Oolite Bulletins

In the event of Commander Rese's demise, the estate will be bequeathed to Commander Rese (autosave).

UPDATE RELEASE

Version 1.5 is now available via the Expansions Manager or the wiki page.
This update is to ensure that the Expansion works with Oolite v1.81, and is a ground-up rebuild. I have taken the opportunity to correct a couple of flaws in the OXP and tidy it up at the same time.

The 'flaws' were the inconsistency between the tanks and the main tank level - the 1LY tank could be used when 1LY fuel remaind in the main tank, whereas the 3LY tank could be used with 3LY fuel remaining in the main tank. I think I'd actually intended this to be the other way round when I first developed the OXP but by then it was too late to sort it out easily. However, having had plenty of time to think about it, I now think that having the tanks active with any fuel remaining in the main tank is wrong, so now it has to be empty before either extra tank can be used.

There are a few other changes/improvements as well. If you try to activate the tanks when they are empty, a console message will now tell you that there is no fuel to transfer. Also, if a Reserve tank is upgraded to an Auxiliary tank it must be empty - previously only a full tank could be upgraded which again seemed a bit silly.

The transition for existing users should be seemless. Your installed tank will be the same and will be full or empty depending on its status before the new version was installed and a mission screen will alert you to the changes in the operation of the tanks along with some suitable handwavium.

Changelog:-
1) Main tank must now be empty before extra tanks can be used.
2) Reserve tank must be empty before it can be upgraded to an Auxiliary Tank.
3) Enhanced Console Messages
4) The three scripts from previous versions have now been consolidated into one, which is now "use strict" compliant.
5) The old TL99 hack has been replaced by condition scripting.
6) New variables introduced with the new script - old ones will be removed from the save file.

Smivs wrote:

Main tank must now be empty before extra tanks can be used.

Good! I hope one can still tinker (as I did before), and reduce the reserve tank to 0.5ly?

Cody wrote:

I hope one can still tinker (as I did before), and reduce the reserve tank to 0.5ly?

Yes, just go to line 87 in the script and change to and if you want to be very tidy-minded,
change line 69 in the equipment.plist from to as well.
Of course you will be paying double, so why not adjust the cost? Change line 66 in equipment.plist to from 100, then you won't be paying over the odds.

Clear and concise - thanks!

A small oddity: the hud display shows Primed: Reserve Fuel Tank - Full, when used it changes to Primed: None, but if I cycle through the primed kit list, it's there as Primed: Reserve Fuel Tank - Empty It's not a problem, but I've been meaning to mention it.

Yes, that was (sort of) intentional. It just seemed silly to have an empty tank showing up as primable equipment, so once deployed it should not appear.. TBH I hadn't noticed that it then does appear when you cycle through the primables.
I'll try to sort that out for the next update. Thanks for the report.

Smivs wrote:

It just seemed silly to have an empty tank showing up as primable equipment, so once deployed it should not appear..

Exactly - that's how the previous version behaved.

I'm blaming these new-fangled condition scripts - things like this never happened in the good old TL99 days!

Following Potential Debris' post here, I would like to hear if anybody else has had the same problem of the 'update screen' not cancelling when Space is pressed.
I have helped PD sort this out via PM, but have not really solved the mystery as to why it happened.
If anybody else experiences this, please let me know, with the latest log and previous log (the one before the OXZ was updated), and your save file. I don't like this type of mystery, so would like to get to the bottom of it, although it could just be 'one of those things'.

v1.6 now available

This is a bugfix release to resolve the two issues discussed above.
Changelog:-
1) 'missionFlag' added to prevent information screen from 'sticking' as reported by Potential Debris. This is the info screen shown to existing users when the expansion is updated from pre-v1.80 versions. It should now reliably disappear when 'space' is pressed and not return.
2) Code corrected so that 'empty' tanks do not show up as 'primable equipment' when cycling through the primables. Thanks to Cody for the report.

Thanks, Smivs - tweaked and installed.

I downloaded it from the Wiki page, and noticed the D/L counter which I'd forgotten about, so I took a look at the GG's page - 1188 downloads! <grins>

Cody wrote:

Thanks, Smivs - tweaked and installed.

I downloaded it from the Wiki page, and noticed the D/L counter which I'd forgotten about, so I took a look at the GG's page - 1188 downloads! <grins>

You're welcome.
That's a good tally, and well deserved. Many of my D/L numbers are looking pathetic at the moment, but I zero them on each release.

I think there's something screwy here - when I empty the reserve tank, it jumps to the top of my F5 kit list marked empty (in yellow?). Fine so far, but should it take damage, even when empty? Not only that, but when damaged whilst empty I can only buy it anew, not repair it (which leads to pic #011). Three pics here that show the problem. The only tweak I've made reduces the fuel amount to 0.5ly, so it shouldn't be that.

I've fixed my problem by removing/re-installing the OXZ, btw.

Hmmm, yes, that's not intended behaviour.
The showing as empty in yellow is right, but I have no idea why it should move up the list.
The damage isn't right though. The intention is that these cannot get damaged (you wouldn't want the cockpit filling up with fuel if they sprung a leak, would you?). A quick look in equipment.plist shows that the Full tanks are set to but the Empty ones are not. This was probably an oversight and I cannot think of any reason I might have done this deliberately, so the Empty tanks should probably have damage probability set to Zero as well.
As it's already tomorrow and 'festive cheer' will no doubt get in the way of more important things (Oolite) for the next couple of days I can't promise a rapid fix, but if you want to tweak your version to see if this sorts it, I'd appreciate any feedback.
Thanks.