Oolite Bulletins

Switeck wrote:

Eric Walch told me:
"enteringTraderAI.plist is only called by exitingTraderAI.plist. That is the AI used by ships entering wormholes.

Switeck wrote:

When a trader jumps in at the witchspace entry point in the current system, it always had a 10 percent chance of going to the sun. In trunk that now has changed a little. ...
In the past, any ship could become a sunskimmer. Now only ships that also contain the sunskim-trader role. The code "makeSunSkimmer" ensures that the heat-shielding is sufficient and it uses the right AI."

The Wiki wrote:

max_cargo

Sets the ship's cargo limit. On explosion of trader ships added by the System Populator, 10% of this value is used as likely cargo. When the result is lower than 16 it is the cargo, when higher than 15, it is changed in a random value between 0 and 15.


likely_cargo

This is only used for ships with role asteroid and pirate. With asteroids it gives the likely number of boulders it breaks into. With pirates added by the System Populator: when lower than 16 it is the cargo, when higher than 15, it is changed in a random value between 0 and 15. This value is overridden by the actual scooped cargo if the pirate had scooped something.

The Wiki wrote:

checkForFullHold

If entity's cargo capacity is reached, will return "HOLD_FULL".
Since 1.73 it can also return "HOLD_NOT_FULL" or "NO_CARGO_BAY".

Switeck wrote:

does Oolite also use an internal value to declare if new traders (to the system) have a full hold or not?

Commander McLane wrote:

On top of that, the number of actually created canisters is capped at 15. I think the rationale behind that was to keep the total number of entities in a system (and thereby the frame rate on slower systems) at a reasonable level.

Commander McLane wrote:

I don't know how this works exactly, but I would guess that in case of pirates cargoSpaceUsed would be 0 unless the ship has scooped something. After scooping something it should equal the number of canisters scooped.

Commander McLane wrote:

I did a small test. I added this code to route1traderAI

Code: Select all

    "CHECK_CARGO" =     {
        ENTER =         (
            "pauseAI: 1.0",
            checkForFullHold
        );
        "HOLD_FULL" =         (
            "commsMessage: My hold is full!"
        );
        "HOLD_NOT_FULL" =         (
            "commsMessage: Still room in here."
        );
        "NO_CARGO_BAY" =         (
            "commsMessage: Sorry, I don't have a cargo bay."
        );
        UPDATE =         (
            "setStateTo: HEAD_FOR_PLANET"
        );
    };
    GLOBAL =     {
        ENTER =         (
            "setStateTo: CHECK_CARGO"
        );
    };

Then I waited at the witchpoint and made the main station launch a lot of traders, waiting for those which would enter at the witchpoint. I was hoping to get a sample of messages in my log, and get an idea about the distribution of full and empty holds.

The result: nothing whatsoever, nada, rien. Not a single ship sent a commsMessage,

    GLOBAL =     {
        ENTER =         (
            "setStateTo: CHECK_CARGO"
        );
    "CHECK_CARGO" =     {
        ENTER =         (
            "pauseAI: 1.0",
            checkForFullHold
        );
        "HOLD_FULL" =         (
            "commsMessage: My hold is full!",
            "setStateTo: HEAD_FOR_PLANET"
        );
        "HOLD_NOT_FULL" =         (
            "commsMessage: Still room in here.",
            "setStateTo: HEAD_FOR_PLANET"
        );
        "NO_CARGO_BAY" =         (
            "commsMessage: Sorry, I don't have a cargo bay.",
            "setStateTo: HEAD_FOR_PLANET"
        );
    };

Eric Walch wrote:

Code: Select all

    GLOBAL =     {
        ENTER =         (
            "setStateTo: CHECK_CARGO"
        );
    "CHECK_CARGO" =     {
        ENTER =         (
            "pauseAI: 1.0",
            checkForFullHold
        );
        "HOLD_FULL" =         (
            "commsMessage: My hold is full!",
            "setStateTo: HEAD_FOR_PLANET"
        );
        "HOLD_NOT_FULL" =         (
            "commsMessage: Still room in here.",
            "setStateTo: HEAD_FOR_PLANET"
        );
        "NO_CARGO_BAY" =         (
            "commsMessage: Sorry, I don't have a cargo bay.",
            "setStateTo: HEAD_FOR_PLANET"
        );
    };
    };

Because checkForFullHold always generates a message, you'll always go to the next state.

Switeck wrote:

But not using that check initially means even an Asp might scoop cargo. (Well fortunately Asps are not traders, so at least that's avoided.)