Oolite Bulletins

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:02 am**

Hi all,
I played the original back in 1984 on my BBC model B. Showing my age now. I also played the second version too. Still have them both in the roof-space I think.
I was pleased when I discovered Oolite and have been playing it for a while and have become ELITE again.
Thanks everyone for your time and effort with Oolite.
I hope no one will be offended if I list a few of my thoughts below about the game and the add on's.
Some are little things that niggle me and others are just ideas I had while I have been playing.
I hope this is OK to post here. It is a bit of a mixed bag of items realy.
Thanks again Dave.

Nuit.oxp adds another station every time I launch in the system.

Hired escorts are the same colour on the radar as Fugitives in Police IFF Scanner Upgrade this make it difficult to know what is what in the heat of battle. Could the ingoing missiles and out going missiles be different colours to the selected target also.

On the radar F is for the fuel station and for collective station.

Vector has a flashing screen when collecting pods. Could this cause someone to have a fit?

Sometimes when I launch with the updated constore I get another constore station appear.

How about a one press lock of the (i) fuel injection button. Perhaps Shift/i to save wearing out ones keyboard.

In the flight log if you buy lots of expensive cargo it lowers your credits/profits for the planet making it look like a loss when it is just an investment in cargo. What if another figure was added calculating the average value of the cargo. Perhaps a third figure combining the two. Would this not give a truer credit value for each planet.

How about a cargo calculation computer. It helps work out what to buy and sell. The user tells it he is about to fly say to a democracy and the computer works out the potentially best cargo to take from the currant planet. If selected it could do an automatic buy and sell of cargo. Call it the cargo predictor.

When you have lots of dockables it is difficult to know which is which even with a letter on the compass. Could it not be possible to write the full name bellow the compass.

When uploading the hyper cargo why does it not go back to the cargo screen. Instead it goes to Equipment screen. And why so many buttons to press to transfer the cargo? Why not put a new list on the cargo screen next to the In Hold column and call it the in Hyper cargo column.

Repairing the iron hide armour takes you to the equipment screen. Why? It would be better to go back to the outfitting screen where you started ready to carry on looking at that list.

In the new sound BGS-A1.3.5.OXP The sound for the laser fire does not differentiate for a hit and a miss sound as the original does. Not that I can tell anyway. When the laser over heats it makes a sound like the clangers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfsMZKwqw3w. Don't like this. When I put the game in pause the sounds carry on playing. Is there no way of stopping this? Sometimes while playing I want to look things up such as Planet maps and the sounds just keep on playing forever. The engine sound is playing now while I am trying to think and writing this.

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:19 am**

Hi Looking,
and welcome to the friendliest board this side of Riedquat.
Don't worry about being an 'old-timer', most of us are, and like you we're all enjoying today's take on probably the best game ever.
Fortunately (for me) and unfortunately (for you) none of the problems you mention concern my OXPs, so I can't help you with those, but I'm sure help and advice will be forthcoming.
Welcome aboard

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:27 pm**

Looking wrote:
How about a one press lock of the (i) fuel injection button. Perhaps Shift/i to save wearing out ones keyboard.

I'm actually thinking of making fuel injectors MUCH less useful - by making them increasingly unreliable as they are being actively used (basically, they are 'overheating'), with the potential of exploding and causing damage to the ship. After all, they're basically dumping raw quirium into the sub-light engines, something they weren't really designed for.
(This will most likely stay in my personal copy of Oolite though, since I doubt I will be able to interest anybody else into this 'functionality', but it will hopefully stop those dumb-ass pirate AIs injectoring away for minutes on end)

Looking wrote:
When you have lots of dockables it is difficult to know which is which even with a letter on the compass. Could it not be possible to write the full name bellow the compass.

I like this. Since beacons by their very nature transmit anyway, there's nothing stopping them transmitting a bit more identification information and with a compatible receiver and HUD, you should be able to see this information.
Consider this added to my TODO list for post-MNSR.

The rest sounds mostly like OXP issues.

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:30 pm**

Looking wrote:
How about a one press lock of the (i) fuel injection button. Perhaps Shift/i to save wearing out ones keyboard.

Now that would be very nice... no more holding the "i" key with one finger and trying to fly and fire at the same time...

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:31 pm**

Micha wrote:
I'm actually thinking of making fuel injectors MUCH less useful - by making them increasingly unreliable as they are being actively used (basically, they are 'overheating'), with the potential of exploding and causing damage to the ship. After all, they're basically dumping raw quirium into the sub-light engines, something they weren't really designed for.
(This will most likely stay in my personal copy of Oolite though, since I doubt I will be able to interest anybody else into this 'functionality', but it will hopefully stop those dumb-ass pirate AIs injectoring away for minutes on end)

You can interest me in that 'functionality'... I like this idea!

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:44 pm**

Looking wrote:
Nuit.oxp adds another station every time I launch in the system.

If I recall correctly, this is due to the script file included in the oxp, which is actually a script designed to do exactly that - spawn a station upon launch for testing...

El Viejo wrote:
Micha wrote:
I'm actually thinking of making fuel injectors MUCH less useful - by making them increasingly unreliable as they are being actively used (basically, they are 'overheating'), with the potential of exploding and causing damage to the ship. After all, they're basically dumping raw quirium into the sub-light engines, something they weren't really designed for.
(This will most likely stay in my personal copy of Oolite though, since I doubt I will be able to interest anybody else into this 'functionality', but it will hopefully stop those dumb-ass pirate AIs injectoring away for minutes on end)
You can interest me in that 'functionality'... I like this idea!

Sounds interesting! I really hate the way Asps and Ferdies and sometimes Kraits zoom off with injectors - stupid targs won't stay and die properly! And I'm definitely an over-user of injectors. At some point in the future, I want to go through and have a serious think about how my entire Ooniverse works and fits together, and then choose my oxps based on that. (Normally I install an oxp if I like it, and at the moment I'm on a minimal oxp install due to a not-so-powerful computer.) This might be something that I would use...

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:39 pm**

El Viejo wrote:
Micha wrote:
I'm actually thinking of making fuel injectors MUCH less useful - by making them increasingly unreliable as they are being actively used (basically, they are 'overheating'), with the potential of exploding and causing damage to the ship. After all, they're basically dumping raw quirium into the sub-light engines, something they weren't really designed for.
(This will most likely stay in my personal copy of Oolite though, since I doubt I will be able to interest anybody else into this 'functionality', but it will hopefully stop those dumb-ass pirate AIs injectoring away for minutes on end)
You can interest me in that 'functionality'... I like this idea!

+1
That's a good idea.

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:39 pm**

Hi Looking, so you're a long time player, first time poster... Welcome!

You're in good company in your history with Elite (my a C64/Amiga player myself - both still working - although I've had to give up my study and they're in the loft at the moment), you'll find many old-timers here.

Re: Nuit - that sound like a test spawning script.

Re: YAH/Constore - hmmm, I don't get that.

Each OXP(er) decides on the letter that the compass displays - while there's a general "is anybody using..." it's still a democracy/free-for-all.

Full names are not possible on the compass (because of the way it's drawn) - but as Micha says - with all the new HUD work - somebody could (possibly) implement a "transmission box" containing additional info from the transmitters of the various stations (although in-turn those OXPs would need modifying to output this additional data)

Re: Vector scooping - well - true - possibly - but is any epileptic not aware of the potential dangers of playing ANY computer game...

The rest of the OXPs I've never used so can't comment.

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:40 pm**

Looking wrote:
In the new sound BGS-A1.3.5.OXP The sound for the laser fire does not differentiate for a hit and a miss sound as the original does.

Nope. It does differentiate and even more clearly than Oolites own sounds. The laser sounds are not altered in any way since BGS' first release.

Looking wrote:
When the laser over heats it makes a sound like the clangers <snip> Don't like this.

Personal preference, I'd think. For my own BGS I'm using a different sound too which is a lot closer to the original sound from CustomSounds.

Looking wrote:
When I put the game in pause the sounds carry on playing.

This is valid for Oolite and all Sound-OXPs with e.g. a afterburner sound. The injector sound is played by Oolite (afterburner1.ogg) and not even declared in customsounds.plist. A OXP has no influence.

The same goes for all defined sounds via customsounds.plist too (at least for the part which is natively supported by Oolite). No OXP influence.

For the engine background sound BGS uses a looped sound. There is no notification for a un/paused game, so BGS 'ignores' this situation. It would be possible to detect it by checking the clock though.

Looking wrote:
Vector has a flashing screen when collecting pods. Could this cause someone to have a fit?

So does every explosion (and even more the scripted explosions in some other OXPs) and using the rear view when the exhausts are visible. Most games are not suitable for epileptics and can lead to an epileptic fit (e.g. Grand Mal). Same goes for visiting concerts or even watching TV. I'll add a disclaimer to all my OXPs:

A small percentage of users may experience epileptic seizures when exposed to certain light patterns or backgrounds on a computer screen or while using this OXP. Certain conditions may induce previously undetected epileptic symptoms even in users who have no history of prior seizures or epilepsy. If you, or anyone in your family, have an epileptic condition, consult your physician prior to using this OXP. Immediately discontinue use of this OXP and consult your physician if you experience any of the following symptoms while using this OXP: dizziness, altered vision, eye or muscle twitches, loss of awareness, disorientation, any involuntary movement, or convulsions.

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:02 pm**

To pick out my OXP-related bits from the list:

Looking wrote:
Hired escorts are the same colour on the radar as Fugitives in Police IFF Scanner Upgrade this make it difficult to know what is what in the heat of battle. Could the ingoing missiles and out going missiles be different colours to the selected target also.

Didn't know that, as I don't run the scanner upgrade. It's not difficult to change the colours of the escorts though. I'll look into it and tweak things.

Looking wrote:
On the radar F is for the fuel station and for collective station.

The problem is there are only so many letters in the alphabet

The fuel station "should" have a fuel pump symbol rather than the F (that is the fallback), but it seems to intermittently have some problems for some reason. There are a few cases though where a few locations have the same compass letter - not much to be done about that I'm afraid.

It may be worth checking if you have the latest version of the OXP, and I'll try and check the compass icon is broken again.

Looking wrote:
In the flight log if you buy lots of expensive cargo it lowers your credits/profits for the planet making it look like a loss when it is just an investment in cargo. What if another figure was added calculating the average value of the cargo. Perhaps a third figure combining the two. Would this not give a truer credit value for each planet.

It gets a bit difficult to fit everything onto the screen

Plus to be honest that was just a quick knocked-together OXP because someone here wanted the functionality.

Looking wrote:
When uploading the hyper cargo why does it not go back to the cargo screen. Instead it goes to Equipment screen. And why so many buttons to press to transfer the cargo? Why not put a new list on the cargo screen next to the In Hold column and call it the in Hyper cargo column.

The hypercargo screen is a heavily disguised mission screen. It's not possible (currently) to go to a particular GUI screen by scripting. When you leave hypercargo you are essentially closing a mission screen, and so like all mission screens you go back to the normal root GUI screen.

Similarly the main cargo screen is part of the trunk code, which cannot be modified by OXP (other than its background).

Looking wrote:
Repairing the iron hide armour takes you to the equipment screen. Why? It would be better to go back to the outfitting screen where you started ready to carry on looking at that list.

Same reason as Hypercargo above. It would be nice to be able to do such a script-select of the GUI screen, but I think that would be a whole new can of worms to open (and certainly not before 1.76.1 at least anyway).

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:26 pm**

Looking wrote:
When you have lots of dockables it is difficult to know which is which even with a letter on the compass. Could it not be possible to write the full name bellow the compass.

I see I'm not the only one who got annoyed by that... I did write a quick OXP for myself that tells me - only when I lock the compass on to a new target - what it just locked on to.

I'll tidy it up and put it online, if other people would be interested in using it.

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:56 pm**

Every now and then a new poster decides to make a smashing entrance by releasing an OXP in their first post... You show-offs!

Welcome to the Friendliest Board This Side Of Riedquat, cim, and please do feel free to put it online. I know I want it...

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:16 pm**

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:
please do feel free to put it online. I know I want it...

Here you go. Talkative Space Compass 1.0.2

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:25 pm**

Thargoid wrote:
To pick out my OXP-related bits from the list:
Looking wrote:
Hired escorts are the same colour on the radar as Fugitives in Police IFF Scanner Upgrade this make it difficult to know what is what in the heat of battle. Could the ingoing missiles and out going missiles be different colours to the selected target also.
Didn't know that, as I don't run the scanner upgrade. It's not difficult to change the colours of the escorts though. I'll look into it and tweak things.

The clashing colours are my fault really as Police Scanner came after Hired Escorts.

It's pretty easy to edit your copy to change the colours. You need an appropriate text editor (Not Windows notepad if you are a windows user).

Open up ......\AddOns\Police_Scanner_Upgrade 1.3.oxp\Scripts\Police_Scanner_Upgrade.js

and you'll see this section....

Code: Select all

// Assigns custom colours to ships with a bounty.
this.psu_assigncustomscannercolours = function (target)
{
	if (target.bounty > 50)
		{
			target.scannerDisplayColor1 = "yellowColor";
			target.scannerDisplayColor2 = "magentaColor";
		}
		else
		{
			target.scannerDisplayColor1 = "yellowColor";
			target.scannerDisplayColor2 = "orangeColor";
		}
}

The choices for colours can be found at
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Materi ... specifiers

Posted: **Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:12 pm**

Similarly in shipdata.plist inside hired guns OXP (in the config folder) you'll find

Code: Select all

		scanner_display_color1 = "yellowColor";		
		scanner_display_color2 = "magentaColor";

for each of the three escort types (for the different tech levels). You can change those in a similar fashion to that mentioned above. I include this so that people have the choice of which OXP they prefer to change (or indeed can change both if they so wish).

In all cases don't forget to hold down shift when you restart the game (until the spinning cobra appears) so that the cache gets refreshed or else the editting of files won't be registered.[/color]

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