Oolite Bulletins

Hard Eject

Latest OXZ -Version 0.4.1
Uploaded 12 February 2019

Ejection in vanilla game is a cheat option. You are entering dangerous Anarchy low-tech system in your iron-ass Cobra and managed to fight. If you have fighter mood, you’ll fight – and maybe you’ll survive battle with your heavy crippled ship, maybe you’ll save you life in escape pod. Well, in both cases you’ll have the same problem: you have no possibility to repair your badly damaged high-tech equipment in low-tech system. But if you are lazy cheater, just rapidly press Esc-Esc before having any damage – and you’ll get the same fully packed Cobra! You’ll lose only escape pod and cargo.
Ship Repurchase (author phkb) deals with ejection cheat, but only partly. Money is not problem after dozens of milk runs. Real problem – this is not the way to restore high-tech equipment in low-tech system. Period.
My deсision is really hard.

After ejection and safe arrival onto main station in escape pod you’ll get the same ship in “clear” configuration:
All lost damageable upgrades displays on F5 screen as damaged. You may restore lost upgrades immediately if system TL allows it or later in system with adequate TL. In both cases insurance covers 50% of lost equipment price.
Galactic hyperdrive remains in inventory to prevent trap in isolated systems.
All standard lasers are removed from inventory and replaced with front pulse laser. In case of mining laser in front mount (Transporter or Bushmaster in mining scenario) you’ll get the same mining laser.
All pylon mounted items (missiles, mines, extra fuel tanks, pylon mounted galactic hyperdrive pods etc) are removed without compensation.
Extra items, gathered as awards in missions (cloaking device for example) are removed from inventory without compensation.
List of extra items, removed from inventory without compensation:

Military Jammer aka MASC'M
Military Scanner Filtering
Naval Cloaking Device
Naval Energy Unit
Shield Enhancers

All equipment with zero damage probability, such as passenger berth, remains intact. In case of MFDs this rule leads to curious effect: some MFDs indicates in F5 inventory as damaged, some remains intact. It seems logically flawed, but I think it is MFD OXP authors privileges to set rules, not mine. Maybe some MFDs are just software mods and some MFDs functionality depends on hardware such as remote sensors and controllers.
This is some inconsistency if you are using Ship Configuration (author phkb) or any similar OXP simulating equipment bay of limited capacity. Your “lost” equipment still occupies place in equipment bay. But it is simple playable decision.
Breakable Equipment processes as special case – it remains in the same state as in moment of ejection. You’ll receive new ship with damaged forward shield generator for example if it was damaged during combat. Seems illogical too, but it is simplest way to avoid additional checks. You can repair any damaged Breakable Equipment item in system of any TL immediately.
50% insurance policy is remains valid only if you have Clear legal status AND purchase ALL equipment only from certified dealers. If your legal status is NOT Clean OR you have ANY second-hand equipment purchased on Salvage Gang, you lost 50% insurance and ALL damageable equipment will be removed without compensation. Seems too severe treatment for player with adventurous mood but it is part of the game. Galcop is NOT charity non-profit organization. The main function of Galcop is to secure spacelanes. Preference for law-abiding pilots is a part of this policy.

Well, maybe you’ll fill this set of rules contradicts idea of open Ooniversum with free opportunities. I think right decision to cope it – not modify this OXP to cover any possible case, but to develop another OXP. Mutual aid fund maybe for “Brethren of the Coast” members. I have no plans to develop such OXP – it needs hard upgrade of vanilla legal system. But maybe somebody will do it. It will be good to have more diverse Ooniversum.

Compatibility issues

Hard Eject OXP is incompatible with Ship Repurchase (author phkb).
This OXP is also logically conflicting with Repair Bots (author Thargoid) and any OXP repairing damaged equipment in flight.

To do:

I like smart idea realized in Ship Repurchase to provide chance to survive ejection in interstellar space. I think to implement similar idea with some tweaks in future update of Hard Eject.

Credits

It was very helpful to study Ship Configuration (author phkb). Reading this code I was provided with idea how to process generic equipment without predetermined fixed array. Thanks, phkb!

stranger wrote:

Thanks, phkb!

stranger wrote: ↑Sat Apr 14, 2018 5:39 am

You’ll lose only escape pod and cargo.

And time!

Cody wrote: ↑Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:08 pm

stranger wrote: ↑Sat Apr 14, 2018 5:39 am

You’ll lose only escape pod and cargo.

And time!

Of course!

There is some issue with co-operation of Hard Eject and Hard Way.
Hard Way periodically scans distance to sun to get solar wind flux. This procedure works incorrectly during animation of ejection: Not critical bug, leading only to garbage in log file, but I plan to fix it in future update.

I like this OXP in general, but I disagree with providing a ship that can have a long list of damaged equipment on board. That's a bizarre procedure for an insurance company. I think I would prefer a ship without that equipment and receive a payout instead, which would be 50% of the equipment's price. The player can use that money to purchase alternative equipment at locations with lower tech levels. It would also resolve the conflict with OXPs that support in-flight repairs.

@Nicksta
Thanks, it seems reasonable. 50% insurance coverage in form of direct payout was one of alternative options in my initial concept. I need some time to refresh reasons to reject this solution. Maybe I'll try to implement it.

Bug report: So for the first time ever I recently ejected using this oxp, and as I had hoped just about everything was damaged on my new ship. But a mod item I've been testing, Cargo Stopper (GalCop Missions OXZ), was damaged. I don't see Repair: Cargo Stopper on any equipment lists even in high TL systems. I tried removing the related OXZ and forking the save game, and the damaged Cargo Stopper was removed from my ship's equipment list. I returned GalCop Missions to the mod list and the damaged Cargo Stopper is still gone, but I also still can't see or buy Cargo Stopper in the main station equipment list.

Any ideas? Hard Eject worked with all the Vimana HUD equipment, so maybe the problem is compatibility with GalCop Missions specifically?

szaumix wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 2:19 am

so maybe the problem is compatibility with GalCop Missions specifically?

Certainly possible, but seems unlikely. There's nothing particularly special about the Cargo Stopper equipment item, but then I haven't done many tests of breaking the equipment. I'll do some and report back.

phkb wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 4:47 am

I'll do some and report back.

Not sure what the problem is, actually. I just tried a new game (with my normal set of OXPs, which doesn't include Hard Eject), gave myself the Cargo Stopper, damaged it, and in the F3 screen at Lave there was the "Repair: Cargo Stopper" item in the list (only 15cr - bargain!). I'll have a quick scan of Hard Eject to see if there might be a conflict there.

[Edit] OK, now I'm confused. The Hard Eject script is pretty straight forward and doesn't seem like it can be the cause of a conflict. Do you have a latest.log file to look at that covers the eject event and following?

Yeah I had looked at the hard eject script and didn't see any way that it could possibly be differentiating items. I checked equipment.plist to verify the Cargo Stopper tech level, no luck despite markets well above that level.

somehow-resolved solution
But just now I have pulled into Vetitice (TL12) and find Cargo Stopper for sale, undamaged! I swear I checked double checked and checked again each market this morning when I was testing it, like I really made sure, so now I am genuinely confused. This morning I had given up after that mod-removed>mod-put-back forked save yielded nothing, so I just kept playing a bit in the background. Maybe the fork save needed some kind of condition refresh somewhere along the way but that feels unlikely because usually equipment mods and removals are instant to whatever market you're at wherever conditions are met.

I mean... it's there, but I wish I knew why it is there when it wasn't before. For now I suppose I don't care enough to test it again. Thanks for the effort phkb