

Hope to see them all up soon.

Long no activity in the topic for this old oxp. This probably means it was okay.

It had only one flaw, that when launching from a casine from within a gambling game with the F1 key, the game became a draw and you could no longer gamble with that commander. That bug was fixed some months ago with version 1.0.1

One month ago pmw57 has translated the game into JS. After that I added a few minor extras and here it is: Hoopy Casino 1.1

No real visible changes but it should run a bit more efficient now because of the use of JS.

Only difference is that it now appears in half of the systems it used to appear. I lowered the appearance because we now have so many stuff to add. Also the ship starts now not near the station but a bit off, so it has to fly to the station. The AI was always programmed to do that, but when you place it near the station the whole AI does not make sense to me.

Nice one on the update.

Have a query though:

Eric Walch wrote:

Also the ship starts now not near the station but a bit off, so it has to fly to the station. The AI was always programmed to do that, but when you place it near the station the whole AI does not make sense to me.

and from the WikiPage:

The basic hull of the CoachWhip liner was completely stripped, removing the cargo bay, hyperspace drive and inter-system drive. A docking port was added and the internal structure re-fitted as a luxurious Casino. The platforms were then deployed in geo-stationary orbit near the main GalCop Station in technologically advanced systems throughout the eight galaxies.

Sounds to me like the idea was to not have the casino 'ships' maneuverable at all... possibly just a contingency in case the casino got spawned far away for some reason? Or the original AI got copied from something else which did need the logic?

Micha wrote:

Sounds to me like the idea was to not have the casino 'ships' maneuverable at all... possibly just a contingency in case the casino got spawned far away for some reason? Or the original AI got copied from something else which did need the logic?

If they are moving as slow as before, it's almost not noticeable.

I think that these ships would at least require a method to be brought into proper position, to stay there and also to make (slow!) evasives in case something happens.

It's space...and not all asteroids do sit still!

Screet

Micha wrote:

from the WikiPage:

The basic hull of the CoachWhip liner was completely stripped, removing the cargo bay, hyperspace drive and inter-system drive. A docking port was added and the internal structure re-fitted as a luxurious Casino. The platforms were then deployed in geo-stationary orbit near the main GalCop Station in technologically advanced systems throughout the eight galaxies.

Sounds to me like the idea was to not have the casino 'ships' maneuverable at all... possibly just a contingency in case the casino got spawned far away for some reason? Or the original AI got copied from something else which did need the logic?

That is always a problem. The original version as on the oosat.alioth.net has no documentation by Murgh. Also that upload description on the oosat.alioth.net holds no info. The wiki is not written by Murgh but by others that gave their own opinion about what happened without looking what the ship supposed to be. It is not always correct.

I know a lot of released stuff does not work as the authors intended. When I change something about an existing oxp I always try to read the code to see the authors intentions.
That AI also contains code to do a hyperjump when low on energy. So in my opinion the whole wiki story of a stipped ship not capable of jumping is not the idea of Murgh. Although I admit that it would make a more believable background. But than the max_speed should should have been zero and it should have no fuel defined.

But as Street writes is the difference hardly noticeable because I already spawn them close to the station. Just not as close as the original. And with the original the ship also started with flying to a different position around the station. So flying was always intended by Murgh as I see it.

Murgh has written to many good other oxps that shows he knew what he was scripting. So I don't believe him just copying an unsuitable AI without modifying. it

Ah, well, that's a great way to confuse the noobs (ie, me) - OXP by one person, Wiki-entry for the OXP by another

The Wiki entry reads very nicely, so I'm loathe to suggest it should be modified. Likewise I can hardly suggest that the OXP should be modified if that is the way it was intended.

It sure would be nice if there was some sort of consistency.. but it sure would be nice to be able to fly as well, so... *g*

Thanks for the clarification.

if the entry is revised, i'd suggest taking out the geostationary orbit reference.

Yeah, sorry about that. As the orginal documentation had been lost in the Oosat2 crash I'd added the backstory when I re-uploaded it and I'd based it on how the hoopy's behaved rather than looking at the code. When I wrote it, they didn't move so i'd just cobbeled together a backstory that fitted that. Could add that they have simple manauvoring thrusters to get into position, but they have a cut-down drive as they don't really need it. That'd at least explain why the don't generally move about but can jump if very badly damaged.

I actually like the background story by little bear on the wiki. I already send a pm to Murgh for his opinion in this. (I hope he occasionally logs in, as I noticed his e-mail address in his sign does not exist anymore). I don't think Murgh had a special story in mind, but when following that story some other minor things should change to make everything consistent. e.g. no movement at all for those ships so they really become a sort of station.

---

Reading back this threat, I notice there is some discussion about chances on the gambling table not being statistical correct. That was a correct observation for the legacy script. In every system there was one hoop that had a higher chance. This was not intentional by the script but because the legacy random generator works not really randomly. One could even make a log about it for selecting which hoop in which system. So some hoops had no 1/3 chance but could have more than 50% change of getting selected.

Shortly before release I realised that translating to JS made the changes statistical more correct but removed the fun from gambling because you now would loose always on the long run. So this version contains code that makes the chances are not 1/3 for each hoop. Per docking the chances per hoop change so sometimes there could be a hoop with more than 50% change were you really can make money like with the old version.

Personally I very much liked the Wiki entry as well and would prefer the OXP to be modified to suit rather than the background story changed. However, that's a decision which certainly should be left to the original OXP author.

Micha wrote:

Personally I very much liked the Wiki entry as well and would prefer the OXP to be modified to suit rather than the background story changed. However, that's a decision which certainly should be left to the original OXP author.

It now follows the background story by Little Bear. It is now an 1.74+ only version that uses the new mission screen method.

Uploaded as version 1.2 No real changes other than adaption to the new Oolite 1.74

i've just had an odd thing : Jumped to Ensoreus, ejected, and ended up at Hoopy's : aren't i supposed to end up at the main station?

No, you normally end up at the closest dockable station.

Not sure if its intentional, but its been that way for ages.