Oolite Bulletins

It would be easy enough to move the GNN item on the F4 page to near the top, rather than allowing it to end up on the 2nd page. Would that be sufficient a reminder?

phkb wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 12:26 am

It would be easy enough to move the GNN item on the F4 page to near the top, rather than allowing it to end up on the 2nd page. Would that be sufficient a reminder?

For me, yes. But for Arquebus and others?

Edited to add: How about some sort of notice on docking? Such as the one seen during flight.

Changing the order of the items that appear on the F4 page is a fairly easy process code wise but can become a long drawn out process if you have a lot of items on the F4 page that you want to change the order of. The drawn out and tedious part comes into its own as you have to go into every individual OXZ/OXP and make the minor code change that will place the item in the order that you want them to appear.

Every item on the F4 page is going to have a JavaScript file within its OXZ/OXP structure that resides in either its Config folder (script.js) or its Scripts folder ([name].js). This file will contain these lines. The primary line that matters in terms of the order that items appear on the F4 page is the category line. Oolite looks for these category lines when it creates the F4 page. It then orders the items on the F4 page Alphabetically based on the category line. Simply change that category line into whatever Alphabetical order that suits your needs in as many of your installed OXZ's/OXP's that you want to change the listing order of. If the category line is identical in multiple entries for the F4 page then the Alphabetizing falls to the title line of the code. There should be no exactly identical [TEXT] on the title line of code as each OXZ/OXP should be unique in what it calls such entries.

Since we are discussing the GNN OXZ my change for that is as follows.
This moves it from a second page item (News) to a half way down the first page item (Interweb News). Be aware that whatever you type into the category line will also appear in the right hand column of the F4 page so your categories should make some sort of contextual Oolite sense if you want to keep the immersion factor at a high level. It is also advisable to keep your categories short and to the point.

** Edited several times to properly include the forgotten info from two posts down. **

Nite Owl wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 6:17 pm

The only line that matters in terms of the order that items appear on the F4 screen is the category line. Oolite looks for these category lines when it creates the F4 page. It then orders the items on the F4 page Alphabetically based on the category line. Simply change that category line into whatever alphabetical order suits your needs in as many OXZ's/OXP's that you want to change the listing order of.

What happens to items that have the same category? Do they come in undefined order? The order in which they were found in the filesystem? Alphabetically by their OXP name? Alphabetically by the line on the F4 screen?

If the category line is identical in multiple entries for the F4 page then the Alphabetizing falls to the title line of the code in my previous post. Would this be the same as your "Alphabetically by the line on the F4 screen"? Some editing will be done to my previous post to get all of this information in one place.

It has been many moons since this was done in my Ooniverse so that bit of information and the fact that my F4 screen had multiple entries with the same category line slipped my mind. Thank You hiran for the reminder.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 3:09 pm

phkb wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 12:26 am

It would be easy enough to move the GNN item on the F4 page to near the top, rather than allowing it to end up on the 2nd page. Would that be sufficient a reminder?

For me, yes. But for Arquebus and others?

Edited to add: How about some sort of notice on docking? Such as the one seen during flight.

As much as I remember, there is a notice after docking, it's in the top, right corner remembering you that news are waiting for you.

montana05 wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 1:32 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 3:09 pm

phkb wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 12:26 am

It would be easy enough to move the GNN item on the F4 page to near the top, rather than allowing it to end up on the 2nd page. Would that be sufficient a reminder?

For me, yes. But for Arquebus and others?

Edited to add: How about some sort of notice on docking? Such as the one seen during flight.

As much as I remember, there is a notice after docking, it's in the top, right corner remembering you that news are waiting for you.

I've only seen that message on approaching the orbital station. Never in the station itself.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 8:47 pm

montana05 wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 1:32 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 3:09 pm

For me, yes. But for Arquebus and others?

Edited to add: How about some sort of notice on docking? Such as the one seen during flight.

As much as I remember, there is a notice after docking, it's in the top, right corner remembering you that news are waiting for you.

I've only seen that message on approaching the orbital station. Never in the station itself.

My apologies, you are correct. The messages appear on approach and not in the station.

There's a conflict with HD Backgrounds.

I stripped my game down to vanilla & only installed HD Backgrounds v1, Image Pack A v1 & Docking Fees 2.1: all working fine.

I then added Library 1.7.1 & GNN 1.2. On docking, the HD Backgrounds graphic for the arrival report is missing.

Using Oolite 1.9

Massively Locked wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 7:17 pm

There's a conflict with HD Backgrounds.

I stripped my game down to vanilla & only installed HD Backgrounds v1, Image Pack A v1 & Docking Fees 2.1: all working fine.

I then added Library 1.7.1 & GNN 1.2. On docking, the HD Backgrounds graphic for the arrival report is missing.

Using Oolite 1.9

Is this something fixable in the Config for AddOns which Library.oxp adds to the docked F4 screen?. Possibly something in GUI Config under the Library settings?

If there had been other oxp's loaded which changed the screens, then for example, one of the HUD's with a docked HUD might be overriding it, for example (as older versions of Xenon UI did with the screens in SothisTC and New Cargoes, for example).

Edited to add: : Galactic Almanac also changes the backgrounds and might possibly have interfered if it had been added, too.

Just noticed in Arquebus's videos that he continually gets GNN messages but mistakes them for e-mails. When he docks, with his 2 or 3 pages of F4 options he never realises it's significance and never selects it. I'm quite sure that if this is true for dear old Arquebus, then it will be true for many others.

At the moment, the GNN messages are not dreadfully significant, but if we can ever get wars going properly in-game, that would obviously change... news about wars would be very important (or if I could ever get the news flashes working for Hints, they would hopefully be very helpful for the Arquebuses of this world...)

Might it make sense (1) to have the messages on the in-flight view-screen for longer (to give a chance for players to actually read the words and realise that there is a news-flash - and (2) to have something more intrusive on the F4 screen? Maybe an "urgent news flash" flashing in red, for example? Or (3) maybe instead have a mission screen with the information when they dock? Maybe even something along the lines of Killer Wolf's docked HUDs but designed for incoming news flashes? This could be the default setting for new players (alterable in Library).

Killer Wolf's first "docked HUD" from his King Cobra HUD showing one of his two docked HUDs for the various docked screens


<fantasizing frantically>
Or even a hallway in the station with a screen displaying the news (is this doable in Oolite?)

(this is one is wrong - it is at an angle - but something along these lines could look super!)

Just wondering:

there are continual news flashes about outbreaks of epidemics and their resolution.

1) Is landing on plague-ridden planets really interdited by GNN?

2) Would there be some way to influence the pricing of the Medicine commodity with such newsflashes?
I've been unable to understand the programming in the similar Bloomberg.oxp - which seems clear as mud to this dumb pilot?

Question:

What benefits does a news flash on GNN actually yield? (over a non-GNN news-flash on a regular mission screen)



I can see 3 so far:

1) the viewscreen logo appearing on entering the aegis


2) the music & possible animation of the Newsflash itself

3) the memory of the last GNN newsflash preserved in Library's P.A.D. for reference while docked





Are there any I've missed?

I've just been watching Vorse plays Oolite on YouTube.


He, too, never seems to check GNN, despite the newsflash appearing in the Viewscreen on approaching the station. So it's not just Arquebus.



I think that this is a major problem.


The F4 screen just shows "News" and "Galactic News Network" - there is no sight that there is a "Newsflash"


Suggestions:

1) Add "Newsflash!" to the F4 screen: Galactic News Network - NewsFlash!

2) Can we change the colour or make it flash or something?

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2024 5:56 pm

1) Add "Newsflash!" to the F4 screen: Galactic News Network - NewsFlash!

That should be simple enough

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2024 5:56 pm

2) Can we change the colour or make it flash or something?

No. The only "or something" I can think of is to move it to the top of the F4 list when a new flash has been received.