[RELEASE] DH-Adv. Nav. Comp & Emer. Witchspace Inititator

[Cmd. Cheyd]

EV -I debated on that myself. I came to the conclusion that folks would complain and say they wish they could have it without the equipment as just the immersion element. They would complain, as they are now, about it not being exclusive to the ANC. I weighed it out, figured I would lose either way, and settled on creating the illusion in all cases.

I'll talk it over with Phantor, maybe make it toggle-able via OXPConfig or whatever.

Jex-
The above said, JeX - There was warning, so characterizing it otherwise is not exactly fair. No biggie though. Maybe I could have placed that bit more prominently.

The ANC offers both an equipment item for fuel savings and a general immersion behavior. When a jump is initiated by the player, the OXP will spawn a navigation guidance frame around a distant star. The player is then reoriented to that star to simulate true interstellar navigation.

GGShinobi-
Thank you! The code is all there if you want to look at it. Some of it is beyond me as well. Phantor is still struggling to get me to understand some of the maths.

Diziet Sma- Thank you as well. Took some doing to make that work, but was fun to work out. If you look closely, you should also see the navigation star actually has a few different appearances.

[JeX]

Jex-
The above said, JeX - There was warning, so characterizing it otherwise is not exactly fair. No biggie though. Maybe I could have placed that bit more prominently.

The ANC offers both an equipment item for fuel savings and a general immersion behavior. When a jump is initiated by the player, the OXP will spawn a navigation guidance frame around a distant star. The player is then reoriented to that star to simulate true interstellar navigation.

Look, if I came across as crass in my critique, I apologize. It was merely to provide you, author and developer, with a description of how a user felt upon experiencing a discrepancy between description and actual experience. And the reason for doing so for my part is always because I like the idea, the work and product and I want it to improve.

I am well aware of the description and I myself was very curious about the immersion effect. However, as you may have noticed there is a world of difference reading about a piece of specified functionality, reading about a well described specified functionality and then experiencing that piece of specified functionality in the context of the individual way of how a user chooses to play the game.
You can hardly blame me when the "warning" did not:
a) explain that the immersion effect was absolute and created changes even without the ANC equipped (in your quote it says that "the ANC offers" which I obviously take to mean that it's the behaviour of the ANC, as I now believe it should be).
b) explain in large friendly red letters: "DON'T PANIC! NOW THE WITCHDRIVE COMPUTER TAKES COMPLETELY CONTROL OF YOUR CRAFT FOR 15 SECONDS!"

So in short, yes, I think I was pretty fair in my assessment of my own surprise, despite a thorough read of your description.

It could be analogous (but hardly identical) to the famous sketch by Monty Python: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU

But as you say, no biggie, I would personally love it (as already mentioned) to simply have the immersion effect after having bought the ANC as originally stated in your description of the OXP. Then I at least could choose.

And as I stated before: it's really a fine piece of work. No one should demand a refund for the products of Deep Horizons (unless of course, they sue for inadequate product descriptions )

[Diziet Sma]

Diziet Sma- Thank you as well. Took some doing to make that work, but was fun to work out. If you look closely, you should also see the navigation star actually has a few different appearances.

Indeed, I have noticed.. tres cool.

(and if you think it looks funny against a planet, wait until you jump immediately after sunskimming.. 2 or 3 times in 10, you'll actually jump through the sun! )

[CommRLock78]

Diziet Sma- Thank you as well. Took some doing to make that work, but was fun to work out. If you look closely, you should also see the navigation star actually has a few different appearances.

Indeed, I have noticed.. tres cool.

(and if you think it looks funny against a planet, wait until you jump immediately after sunskimming.. 2 or 3 times in 10, you'll actually jump through the sun! )

I haven't done any sunskimming yet since installing the final release version, but so far I haven't had the star appear anywhere weird - the illusion works, mostly . I'm not sure there is a way of having something like this star appear like it does without having it appear in front of something sooner or later. I think being a good 2 to 4 radii away from a star or planet before you initiate the jump should help avoid this.

[Diziet Sma]

Hehehe.. to be honest, it doesn't really bother me.. I just have a chuckle and say "See, Han Solo? You were wrong!"

[CommRLock78]

Hehehe.. to be honest, it doesn't really bother me.. I just have a chuckle and say "See, Han Solo? You were wrong!"

<chuckles> he's in another universe anyway, .

[PhantorGorth]

(and if you think it looks funny against a planet, wait until you jump immediately after sunskimming.. 2 or 3 times in 10, you'll actually jump through the sun! )

We could add in (optional) if ship turning is in effect for the type of jump you are making and to jump to the destination chosen involves jumping through a planet, moon, or sun then you get a warning and the jump is cancelled. This would certainly effect game play and would give a reason not to always jump as soon as you left the area of the main station.

We are also considering as part of the immersion having you arrive pointing away from the direction you came from. Though that has the downside of often arriving without seeing the planet and being hard to tell visually that you are not in interstellar space. Well only until you notice the witchpoint beacon and the main planet in the compass.

[Cody]

Both ideas have merit... and I have no problem knowing if I'm in IS or not on emergence.

[Cody]

The ANC needs to be disabled for gal-jumps - if you happen to have a local system locked-in when gal-jumping, it still re-orients the ship, and throws an error:

Code: Select all

22:57:29.718 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]: ***** JavaScript exception (Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp 1.0.0): TypeError: this.$jumpMarker is undefined
22:57:29.718 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]:       ../AddOns/Deep Horizon.oxp/Deep_Horizon_Advanced_Navigation_Computer.oxp/Scripts/Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp_World.js, line 196.

[PhantorGorth]

The ANC needs to be disabled for gal-jumps - if you happen to have a local system locked-in when gal-jumping, it still re-orients the ship, and throws an error:

Code: Select all

22:57:29.718 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]: ***** JavaScript exception (Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp 1.0.0): TypeError: this.$jumpMarker is undefined
22:57:29.718 [script.javaScript.exception.unexpectedType]:       ../AddOns/Deep Horizon.oxp/Deep_Horizon_Advanced_Navigation_Computer.oxp/Scripts/Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp_World.js, line 196.

I will take a look and fix this.

[Tricky]

In the equipment script there is a typo...

Code: Select all

this.equipmentDestroyed = this.equipmentDamanged = function (equipment) {

should be this.equipmentDamaged

Also I got 2 other interesting errors:

1. In planetinfo.plist I have sun_color = (1.0, 1.0, 0.925, 1.0);
   • Shows this after launch...

     Code: Select all

     Exception: Error: Native exception: GSArray(instance) does not recognize length
         Active script: Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp 1.0.0
         Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp_World.js, line 367:
         	var color = System.infoForSystem(galaxyNumber,sysID).sun_color;

   • Works ok with sun_color = "1.0 1.0 0.925 1.0"; - not sure if that is a core system bug or not.
2. Prime the ANC equipment, activate and allow the hyperspace countdown to start after re-orientation with the nav-point. Cancel the hyperspace countdown then re-activate the ANC...
   • debug console goes mental with this error message...

     Code: Select all

     Exception: Error: Vector3D.subtract: Could not construct vector from parameters (undefined) -- expected Vector, Entity or array of three numbers.
         Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp_World.js, line 252:
         	var orient = this._lookAtRotate (player.ship.position.subtract(navVE.position),player.ship.orientation.vectorUp());

   • If you don't cancel the countdown but de-activate then re-activate the ANC, all is ok.

[PhantorGorth]

In the equipment script there is a typo...

Code: Select all

this.equipmentDestroyed = this.equipmentDamanged = function (equipment) {

should be this.equipmentDamaged

Ok that's on my list.

Also I got 2 other interesting errors:

1. In planetinfo.plist I have sun_color = (1.0, 1.0, 0.925, 1.0);
   • Shows this after launch...

     Code: Select all

     Exception: Error: Native exception: GSArray(instance) does not recognize length
         Active script: Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp 1.0.0
         Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp_World.js, line 367:
         	var color = System.infoForSystem(galaxyNumber,sysID).sun_color;

   • Works ok with sun_color = "1.0 1.0 0.925 1.0"; - not sure if that is a core system bug or not.

I haven't been involved with that side of the OXP but I will check it out.

[*]Prime the ANC equipment, activate and allow the hyperspace countdown to start after re-orientation with the nav-point. Cancel the hyperspace countdown then re-activate the ANC...

• debug console goes mental with this error message...

  Code: Select all

  Exception: Error: Vector3D.subtract: Could not construct vector from parameters (undefined) -- expected Vector, Entity or array of three numbers.
      Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp_World.js, line 252:
      	var orient = this._lookAtRotate (player.ship.position.subtract(navVE.position),player.ship.orientation.vectorUp());

• If you don't cancel the countdown but de-activate then re-activate the ANC, all is ok.

[/list]

I have been rewriting this part of the code for coming new features. I will test the scenario out with the new version.

Phantor

[Commander McLane]

1. In planetinfo.plist I have sun_color = (1.0, 1.0, 0.925, 1.0);
   • Shows this after launch...

     Code: Select all

     Exception: Error: Native exception: GSArray(instance) does not recognize length
         Active script: Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp 1.0.0
         Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp_World.js, line 367:
         	var color = System.infoForSystem(galaxyNumber,sysID).sun_color;

   • Works ok with sun_color = "1.0 1.0 0.925 1.0"; - not sure if that is a core system bug or not.

You have already fixed the bug. Lists of values in a plist are separated by SPACEs, not by commas.

[Tricky]

1. In planetinfo.plist I have sun_color = (1.0, 1.0, 0.925, 1.0);
   • Shows this after launch...

     Code: Select all

     Exception: Error: Native exception: GSArray(instance) does not recognize length
         Active script: Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp 1.0.0
         Deep_Horizon_Adv_Nav_Comp_World.js, line 367:
         	var color = System.infoForSystem(galaxyNumber,sysID).sun_color;

   • Works ok with sun_color = "1.0 1.0 0.925 1.0"; - not sure if that is a core system bug or not.

You have already fixed the bug. Lists of values in a plist are separated by SPACEs, not by commas.

The first example is an array RGBA tuple, the second is a string RGBA tuple.

[Wildeblood]

The first example is an array RGBA tuple, the second is a string RGBA tuple.

Anything set in planetinfo.plist is loaded as a string.