NPC ships overheating and heat shielding

[Commander McLane]

Well, I wanted the info (and have already used some of it in Anarchies (BTW, have you looked into it yet?)), but all this wiki stuff is not really my world. At a time I have added some small information at the shipdata page, but I really don't feel like doing a major overhaul. Sorry.

[JensAyton]

Here’s one I missed: max_missiles, i+, applies only to player, same as missiles by default.

Edit: I also missed several station keys:

Code: Select all

port_radius                     f+
port_dimensions                 string
equivalent_tech_level           i+
max_scavengers                  i+                   3
max_defense_ships               i+                   3
max_police                      i+                   8
equipment_price_factor          f+                   1

port_radius and port_dimensions are not known to be useful, since the same information can be specified more easily by using a docking port model.

[JensAyton]

I’ve found another one: conditions. This is a script couplet checked when generating a ship by role.

While hasShipyard is merely a single condition string, conditions is a full “couplet”, that is, a {conditions, do, else} dictionary. The ship will only be generated if the conditions pass; the do and else blocks will be executed as usual (with the player as target).

[JensAyton]

On further inspection, conditions won’t actually work. Fixed for next release. My mistake, I failed to comprehend the, er, interesting way in which the condition-checking code was being reused.

[Eric Walch]

For a mission I have created a research station near a sun. Found out that he will eventually overheat if he is on a distance of 2 solar radii but stays save on 2.5 radii.

To have some action around the station I let some researchships dive into the plasma and return again. I use part of the sunskimmerAI script. But not between sun and planet but between sun and the orbital station.

At first I noticed that no ship ever came back. So I followed one. He overheated even before the SunSkimStartCoordinates are reached. So I tried to solve the problem to give ship a higher max speed of about 700. Now he reaches the sun skim start and end coordinates. As I follow him, my fuelscoops kick in on the lowest point. But on the way up the ships I follow overheat again.

Then I gave then fuel-injectors and set the speedfactor in the AI script at about 1.8 till 2.5 He dives into the sun, with full injectors. I can hardly follow him. He turns, and flies back again. This time he comes out alive and is abel to dock the station.

But only on a system with a small to medium sun. In a system with a big sun the trip through the plasma takes to long and he still overheats. I let it this way. It is a researchship and with such things thing can go wrong.

Now I read about heat_insulation. A nice thing, but not working in version 1.65. But I put it in anyway so it will work in future versions.

All this research made me wonder: has anyone ever seen a sunskimmer re-surface?? I had to tweek the script enormous to let my ships survive. On the other hand, I used small ships to dive in and the ships with sunskimmer role are all large.

[Helvellyn]

Noticed that exploding ships can happen without any OXPs. I followed a Boa towards the sun yesterday, which eventually blew up. It wasn't even running full speed until near the end (possibly when things started to overheat in it).

[Commander McLane]

@ Eric Walch: Another possibility: Give it lots and lots of energy and a big recharge rate.

I've done that with a solar research station in an OXP I am working on. But still it can explode during the mission, if the player doesn't arrive in-time with some much-needed spare parts.

[Eric Walch]

@ Eric Walch: Another possibility: Give it lots and lots of energy and a big recharge rate.

I've done that with a solar research station in an OXP I am working on. But still it can explode during the mission, if the player doesn't arrive in-time with some much-needed spare parts.

As I explored with the station, the energy nor recharge rate have any influence on the time till overheating. When the station gets overheated you see sparks getting out of the station. From this point on higher energy lenghten the time till explosion.
Explosion is wanted in my case but the player must have time do dock and launch before explosion.

[TGHC]

Is this a new twist on the Nova mission?

[LittleBear]

You might have already tried this Eric, but A wrote earlier:-

Non-player ships can’t have heat shielding as an equipment item. However, they can have a heat_insulation setting; the default is 1.0, heat shielding for the player raises it to 2.0. The downside to this is that it can’t be set as a fuzzy boolean (probability) as McLane suggested.

If you turned this up in the shipdata entry for the special station to somthing silly like:-

Code: Select all

<key>heat_insulation</key>
<integer>999999</integer>

that might stop it blowing up. Trouble is you want to to blow up at somepoint. Perhaps playing about with the number would give a value that keeps the station alive for the amount of time you want?

[Cmdr Wyvern]

In general I'd say that sunskimming is stupid unless there is a very good reason for it (no main station, trumbles...). The fuel costs are negligible, so economically there is no need for sunskimming IMHO.

Allow me to disagree somewhat, Commander.

I've gotten into the habit of sundiving to top off the tanks, then flying back to the witchpace beacon and heading insystem from there. It's not to save on fuel costs, but to insure a plentiful supply to feed the injectors when I find some pirate scum to kill.

[TGHC]

I used the same technique a lot in assassins when I knew I had a major battle to participate in, but I didn't have any top up tanks, I filled up with hard hats.

[Commander McLane]

In general I'd say that sunskimming is stupid unless there is a very good reason for it (no main station, trumbles...). The fuel costs are negligible, so economically there is no need for sunskimming IMHO.

Allow me to disagree somewhat, Commander.

I've gotten into the habit of sundiving to top off the tanks, then flying back to the witchpace beacon and heading insystem from there. It's not to save on fuel costs, but to insure a plentiful supply to feed the injectors when I find some pirate scum to kill.

Okay, that's a reason. On the other hand, I prefer to keep my jumps short, so I still have plenty of fuel on my way to the planet.

[Commander McLane]

@ Eric Walch: Another possibility: Give it lots and lots of energy and a big recharge rate.

I've done that with a solar research station in an OXP I am working on. But still it can explode during the mission, if the player doesn't arrive in-time with some much-needed spare parts.

As I explored with the station, the energy nor recharge rate have any influence on the time till overheating. When the station gets overheated you see sparks getting out of the station. From this point on higher energy lenghten the time till explosion.
Explosion is wanted in my case but the player must have time do dock and launch before explosion.

Well, that depends entirely on the value you set it to. In Equilibrium.oxp (WIP) my Solar Research Station uses <key>max_energy</key><real>75000</real> and <key>energy_recharge_rate</key><real>400</real> and is placed very close to the sun (to be precise: exactly at the point where the player's height-bar turns red). This is sufficient for the player to (a) fly to the Solar Research Station from the main station (the Solar Research Station is spawned when he launches from the main station), (b) dock with it and get some instructions, (c) return to the main station and dock there, (d) return to the Solar Research Station with a delivery and (e) leave the system to get another delivery. He has to hurry with this, though, or the station will blow up, thus changing the course of the mission.

[Cmdr Wyvern]

I used the same technique a lot in assassins when I knew I had a major battle to participate in, but I didn't have any top up tanks, I filled up with hard hats.

I prefer to load my Dragon's launcher with hardheads when I find them offered, and the occasional nuke. The external droptanks are available, but I don't bother; the droptanks are expensive when fuel is dirt cheap, and I'de rather pay to have a killing arsonal.