Oolite Bulletins

Would it be possible for a player, when docked in a main station, to see a list of docked ships and ships on final approach - something along the lines of this:

http://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Port/ne ... vents.html

It could be interesting if we ever got to the stage of having persistent NPCs (as in NPCs who have a long-term in-game existence, not NPCs who don't know when to give up ), but something like this could help give the illusion of that sort of persistence - especially if a ship is marked as "Departing", and if the player then launches, the named ship is there, cruising away. The player's ship would, of course, also appear on the list when docked. The screen might also show other information such as station alert status.

There's no practical gameplay effect here, but it might be a nice atmospheric touch, planting the player firmly within an active world, and with a clear difference between a busy hub and a sleepy backwater. It wouldn't even require randomshipnames to work (although of course it could play nice with the OXP) - the ship class and a commander name (and maybe planet of origin) would be enough.

Disembodied wrote:

Would it be possible for a player, when docked in a main station, to see a list of docked ships and ships on final approach

I like the idea.

Disembodied wrote:

There's no practical gameplay effect here, but it might be a nice atmospheric touch, planting the player firmly within an active world, and with a clear difference between a busy hub and a sleepy backwater. It wouldn't even require randomshipnames to work (although of course it could play nice with the OXP) - the ship class and a commander name (and maybe planet of origin) would be enough.

There is the potential with this idea to have something that would affect gameplay - positively I believe.
If you can see when and where a ship is departing, it could be possible to 'book' the slot after it and follow it through its 'wormhole'. Thus saving RL time waiting around for a ship going in your direction (probably the least best part of the game). In game time could of course be long, making it an interesting for time critical jobs.

Venator Dha wrote:

There is the potential with this idea to have something that would affect gameplay - positively I believe. If you can see when and where a ship is departing, it could be possible to 'book' the slot after it and follow it through its 'wormhole'. Thus saving RL time waiting around for a ship going in your direction (probably the least best part of the game). In game time could of course be long, making it an interesting for time critical jobs.

That's true ... it would mean that (some) ships would declare their destination, possibly to invite other ships to share the wormhole. And possibly not all ships would tell the truth ... a cautious/paranoid commander might like to have a wormhole analyser on hand just to double-check that the ships he's tagging along with are really going where they say they are.

If players had the opportunity to post their destination, too, then they could invite accompaniment (and also try to snare the unwary, if they wanted to). This might all require a fair bit of coding, though!

Disembodied wrote:

If players had the opportunity to post their destination, too, then they could invite accompaniment (and also try to snare the unwary, if they wanted to). This might all require a fair bit of coding, though!

I think there is a lot of potential here. Perhaps if there is a destination set in the F6 screen, this could be viewed as the player posting their destination. It would also be a chance for assassins to follow if they are interested in you

Venator Dha wrote:

Perhaps if there is a destination set in the F6 screen, this could be viewed as the player posting their destination. It would also be a chance for assassins to follow if they are interested in you

True! It might be a way to (possibly) shake off some tailing assassins: set the destination on the F6 screen in the station, launch, then set a new destination before jumping ...

Disembodied wrote:

Would it be possible for a player, when docked in a main station, to see a list of docked ships and ships on final approach - something along the lines of this:

http://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Port/ne ... vents.html.

Do traders that dock with a station continue to exist while docked? If you sit and watch a station long enough will you see the same vessels launch from it that previously docked with it? Or, are the traders that a station launches completely unrelated to the traders that dock at it?

Wildeblood wrote:

Do traders that dock with a station continue to exist while docked?

No (though without OXPs to tell the difference between Python #7882 and Python #311, it's hard to tell the difference)

cim wrote:

Wildeblood wrote:

Do traders that dock with a station continue to exist while docked?

No

So this OXP would have to capture traders' details at the moment they docked, store them and launch them later. It would have to actually do that, rather than just report the station doing that. Too hard.

On a vaguely related note, is it possible to run the populator functions of another system to determine what will be there before witchspacing/hyperspacing/wormholing/spacewarping to that system? E.g. set a destination system on F6, go to F7, see a note: "There are three stations orbiting x: GalCop, Constore, Casino."

Wildeblood wrote:

If you sit and watch a station long enough will you see the same vessels launch from it that previously docked with it? ?

This is a bit academic really, isn't it, considering how long a ship would actually be docked. For example just a quick stop for fuel only takes over 12 minutes if the tank is empty, and when you add in trade, re-equiping/repairs etc it is unlikely that many ships would actually re-launch the same day. Your wait to see it re-launch could be quite a long one!

Wildeblood wrote:

So this OXP would have to capture traders' details at the moment they docked, store them and launch them later. It would have to actually do that, rather than just report the station doing that. Too hard.

OK, good to know: it might be that this sort of thing would have to wait for the coming of persistent NPCs, should that ever happen. It might also mean that persistent NPCs could prove very tricky to do ... maybe if they could be procedurally generated somehow, the game might only have to store a short string rather than a whole mass of details?

Smivs wrote:

This is a bit academic really, isn't it, considering how long a ship would actually be docked. For example just a quick stop for fuel only takes over 12 minutes if the tank is empty, and when you add in trade, re-equiping/repairs etc it is unlikely that many ships would actually re-launch the same day. Your wait to see it re-launch could be quite a long one!

This is also true - only the really determined player might ever realise that the list was a purely cosmetic lie! Although there might still be problems with generating an NPC on the list as "launching", and then adding it to the space outside the station so it's there if the player launches immediately afterwards.

Disembodied wrote:

Smivs wrote:

This is a bit academic really, isn't it, considering how long a ship would actually be docked. For example just a quick stop for fuel only takes over 12 minutes if the tank is empty, and when you add in trade, re-equiping/repairs etc it is unlikely that many ships would actually re-launch the same day. Your wait to see it re-launch could be quite a long one!

This is also true - only the really determined player might ever realise that the list was a purely cosmetic lie!

Well, no. It would be easily noticeable. You follow a distinctive vessel into a dock, go to F4 Shipping News, and it's not on the list of docked vessels. Sprung! Busted! Whatever the young people are saying nowadays.

Wildeblood wrote:

Well, no. It would be easily noticeable. You follow a distinctive vessel into a dock, go to F4 Shipping News, and it's not on the list of docked vessels.

Yes, true - it would have to copy and store the information on docking. Given what people have made possible in the game, it's sometimes tricky (for the code-illiterate, such as myself) to realise what can't be done!

I'd like it if even SOME ships after launch announced where they are jumping to.

It's a cruel universe out there...hitchhikers are helpful -- it gives assassins, pirates, and Thargoids more to shoot at!

Switeck wrote:

I'd like it if even SOME ships after launch announced where they are jumping to.

Some ships do announce their hyperspace destinations (or their in-system destinations) - but that's probably only with cim's Comms Pack installed.

It's amazing that they are always honest about it.

That might be something worth adding as a player ability - announce your destination when there are other ships around, let them follow you through the wormhole, then turn on them, destroy the ships and scoop their cargo cooperate defensively against pirates etc.