Oolite Bulletins

Here's an update. I've applied the changes I talked about in my last post and have now scripted up most of the other mission types. I need to do a bit more on the 'Assist' mission but that shouldn't be too difficult.

For variation I've tried making the Gecko more of missile platform, leaving the dogfights to the Mambas and Kraits. So, when you tell a Gecko to engage a target it will fire its missiles rather than diving into the fray. Could be useful as a stand-off weapon while your other ships get into position.

I've given the Moray a fixed turret for the moment - I've still got the twin cannons on the Krait but I'l be replacing them at some point.

Biggest change is to the opfor ships - I needed a fairly standard collection of ships so I've raided the parts bin and have borrowed the Imperial vessels from my Dictators.oxp. I've also added in a guest ship that I've never got around to using before. As a result, if you haven't already done so you'll need to download Dictators for this OXP to work.

Guerilla War v0.4

Matti wrote:

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?

Just had a thought about this. If the SaveAnywhere mechanism isn't viable, what you could do is hijack the main station for use as a carrier, but then teleport the player as soon as they launch and move them to somewhere else in the system. If you spawn ships in the right kind of position you can probably make it appear (if you don't look too closely!) that you've launched from a carrier that's still far away from the planet.

You can probably do the reverse when it comes to landing, by placing the player right in front of the main station’s dock . As has been said, you can then block off some of the F-key screens so it doesn't look like a 'proper' station.

I thought I might be able to go even furher and fake a hyperspace routine:
- force a player launch
- teleport a short distance away from the station
- force a hyperspace
- do another teleport to the main station
- dock the player

Trouble is there's no way of forcing a player to hyperspace - this.ship.exitSystem() will always fail for the player. However, you could get the player to engage hyperspace themselves and still do all the other bits so it looks like the carrier is jumping rather than just the player. Alternatively, you can script the carrier to do a jump (you can also set its jump target) and then have the player go through the carrier's wormhole.

Various hyperspace-related OXPs (LongRangeScanner, 1-way Ticket to Oresrati, LinkG7, and Wormhole Drones WIP all use an NPC ship auto-spawned directly in front of the player's ship that hyperspaces. The player's ship is not only typically unable to avoid the resulting wormhole, the instant it's created it can be so close the player is automatically sucked in. All you'll see is a bright flash and a brief screen filled with blue. I found using the basic missile as the NPC jumpship works reasonably well, because it auto-removes itself after a jump because it lost target and self destructs.

The only things left is proper placement and orientation of "previously seen" items, hopefully done as the player first appears in-system (after launch or after hyperspace) but before everything is drawn onscreen. ...such as using willexithyperspace or exitinghyperspace instead of exitedhyperspace.

Anything beyond the ~30 km radius from the player's last location can either be ignored (and hopefully added back via their own respective spawners) or the whole system could be stored in a massive mission variable array. Or arrays. Clever creation could have it "forget" cargo, alloys, boulders, mineral shards, missiles, flashes, and laser fire to keep total item count down. The main station itself and beacon need not be stored either, since it's already "known" to exist or possibly removed by a special mission OXP. Lots of AI.plist behavior/scripts might break as everything has forgotten exactly what they were doing, but it should "knit itself back together" over just a few seconds. Pirates will re-attack traders, police will re-attack pirates, traders will go about their way and fight as they get attacked, miners will mine, etc.

Ramirez wrote:

Guerilla War v0.4

Downloaded along with Dictators. Did you earlier say something about save file? I didn't find it from *.zip

Ah, I forgot to include the savegame. I've added it into the Guerilla War zip file.

Excellent! Gonna test drive it soon

Just gave it a run and here's some feedback:
You could put in text file that explains commands and what they do.
Mission to destroy jump gate didn't work out becouse I didn't know where to find damn thing.
I had two Geckos with me, and both were Unit 3. Unit 4 was out of action.
Player starts in Arean, is welcomed there and is told that somebody's home system has been invaded. What is the home system in question? Half-assed invasion if main Coreolis station has been left for defenders.
Player needs faster ship.

Thanks Matti. I'm working on a readme right now and have also decided on some locations, at least for one of the galaxies. Turns out I had scripted the wrong role for the jumpgate, which explains why it wasn't spawned when expected. I'll look into the other areas as I do more testing.

Mission objectives could be located as easily as in OXP Escort Contracts. If you don't know that, try it and fiddle through space compass modes when you're escorting ship.

I think I've already fitted most primary targets with an 'X' beacon, but I probably haven't actually explained that in any of the briefings!

I've made a few updates and have uploaded v0.5 to my site - you'll now find it in the 'Missions' section.

Main change is that I've decided on a location, and as I happened to be in Galaxy 5 when I was looking for ideas, that's where it's set. The enemy is the Biesmaan Dictatorship, and the good guys are the Zabe Resistance. There are 5 resistance commands dotted around the galaxy, as shown in the map (a larger version is included in the OXP package):



I've shifted the briefing screens from F8 to F7 so they don't get in the way of the market screen. The missions are pretty much as before except I've added some generic friendly units to the 'assist' mission.

More importantly, I've put a quick readme together that explains most of the commands and how the different elements work. I'm halfway through a more comprehensive readme, a multi-page epic similar to the one I did for The Feudal States. I'm up to 12 pages just to cover the basics - I haven't even gone into detail about the overall campaign yet!

I'm still toying with the name of this OXP. The Zabe Resistance isn't a guerilla organisation per se but represents the last remnants of the system's small defence force that just managed to escape during the invasion. They're only adopting guerilla tactics as a last resort, and still the Galactic Cooperation refuses to intervene. So, possibly I might start calling this 'Oolite: Resistance', or maybe 'Resistance Commander' so as to focus on the leadership aspect. Any suggestions on a postcard please!

Ramirez wrote:

The Zabe Resistance isn't a guerilla organisation per se but represents the last remnants of the system's small defence force that just managed to escape during the invasion. ... So, possibly I might start calling this 'Oolite: Resistance', or maybe 'Resistance Commander' so as to focus on the leadership aspect. Any suggestions on a postcard please!

If you plan to expand this to more than just Zabe Resistance/Biesmaan Dictatorship, definitely rename this to Resistance Commander OXP.
Otherwise, Zabe Resistance OXP is good.

If you're thinking about expanding this or opening it up so others can make their own "La Resistance" add-on to it...
Is your OXP modular enough that separate resistance wars/battles/systems/cells could be added via extra small OXPs like Your Ad Here! adds ads?

Just realised that the readme is an .rtfd and so won't open on Windows PCs - I'll aim to PDF it and re-upload.

I was writing up a technical guide and realised I missed a rather obvious trick on the ship selection mechanism. If it works I think it means I can do without some extra stuff I've been putting into the shipdata, which is always a good result.

Although I've made the OXP fairly flexible I'm not sure it's really that modular, at least not in its current form. I'd probably have to separate the core squadron mechanics from the more standard scripting used for the missions, but in doing that I'm sure I'd discover some improvements. It might be tricky for this one OXP to support more than one conflict at a time, but it can probalby be copied and adapted.

EDIT: I've PDFed the readme and refreshed the download link.

Ganelon wrote:

Crazy notion, but how about basing the OXP squadron aboard something that could functions somewhat like a capship?

I see that CommonSenseOTB has got SaveAnywhere working again, so the 'basing a squadron on a carrier' concept has suddenly become a distinct possibility.

I might try this out as a potential endgame to Resistance Commander, although the basic idea could also be used for a more traditional GalCop OXP - or maybe combining with the APB stuff over in the 'Join GalCop' thread.

So many ideas, so little time...

I've finally got to the stage where I can release v1.0 of this OXP, which I've rebranded as Resistance Commander.

The main change on top of various minor tweaks is that squadron units now have variable effective energies based on their rank. In practice it means a Lt Commander will considerably more resilient in combat compared to a newly-recruited Ensign.

I've written another detailed readme with plenty of info; this is included in the zip file.

I've also included in the notes some things of the things I'm planning to do next. One thing I'd like to look into is maybe creating a HUD for use with the squadron command system - I'd particularly like to have the command panel in a more prominent position, maybe centered above the scanner. I don't do HUDs though so if anyone would like to try designing one for this expansion then let me know.

The latest version is up on the mission section of my site. I'd better get working on a page for the wiki as well.