Hints OXZ (Development Thread)

[Old Murgh]

This is now available for download here: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... .0.092.oxz

Wiki Page is here: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Hints

Hey. First OXP! Congratulations!

[Cholmondely]

This is now available for download here: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... .0.092.oxz

Wiki Page is here: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Hints

Hey. First OXP! Congratulations!

Ahem!

Lore Collection (Classic Elite)
Addons for Beginners (Vital Statistics)
Broadcast Comms - Digebiti Variations

I just hope that this one proves useful!

But Phkb and the rest have made it all possible. Left on my tod...

[Old Murgh]

Ahem!
Lore Collection (Classic Elite)
Addons for Beginners (Vital Statistics)
Broadcast Comms - Digebiti Variations

Oh,
How embarrassing.

Well..
Congratulations with yet another OXP release!

[Cody]

Oh dear! Cholly's gone emoji-crazy!

[Cholmondely]

Oh dear! Cholly's gone emoji-crazy!

Copied from SandJ's old posts - he has some super ones!

[cag]

You've got (private) mail!

[Cholmondely]

You've got (private) mail!

Thanks for the note that I'd made a mess of uploading Hints & Steampunk for downloading. Turned out I'd forgotten to put the real page-names for the wiki: I'd put in https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... unkHUD.oxz (the simple version) rather than https://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/3/ ... unkHUD.oxz (more complex, and on the AppleMac gettable from the command+i information box for the downloaded file).

But, I'm now being told that it won't download because it is missing the manifest.plist - which it has, and which seems to work fine on my machine (no error messages when I play the game about the relevant manifest.plist...).

Too tired now to sort it out (just drove all the way up to Yorkshire and back again to visit a cemetery - no, not the Tionisla Orbital!). Hope to have another stab at it tomorrow. Thanks again for the "Heads-Up"!

[montana05]

I just installed hints without any problems. Good job, enjoyable to read. In a future release, you might want the exit screen to be F4 and change Activities to Misc in the manifest, but that's really marginal.

[Cholmondely]

I just installed hints without any problems. Good job, enjoyable to read. In a future release, you might want the exit screen to be F4 and change Activities to Misc in the manifest, but that's really marginal.

Umm... yes, I'd concluded that my manifest.plist problems were either personal or AppleMac issues. Thanks for the encouragement!

How do I change the exit screen? I had no idea that I could do that!

I bunged it in as activities as I was influenced by Life in the Frontier, which I'd eventually like to make it part of. Was that silly of me?

[montana05]

I bunged it in as activities as I was influenced by Life in the Frontier, which I'd eventually like to make it part of. Was that silly of me?

Personally, I like it under activities, but currently it shows up in the expansion manager under misc. A simple update in the expansion manager input mask will do the trick.

Code: Select all

mission.runScreen
(
     {
	screenID: "strange_encounter_start",
	title: "A strange encounter ...", 
	message: encounterMessage,
	overlay: encounterImage,
	choices: options,
	exitScreen: "GUI_SCREEN_STATUS"
     },
)

As you see above, you can define an exit screen, just add the name of the page you intend to show up after exiting the bar.

[montana05]

I am currently kind of busy, so except 1 h in the morning while drinking my coffee, I don't have much time for coding. However, here is an update for you:

Code: Select all

this.showBar = function() {
mission.runScreen({
title: "The Local Bar",
screenID:"show_bar",
message: expandDescription("[hints_bar_gossip]"),
overlay: "litf_bg_localbar.png", //This adds the bar image behind the message
exitScreen: "GUI_SCREEN_INTERFACES",  // will go back to the F4 screen rather than to the main screen
                  })
}

This will exit the bar screen to F4 rather than to the main screen

Btw, your ReadME.txt is kind of corrupted for a simple Win user like me. While readable, it shows all hidden characters as well.

[Cholmondely]

I am currently kind of busy, so except 1 h in the morning while drinking my coffee, I don't have much time for coding. However, here is an update for you:

Code: Select all

this.showBar = function() {
mission.runScreen({
title: "The Local Bar",
screenID:"show_bar",
message: expandDescription("[hints_bar_gossip]"),
overlay: "litf_bg_localbar.png", //This adds the bar image behind the message
exitScreen: "GUI_SCREEN_INTERFACES",  // will go back to the F4 screen rather than to the main screen
                  })
}

This will exit the bar screen to F4 rather than to the main screen

Btw, your ReadME.txt is kind of corrupted for a simple Win user like me. While readable, it shows all hidden characters as well.

Thanks for the code. I'll give it a stab!

Sorry about this. The AppleMac's TextEdit always used to produce .txt. files and could do nothing with .rtf's - they have "improved it" and thus made it useless. I might have a better way of producing ReadMe's...

[Cholmondely]

I think news broadcasts with GNN would be quite an immersive way of introducing these sort of things. Information about missions at special stations could be done with a news item reporting on the fact. Guidance on how to do cargo contracts could be given indirectly by the news reporting on the mis-fortunes of a commander who made a mess of it (sued, assassins sent after him or just a paid for content item by the disgruntled client as to how useless he is). GNN's OXZ does the donkey work, so a simple script like this will feed news items to it over time:

Under this.startupcomplete set up a news variable as 0 if not already defined. This gives you an easy way to check that each news item in your script is only given once. Under exiting.hyperspace increment a timer each time a jump is made so you can spread out the flavour news items so they don't pop up all at once.

Then you just need a test like this under exiting hyperspace:-

Code: Select all

// Send the 2nd (Rooters) Broadcast to GNN.- Is Sent as a Prioity 1 once 4 jumps have been made since Broadcast 1 was sent.
if (missionVariables.random_station_names_news === 2 &&  missionVariables.random_station_names_timer > 3) {
missionVariables.random_station_names_timer = 0;
var news = new Object;
news.ID = this.name;
news.Message = expandDescription("[random_station_names_2_news]");
news.Agency = 2;
news.Priority = 1;
this.passScreen(news,1); 
// The same method is used as above.
}
// Send the 3rd (Tionisla Chronicle) Broadcast to GNN.- Is Sent as a Prioity 1 once 6 jumps have been made since Broadcast 2 was sent.
if (missionVariables.random_station_names_news === 3 &&  missionVariables.random_station_names_timer > 5) {
missionVariables.random_station_names_timer = 0;
var news = new Object;
news.ID = this.name;
news.Message = expandDescription("[random_station_names_3_news]");
news.Agency = 4;
news.Priority = 1;
this.passScreen(news,1); 
// The same method is used as above.
}

And so on for however many news broadcasts you want to write.

Now copy and past in the function below to send the news items to GNN when the conditions are met:

Code: Select all

this.passScreen = function(news,mode)
{var a = worldScripts.GNN._insertNews(news);
if(!a){ if(mode) missionVariables.random_station_names_news++;  // If GNN conforms sucess, advance the News Counting variable to the next Broadcast.
return;
} else {if(a<0){ // If the buffer was full then the mission variable counting the News Broadcasts wasn't advanced. Once the player has made the required number of jumps Random Station names will check again.
return;
}}}

Thats all you need by way of a script.

In a descriptions file write the text for your news broadcasts. All you need is a:-

Code: Select all

"random_station_names_1_news" = "Type in your text!";
"random_station_names_2_news" = "Type in your text for the next one";

And so on for however many broadcasts you want to send.
 

I want to start weaving in the GNN broadcasts, but the instructions above talk about bunging them in a descriptions.plist.

But I already have a descriptions.plist with the bar talk.

How do I keep the two lists (bar talk & GNN broadcasts) distinct so that they don't get confused and work as they are intended?

[montana05]

I want to start weaving in the GNN broadcasts, but the instructions above talk about bunging them in a descriptions.plist.

But I already have a descriptions.plist with the bar talk.

How do I keep the two lists (bar talk & GNN broadcasts) distinct so that they don't get confused and work as they are intended?

Every entry to the descriptions.plist (and there could be multiple) is basically an array, so you just need to open a new one, maybe "hints_bar_GNN" and use this one for the broadcasts.

[Cholmondely]

Apologies. I'm not yet up to adding the GNN broadcasts (don't understand how to, and my timid experiments failed dismally as usual), or the costs of the drinks (again, don't understand how to). Or experimenting with different backdrops (again, my timid experiments here have failed).

Next Stage.

I'd like to start adding Hints for some of the other OXPs.

Eg:

Commies: "SLAPU's have jolly good prices if you want to buy computers, CZGF's have the same for machinery".
Deep Space Dredger: "I made a fortune selling food and liquors to one of these - and then buying alloys for rock-bottom prices there. But docking was jolly dangerous... I ended up buying an ILS"
SothisTC + New Cargoes: "I dropped into one of those rather natty Sothis Stations last week. Did you know that they are only at Corporate States? Well, this one had a rather nice map of the Galaxy in the disembarkment lounge and there was free access to that TradeNet journal. I saw a piece about good deals in Vargon mind-silk - and made a small fortune!" SothisTC is not yet an .oxz with a manifest.plist on the Expansions Manager

How would I do this?