Oolite Bulletins

See in the wiki: [wiki]ShipVersion[/wiki] and download it.

Next step after  Skilled NPCs and/or [wiki]ToughGuys[/wiki] to the competent pilots.

Features:
* version number from 1 to 10 after the ship names
* accuracy, equipment and recharge bonuses to NPCs scaled with the version
* recharge bonus and service level repair to the player if can find a ship with high version
* ship sizes: small under 30t, large over 130t - larges can get all equipments, smallers get fewer
* service level equipment to get feedback from the ship integrity and lose weapons if hit the minimum
* ship details screen in shipyard to check version and other data before buy a new ship
* more in the wiki: [wiki]ShipVersion[/wiki].

Comparing with similar OXPs:
* ShipVersion add many equipments, recharge bonus and max. +5 to the original accuracy (+0.5/version).
* Skilled NPCs use government-related bonus where the accuracy of a pirate can be jump from -2 to 10 in Anarchy, but in average about +3.
* ToughGuys4 add max. +2.5 randomly and the ExtraMayhem plugin add new ships and ambushes.

Skilled players can install all of them for the best result: many strong ship but weaker ones also depending on the government and version.

This looks very clever, and more than a bit complicated - lots to take in.
My only concern is that at varous levels NPCs get Military scanner filters and jammers, and cloaking devices. These are not equipments able to be bought by the player (and only one of the three is actually obtainable in the core game) which seems a little unfair in some ways. Also, due to the very 'special' nature of these equipments, I believe they should be used sparingly and only for OXP ships of a deliberately and necessarily 'uber' nature. Awarding them routinely seems wrong to me.
Other than that point, this looks most impressive.

Does it change mission relevant ships (custom roles)?

Smivs wrote:

NPCs get Military scanner filters and jammers, and cloaking devices.

Yes, these are the top equipments, the current existence based on my experiences.

Only the top 1% of the ships get Cloaking Device which is enough rare in my eyes. When I meet one then it was fun to deal with but not impossible to win. Lasers can hit it when cloaked also with some luck and conception of the flight path.

The top 10% get jammers which deny to lock it, a fun thing also but vulnerable to the laser attacks as others.

On the other hand these can fit into the goal to make some very hard enemy which better to avoid.

Filters is on the opposite side which maybe help to the NPC to lock me if I has jammer so if the goal is to make harder enemies then it can be awarded to a bit more ships. Currently 30% get it due to I think it is a very rare case with few effect.

If somebody found these too hard then can reduce the maximal award level to 8 with the $ShipVersion_AwardMax variable and others can enjoy the variety.

Svengali wrote:

Does it change mission relevant ships (custom roles)?

Thank you, now in v1.11 ships will be skipped where ccl_missionShip=true and there is a $ShipVersion_BasicRulesOnly variable to can disable all non-standard rules also if needed.

But I leaved this in false by default due to I do not want to force it.

I think this OXP is make the ships a bit harder, but not as hard to make big problems. Maybe the player must to perform better or go back later with a stronger ship to win but it is acceptable from a tool with similar goal.

If a player want to accomplish a mission in harder mode with this OXP then will be surprised when the targeted enemies are unchanged so I think better if skip the flagged ships only and not all custom rules by default.

Norby wrote:

The top 10% get jammers which deny to lock it, a fun thing also but vulnerable to the laser attacks as others.

Indeed, slightly more vulnerable, since running the jammer will reduce their energy recharge rate. With both ECM and Injectors, the NPCs really should be able to avoid missiles anyway.

Thanks a lot, Norby - heading off to play now .-)

Just as sidenote:
Although I think it still defeats the purpose of 'custom' roles. My test-OXPs are complaining - quick testrun - about changes to accuracy, equipment, jamming, energy, missileLoadTime and missiles with CustomShields, NPC-shields, Skilled_NPCs and your ShipVersion. And there are more OXPs which are changing other OXPs content.

I think OXPers are losing control about their own content this way. But hey... they don't complain .-)

A bit improved  ShipVersion v1.2 is out:
* Buy "Small Fix" to make a minimal repair in the service level.
* Repair bot using up credits to refill spare parts and limited to Weak level.
* Laser will break instantly when buy hauler in  Start Choices OXP, not after undock only.

Norby wrote:

A bit improved  ShipVersion v1.2 is out:
* Buy "Small Fix" to make a minimal repair in the service level.
* Repair bot using up credits to refill spare parts and limited to Weak level.
* Laser will break instantly when buy hauler in  Start Choices OXP, not after undock only.

Hi Norby, I want to say thank you for your OXP. I'm a new player and all the nice thing you guys are creating for Oolite are amazing.
I wanted to report a bug maybe you're aware of: "Small Fix" on service level are always shown as being priced 0 cr, but if you buy them an amount of about 800 cr is taken from you.

I have many other OXP's so maybe it's some unfortunate interaction with them, I would suspect "best candidates" are BattleDamage and Towbar, but I'm talking from complete ignorance here. Please tell me if I can do anything to help with identifying the issue.

Hi alfa666 and welcome on board!

alfa666 wrote:

"Small Fix" on service level are always shown as being priced 0 cr

The price is depending on the ship and the cost of the equipments is read-only so I can not set it to the correct number. It is the 0.5% of the original value of your ship (described in the wiki). I am sorry you forced to remember to the actual price, maybe I can make a workaround in the next version.

Norby wrote:

Hi alfa666 and welcome on board!

alfa666 wrote:

"Small Fix" on service level are always shown as being priced 0 cr

The price is depending on the ship and the cost of the equipments is read-only so I can not set it to the correct number. It is the 0.5% of the original value of your ship (described in the wiki). I am sorry you forced to remember to the actual price, maybe I can make a workaround in the next version.

Thanks Norby! There's no problem, I thought it it was a symptom of incompatibility with some other OXP I use and there may be some other issues in the game. Thanks for your explanation and your OXPs!

G’Day Commanders!

My log file showed exceptions from Ship Version OXP in shipversion.js line 445 regarding "Q-Charger". Exception was gone when I replaced "Q-Charger" with "EQ_Q-CHARGER". If someone could verify this fix and if needed update an OXP, it will be great!

Cheers,
V-SFC

Maybe you are using Q-Charger v1.2 and not the latest v1.21? ShipVersion need v1.21, the old one was player only, wiki pages of both oxp refer to this dependency.

If it isn't help then please include full lines from the log and your changes. Based on your words I can guess only that you changed the if(worldScripts["Q-Charger"]) to if(worldScripts["EQ_Q-Charger"]) which can run without error message due to no worldscript with this name but will not award Q-Charger to NPCs.

Thanks Norby, after updating to latest version of Q-Charger no exception happen with original ShipVersion code.

This seems amazing, reminds me of Frontier's registration numbers in a way!