Oolite Bulletins

Hi everybody,

I'm doing a FishEye oxp using the fov functionality introduced in version 1.81.

What it does:
It's an equipment, priced at 1000 credits, available in planets with technology level 10 or higher.
When activated ("n"), the angle of view changes to 120°. Yay!
When mode'd ("b"), the angle of view comes back to your prefered angle of view that you defined in your game options.

What it will do:
Tell me ! All ideas welcome!

What I plan to implement:
- a continuous change rather than a sudden one,
- several prefered angles, configured through OXPConfig and cycled through with "n".

Day wrote:

What it will do:
Tell me ! All ideas welcome!

A little off topic, but as I suggested in another thread, I think it would look amazing if, when using Injector/Torus drive, the FOV would change gradually, to give a sense of acceleration/deceleration (being pushed back in the seat/pushed towards the windscreen).

If X was standard (userdefined) FOV then
when using Inj/Torus it would go to X+30 fast, then slow'ishly go back to X (or X+10 to give a sense of still moving fast)
when disabling Inj/Torus it would go to X-20 fast, then slow'ishky go back to X

@Vincentz: I tried what you suggest during testing of the feature (in a kind of manual way using the increase/decrease FOV keys). The result was less impressive than I expected, although it could just be me not doing it too well. At the end I decided that I liked better the screen steady, without any shaking or moving backwards and forwards.

another_commander wrote:

@Vincentz: I tried what you suggest during testing of the feature (in a kind of manual way using the increase/decrease FOV keys). The result was less impressive than I expected, although it could just be me not doing it too well. At the end I decided that I liked better the screen steady, without any shaking or moving backwards and forwards.

Yup, kinda agree, when I tried it. Though the "pushed back in the seat/pushed towards windscreen" would have to be much faster than the keys are able to do.
Still it might not be as immersive as i imagine, due to the cockpit/HUD is stationary, and also some flickering (though when using keys it looks very smooth).

Regarding original idea, I think it should be called Optics, and have a 2 (3) function effect :

1. Normal (user defined FOV = UDFOV)
2. Zoom (when Equipment is activated): UDFOV - 20 (maybe different number, but enough for being useful while not making ship unstearable. Should prolly be % of UDFOV instead of fixed number for people using different (extreme) FOVs, f.ex. with 3 monitor setup.
3. Fisheye (when Equipment is activated a second time): UDFOV + 30 (same concept as Zoom)

Imho it should be gradually zoom. It helps especially when zooming in (I think).

Wouldn't pilots of Moray Starboats already have fisheyes?

*cough*

S.S. Innsmouth here, requesting docking clearance...

Concerning the change of fov when using injector/torus drive, i'll do a proof of concept in the oxp to see if it brings something. There is such an effect in Dragon Quest VIII, when riding the tiger, I'll try to replicate it.

The rate of change of fov is totally programmable, so no problem to do it quicker.

The name "Optics" is better than FishEye, I agree, because it allows to include several functionalities in the oxp.
Yet I don't know if it's alluring enough.

Regarding "Zoom" function: it's a good idea to have it as a percentage of UDFOV.
Related: I wanted to have a telephoto function too; maybe for screenshots and/or sniping.
Is sniping currently a way of playing for some?
We could disable weapons while using an "Optics" function not related to weapons, to preserve game balance.

Day wrote:

We could disable weapons while using an "Optics" function not related to weapons, to preserve game balance.

... with a 50.000 credit expansion named Military Optics

I know Optics isn't exactly a fancy pansy name for an equipment, but it is pretty telling for the oxp, and tbh, if I saw "Optics" in the ingame addon manager, I would instantly install it.
You could always add something spacey to it, to make it shine a bit more :
D-Space Optics
VisionX Optics
CU II Optics

I like "Military Optics"!!

I sure will use this term, maybe for sniping.

Released the oxp/oxz version 1.0:
https://github.com/DaymareOn/OpticsOXP

Needs my oolite branch to work currently.

When I activated equipment nothing happened.

Also, when making oxz, it need to be the content of the folder that gets zipped. Not the folder itself.

edit. the reason why it doesnt work for me could be I'm running on an "older" trunk, and its not a feature on it yet. I'm gonna download the latest version tomorrow and give it a try.

You need my branch currently: https://github.com/DaymareOn/oolite
My code for fov control by javascript hasn't been accepted/merged into trunk yet.

Thanks for the remark on oxz, I will correct it.

Edit: corrected

Day wrote:

Is sniping currently a way of playing for some?

Yes, it is - but it's already a bit unbalanced. Most players, once they're half-way kitted out, have military lasers, and most NPCs (for good gameplay reasons) have the shorter-range pulse or beam lasers at best. Long-range sniping is a definite player advantage, but at least it requires some skill and fine control. Anything that made long-range sniping easier would potentially be very unbalancing.

Day wrote:

We could disable weapons while using an "Optics" function not related to weapons, to preserve game balance.

Very good idea. I'd strongly advise against creating any expansion that allows weapons fire, though, no matter how expensive. High price tags are not good balancing mechanisms.

FishEye change of view now takes 30 frames, so 0,5 second.

@Disembodied: well, the only way I see to do a sniping equipment balanced would be:
- distance and angle of view made so it can be used only from a certain distance and useless elsewhere,
- a lot of heat generated so that another shot can't be done before a certain time,
- a lot of energy used so that the player is vulnerable,
- perhaps the distance is such that the target could move during the trajectory ?

Even then, i'm not sure the concept of one-shot dear to sniping can be well-adjusted for oolite.
I see two roles for a sniper:
- terrorist, but we don't manage crowd feelings like terror in oolite (... oxp ?),
- anti-terrorist, with a team and sudden attack concept.

Day wrote:

@Disembodied: well, the only way I see to do a sniping equipment balanced would be:
- distance and angle of view made so it can be used only from a certain distance and useless elsewhere,
- a lot of heat generated so that another shot can't be done before a certain time,
- a lot of energy used so that the player is vulnerable,
- perhaps the distance is such that the target could move during the trajectory ?

Even then, i'm not sure the concept of one-shot dear to sniping can be well-adjusted for oolite.
I see two roles for a sniper:
- terrorist, but we don't manage crowd feelings like terror in oolite (... oxp ?),
- anti-terrorist, with a team and sudden attack concept.

There might be a difference in terminology here ... what I was meaning by "sniping" is simply hitting a small target at extreme range. This has a precedent as a tactic, especially using the rear laser: because the Cobra III (and most other player ships) are faster than nearly all the NPCs, it's possible to run away from pirate packs while drilling them to death with a rear-mounted military laser at extreme range. 1.80 makes this substantially harder, by making the pursuing pirates' AI less dopey: they will at least now dodge when taking fire, for example!

A separate, long-range, one-shot sniper's weapon with a substantial cooldown/reload time would be a different matter ... although I'm not certain if it could be fully incorporated into the game, to the extent that NPCs can have them too. It would be quite annoying to find oneself, without warning, blown up or badly damaged by a sniper weapon fired by an opponent at the very fringes of scanner range. It's one thing in a military FPS game with rapid respawn; it's another in a game like Oolite.

Agreed.

That NPC might kill you at long point range is not an interesting way to die.

I don't see a solution to this, though. Except allowing it only to the main player, which would feel like cheating.