Oolite Bulletins

spara wrote:

There's obviously something wrong with my Debian install. Wish I knew what .

I have the same problem on Debian 7.1 over here, on both my x86 and my x86_64 machines. I think it's Debian's problem. Bummer.

For now, I'm going to do my modeling in a virtual machine, I think. It's a possible solution for those Debian modelers who don't want to compromise.

A stitch in time saves nine

I.E. I have stumbled upon the power of stitch in the UV window. Something Griff has already discovered, I'll wager.

So, I'm not entirely sure this is the right thread to be posting about this, but I can't find one that seems better, so here I go.

I am trying to develop a ship OXP. I have the model finished, textured and converted, and have written the shipdata.plist, shipyard.plist and demoships.plist, and put it all together in an OXP folder, but when I try to load it with my hacked save file, it says "OXP not installed." So if someone has time, I would be very grateful if they could look over what I have and let me know what I am doing wrong. I have two and a half more models, but I don't want to move on with them until I know what went wrong with the first one.

The files can be found here: https://db.tt/TxEZwO7F

Thank you so much!

Hi SirArian,
There are a few errors that I can see.
Firstly, the Model folder should be called Models (with an 'S'). You only need the .dat file in there, and that needs to specify the texture used. Your texture is called 'plasma_mk1.png' but the .dat file referes to 'auvBG2.png' at the head, but with no mention of the texture in the Textures part of the .dat file. This should look like this extract from one of my projects and so on (one texture-name for each surface).
If using a single texture, there is no need to include this as a 'materials' attribute in shipdata. Just refering to the model will apply the texture.
By the way, plists are normally drafted alphabetically.
There may be others I have not spotted (I'm having a quick look while Mrs_Smivs is cooking breakfast ) so I'll have a better look later.
One very useful aid to getting these things working is to check the log. Details are on the wiki, or ask here if you don't know where it is.
I would also suggest keeping things simple to start with - just get an NPC spawning in-game, so don't worry too much about things like the player ship, shipyard or equipment.plist (which incidently refers to a script which you have not included in the OXP). Start with a shipdata.plist only in Config, the model in Models and the texture in Textures. Use a simple script to spawn the NPC. Give it a custom role (eg plasma_mk1) and include the following, named as 'script.js' in the Config folder. This will spawn 5 upon launching, or if you comment out the 'this.shipWillLaunchFromStation = function()' line and un-comment 'this.shipWillExitWitchspace = function()' you will get five around the witchpoint after a jump.

OK, I've had a more detailed look at this, and have got NPCs spawning now. You can grab a working version here to have a look.
I have removed a lot of it for now just to get things working, so you will need to add back in the equipment.plist and demoships.plist, and there are still probably a few issues in shipdata which will need to be sorted to make sure everything works as planned.
The ship is extremely dark - I don't know if that was your intention, and does seem a bit uber in terms of equipment etc. To keep it 'sensible' in terms of the core-game ships you might want to base the specs on an existing ship - remember the best benchmark is the Cobra Mk III.
You will need to include the berth control script (in a Scripts folder) to get that working and avoid log errors. Also note I have not tested the player version, so although the shipdata and shipyard plists look OK, there may be problems there.
Hopefully you will be OK from here, but let us know if you need anything else.

*facepalm* I knew I had messed it up, but I didn't think it was that bad.
They were alphabetized when I wrote it, (in XML) but when I converted it to OpenStep it got a little mixed up. I thought I had taken out the equipment.plist. I wanted it to have a built in passenger berth, and saw that in the D.T.T. Atlas by Paradox, and so I swiped borrowed it. I decided that I would take it out until I could at least get it in to the game.
Thank you! I loaded a game and found it, and it was awesome to be able to see my ship in the Ooniverse.
I did mean for it to be dark, since it was supposed to be an assassin/hunter/passenger ship for persons who only have a 50% chance of surviving the trip. It may be a little too dark.
When you say "uber in terms of equipment" do you mean that too much is available to purchase, or that the ship itself is too powerful?
I added back in the shipyard.plist and took it for a test flight... It is way to sensitive. So I've toned that down a bit. It now flies beautifully. (As far as I'm concerned... Faster pitch and slower roll than the Cobra III.)
Also I increased the price to be comparable with that of the asp. (399,000 Cr.)

Plasma Mark I v0.3.1

SirArian wrote:

*facepalm* I knew I had messed it up, but I didn't think it was that bad.

Don't worry, it takes a while to assimilate all this stuff! I don't think anyone ever made a first OXP that 'just worked'

SirArian wrote:

When you say "uber in terms of equipment" do you mean that too much is available to purchase, or that the ship itself is too powerful?

It is very fast and manoeverable compared to most ships - always worth being careful with these elements, and is a bit too 'fully loaded', potentially. The NPC that is. It's got just about every bit of kit available listed in shipdata (with varying degrees of chance admittedly) including some stuff that is normally only used for super-awesome OXP villains and the suchlike. Personally I would remove at least the cloaking device and the military scanners and jammers.

Back to the shipdata, a couple of other errors (which you might have already found):-
It has no forward weapon at the moment
should be
Also all the CARGO entries seem a bit confused, for example

Okay, that makes sense. I have reduced the maneuverability, (actually because I had so much trouble controlling it before, after flying the D.T.T. Atlas these last few days) and it is now 1.2 for pitch and 1.5 for roll, and have removed the super equipment. The laser problem does explain why when I attacked one of the NPC versions, it didn't fight back... That's been fixed too.
The cargo thing was actually kind of intentional. It was supposed to take into account the fact that it has a 10 TC cargo extension available. Will that cause problems?

SirArian wrote:

The cargo thing was actually kind of intentional. It was supposed to take into account the fact that it has a 10 TC cargo extension available. Will that cause problems?

You can't really give NPCs large cargo bays as such, but if you increase the max_cargo to 15 it will have the same effect.

Smivs wrote:

SirArian wrote:

The cargo thing was actually kind of intentional. It was supposed to take into account the fact that it has a 10 TC cargo extension available. Will that cause problems?

You can't really give NPCs large cargo bays as such, but if you increase the max_cargo to 15 it will have the same effect.

Okay. And if I put in the player version that it only has a 5 TC max, that will make it so that the player version does not change, correct?

SirArian wrote:

Okay. And if I put in the player version that it only has a 5 TC max, that will make it so that the player version does not change, correct?

Yes, that's right.

Smivs wrote:

SirArian wrote:

Okay. And if I put in the player version that it only has a 5 TC max, that will make it so that the player version does not change, correct?

Yes, that's right.

Thanks! I think it's about ready to be released... I need to use it a bit more myself, and make sure it works correctly for me, and then I'll see if I can't get some of the Guild of Test Pilots to try it out for me, and give me their feedback.

Wings3D imported model with hard and soft edges. Just have to admire his style.

that's lovely, a really fantastic re-imagining of the ship, there's so much cool stuff in simon's designs. are you working on bringing them up to date for v1.79 CaptSolo?

I may, but just the Neolite Wolfies. Staer9 did the Neolite Companion series. There's some neat ships in the Wolfies, like the Asp Explorer that has a radar dish on it's belly side. And the Cobra Courier and Rapier are really cool as well.