Feel free to use my Oolite creations

[Eric Walch]

As far as I can tell, the Sunray is not actualy used in the oxp, but it may be possible to rectify this, and I think the untextured sturgeon is a missile.

Excellent work till now, big improvements over the original. These models should definitely replace all originals in future. Good to know the conversions to wings I did last week on the remaining models are used now. In the past I converted only the stations and the Worker's Commuter to edit the model a bit. The 'Sunray' is used, but it is a ship that is only added in interstellar space. In normal space you never will see it.

[Micha]

The Worker's Commuter should also get an overhaul on how much cargo it can carry.
Like 3000 TC instead of 300 TC.
It is HUGE even compared to an Anaconda!

That raises 2 things IMHO:
1. The Anaconda should finally get fixed. It's widely discussed that the 750TC capacity was a typo and that it should have been 150TC.
2. The workers commuter is a bit -too- big, basically just an extrusion of the docking slot.

The revamp is looking most excellent though!

[JD]

2. The workers commuter is a bit -too- big, basically just an extrusion of the docking slot.

Ha. That's a brilliant description.

But I think you're right, I see too many of them trying to dock and ending up as a scorch mark on the station wall.

[Amaranth]

I tweaked my test game and tried to fly this. It does not even appear to have a sufficient roll rate to actually dock!!

[JazHaz]

I tweaked my test game and tried to fly this. It does not even appear to have a sufficient roll rate to actually dock!!

It might be worth fixing this by increasing their roll rate?

[Eric Walch]

I tweaked my test game and tried to fly this. It does not even appear to have a sufficient roll rate to actually dock!!

It might be worth fixing this by increasing their roll rate?

Might help at first sight, because it is now set at 0.4 per second and also the default rotation speed of stations is 0.4 per second. That is the same, so it looks if the ship can never correct by turning faster and must wait half a rotation when falling to far behind. But, when giving the ships a maximum rotation of 0.3, one would expect they can't dock. However, they still match the rotation correctly.

Looking in the code, it seems Oolite is cheating here. The ships max_rotation during the final docking is not absolute, but calculated relative to the station roll. So they can always match rotation. For the player ship, that is manually docking, the rotation will obey the defined max rotation, but I want to bet that using the docking computer will work.

[CommonSenseOTB]

Looking in the code, it seems Oolite is cheating here. The ships max_rotation during the final docking is not absolute, but calculated relative to the station roll. So they can always match rotation. For the player ship, that is manually docking, the rotation will obey the defined max rotation, but I want to bet that using the docking computer will work.

Cheating has such a negative connotation. I prefer to think of it as creative game management.

[DaddyHoggy]

The docking computer clearly also manages the power flux of the ship - thus it can temporarily overload the power conduits to the vectoring displacement field - thus the ship can be forced to exceed its nominal roll vector when under the control of the very specialist Docking Computer (when you think how expensive the DC is compared to 1TC of "Computers"...)

[Cmdr. Maegil]

(when you think how expensive the DC is compared to 1TC of "Computers"...)

In my experience, anything labelled as "marine", "boat", and the such will cost in average five times the price of a similar item without these words...

[Eric Walch]

In my experience, anything labelled as "marine", "boat", and the such will cost in average five times the price of a similar item without these words...

Add "medical' to that list. (Or releasing a white version of equipment)

I like the explanation of the station being able to give ships an extra roll if needed. I also think that the station should relay energy to the ships energy banks on docking. One way to do that is by adding:

Code: Select all

this.shipCollided = function (whom)
{
    if (whom && whom.isStation && whom == this.ship.target)
    {
        // cheating code to help ships dock with less damage.
        if (this.ship.energy < this.ship.maxEnergy * 0.9)
        {
            this.ship.energy += this.ship.maxEnergy * 0.1;
        }
    }
}

to the ship script of the workcom. (they already have a custom script).

About the cargo quantities: This is pure a theoretical number when it is not used by the player. NPC ships will never release more than 15 canisters, no matter how big the cargo hold is defined. Only when it would have scoops and a script that would allow to scoop, the number becomes relevant. But even then, it would take for ever to even scoop up the current cargo size.

[JazHaz]

I tweaked my test game and tried to fly this. It does not even appear to have a sufficient roll rate to actually dock!!

It might be worth fixing this by increasing their roll rate?

Might help at first sight, because it is now set at 0.4 per second and also the default rotation speed of stations is 0.4 per second. That is the same, so it looks if the ship can never correct by turning faster and must wait half a rotation when falling to far behind. But, when giving the ships a maximum rotation of 0.3, one would expect they can't dock. However, they still match the rotation correctly.

Looking in the code, it seems Oolite is cheating here. The ships max_rotation during the final docking is not absolute, but calculated relative to the station roll. So they can always match rotation. For the player ship, that is manually docking, the rotation will obey the defined max rotation, but I want to bet that using the docking computer will work.

I know this is slightly off topic, but is it possible to make an OXP to improve the performance of the docking computer? I don't mean the vectoring etc, but is it possible to change the docking_AI to increase the speed? Ships on docking computer don't use much more than quarter speed, could that be increased to half speed or even full speed?

Another thought, could an OXP be made to make docking even harder, perhaps by increasing station roll rates?

[Mauiby de Fug]

Another thought, could an OXP be made to make docking even harder, perhaps by increasing station roll rates?

Using negative values can be somewhat confusing! I did that once with a test station, and it's surprising how much of my docking is muscle memory! So rotating the station in the opposite direction threw me somewhat...

[JazHaz]

Another thought, could an OXP be made to make docking even harder, perhaps by increasing station roll rates?

Using negative values can be somewhat confusing! I did that once with a test station, and it's surprising how much of my docking is muscle memory! So rotating the station in the opposite direction threw me somewhat...

Would docking computers cope with negative roll?

[Mauiby de Fug]

No idea! Try it and see! I only used it with a test rock-hermit like station, so couldn't try using docking computers with it.

[DaddyHoggy]

Another thought, could an OXP be made to make docking even harder, perhaps by increasing station roll rates?

And everybody else wants slower roll rates because it increases the majesty and sense of scale of the stations...

Can't please everybody even some of the time!