Okay ... I'm getting serious about the OXP now ... I've created a version of the model specifically for Oolite and have started scaling it up to fit the game (the postage stamp is more football pitch sized) ... Smaller as it is a fighter rather than a freighter ... but too small?
I'm also working on the config files and as a starter I'm defining the ship's role as police on the theory this will make things easy to test ... exit a space station, turn round, fire and then wait for the ship to come to me
Which leads me on to ... when creating the ship I was imagining a naval or government fighter, roughly the equivalent of a Viper, but in Oolite you can't replace a Viper! Pirate? Escort?
About 2/3 the way through the story, Malacandra introduces the 'Claymore' - fighter escort role - with a para-military, anti-pirate squadron of ex-Sidewinder pilots. I can imagine if it was perhaps a little bigger than a Sidewinder (to fit the twin power plant), and wrapped in tartan, that it would fit the bill nicely. If M is still active, send a PM and have a chat.
[...]normally there wouldn't be enough room for a missile pylon as well.
By "maybe" I meant "at most." Sorry, I'm not always as clear as I should be.
Jona wrote:
As for the rest I will certainly take your advice.
Well, I hope it's helpful!
As for pricing, if you aren't sure what price you want it to be you can check this thread. It has a formula that I think gives pretty reasonable prices for ships. If you do know, though, just ignore this part.
"May Duralium ever stand between you and the Vacuum."
About 2/3 the way through the story, Malacandra introduces the 'Claymore' - fighter escort role - with a para-military, anti-pirate squadron of ex-Sidewinder pilots. I can imagine if it was perhaps a little bigger than a Sidewinder (to fit the twin power plant), and wrapped in tartan, that it would fit the bill nicely. If M is still active, send a PM and have a chat.
I've started reading through ... not quite up to the two thirds point yet As for a tartan skin for the ship that could be an interesting challenge! The idea of a squadron of ships lines up with the description I've been working on ... this would need to be adapted for Oolite (armour replaced by shields, it's way too long, etc),
The Manta class interceptor was developed as a short range fighter intended to offer affordable protection to remote outposts or merchant convoys. Following several failed prototypes the Hamilton shipyards came up with a design that was accepted by several major customers including the Federal navy. The combination of placing all major systems near or on the ship's centre line along with integration of the manoeuvre thrusters at the tips of the Manta's 'wings' resulted in an extremely agile fighter ideal for small ship combat. The downside of the design is that the emphasis on speed and manoeuvrability comes at the cost of a limited, one hardpoint weapon load out, no cargo capacity and relatively limited armour. Despite this the Manta has become a popular choice for pirates where several ships can form wolfpacks and overwhelm larger prey before accompanying freighters carry off the stolen cargo.
SirArian wrote:
As for pricing, if you aren't sure what price you want it to be you can check this thread. It has a formula that I think gives pretty reasonable prices for ships. If you do know, though, just ignore this part.
So finally I can make some money out of my 3D modelling attempts For the moment it's one step at a time and the first thing is to get the thing into the game and flying around. If that works then I will start worrying about how much it will cost ... to be honest I'm not even sure if this ship would be much fun as a playable ship - I am really trying to get the balance between the pros (nice agile fighter) and the cons (no cargo, not much protection, limited weapons) to avoid creating an uber ship which would make things too easy. It will probably also mean that the ship really does fit in a pigeon hole and that it will lack the interest of a more versatile ship such as the Cobra (which I find myself always coming back too in Oolite). However, this confirms one thing I have been suspecting ... whatever question I will have has probably already been answered several times before (in precise and clear detail)!
... whatever question I will have has probably already been answered several times before (in precise and clear detail)!
Ha, that is probably true. The problem is finding the information - having been around a long time and with a very active community, this forum is vast! But as you have found, a quick question here will normally yield an answer and sometimes that answer is a link to a more detailed discussion.
One thing that might help you to find stuff here is the Browser Search Plug-in (did you see what I did there? ) which I use a lot. It's a really handy tool.
Commander Smivs, the friendliest Gourd this side of Riedquat.
Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied
So after a bit of playing around a first sighting of a Manta ...
Well second actually ... the first was of a police Manta rushing out of a space station to attack me where it immediately went into a loop ... and smashed into the side of the space station ... my finger nearly made it to the screenshot capture button before it was all over.
There's a bit of work to be done ...
There is a problem with the cockpit polys (probably because the interior polys are still in the model and in looks like Oolite is drawing these first to the depth buffer and then not drawing the exterior polys as a result ... I would guess). Anyway I'll clean up the model a bit more
All the SFX are borrowed from another ship with a very different configuration
Likewise the equipment and performance are from the previous ship
There is no normal map so the ship hull at least looks a bit flat (this may be the trickiest thing to sort out and will take a bit of time)
When using the ship as the player ship the forward view is a fantastic view ... of the back of the pilot's seat
Etc, etc
But hey it's in the game!
I'll try to start tweaking the configuration tomorrow, but in parallel a couple of quick questions,
Is it possible to spawn a ship as required ... it is occasionally difficult to hunt down and see the new model in action (except by attacking a space station and then things move a bit too quickly to position for nice views)
How do I get the ship into the ship library? I've found and played with the shiplibrary file to no result - do I create a second one in the OXP?
Hopefully with a few hours worth of work I'll have something decent to share pretty soon.
Is it possible to spawn a ship as required ... it is occasionally difficult to hunt down and see the new model in action (except by attacking a space station and then things move a bit too quickly to position for nice views)
Yes. You'll need the OXP developer release of Oolite if you don't already have it, so that you can get debug console support. Then, start the debug console, start Oolite, and in game type
If you install [wiki]Gallery[/wiki] OXP then you can see and rotate playable ships ship without undocking in F4 / Gallery of encounters / Search / type a few starting letters of your ship.
Moreover in F4 / Exhibitions you can order a Private Exhibition of purchaseable ships for 100cr, then undock and you will see all ships in lines near the navigation bouy. You can compare the sizes in 3D and if you made more ships then you will see all of them in one place. For example:
Alternatively the following code in a worldScript put a dozen of your ship in front of the station when you launch:
If you install [wiki]Gallery[/wiki] OXP then you can see and rotate playable ships ship without undocking in F4 / Gallery of encounters / Search / type a few starting letters of your ship.
Which is not, of course, the same thing as spawning them for testing purposes..
Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied
If you install [wiki]Gallery[/wiki] OXP then you can see and rotate playable ships ship without undocking in F4 / Gallery of encounters / Search / type a few starting letters of your ship.
Which is not, of course, the same thing as spawning them for testing purposes..
Well, you can't test the combat performance here but I assumed the reason of the question is to test the lookout which is more easy if you can rotate and zoom rather than flying around and usable without any developer experience. I just wrote more possibilities due to I do not know which solution is the best for Jona.
Looks nice - a quick heads-up though on the name. There is already a Manta and also a Manta Ray ship in various OXPs.
Not a problem ... the Manta becomes a TigerRay ... it even has the Tiger's Orange Stripes That way I should hopefully avoid creating problems when mixing in this OXP with others.
Norby wrote:
Alternatively the following code in a worldScript put a dozen of your ship in front of the station when you launch
...
All ships will be derelict except one.
That'll be perfect - will try tonight ... and I will get the developer release as I have a feeling the debug console will be handy.
I've also just discovered why the cockpit was screwing up - nothing to do with Oolite itself, but rather a problem that arose with shading groups when merging components and migrating the model through Wings3D (I normally use Milkshape myself) ... should be sorted in the next conversion.
I've also been playing with the configuration files to get the exhausts in the right place, the weapon and cargo load outs correct, etc - given that the basic model has different weapon sets (different lasers, missile launchers, etc) and different engines it will be pretty easy to create different versions of the ship once the basics are sorted. Hopefully I can have a good WIP release out in the next few days.
// Standard attributes
this.name = "general_test_script";
this.author = "Smivs";
this.copyright = "This script is hereby placed in the public domain.";
this.version = "1.0";
this.description = "Script to add entities."
// Configuration
this.role1 = "yourShip'sRole";
this.count1 = 5;
this.shipWillLaunchFromStation = function()
// this.shipWillExitWitchspace = function()
{
system.addShips(this.role1, this.count1, player.ship.position, 20000)
log("testscript.spawn", "Generated " + this.count1 + " " + this.role1 + " for testing purposes.");
};
Just replace "yourShip'sRole" with the actual role stated in shipdata (use a unique role for this such as tigerRayTestShip), but keep the quote marks. Enter any number for this.count - it will spawn 5 as it stands. Also you can comment out the 'this.shipWillLaunchFromStation = function()' and un-comment 'this.shipWillExitWitchspace = function() ' to spawn them after a jump instead of at the station - handy if you want to shoot them as there are no aegis Vipers to annoy you. This script will also confirm that they have been spawned with a log entry.
This should be saved as script.js and just placed in the AddOns folder.
If you want the test ship static, give it a null.AI in shipdata, or dumb.AI.plist will make it stationary but tumbling which is handy for viewing it moving but not leaving your sight.
Last edited by Smivs on Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Commander Smivs, the friendliest Gourd this side of Riedquat.
Sorry, I'm not always as clear as I should be. 
![[EliteWiki]](/images/elitewikismall.png){kind=small}
Manta
