Oolite Bulletins

There I was, 298 kills, roaming merrily around ( Edited. Doh! )looking for the Constrictor, got in a few skirmishes, made a few kills, just another normal day in the Ooniverse. Couldn't find the Constrictor so headed back to the station for some fuel, theres a message, congrats commander etc etc, and I've suddenly got 552 kills???
This suggests I had made 254 kills (not even nearly) and got the Constictor (dont think so), so what happened? Some sort of bug?? Anyone come across anything similar to this?

TheGroover wrote:

There I was, 298 kills, roaming merrily around XXX looking for the Constrictor, got in a few skirmishes, made a few kills, just another normal day in the Ooniverse. Couldn't find the Constrictor so headed back to the station for some fuel, theres a message, congrats commander etc etc, and I've suddenly got 552 kills???
This suggests I had made 254 kills (not even nearly) and got the Constictor (dont think so), so what happened? Some sort of bug?? Anyone come across anything similar to this?

Never heard about that one, chap, maybe someone else knows. Last time I blatted the Constrictor was pretty anti-climactic, burst of Mili-laser fire and two Hardheads = 250-odd kills + Credits and congrats message. It is possible that someone else splatted it unintentionally, I think.

P.S. could you edit your post to remove the spoiler (planet name). Cheers

Captain Hesperus

Captain Hesperus wrote:

TheGroover wrote:

There I was, 298 kills, roaming merrily around XXX looking for the Constrictor, got in a few skirmishes, made a few kills, just another normal day in the Ooniverse. Couldn't find the Constrictor so headed back to the station for some fuel, theres a message, congrats commander etc etc, and I've suddenly got 552 kills???
This suggests I had made 254 kills (not even nearly) and got the Constictor (dont think so), so what happened? Some sort of bug?? Anyone come across anything similar to this?

Never heard about that one, chap, maybe someone else knows. Last time I blatted the Constrictor was pretty anti-climactic, burst of Mili-laser fire and two Hardheads = 250-odd kills + Credits and congrats message. It is possible that someone else splatted it unintentionally, I think.

P.S. could you edit your post to remove the spoiler (planet name). Cheers

Captain Hesperus

Edited, sorry about that So killing the constrictor does give you more than 1 kill then? The were a lot of coppers around, maybe one of them bagged him. Ah well, on to the next mission then!

Its due to the way Orginal Elite worked. In BBC Elite you became Dangerous if you killed the constrictor (however many kills you were orginarly short of this rank just for killing him). Giles reimplimented this in Oolite.

However Elite was "player centric" so only you could have killed the consitictor. Oolite is Object Orinated, so there is a small chance that an NPC Viper did the job for you, but you still got the credit! Guess this is what happened with you!

boy, i can see some fights breaking out at his local hOopy's

"oh, YOU killed the Constrictor, did you...?!"

Maybe we could fix it by having the constictor scanForShipsWithRole: player within a scannerrange of say just outside the playerscanner?
(in death_actions)

I'm sure LB used something smart in assasins.OXP to check this player didnot kill bug.

LittleBear wrote:

Its due to the way Orginal Elite worked. In BBC Elite you became Dangerous if you killed the constrictor (however many kills you were orginarly short of this rank just for killing him). Giles reimplimented this in Oolite.

However Elite was "player centric" so only you could have killed the consitictor. Oolite is Object Orinated, so there is a small chance that an NPC Viper did the job for you, but you still got the credit! Guess this is what happened with you!

“Player-centric” and “object-oriented” are not antonyms. OO refers to technicalities of the implementaton, not the gameplay.

@Hertic.

Nope I didn't. Its just to do with death_actions. If the Constrictor dies then the script acts on the consequences of its death, even if sombodey other than the player kills the ship. Murgh had the same problem with his stolen Military Ships, but got round the problem by having loads of them so if a NPC kills one of the Military Ships, well thats just realistic, the Player wasn't the only bountry hunter to be given the task.

I just made my "Marks" well hard and placed them in circumstances where nobody other than the player could kill them (using placemeant in the system, roles that meant nobody other than the player would attack them and AIs that caused them never to attack a ship other than the player). But even the Master and Commander is tied by death_actions. The death of the Constictor advances the mission variable, even if sombody other than the player did the deed.

However, the chances of this happening are "ten to the power of my overdraft" (to quote Zephod Beeblebrox).

@Ahruman

Take your point, but this example demonstrates the difference in the gamplay. In Elite everything happened around the player, so only the player could kill the Constrictor. In Oolite NPCs get on with their own thing, so it is possile for an AI to complet an Oolite Mission, which was intened to be completed by the player. Hit this problem developing Assassins. I put a mark in the middle of a Battle between the Thargoids and the Navy. Thargoids killed him and the player wa congratulated. HAd to use special Bugs with modded AIs to ensure they didn't kill him and the mark would only die if the player did the dead.

Is it really impossible to include conditions in death_actions?

The script_actions can (As in the cloakingdevice).

The two entries seem similar in function.

I would try this (but have not the time to test it) :

Can have conditions, but do not have a "death by player" command!

EDIT: Although your conditions might just do that! At lease dectect the player was neaby, but this woudn;t get round a Viper killing the ship whilst the player was closing in.

Think a death by player would be needed!

This could get quite tricky - an NPC hammers away at the Constrictor, taking its shields down to almost 0%, you happen on the scene, and deliver the death blow - your kill - just!
...but do you really deserve the credit for that...? How does the game determine if you deserve the kill...?
Whatever you come up with is bound to be a compromise.

at least 'being there' is closer than just being in the same system.

we could decrease the range of the scanner if that makes you happy, but I was considdering missiles.

!!Just heard Smokey&theBandit is coming on TV soon...3 unfortunately...but still: research material!

LittleBear wrote:

The death of the Constictor advances the mission variable, even if sombody other than the player did the deed.

For the Constrictor mission in particular it would be a bit odd if you're rewarded without having actually killed it. However, I wouldn't be too quick to rule out the option of a player 'arranging' events in order to take out other ships. Say you engineer a fight between some pirates and a GalCop unit, and your mark just so happens to get in the way - the job gets done without anyone tracing it back to the player. Doing a check for a player ship nearby is a good idea though, and should also help prevent a mission from breaking because a script action is activated out of sight of the player.

If GalCop ships are attacking/destroying the Constrictor, can't you simply remove any bounty-hunter/police ships from the target systems until the Constrictor mission is completed?

Captain Hesperus

Problem lies probably with powerfull OXP pirate NPCs
or even traders pounced upon by the constrictor.
(although constrictors can unhinge their jaws, some prey is just too big to swallow)