Oolite Bulletins

I am currently designing a small ship which will have a cargo capacity of probably 1T to 2T however in order to keep the design of the ship realistic I don’t feel that it would have fuel scoops large enough to collect a cargo pod during flight (The idea being that cargo could be loaded and offloaded within stations).

Is it possible to define fuel scoops for a ship with a small cargo capacity that can collect fuel from stars but can’t collect cargo containers ?

Shipbuilder wrote:

Is it possible to define fuel scoops for a ship with a small cargo capacity that can collect fuel from stars but can’t collect cargo containers ?

I like that idea!

Shipbuilder wrote:

I am currently designing a small ship which will have a cargo capacity of probably 1T to 2T however in order to keep the design of the ship realistic I don’t feel that it would have fuel scoops large enough to collect a cargo pod during flight (The idea being that cargo could be loaded and offloaded within stations).

Is it possible to define fuel scoops for a ship with a small cargo capacity that can collect fuel from stars but can’t collect cargo containers ?

I don't think that's possible, but I might be wrong - something I'm quite good at!
I suppose this could quite easily be scripted - remove any cargo scooped and have a console message saying 'Unable to scoop cargo as pod is too big' or whatever, then just spawn a pod behind the ship to mimic it still being there.
Alternatively you could handwavium this a bit though. I think the scoops don't actually scoop the cargo up as such. If they did it would end up in the fuel tank! The thinking seems to be that they draw cargo pods in towards the ship using some sort of electro-magnetic field and when they are close enough the ship brings them in (presumably through a hatch or cargo bay doors) using it's in-built cargo handling equipment. I have certainly seen (in-game) Cobras 'absorbing' cargo pods into the rear panel.

As Smivs says, it's not possible, and the only way of faking the desired behaviour would be to remove any scooped cargo right after the fact. Practically, this poses some problems: You'd still have the "Cargo scooped" console message. Even if your scripts spawns another pod for each one scooped, once the player has one of the more-cargo-variation OXPs installed, there's no way to ensure that the newly spawned pod will even look the same as the scooped one.

In fact, you might be better off with not giving the ship a scoop in the first place, and emulating the fuel scooping behaviour by script.

It's possible in 1.76 by scripting, though it has minor side-effects.

On launch, note the two containers currently held, save their contents to a script variable, and remove them from the hold. Then call player.ship.useSpecialCargo() to give the ship a "special" cargo with a description matching the containers ... or "cargo hold sealed for flight" if you're lazy.

On docking, reverse the process to give the ship its real cargo back.

Side-effects:
- F8 screen in flight will not display the carried cargo, and F5 F5 will display it oddly.
- Cargo will no longer be damageable in flight, and cannot be dumped in flight.

With trunk you can alternatively fill the spare space in the hold with undamageable invisible equipment items, which avoids the side-effects, though you'll need to check carefully for cargo dumping/destruction in this case to avoid scooping becoming possible as a result.

Instead of spawning a pod behind the ship, you just could do an eject cargo command. That ensures you dump the same cargo pod you scooped. Problem will be scripted pods that directly award commodities on scooping.

Perhaps script that awards fuel when in range of the sun?

Rese249er wrote:

Perhaps script that awards fuel when in range of the sun?

Frame's Fuel Collector does something like that. Also CSOTB's Custom Shields has a fuel collector from leaking ships.

Tricky wrote:

Rese249er wrote:

Perhaps script that awards fuel when in range of the sun?

Frame's Fuel Collector does something like that. Also CSOTB's Custom Shields has a fuel collector from leaking ships.

First, that's what I already said a couple of posts above. Second, you're missing the point. Fuel Collector OXP needs fuel scoops to work, it's not an alternative.

Commander McLane wrote:

Tricky wrote:

Rese249er wrote:

Perhaps script that awards fuel when in range of the sun?

Frame's Fuel Collector does something like that. Also CSOTB's Custom Shields has a fuel collector from leaking ships.

First, that's what I already said a couple of posts above. Second, you're missing the point. Fuel Collector OXP needs fuel scoops to work, it's not an alternative.

Why do you have to take everything literally? I was giving pointers.

Don't take the above as criticism.

I think he was pointing out my repeat of his point. Sorry Commander McLane!

Rese249er wrote:

I think he was pointing out my repeat of his point. Sorry Commander McLane!

Actually I wanted to reply to both of you in the same post. Seems not to have worked out as intended.

Thanks for the feedback on this guys

It seems this is not a simple one to achieve. I'll have to give it some more thought.

Shipbuilder wrote:

Thanks for the feedback on this guys

It seems this is not a simple one to achieve. I'll have to give it some more thought.

Well, you can always make a scripting/feature request for the next release..

One thing to be aware of is what is actually the fuel scoop and how much space at minimum should it take up. After looking at the elite sequels' manuals it is listed at 6tc and a cargo scoop conversion can be added to it for 2tc. So, really small hulls probably wouldn't be able to have a basic "fuel scooping only" fuel scoop, if one went ahead and designed one for 1.77 where equipment can take up space and designed it to be along the lines of the elite sequels versions of scoops.

What I'm saying is I believe it can be done as an oxp but should be like the elite sequels versions and should have different space requirements which means 1.77 for sure.