Oolite Bulletins

No they still look like q-mines, it is just their behaviour that changes. Can't fidle with the q-mine itself though as this would effect all the q-mines in the game not just the ones that are knocked out by the satalites.

Ok little big problem.

I tried to do a mockup ingame test of the model I'm working on.
Exported files from wings without AUVdata.
converted to dat.

model shows up in-game (with random textures), but when getting close the game crashes.

Stderr has the following messages: The quats are simple 90 degrees rotations (seven numbers).
What is going on here?
I thought textures would revert to 'default' metal.png if not specified correctly?
The textures are not the problem anyway, the sections that do have them applied also give this error.
Could it be that the filenames are causing this?

exerpts from shipdata:

Hhm don't know. I think textures do have to be specified, but I don't know much about ship building. Could maybe e-mail it to Ramon and see if he has any ideas. When I re-spayed the Thargoid Satilite I had to change the "panels" from the texture Wombat had used to a metal.png I was using.

Finally finished the release version!

All 10 systems where hits take place are multi-planeted, Griffs BattleBots impleted (several sub-missions involving these and the Thargoids), Victims hidden in the systems, with clues to their locations in the Mission Briefings, new AIs for each character and a few Easter Eggs!

Still need to do a quick bit of coding to unlock the NPC ships, so there is a small chance of seeing some of them as pirates, police, military ships and traders once all the missions are completed. I'll also give the whole thing a final play-test in a Cobra III to make sure its not impossibley hard, but basically once Heretic finishes the Burger (bump ), it is ready to post on Oosat.

Final Version:-

- 16 new missions.
- 32 new NPC ships (plus 4 Modded Guest Ships).
- 10 new multi-planet Systems.
- 1 new item of player equipment (is awarded cannot be bought).
- 1 new item of NCP only equipment.
- 4 new NCP only weapons
- 35 hand-coded mission briefing screens (including 11 G7 News
broadcasts)
- 25 hand-coded mission descriptions.
- 120 new Ship Communications Hails.
- 63 new Planet Descriptions.
- 12 new Images.

From the readme:-

Background
--------------

In seedy space bars from Riedquat to Atoresra, hardened killers gather to drink fermented vegetable products and tell tales of blood-curdling terror.

At such gatherings, stories are swapped of a sinister organization known as "The Assassins Guild". This semi-mythical association is said to operate in Galaxy 7.

A killer who can secure membership of "The Brotherhood" can expect huge rewards, and the most unpleasant consequences for failure.

No self-respecting "laser for hire" should miss an opportunity to impress "The Guildmaster".

Main Features
----------------

16 interlinked missions and assassinations, lots of new NPC ships, new stations (including a destroyable station!), a new item of player equipment, 4 new weapons (NPC only), a Defence against the Q-mine is developed, 10 systems gain moons, planets, nebulas, and gas giants & 35 mission briefings with background images.

The OXP also attempts to give more "life" to Galxay 7 by featuring:- changing system descriptions (as the actions of both the player and NPCs alter the Oniverse), G7 News broadcasts (keeping the player up to date with Galatic Events), new interacting NPC powers (such as the Triads, the Mafia and the Guild itself), Scripted events and scripted battles (such as a Thargoid Invasion), Systems and fleets of ships controled by NPC powers, over 30 new characters (with unique comms. hails and flying individual ships) and to measure your skill as a hit-being, an Assassins Guild Rating alongside the normal Elite Federation Rating.

As the OXP makes some fairly major changes to the Ooniverse, to avoid conflicts with other OXP and native missions, Assassins missions and events will only occour in Galaxy 7. None of the code in this OXP changes anything outside G7!

Sorry about the cost in hyperdrives to get there, but don't worry, the Guild will make it worth your while. I needed a "blank Galaxy" to work on, given the numerous scripted features!

Installing & playing
----------------------

To play the OXP, unzip the download file. This will create a folder "Assassins-V1.0". Open this folder and you will see a folder named "Assassins.oxp" and a readme.

Move the Assassins.oxp folder to AddOns. Keep the readme somewhere safe! It is important that you read the readme before playing. Don't be put off by its size! The player information is quite short. After a page of spoiler warnings, is a walk-through of the OXP in scripting and coding terms. This is included to help other OXP desigers avoid conflicts. Players should read the player info.

The first event will happen when you are docked at any main station in Galaxy 7 and have more than 200 kills. No Assassins mission or event can happen without the player having a particular kill count.

The kill count requirement for Assassins missions is spaced roughly every 300 kills from 200 onwards. If you installed with 3,000+ kills, you would meet the kill count for all the events. Once kill count is met, a new event will happen once you have made a certain number of hyperspace jumps, provided you completed the previous mission.

Hang out in Galaxy 7, going about your ordinary Oolite buisness, and things will start happening to you...

When the name "Agent Wombat" means somthing to you, you will have seen everything the OXP does.

Well, it sounds epic. I think you've created a real showcase OXP here.

epic indeed.

Solved the error problem. It was solved by re-exporting/translating with auv-maps.

New problem: collisions with bounding-boxes.
With the new octree collisiondetection I had thought bounding boxes were no longer a problem with collisions.
Now, when I try to enter a 'trench' section, I collide (deadly). the trenches in the v2 version are like so:
rotated 90deg obviously.
Unless I am mistaken abvout this being bounding-box related, I'll have to redivide the sections into 3 seperate subentities.

Should be plenty of time. Although I've finished it, even with a commander with enough kills to meet the kill count for all missions, even knowing what I need to do, I think it will still take 30-40 hours play to play the OXP through from the start!

PS : It is very much a joint effort (I'm more like the Director)! All the Ooliters who contributed get subtle references in the Missiontext, News Broadcasts etc - Inspector Murgh of GalCop Special Branch, Heretic Shipyards being raided and plans for an illegal weapon found, Griff Robotics Ltd, Ramon Security Services etc!

this lools like a tour de force, and you are all to be congratulated.

Where can I get the OXP?

Well it will be on oosat when it is finished. If you pm me your e-mail I can send you over the pre-realease version. It should be bug-free, but at the moment a standard cobra is standing in for the Hooded Cobra (ship is finished just havent cut and pasted the data in yet!) and Giles's Military station is standing in for the Burger. You can playe the OXP through from start to finish though.

I'm already deeply impressed....

Someone asking about creating his own system, caused me to think about planet.plists interupted hyperspacejumps and from there led to thinking about the interdiction fleet surrounding ...Rebel system (lets call it T for target).

Would you like me to write a blockacde script that interrupts the player from hyperspacing towards 'T' and has a single wing of fighters in WS politely asking him to leave?

If player continues to advance towards 'T' more ships will be 'incremented' which will not be polite.
'T' will only be approachable through a specific series of jumps.
(which will be stolen from the Baron)
(edit: and which should have several routes of which one is randomly chosen at the start of the mission. )

Either I could allow player to reach 'T' after a certain number of jumps towards it or just have him sitting very close to 'T' without any fuel.....



anyhow,
It may not be really needed for the OXP.
As I recall you had 'T' in a longjump location only approachable from a certain planet?

Besides some method of refueling may be neccesary, as in my oolite version an interupted jump that reaches halfway costs 100%fuel. :/

Think it would be too complex and have done this in another way. The rebels are rebelling against their oppossive govenment, so the Battles take place at Eszuave. I use a variable mission_assassins_war. At the start of the OXP the variable is zero (the people are opporessed). The value is changed from 1 to 6.

As the variable changes the planets description, inhabitants, population, govenment and productivity are changed as the variable changes. At different values different numbers of rebel and govenment ships are added to the system. The ships have AI to attack each other (and hurl insults over the comms link!), but this is a civil war and they are intent on killing each other. They will defend themselves and attack ships (including the player) who take sides!

At 1 the Dictatorship has developed its weapon of Mass-descruction. GalCop expless it from the Union of Worlds and provides military aid to the rebels. Big (and I mean big!) battles rage between Rebel Cobras and govenment Mongoose fighters. The rebels are outnumbered though although the have the better ships. The player can sit and watch these battles and the govenment ships neatly forming back into formation when the rebels are done for and setting off on patrol. Or he can help either side.

At 2 The attack on the burger is taking place. Huge Battles rage all over the system. The rebels are throwing their Aeron Class Friggates at the burger (to little effect). The Govenment has backed up the Mongose Fighters with Scorpion Frigates. Govement ships will attack the player as well as the rebels, as he has taken sides.

At 3 The burger has been destroyed, visting the system in this state finds groups of Rebels in Cobras / Aeron Frigates battling Mongose fighters and Scorpion Frigates. The advantage is with the rebels. Looks like they have won through.

At 4 The Govenment Deployes it dreaded Deamon Class Crusiers. The planet is under blockadge and bombadment, rebels are being slowly crushed, but fighting bravely.

At 5 A massive fleet is coming in from deep space, lead from the rear by the cowardly dictator. The rebels have withdrawn to the planets atmospher to make a last stand over their cities. The player is contacted. Destroy the flagship and bring about peace.

At 6 Rebels have won out. The system is a democaracy. They are now the Govement and their ships (now with police ScanClass) patrol the space lanes.

It was a bitch to code, but does work!

I'll use the idea for the trumbloid native system oxp.
(see wiki: trumbloids, the sinister origin of trumbles)

Grmbl.

Still boundingbox problems.

I cannot fly into my hollow station, made up out of subentities, todo so is instand lightspeed death.

What the h3ck is going on?
I thought one could fly between subentities.