Oolite Bulletins

JeffBTX wrote:

I just looked version 1.4.5 over; there is at least one old error still in it.

Go back to page 32 of this thread, third post down, Mon Dec 28, 2009, ADCK posted a "Bug Fix Guide".

The commodities.plist still has the wrong weight measurements for mining products such as (but not limited to) Gem Stones, Gold, etc.

Yes, that bug was remembered after my last update. Its prepared to be included in a next update, together with changed commodity stats as suggested by Switeck. Little Bear already agreed to the changes.

JeffBTX wrote:

Please don't misunderstand... this is NOT a complaint per se. Just a SUBJECTIVE wish, but it MIGHT be a wish shared by a few others.

In general I agree with this - not just for this OXP, but OXPs in general. (I posted something similar a few days ago for YAH)

It would be nice if they could be split into the core features and then additional 'eye-candy' features which would include additional ships, better models, optional functionality, etc. Of course, this only makes sense for OXPs where the additional eye-candy and/or ships and/or features are NOT core to the base experience.

At the end of the day though, the author writes an OXP for a particular vision (s)he has, and others can take it or leave it. Or modify it to suit their own tastes.

JeffBTX wrote:

I tried to hack together a simpler version myself back at version 1.3.x. The code was so extensive and systemic that I got dizzy. I kept messing up the OXP and introducing errors.

I think you'll find the new version a lot easier to understand.
At least I did!

Kaks wrote:

JeffBTX wrote:

I tried to hack together a simpler version myself back at version 1.3.x. The code was so extensive and systemic that I got dizzy. I kept messing up the OXP and introducing errors.

I think you'll find the new version a lot easier to understand.
At least I did!

I might have another look at it then.

Just want to say to the author of the mod - Great work, sir! Love the 1.3.6 version, despite minor NPC name flaws and lack of super criminals!

The mission notes are hilarious, truly classic "elite" style humour. So...Why am I using the 2009 version of this mod? And not the newer 1.4.5 release?

Because the randomised missions do not work for me! I get the same three missions every time I load the mod, only when I reload the whole OXP, does it change...
In 1.3.6. the mod works as I assume it was intended, the mission screen spawns endless different missions for "easy/medium/hard" marks. It does not do this in the 1.4.5 version.

I know new missions are meant to be created in every game hour, but this does not occur. I go and fly around for a many hours, come back to a seedy bar in a different system and the same three missions are still there.

Seems the random element is busted in 1.4.5 - The NPC craft and gangster ships are all spawned as intended. It is somewhat frustrating. As this is a classic OXP.

Not sure what is going on. Tried re-installing the mod, holding down shift, etc. Same problem. Will stick with the 2009 version till a solution can be found.

Hope someone can help!

And as an extra point to my previous post...I keep having to kill the same three villains endlessly.
I kill a mark, and when I go back to a space bar, he is back up as a target...Not what is meant to happen.

As an aside, I can say that I do like the extra ships, bounty hunters and criminals. Adds some flavour to Oolite.
It would be good to have the OXP in various areas though, the core missions, extra NPCs, and the extra ships.

But as it is, I would be happy if the random factor worked as it did in 1.3.5...
Combined with the new content of 1.4.5, the OXP would be flawless.
Looking forward to an update, as implied by earlier posts...!

PS
I agree that the "Great One " rank should be something like "Master" or "Lord Judge".

curtsibling wrote:

Because the randomised missions do not work for me! I get the same three missions every time I load the mod, only when I reload the whole OXP, does it change...
In 1.3.6. the mod works as I assume it was intended, the mission screen spawns endless different missions for "easy/medium/hard" marks. It does not do this in the 1.4.5 version.

I know new missions are meant to be created in every game hour, but this does not occur. I go and fly around for a many hours, come back to a seedy bar in a different system and the same three missions are still there.

Hope someone can help!

Very strange nobody complained before. It never happened during testing. Probably I used to restart Oolite itself quite often.

At first glance it seems you are right and I compare the system clock with Oolites clock. A bug I introduced with version 1.4.3 when I added another timing feature with a realtime check. For now time you can save and load the game again on a main station to reset things.

Thanks for the reply, Eric!
Your OXP is total classic, and once that bug is fixed it will be a great favourite of many.

I will try out your docked save/load suggestion.

PS
I like the way generated things are done with "The Feudal States"; In the "Hunting Lodge" area, three random challengers can be viewed,
then the OXP resets back to the F5 screen, when F8 is pressed, another three random challengers are generated. Random Hits could use
that system, to prevent the heavy loading times you mentioned earlier. Random hits could perhaps borrow from this?

But you are the boss - I look forward to any update, sir!

curtsibling wrote:

Thanks for the reply, Eric!
Your OXP is total classic, and once that bug is fixed it will be a great favourite of many.

......

PS
I like the way generated things are done with "The Feudal States"; In the "Hunting Lodge" area, three random challengers can be viewed,
then the OXP resets back to the F5 screen, when F8 is pressed, another three random challengers are generated. Random Hits could use
that system, to prevent the heavy loading times you mentioned earlier. Random hits could perhaps borrow from this?

The oxp is the work of Little Bear. I only made the translation to Java Script. (And probably added a few bugs in the process.)

In the legacy version the missions could be different every time you cycled through the board. A bit frustration if you wanted to go back to an offer you saw previously. In the JS version, the missions are generated on docking and stored with a time stamp.

In 1.4.3 I added the option that more than 3 pages could get generated. However, with just 3 pages I never noticed a delay on docking, while with 9 there was a noticeable delay, just after the docking tunnel. Therefor I added a real time check. Only when the 3 pages were not generated within 0.5 seconds, the next 3 pages were generated. And with this feature I must have added the new bug.

On my 3 Mhz computer I never came further than 6 pages within 0.5 seconds. I just used trunk. Now I got 9 pages. So there must have been a speed increase in trunk This is partly due to the new JS engine, although 90% of the time is just needed to generate the random descriptions and is JS independent.

I have no intentions to change the frequency on which new missions are generated.

3MHz?! Wow!

Well, to update on the situation - The mission generation is still broken.

I have killed the same "easy" mark three times in a row, and have docked at multiple seedy space bars.
The same three missions are repeatedly offered, complete with the same distances to the target system.
Also the same mark names and clients, etc. Regardless of anarchy system I am docked at.

Obviously something is being overlooked. The OXP should spawn new targets every hour, but it is not.
Personally, I could certainly live with slight pause upon docking, if it meant the OXP worked as advertised.

Can you advise how to proceed here, Eric? I appreciate your feedback and time on this one.

curtsibling wrote:

Can you advise how to proceed here, Eric? I appreciate your feedback and time on this one.

I'll probably update RH this weekend to version 1.4.6. It will be only the replacement of a single script file (20 kB). You can download the script file here and put it in the Scripts folder instead of the current one.

Many thanks, dude! Will try that script and report how it goes, sir!

PS
Great news on the update too!

Just updating on my progress with testing the new script.

I tried the new patch, with a new fresh install of 1.4.5 - And even flew to a new anarchy system, Somehow, the same three missions are still always displaying! Not sure what is going wrong here.
I checked my save file and could find reference to help. It lists the name of mark I killed in version 1.3.6. But how the game recalls these same three mission marks after a total re-install is beyond me!

I'll wait till the next update and see what happens. I'll look through the script in the meantime.

I tried a little experiment to see what I could change -

On the line: this.hitpageMaxNumber = (j+1) * 3;
I changed the "1" to "3", to give me the maximum pages. Which it did.
(I should note that there was no slow down on my 2004 vintage PC.)

Now I still get those three hit missions, but it also now generates
a series of 6 extra proper random missions also. Which is good!

Problem is, the 6 new missions have gibberish script code as
their mission descriptions. I wonder what way to fix this?