Oolite Bulletins

Thanks for the quick response

Eric Walch wrote:

The problem is a missing '[" in the file "missiontext.plist. Search for

Code: Select all

[random_hits_security_bar_text1] mission_random_hits_playertitle]

and replace it with

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[random_hits_security_bar_text1] [mission_random_hits_playertitle]

This is part of the welcome message that you get on the first docking in a new galaxy. Apparently the string expansion routine does not like non-matching brackets. And 1.77 has a new handling of the string expansion that handles this better. A CTD on my mac was also an Oolite bug as no oxp bug should crash Oolite.

This fix didn't work in 1.76.1.

I think the message that's causing the problem is:

We have been monitoring your successful completion of contracts from this Bulletin Board System and are suitably impressed with your expertise and expedience. Accordingly, we have added your GalMail address to the Bounty Hunters Special Operations InfoNet. Whenever you are docked at any Seedy Space Bar, your onboard computer will automatically search our Intelligence Database for any unusual criminal activity in your current star system. In the event that any Special Assignments are available, one of our agents will be in contact. You will be hearing from us again [mission_random_hits_playertitle]. And maybe sooner than you think.

skribe wrote:

This fix didn't work in 1.76.1.

Did you restart Oolite with Shift held down after applying the fix? If not, please do so.

skribe wrote:

This fix didn't work in 1.76.1.

As another_commander writes: you must hold the shift key after editing plist. Oolite won't detect such a minor change and keeps using the old version in its cache. I just forgot to mention because I have a permanent brick lying on my shift key.

Anyway, thanks for the report so that I can withdraw this buggy version shortly after release. Specially the crashing behaviour on my mac urged me to withdraw this version as soon as possible.
I checked and this bug was introduced in this last version when doing some 'minor' changing of the expansion strings.

I also fixed an older text-bug reported by CommRLock78.

Version 1.4.18 is now on line.

another_commander wrote:

Did you restart Oolite with Shift held down after applying the fix? If not, please do so.

Eric Walch wrote:

As another_commander writes: you must hold the shift key after editing plist.

Guys, when you're telling newbies about the shift key, please be more specific.. what's old-hat to us is not obvious to new players.

skribe, if you make changes to an already installed OXP, Oolite won't notice unless you tell it to update the cache. To force Oolite to re-build the cache, you have to hold down the shift key when you start the game, and keep it held down until you see the spinning CobraMkIII on screen. There's no need to do this if you add/remove OXPs as Oolite does notice the changes in that case, and re-builds the cache automatically. (That's why the initial start-up after adding/removing OXPs takes longer than usual)

Works a treat. Thanks everyone. Much appreciated.

Two things have changed when playing random hits with Oolite 1.77

1) When leaving the missions screen, you can re-enter the hit pages on the new F4 page. I noticed that this is very useful for looking up the exact location on the galactic map and than re-enter the pages to accept the mission. On re-entering you will see the same pages.

2) Oolite 1.77 works with accuracies to influence the combat tactics of ships. By default they are random set on ship creation. Random Hits defines a fixed accuracy for targets on accepting the mission. 30% of the level 3 targets has now a better combat tactic that the highest value given to normal ships. As described here and here this can result in quite difficult targets. I like some feedback about this, if Random Hits should allow such difficult targets. On the other hand, you always can cancel a mission when you accepted a to difficult target.

Eric Walch wrote:

On the other hand, you always can cancel a mission when you accepted a to difficult target.

Does cancelling a mission have some impact on your reputation? I never dared...

If I recall, there's a financial penalty and your fellow bounty-hunters will laugh at you.. lots.

Diziet Sma wrote:

If I recall, there's a financial penalty and your fellow bounty-hunters will laugh at you.. lots.

Hah. Good that I rather died then!

Eric, i've often got the impression RH targets increase to much in difficulty between the 3 levels.

Current situation i(i think ) :
lowest level : mark has weak ship, no escorts
medium level : medium ship, with escorts (aft laser seems to be standard on these ... )
Highest level : strong mark, strong escorts

Here's an alternative :

mark types / difficulty
weak - 1
medium - 4
strong - 7
Uber - 10

escort types / difficulty
none - 0
weak - 1 per escort
medium - 4 per escort
strong - 7 per escort
uber - 10

By adding up the diff values for mark + escorts, you then would have a mission difficulty.

examples :
medium mark, 2 weak escorts : diff 6
weak mark, 5 weak escorts : diff 6

strong mark + 2 medium escorts : diff 15
Uber mark + 1 uber escort : diff 20

Strong and uber would have same type of ship, but uber would have the increased accuracy/ special tactics

In case you prefer to keep things simple, just add a 4th level where those marks with increased acc are present.

Lone_Wolf wrote:

In case you prefer to keep things simple, just add a 4th level where those marks with increased acc are present.

I was thinking about even a simpler solution as I want to keep the 3 levels to avoid a lot of re-programming. With the new accuracy parameter you can differentiate difficulty within a category. Currently the accuracy is set completely random after the selection.

But, you could define accuracy during the mark generation. And than present it to the player in the contract fee. Now the fee is randomly chosen between a min and max value. You could also use the accuracy as basis for fee. Than you know that a high fee always means a difficult target or even über target if I allow the highest accuracies. On the other hand, you than miss the surprise of a more than usual difficult target.

I hadn't thought about escort difficulties. No need to change the numbers, but you could also rase the accuracy of the escorts together with those of the mark. Numbers is not really a problem when using a tactic of killing them one by one. It just takes longer to kill them all. Giving them higher combat intelligence however....

In the current release, I think the level 1 marks are even easier than before because they largely have accuracies in the negative range. That will certainly be upped in a next update.

Not a bug as such, but when I try to download this OXP I get an error message from the Box saying "The user hosting this content is out of bandwidth".
Is there anywhere else I can get it from? Or when will the Box have it available again?
I'm pretty new to Oolite and I'm getting rather addicted to OXPs, I've got 48 installed so far!

The bandwidth will be fine on the first of next month - four days away.

And if you absolutely can't wait that long, ( ) here's a temporary link:
https://www.box.com/s/m6q9i352lzn2spbebtcw

Got it! Thanks!