Oolite Bulletins

It is truely excellent... however when I was returning to the station after the rock-hermit mission one of my wingmen spireled around and flew straight into the station and he exploded, I was then greeted with a message: Unit 4 killed.

is there some way of making them detect their collisions a little better?

other that that it is an incredible, Congratulations

So I've made some progress, but not necessarily in the right direction!

Haven't quite resolved the problem of units flying into the space station. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the AI, as it's using the standard go to waypoint routine that all ships use when travelling from A to B. It could be the use of injectors, or maybe just the difficulty in trying to follow the player, as they tend to move around more than an NPC would usually do.

I should have worked on the other missions but as is my way I got sidetracked by more background, and wrote a promotion mechanism for the units (based heavily on materials from The Feudal States) just to give even more of a management feel to it. This took a while because I was trying to find a clever way of using loops or variable variables to run the same process for each of the four units instead of repeating whole lines of script. In the end I did it the long way, but split out all the heavy work into a separate worldscript. I also added a little thing that feeds promotion info (and possibly some mission info) into each unit's service history, just to help add to the flavour even more.

On a similar theme, I might design some medals to reward particularly good service - I have quite a good template from Iron Raven that I can re-use for that.

RL's a bit busy at the mo (hence the lack of updates) but as the British summer seems to be on a leave of absence I should be able to get a bit more done on the weekends.

Switeck wrote:

A good high/low mix of ships is definitely more believable than either all really good ships or all really bad ships. Whether they can fight together remains to be seen, because speed differences alone can break up a group.

Excellent point! With this in mind, any given squadron should consist of same or similar ships. Of course entire squadron of dedicated bombers or gunships alone wouldn't be very good idea, which leads to cooperation between different squadrons: fighter squadron escorts bomber squadron or the lone gunship. So player's squadron wouldn't be the only squadron in given mission, but maybe fighter escort for bomber squadron.

If player's ship must be different from rest of the squadron, then why not make player fly exclusively powerful gunship and other ships of player's squadron are the escorts? And what if player isn't native resistance pilot, but outsider freelance mercenary? That would handily justify his witchspace capable craft, be it Boa Cruiser, Fer-de-lance or Cobra Mark III.

How would that kind of conflicts affect to free traders? Maybe make alternative version of the OXP where player doesn't start as part of the resistance, but might be offered mercenary contract if he finds right station (Rock Hermit) in the system? And would the major powerblock allow player or any other outsiders to dock with their local Coreolis station in any case? There's one space combat game where civil war has practically quarantined entire solar system making it impassable for civilian traffic: orbital mines, fighter patrols, light starships... Yes, this OXP sounds much like that game (Starshatter, Google for playable demo) before major interstellar powers butt in.

In any case I'd like to have alternative versions of the OXP where player is what he is in vanilla Oolite. And maybe throw in Galactic Navy to restore order after several cargo ships have been blasted (attacks against convoys, remember?) and merchant association demands response.

Ramirez wrote:

[*]Fitted Mambas and Kraits with low-power plasma turrets to improve combat effectiveness

If you want player's side to have greater advantages, I offer you alternatives:
1. Player's squadron, and any following squadrons, could outnumber the enemy
2. Player's squadron, and any following squadrons, could have AI script which makes NPC ships more accurate or something... and enemies could also have customized AI scripting which makes them worse
3. Player himself provides plenty of advantage, particularly with boosters and beam/military laser

Probably the biggest advantage that the player brings to the fight is more intelligent use of fuel injectors to put the player in the fight at a manageable level -- be it hit-and-runs, sniper, or brawler. NPC ships tend to only use injectors to flee...and often too late to save themselves in big fights.

Switeck wrote:

Probably the biggest advantage that the player brings to the fight is more intelligent use of fuel injectors to put the player in the fight at a manageable level -- be it hit-and-runs, sniper, or brawler. NPC ships tend to only use injectors to flee...and often too late to save themselves in big fights.

That's very true. Occasionally the NPCs do use injectors well, but sometimes you do despair when they get themselves in trouble and refuse to use them.

In terms of balancing, the main focus isn't so much on the player but instead between NPCs. Laser accuracy isn't that great, and while it means fights play out for longer, it's frustrating when one of your subordinates isn't able to take out a target as easily as you'd be able to do yourself. Usually this isn't noticable in normal play because ships (especially police or pirates) tend to gang up, but when you want to assign one unit to a specific target you want to see results. The turrets help to resolve this; as a byproduct they also make it easier see what your units are shooting, and generally I find they make the action feel more dynamic.

The design of the missions so far means your squadron with always be outnumbered to different degrees, so I don't think this is too much of an unfair advantage.

At least mount turrets only on those ships that have some cargo capacity. That way their heavier firepower can be justified. If player's side include Asp and/or Sidewinder, those are best left without any extra weaponry.

Can you do anything with AI?

Matti wrote:

2. Player's squadron, and any following squadrons, could have AI script which makes NPC ships more accurate or something... and enemies could also have customized AI scripting which makes them worse

And that can do for aiming. From another topic:

Wildeblood wrote:

Yes, there is an "accuracy" key in the shipdata for NPCs, a number up to 10, which apparently biases their aiming. Making a duplicate entry that was otherwise identical, but had maximum accuracy and occasional appearance should be easy. In Thargoid's Hired Guns OXP for example, the $750 escorts have accuracy=6, the $1000 escorts have accuracy=7, and the $1500 escorts have accuracy=8. That's why I said last week in another thread people shouldn't waste their money on the $750 Sidewinder escorts.

How's that for improving combat efficiency?

Having tried the accuracy key again I've made the laster-armed ships a bit more effective - a value of 6 seems reasonable. I really like the look of the turrets though so I'll definitely aim to put that on some of the larger ships.

Anther trick I can use is something I put in The Feudal States, which is modifying an NPC's energy via script. So, a ship that usually has max energy of say 1000 in the shipdata can be made to have an effective max energy of much less, according to conditions set out in the script.

As a test I've just been playing a convoy ambush and even without the energy trick it felt like a good challenge. I replaced the 'Advance' command with a 'Search' function, which basically tells a unit to fly about a bit and engage any hostiles they might find. Setting my whole squadron to randomly search and destroy without planning ahead resulted in a predictable failure, as they were quickly set upon by the escorting Asps. Instead, I identified the transports first and set some Kraits to intercept; while they were doing that I assigned some Mambas to deal with the escorts and also provided some covering fire myself.

As the battle ensued things obviously got more frantic. At one point Unit 2 (Sub-Lieutenant Veraa'ri) called in a low energy warning, and when I turned find her I saw two Asps on her tail. In desperation I engaged with my severely overheated laser, just enough to convince the Asp to break off its attack, and called for backup from Unit 4, who had just successfully destroyed one of the transports. Willing Veraa'ri to hang on for a few seconds more, help finally arrived in the form Ensign A'sequ, flying overhead in his Krait at full afterburner, emptying a stream of high energy plasma into the back of the remaining Asp.

I decided to have a bit of a try myself and engaged another Asp that had lost its mother. I got my comeuppance however as said Asp decided to fire a Violet Flax at me, which took out my witchdrive injectors. Oh, the irony! Being virtually immobile compared to the rest of the ships in the battle, I really did have to act like a squadron commander, assigning units to targets and generally just keeping track of things.

Eventually we completed our objective, to destroy all the transports, and not wanting to push our luck any further I led the squadron into hyperspace.

A funny postscript is that, because my injectors were out, I had to deal with some traffic on the way home. As I wanted to get back to base and check the debrief script was working OK, I simply got my squadron to destroy the passing trader. Unfortunately, just out of scanner range a police patrol happened to be in the area and so we were set upon by a bunch of vipers. We were no match for them and so the 3rd Signals Squadron was marked down as lost in action somewhere in the outer reaches of the Zainat system.

So that's the after-battle report. Something else I've been looking at is how to add variety to the targets and locations used by the OXP. I've already gathered some assets from my other OXPs, but ideally I'd like to expand things further and make use of many other assets that people have created (e.g. the solar laboratories in Commies, the GRS repair facility, etc). However, I don't particularly want to make this OXP massive by copying, pasting and renaming lots of models and textures.

I've got a little script that checks for other worldscripts and if they're present, adds some of the assets to a list from which mission targets will be selected. Then, I'll use like_ship entries to call upon those assets. So, the more OXPs you have installed, the more variety you'll see in the targets.

Crazy notion, but how about basing the OXP squadron aboard something that could functions somewhat like a capship? Maybe a Navy Behemoth or something that already has capability for docking. The big ship would be on a patrol that takes it from system to system, and when there's trouble (which would be fairly often, obviously) the squadron has to scramble. It would witch from station to station along the patrol route, and leave when any fighting situation has been settled and the player docks. After fights and in systems where the patrol finds a peaceful station, the player could dock at the station to do a little cargo dealing, get news reports and so on. If the "ports of call" are listed on the big ship, (or at least the next one or two are listed), the player could make a few credits along the way by utilising local market opportunities.

The player could also be watching the local shipyards for a sweet deal on a good ship, if they decide they've had enough of being a squadron leader (at least for now), so they can buy a ship and leave. That way it would be clear they weren't taking the squadron with them, they were def leaving to go solo. Maybe the player commits to a certain number of jumps as a "tour of duty" and after that they opt to resign and "go civilian" again. Maybe they can return later, if they choose. Lots of possibilities.

It could provide something quite a bit different than usual Oolite style play that way, but be easy for a player to opt in and out of, much like the Feudal States and the Random Hits bounty hunting. There might be some big ongoing storyline aboard the big ship for the player to watch develop while they focus on playing the role of a squadron leader rather than deciding the main action as they usually would.

(Ok, yeah. I admit that I was a fan of Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato back in the day. LOL)

Ganelon wrote:

Crazy notion, but how about basing the OXP squadron aboard something that could functions somewhat like a capship? Maybe a Navy Behemoth or something that already has capability for docking. The big ship would be on a patrol that takes it from system to system, and when there's trouble (which would be fairly often, obviously) the squadron has to scramble.

Why I didn't type that? Yes, that way player could pilot any fighter without witchspace drive and still experience change of scenery.

There might be some big ongoing storyline aboard the big ship for the player to watch develop while they focus on playing the role of a squadron leader rather than deciding the main action as they usually would.

Let's call story campaign. So player's got OXP and save file which provides him right ship (Viper, Constrictor, Sidewinder...) in right place (Behemoth carrier). Then player accepts missions, as done in SecCom stations, and launches from the carrier to fight them out. Repeat, and after last mission in script player might be relieved from duty with his fighter (Viper)... or another fighter (Sidewinder, Adder, Cobra Mark I). Or list of ships and enough credits to buy one (Cobra1, Python, etc.)

To do that you'd probably need to make use of something like the Save Anywhere OXP, to give the impression that the player is staying aboard a carrier for a while. However I don't think that works with v1.75 and there may not be a fix for it. It would be interesting to script a scenario like you describe, where the player joins a carrier on a patrol to various systems.

Just today I gave some thought to how easy or difficult it would be to add or change the ship selection. At the moment the set is hard coded into the script, however using the same trick I discovered for using other OXP resources, I've now rewritten the mechanism to be fully adjustable. What this means is that I can add ships to the pool depending on how the campaign is going, e.g. at some point the resistance might lay it hands on some superior equipment that you can use. (The opposite is true - I could be really evil and take away certain ships if losses start to mount up) Not only has this reduced the amount of script work by a quarter, it also means the same mechanism can be used to support other scenarios that may have a completely different ship set.

I was thinking more like agreeing to sign up as a squadron leader would mean the player leaving their old ship to start in the "standard issue" provided by the Navy. Basically it would amount to the OXP dealing with it as if they bought the Python (or whatever), and the trade-in value of their old ship gets credited to their account. When they decide to leave, they'd have to buy a new "civillian" ship.

If that seems a bit scary, they could save beforehand to keep a branch where they didn't join up to be a squadron leader.

The "tour of duty" would often be near normal main stations, so the player could save without "Save Anywhere" by stopping in at the main station.

I will admit I do miss the Save Anywhere OXP, though. LOL

Ramirez wrote:

To do that you'd probably need to make use of something like the Save Anywhere OXP, to give the impression that the player is staying aboard a carrier for a while.

Fake it by using a carrier ship as the main station, then the player can save game aboard the carrier. Then you don't actually go anywhere, you stay in the same system, but fiddle the system details to mimic another system. Intercept the F6 screen, and replace it with your mission screen, so they can't see the charts. From the player's POV it would appear the carrier was taking them to another system. Does that make sense or require more elaboration?

Wildeblood wrote:

Does that make sense or require more elaboration?

I got it, and if I can understand it, others will too. But that sounds like work: need to create several systems from scratch, or copy-paste existing ones to OXP script. And the fact that carrier remains in system, close to planet, as sitting duck. Game devs, can you allow OXP makers to add save functionaly to their stations and ship carriers that are not main station in system? Or allow multiple main stations in given system?