Oolite Bulletins

update 2013-03-30: New version 0.3.2 available
update 2013-03-19: New version 0.2.0 available

Hi,

I'm creating a new OXP that enables the player to rotate their laser weapons through the front, aft, starboard and port laser mounts. This way you can e.g. fit a military laser up front, fit a mining laser sideways and rotate it to the front whenever you need it.

Here's an excerpt from the Readme:
...
You fit the weapon rotator at your ship and then you could rotate all four weapons in flight with the push of a button. Switch to front mining laser, scoop up splinters like hell. Pirates attack, you switch back to front military laser and teach them a little lesson. Go to feudal or anarchy worlds, clean up the area of pirates, then take all the time you need to get the valuable stuff out of the asteroids.
...

The core functionality works. I've planned some other equipment to come along with it. More details are found in the Readme file. If you like, you could try it out. It works as of version 1.77.

Accidentally instead of uploading a new version I uploaded a new file and removed the old file, thus invalidating the download link. Please use the new link below.

Download (old invalidated):
https://www.box.com/s/rvayt3gstnjoj3z3yd7q

Download:
https://www.box.com/s/882u5f8sah1uz4rcqm8z


Any feedback is welcome of course. I'll put the details of the planned features in another post.

Cheers Holger

Hi holgerb, and welcome.
The OXP is a nice idea, and is a great way to introduce yourself. Best of luck with it - I think it might prove quite popular.

Oh dear.. Looks like you succumbed to the Dark Side before you even joined the forum! We'll have to order more cookies, at this rate!

G'day, holgerb, and welcome aboard.

A most interesting idea indeed.. just a warning, some of the 'purists' here are probably going to be quite upset with this concept, as the actual physics involved in spinning weapons around like that would be "problematic", to say the least. I suggest you just ignore them.. they don't have to install the OXP if they don't like it.

Oolite: your game, your way.

Welcome. And wow, what an introdution.

Is the rotation instantly, or takes it a little time? If it's instantly I think it would need a little time.
Like three seconds (maybe more), so you could not rotate within a fight without at least noticing the delay Or maybe you have to deacttivate the weapons manually first, or something.

I'll stop this babble without having seen it in action and will try it out ASAP.

I just finished the readme.. even more interesting.. good luck with the continuing development.

I had an error on the first screen: "Weapon_Rotator_0.1.0etc. is not compatible with Version 1.77.1 of Oolite".

That's what you get for trying to run it with trunk..

If you edit requires.plist so it reads: It should then run fine in trunk.

Rorschachhamster wrote:

I had an error on the first screen: "Weapon_Rotator_0.1.0etc. is not compatible with Version 1.77.1 of Oolite".

Ooops, seems I tightened the version too strong. I just didn't want to have the first proof of concept float around for ages. I fixed it up to 1.78.

The download is updated.

Holger

Diziet Sma wrote:

Oh dear.. Looks like you succumbed to the Dark Side before you even joined the forum! We'll have to order more cookies, at this rate!

G'day, holgerb, and welcome aboard.

A most interesting idea indeed.. just a warning, some of the 'purists' here are probably going to be quite upset with this concept, as the actual physics involved in spinning weapons around like that would be "problematic", to say the least. I suggest you just ignore them.. they don't have to install the OXP if they don't like it.

Oolite: your game, your way.

Yep, I thought about it as well, that's why I try to make somewhat realistic. Thinking of it like a weapon on a modern tank, which turns in any direction. I'll add some more of the concept below...

H

Diziet Sma wrote:

That's what you get for trying to run it with trunk..

If you edit requires.plist so it reads:

Code: Select all

	<key>max_version</key>
	<string>1.77.9</string>

It should then run fine in trunk.

max_version isn't usually needed anyway and can safely be dropped altogether. It exists solely for the profit of Debug.oxp, which does need to be updated with every Oolite version. Practically all other OXPs don't.

Commander McLane wrote:

max_version isn't usually needed anyway and can safely be dropped altogether. It exists solely for the profit of Debug.oxp, which does need to be updated with every Oolite version. Practically all other OXPs don't.

<hastily checks the Q-Bomb Detector>

Phew! Nothing to worry about.

Rorschachhamster wrote:

Welcome. And wow, what an introdution.

Is the rotation instantly, or takes it a little time? If it's instantly I think it would need a little time.
Like three seconds (maybe more), so you could not rotate within a fight without at least noticing the delay Or maybe you have to deacttivate the weapons manually first, or something.

I'll stop this babble without having seen it in action and will try it out ASAP.

Hi Rorschachhamster,

I'll take your question and try to answer a few of the general questions that might come up. The OXP shall not just add some nice to have feature, but also do it in a realistic way, that enriches the game and stays within the tradition of being well balanced. At this stage the OXP has 4 EQ planned:

- Professional Bore & Ratter Weapon Rotator (1630.0 Cr)
- Bore & Ratter Weapon Rotator (4580.0 Cr)
- Auto-Rotator (no price yet)
- extra Rotator shielding (no price yet)

For the concept common to both of the Rotators:

I think of them as a device attached to the outside of the ship, like a turning disk, or maybe more like a rail system on which the weapons move. Of course it takes some time to move the weapons along the rail to their next position. This is accompanied by their sound of moving along. While moving the weapons, they are offline. First they have no power connection while moving, and then it would be far to dangerous to shoot into the blue, while they are moving. When they reach their final position they click in with an appropriate sound. Being attached to the outside they are also more endangered of being hit by enemy fire. That results into a higher probability of getting damaged in a fight. If they are damaged during rotation, they will get stuck and, as the weapons won't be in place, you loose all four lasers. They actually get disabled, so once your WP is repaired they will be back online. Both rotators also take a small amount of energy during action.

The difference between the two rotators:

The "Professional Bore & Ratter Weapon Rotator" is actually a cheap imitation from some low-tech world. The description is overly enthusiastic and full of typos. It is very error prone, makes a rattling noise while moving and takes ages to rotate (10secs). As the difference is not obvious to the player it might take it as a bargain, but after a while it'll start malfunctioning:

- the noise is increasing
- it's firing position is imprecise (thought of changing the Xhairs to be slightly out of center)
- it takes longer to rotate
- it gets stuck every now an then, doesn't stop rattling, has to be stopped and restarted
- one of the rotation directions will cease to work
- it rotates in the opposite direction, of the button pushed
- it starts rotating without a button being pushed
- it might in rare occasions give a screaming noise and then get stuck completely

In short it does all the stuff we love in a cheap plagiarism.

On the contrary the "Bore & Ratter Weapon Rotator" is a very precise, highly engineered part of technology, that comes with it's price. It runs smoothly, has a pleasant sound and is very quick (2secs). It also works flawlessly, when maintained regularly within the ships normal maintenance cycles. As it's cheaper counterpart it still is fixed on the outside and has a possibility of getting disabled by laser fire. But as it's material is far superior it has no lesser damage probability as any other equipment.

I do not plan to put all this information into the readme in order to not spoil the story development. But of course rumors leak through the galaxy easily, though they may be exaggerated...

The Auto-Rotator does what it advertises in the readme. It automatically switches to a pre-stored position when the security condition goes red. I still have to find out how to determine why it goes red. There's no need to rotate lasers, when getting to close to a planet...

The additional shielding will simply boost the damageProbability, of itself and the WR. (I just saw the damageProbability is read-only, I might have to re-think this, or ask for it to become writable)

Additional logic will take care of the fact, that you can attach only one of the rotators at any given time. On Attachment the other WR will get removed. Probably a portion of the original price will be awarded, according to it's age and wear level.

A possibility to sell the equipment might be scheduled later. Maybe we could include it in the "Sell Equipment" OXP or think up something different.

Holger

holgerb wrote:

The Auto-Rotator does what it advertises in the readme. It automatically switches to a pre-stored position when the security condition goes red. I still have to find out how to determine why it goes red. There's no need to rotate lasers, when getting to close to a planet...

Wildeblood wrote:

holgerb wrote:

The Auto-Rotator does what it advertises in the readme. It automatically switches to a pre-stored position when the security condition goes red. I still have to find out how to determine why it goes red. There's no need to rotate lasers, when getting to close to a planet...

Code: Select all

this.alertConditionChanged = function(newState, oldState)
	{
	if (newState == 3 && player.alertHostiles)
		{

		}
	}

Cool

Thanx!

holgerb wrote:

The additional shielding will simply boost the damageProbability, of itself and the WR. (I just saw the damageProbability is read-only, I might have to re-think this, or ask for it to become writable)

Easiest way is probably to give the shielding a suitable damage probability, and then instantly repair the WR from script if it gets damaged while the shielding is still intact.