Oolite Bulletins

Posted: **Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:28 pm**

==Overview==
When picking up Cargo Pods it's not uncommon to find one containing just a small amount of gold, platinum or gem stones. Up until now, there was nothing you could do about that until you docked. Introducing the Talaxian Enterprises Vacuum Pump. Now, if you find your cargo hold is full of almost empty containers you can use the Vacuum Pump to consolidate the gold, platinum or gem stones into the minimum number of containers needed to hold them.

Available at all systems TL5 and above, for the paltry sum of 1500 Cr.

==Usage==
To use the Vacuum Pump, just prime it with 'Shift-N' and activate it with 'n'.

There are 8 modes of operation, which can be cycled with 'b'.
Mode 0 is called Single Use mode. This is the default mode. In this mode activating the pump will consolidate a single commodity. So for example if you are carrying small amounts of gold and small amounts of platinum, the first activation will consolidate the gold, and the second will consolidate the platinum.
Modes 1-6 will only consolidate specific selected commodities.
Mode 7 will consolidate all 3 commodities with a single activation.

As each Cargo Pod is emptied it is crushed down to 5% of it's normal volume and stored in an internal 1 tonne container. Once 19 of these have been collected they are moved to the 20th container which is added to the manifest as 1 TC Alloys.

==Version History==
Version 0.3
* Corrected bug that caused the internal storage area to be cleared on load game.

Version 0.2
* Licence Changed to CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
* Price changed from 5000cr to 1500cr
* Equipment now requires 1 Tonne of cargo space
* Empty Cargo Pods now crushed and stored as Alloys.

Version 0.1
* Initial Release

The OXZ can currently be downloaded from the wiki here: http://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/d/d ... mp_0.3.oxz
The wiki page itself is at http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Vacuum_Pump

I would appreciate feedback on price, availability, balance and even the coding, as I am learning JavaScript as I go along.

regards,

- Neelix

Posted: **Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:24 pm**

Very nice idea and coding, only the price is high imho, maybe 1000cr is enough. You can put this into the oxz manager to get more beta testers.

The "wip" tag will be equal with the beta status once implemented, meantime you can mention this in the description field, then a few weeks later you can upload a new version without this.

Posted: **Sun Jul 13, 2014 1:43 am**

Norby wrote:
Very nice idea and coding, only the price is high imho, maybe 1000cr is enough. You can put this into the oxz manager to get more beta testers.

The "wip" tag will be equal with the beta status once implemented, meantime you can mention this in the description field, then a few weeks later you can upload a new version without this.

Thanks.

I adjusted the description slightly and made the manifest active, so it is now available via the Expansion Pack Manager.

(though I haven't made any changes to the OXZ yet)

- Neelix

Posted: **Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:01 am**

Welcome to The Dark Side™..

Your membership card and key to the clubrooms are in this envelope.. plates of cookies can be found on any of the tables scattered around the premises.

A question: What does it do with the empty cargo containers?

Posted: **Sun Jul 13, 2014 5:13 am**

Diziet Sma wrote:
Welcome to The Dark Side™..
Your membership card and key to the clubrooms are in this envelope.. plates of cookies can be found on any of the tables scattered around the premises.

Thanks!

*takes a cookie*

Diziet Sma wrote:
A question: What does it do with the empty cargo containers?

Hrm... that's a good point.... Maybe I should include a compactor, to compact them and use some of the reclaimed space to store whats left of them as Alloys.

- Neelix

Posted: **Sun Jul 13, 2014 1:26 pm**

the dark side is strong in this one......

warning the cookies are addictive!
i recently grabbed another plate and had a go at my model...... noooooo im doomed!!! lol

Posted: **Mon Jul 14, 2014 2:27 pm**

I love the idea!

Posted: **Mon Jul 21, 2014 1:58 pm**

Version 0.2 Released!

Full details in first post.

Code: Select all

==Version History==
Version 0.2
* Licence Changed to CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
* Price changed from 5000cr to 1500cr
* Equipment now requires 1 Tonne of cargo space
* Empty Cargo Pods now crushed and stored as Alloys.


Version 0.1
* Initial Release

Once again, any feedback would be appreciated.

- Neelix

Posted: **Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:35 pm**

Why the price reduction? It now seems kind of cheap for what is obviously pretty sophisticated equipment..

Posted: **Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:38 pm**

Oops, just after posting, I spotted a bug. New version now uploaded. Sorry 'bout that.
Changelog:

Code: Select all

Version 0.3
* Corrected bug that caused the internal storage area to be cleared on load game.

Diziet Sma wrote:
Why the price reduction? It now seems kind of cheap for what is obviously pretty sophisticated equipment..

Mainly because Norby suggested that it was overpriced.

I also recall seeing a complaint about the repair cost, which as I understand it is based on the base price.

What price would you suggest?

- Neelix

Posted: **Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:11 pm**

For the original version, perhaps.. and I'd stress the 'perhaps'.. but with the new version, you've got what amounts to a crushing machine in there as well..

And as for the more general perspective, heck, the Q-Bomb Detector goes for 5,000 Cr, and all it does is hook a siren to the scanner's already built-in Q-Bomb display..

I don't see 5,000 as overpriced.. to be honest, anywhere between 5-20,000 would seem reasonable to me.

There's also the aspect that (in my purely personal opinion) Norby often tends to under-price things.. just 100,000 for a Cobra1 Carrier with 50TC of its own internal cargo space?

The Viper Carrier, at 900,000, is closer to the price I think all the variants should be.. after all, you're really just talking about (relatively) minor differences in external mounting hardware for the different variants. A range of between 800,000 to 900,000 depending on the model would seem more appropriate to me.. (again, stressing that this is just my opinion)

Posted: **Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:19 pm**

Diziet Sma wrote:
For the original version, perhaps.. and I'd stress the 'perhaps'.. but with the new version, you've got what amounts to a crushing machine in there as well..

And as for the more general perspective, heck, the Q-Bomb Detector goes for 5,000 Cr, and all it does is hook a siren to the scanner's already built-in Q-Bomb display..

I don't see 5,000 as overpriced.. to be honest, anywhere between 5-20,000 would seem reasonable to me.

There's also the aspect that (in my purely personal opinion) Norby often tends to under-price things.. just 100,000 for a Cobra1 Carrier with 50TC of its own internal cargo space? The Viper Carrier, at 900,000, is closer to the price I think all the variants should be.. after all, you're really just talking about (relatively) minor differences in external mounting hardware. A range of between 800,000 to 900,000 depending on the model would seem more appropriate to me.. (again, stressing that this is just my opinion)

Thanks for the second opinion. I find myself more inclined to agree with your assessment so I'll probably adjust that again for the next version.

Any other suggestions? Given that it's now taking up cargo space, I'm thinking of adding a removal option, but other than that I'm not sure if anything else needs to be done with this one.

- Neelix

Posted: **Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:21 pm**

Neelix wrote:
Any other suggestions? Given that it's now taking up cargo space, I'm thinking of adding a removal option, but other than that I'm not sure if anything else needs to be done with this one.

Since it takes up cargo space, it should definitely be removable. And it is, after all, just machinery.. if it can go in, it should be able to come out.

Posted: **Mon Jul 21, 2014 5:10 pm**

Diziet Sma wrote:
Norby often tends to under-price things.. just 100,000 for a Cobra1 Carrier with 50TC of its own internal cargo space?

This is too cheap but is not a real cost due to this ship is planned to NPC only and the player can buy only an empty Carrier from the next version (for a still not final price).

Equipment cost is another story. The real cost what you must pay is not in the shop but when you fix these many times after fights. I think this equipment can steal more money than save if costly. High price is worth if can save your life like the Q-Bomb detector but others should be not so costly.

We need more input from serious players to set somewhat good costs, due to really good is not exists.

Posted: **Mon Jul 21, 2014 5:35 pm**

Norby wrote:
Equipment cost is another story. The real cost what you must pay is not in the shop but when you fix these many times after fights. I think this equipment can steal more money than save if costly. High price is worth if can save your life like the Q-Bomb detector but others should be not so costly.

We need more input from serious players to set somewhat good costs, due to really good is not exists.

Spot on here. The way to balance the economics of the end game, when you have loads of money, is to up the maintenance costs. And one way to do it, is with equipment prices.

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