Oolite Bulletins

EDIT2: Download actualized

EDIT: I have changed the texture as shipbuilder suggested. Link has been rewired.

As it will still be a while until I get JS and shaders, and it works as it is, I'll just release my ship here as it is.

Renamed Amphisbaena Version 1.03

A little inspired from certain battle robots... and I deliberately made it into a rather crappy craft. Definitely not a must-have, but maybe better than an adder... a little bit.

Amphisbaena

Size (W×H×L) 65m×60m×70m
Cargo capacity 2 TC
Maximum speed 0.34 LM
Manoeuvrability Roll: 2.0
Pitch: 1.0
Energy banks 2
Energy recharge rate Poor (2.0)
Gun mounts Fore
Missile slots 10
Shield boosters available Yes
Military shields available Yes
Hyperspace capable Yes
Available to player Yes
Base price 96900 Cr

Built by the now insolvent CLAN Ltd. as a cheap attack craft aginst larger targets, the amphisbaena's technology is terribly outdated, but the ship is still in use by pirates and other derelict subjects, who can't afford something better. An enthusiast can make use of its impressive missile capacity for a vessel of it's size, by putting a little money and effort into this - but there are probably still better alternatives.

EDIT: Oh man, I totally wanted to check first. I just made a wiki search and there was nothing found on amphisbaena, the two headed snake out of greek mythology. Wich is a rather fitting name with it's two missile launching pads, I think...

Rorschachhamster – Congratulations on the production of your first ship oxp. I like the fact that the ship is of a different style.

Great to see a new oxp writer adding to the variety of ships available.

I’ll download it shortly.

That's quite an interesting ship. The architectural style is a good omen for any further ships produced by you.

Thank you! I just tried the different shapes I could create with wings3d and I stumpled upon the torus, and that's how it began...

It pays to check the OXP ship list (and search the forum) - there is already a [wiki]Copperhead[/wiki]!

Ah! I did'nt check, even though I wanted to. OK, I'll rename it asap. Thanks!

Edit: And done!

Heh, cool name - and well done on your first ship OXP (I expect a dark-sider will offer you a cookie soon).

Thargoid wrote:

Can offer you a trumble though, nice and cheap...

I didn't want to admit it, in that other thread... but I already have one...

Thargoid wrote:

We haven't got any left at the moment. Some bugger went back to the light-side and took the last one

<smirks>

Rorschachhamster – I have only had the chance to have a quick look over this however please note the following feedback which will hopefully help.

I noticed that in your shipdata.plist you include a non-standard role i.e. ace_ship2 escort. i.e. If you use a non-standard role you will need to spawn the ship with script in order to get it to appear in game. You can check for errors like this by using the debug console an extract of which I have included below. A second point is that you have used a like_ship key for your npc versions however you have specified a pirate AI to be used in conjunction with all of the npc roles including a hunter and escort role. Perhaps one of the boffins can comment on if this will cause an issue with Oolite or whether Oolite will use the correct AI and ignore the pirate AI specified in the shipdata.plist. In any event you can remove the following code from the npc shipdata.plist and Oolite will select the correct AI for you I also notice that you have an alpha channel in your texture file but you don’t appear to be using it. If this is the case you can remove the alpha channel to reduce the size of the texture file. I have done this and reduced the texture file from 1.43MB to 1.25MB. If you are using gimp this can be done by selecting layers/transparency/remove alpha channel.

Also if you make the background of the texture file plan black you will also be able to greatly reduce the size of the texture file. I have also quickly looked at this and reduced the size of the texture file to less than 0.5MB.

Please don't take any of the above as criticism it is simply intended to assist.

Having a pirateAI defined is no problem as it will be overridden with the correct one for its role. The defined AI wil only be used when added in the role of 'ace_ship2'. Personally I do like a ship having its own custom role. Even when not used in the script, it is easy for testing.

Thanks for your comments. I'm trying to learn here, so comments are more than welcome.

The ace_pilot2 is propably a relict of where I took the plist and I've taken it away. I'll look into ship scripts in the future, but right now... And I'll have to look at how the pirateAI.plist works with missile. Is there an AI that makes heavy uses of missiles? I'll look it up!

And graphicswise, I'll make sure to remove the alpha channel, and I will do the background in black the next time. I think, I'll make the background of the amphisbaena, too, but as it is important that the grey parts stay grey, I'll have to look at the UV mapping a little bit.

I'll do an update shortly, and I'll mind your advise with my new WIP...

Very different kind of style.. I like it!

I found a like_ship error for the amphisbaena-npc in my logs..

It turns out that instead of [color=#FF0000]like_ship = "amphisbaena_player";[/color] you still had [color=#FF0000]like_ship = "copperhead-player";[/color] in the shipdata.plist

This is still in the latest version, 1.02