Oolite Bulletins

Commander McLane wrote:

... there is an ubiquitous reserve force, and we're all part of it.

Yep, that's us - a squadron of privateers who never refuse a mission.

Gimi wrote:

Can one, in a practical way, script lots of NPC ships jumping in from near by systems to avert a pending invasion or incursion?

Sure. Simply spawning ships at the witchpoint is the most basic scripting exercise.

The only practical limitation is the "lots and lot", because there is an upper limit to the number of entities (ships and other) allowed in a system at any given time.

Script keeps track of how many are left, witches another strike force in when the current force has dwindled?

Rese249er wrote:

Script keeps track of how many are left, witches another strike force in when the current force has dwindled?

The delicacy lies in the term "number of entities (ships and other)". From the game's perspective, there's no difference between a full ship and a piece of alloy from the wreckage of a ship. The allowed entity limit is 2048. If you have 128 ships, and each ship explodes and produces three alloys and one escape pod, you already have 512 entities. Spawn another 128 ships, let them explode and produce alloys and escape pods, and you're up at 1024. Repeat another two times, and your Ooniverse is "full". Nothing can be spawned anymore at all.

Now, not every exploding ship produces four entities, thus giving you some more headroom. Unfortunately, this is counterbalanced by the fact that the practical limit for entity count is far lower than 2048. A normal system in Oolite contains about 50 entities, depending on your OXPs it can raise to about 120. Most computers should handle this number well. I rarely experience systems that are more crowded than that. About 200 entities will result in a noticeable drop in frame rate (the game has to keep track of every one of them in each frame, after all). 300 is definitely verging into "unplayable" territory on older, slower computers.

This limits the possibilities of epic battles, at least if the player is supposed to play a part in them, as evidenced for instance by the later stages of Assassins OXP, where you are supposed to play a major part in some epic battles.

Commander McLane wrote:

... Unfortunately, this is counterbalanced by the fact that the practical limit for entity count is far lower than 2048.

Indeed - I've come across the 'Universe full' problem with large explosions before.
However, I don't think Gimi has massive, epic space battles in mind (he will correct me if I'm wrong).

El Viejo wrote:

However, I don't think Gimi has massive, epic space battles in mind (he will correct me if I'm wrong).

Nope, not at all. Or, it depends what you mean by massive and epic. Nothing that will exceed 30-40 ships in total, and not really a battle as such.

You can follow a Thargoid invasion force's rampage through a system just by following the debris fields.
I've had 9 Thargoids added as a group to a system leave a debris field that numbered in the 100's of cargo, alloys, and escape pods.

That must have been a profitable day for you..

That's during my hacked testing...which doesn't count, as I don't even save such results.
Also, it's beyond too much of a hassle to scoop all that.
Now, when I'm testing big ship fights, I usually just have dumbAI.plist self-destruct on creation, removing all the unwanted alloys, cargo pods, asteroids, and derelict ships.

Couple of possible station models done for the Galactic Navy...

A naval depot



and the Navy HQ (central docking hub can rotate in opposite direction, as requested )

May I request a place for the 249th in Her Imperial Majesty's Space Navy?

Rese249er wrote:

May I request a place for the 249th in Her Imperial Majesty's Space Navy?

I second this motion.

I recently removed the GalNavy OXP from my game in favor of just having the 249th which is now becoming nicely fleshed out.
They look good, they work well and I believe they are way closer to the spirit of the GalNavy (that I've read about at least) than the original oxp (no disrespect to the author, that was an impressive multifunction large scale oxp but the 249th provide the kind of Navy presence I actually want in my game).

The 249th oxp has evolved greatly in the last while and the work Rese has put in really shows (and all the contributors) when you see them ingame.
It's a solid oxp that I'm guessing could be very valuable to the development of further Naval oxps more in keeping with the canonical fiction.

...and finally, the 249th are simply badass, look at that camo, even the name is cool.

/endfanboypost.

Rese249er wrote:

May I request a place for the 249th in Her Imperial Majesty's Space Navy?

First, HIMSN is probably a long way off.
They way I want to work this is to first get a simple Navy presence in place as I have described earlier in this thread (Version 1,2 and 3 of HIMSN.oxp). So, for version one, the answer is no.
For version 2 or 3, absolutely, but most likely in version 3 when it opens up for bolt on missions and stuff.
As this is a reserve squadron, they will fit in well as a bolt on to HIMSN.
Just one note: One thing that has been one of the main reasons for starting on something like HIMSN, was the big presence GLANAV had in the game. That means that I/we intend to make an encounter with a navy ship from HIMSN a rare event. From that follows that an encounter with a 249er unit would be even rarer if it is to be a part of HIMSN.

Can the Free Mexican Airforce join too, jefe?

We'll have the bloody Green Knights signing up next at this rate! (if they ever return from their pub-crawl)