NEW : Bank of the Black Monks OXP

[Mauiby de Fug]

I'd be very surprised if there was a conflict. The minesweepers work in the same way in both oxps, so it makes sense that they would have the same AI, especially i the same person wrote both oxps. You should be fine in just copying it over...

[Greyth]

As I dropped out of witchspace a gunship began attacking an adder that was already in system. The Adder hailed me with "Engage panic circuts. Panic circuts engaged". I couldn't steer for laughing

[Greyth]

During a journey taking 7 hours I lose 7 days from the repayment calender. If I jump again back from Qutiri to Isinor then another 7 days disappear from the monk's payment schedule. Under those conditions it is not possible to repay the loan within the 16 week timescale as it equates to 16 days.

[Commander McLane]

During a journey taking 7 hours I lose 7 days from the repayment calender. If I jump again back from Qutiri to Isinor then another 7 days disappear from the monk's payment schedule. Under those conditions it is not possible to repay the loan within the 16 week timescale as it equates to 16 days.

You just have to earn money faster!

But seriously: BlackMonks is a very old OXP, predating the current JavaScript engine, therefore the scripting capabilities LittleBear had to work with were much smaller. Thus all the talk about "weeks" is just some blurb. In reality you have 16 jumps to repay your loan, regardless how long they take.

In fact, it would have been possible to replace the jump limit with a time limit even at the time, as you can see from my suggestion earlier in this thread (see point 5 of this post and the solution in this post). But LittleBear never actually implemented it.

Anyway, the loan is meant to be repaid in the very short timeframe of 16 jumps, not in 16 game weeks. There wouldn't be a challenge with such a long time. Taking out a loan is meant to be an act of desperation, not really economically viable. Basically, in most cases you can expect to lose money, and only should take out a loan in the first place if you're rich enough to afford the loss (or if you're bold and iron-assed enough to kill a lot of Black Monk Gunships).

[Greyth]

Ah - I see! Earn money faster... so it can be done! Heh... Even though I'm not playing in strict mode I'm still thinking in 'strict mode'.

[DGill]

It's a pity the bank concept was not futher developed. I quite like the idea in a trading game to be able to borrow money, buy goods, scoot across the galaxy to sell them, pay off the bank and pocket the profit!

While I don't know anything about java, it was quite easy, with a vague memory of BBC micro basic, to convert Black Monks and give myself a bit of more time to to repay the dept - makes game play a lot more fun IMHO

if(missionVariables.monks == "RUNNING")
{
var i = clock.seconds
var j = missionVariables.monks_time
var x = (i - j) / 86400;
var y = Math.floor(missionVariables.monks_timer - x);
missionVariables.monks_time = i;
missionVariables.monks_timer = y;
missionVariables.monks_timerw = Math.floor(missionVariables.monks_timer / 7)
}

[Greyth]

Hmm, I thought I might try the jousting...

[Fatleaf]

I was reading the Wiki entry for the Black Monks and came across this line " Quite beside the fact that the stations are defended by Gunships..." I have shot a Monastery plenty of times and not once has it ever launched defenders let alone Gunships as defenders! The info box also states that it has no defenders!! Is this an oversight?

Also the in the Gunship page it reads "The Gunship sports three powerful Military Lasers, as well as a Plasma Cannon..." I have only seen it fire TWO lasers not three!

[Griff]

i just had a quick look at the oxp and i think the gunships do only have 2 lasers one on each wingtip, plus their rear firing plasma turret.
not sure about the station not launching gunships, does it just need

Code: Select all

"defense_ship_role" = "monkpatrol";
"max_defense_ships" = "5"; // or however many we think is appropriate

somewhere in the station settings? or is it more complex than that (ie custom AI's etc). I can edit this stuff into the shady version of the oxp if so as it's stored on my box.net folder

[Commander McLane]

i just had a quick look at the oxp and i think the gunships do only have 2 lasers one on each wingtip, plus their rear firing plasma turret.
not sure about the station not launching gunships, does it just need

Code: Select all

"defense_ship_role" = "monkpatrol";
"max_defense_ships" = "5"; // or however many we think is appropriate

somewhere in the station settings? or is it more complex than that (ie custom AI's etc). I can edit this stuff into the shady version of the oxp if so as it's stored on my box.net folder

They would need an AI as well, because there's no default autoAI for defense ships. Their normal monkpatrol AI would probably be enough for attacking the aggressor, but it wouldn't make them dock again after they've killed him, which is a necessity for defense ships.

[Eric Walch]

I just looked into the code. It now does explicit says: max_defense_ships = 0;. This is in contradiction with the AI that tries to launch defence ships. No idea why LB did set it at zero. Maybe he didn't want to change the stations AI and just used this key to prevent the launching of plain police as defence ships.
When you give it specific defence ships, make sure they get a policeInterceptAI.plist. That is the AI mend for this type of station defending ships. No need to change the stations ai as that already tries to launch them.

And when changing the shipdata, you might look at the thrust settings for the turrets. Currently it is set at 2.0. With that value they jitter a lot. I think a value of 0.5 will slow down their movement and they will look much better.

[Switeck]

Are gunships small enough to launch from the Black Monks' Monastery?

[Griff]

well spotted! they don't fit i'll see about scaling them down

[Wildeblood]

well spotted! they don't fit

I knew that.

i'll see about scaling them down

Scaled down gunships? No! Heresy! Dispatch the gunships to eradicate this heretic!

[Smivs]

Dispatch the gunships to eradicate this heretic!

"Er, we can't, Sir. They're wedged in the dock!"