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My steep learning curve - a racing mission
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:11 am
by The Cobra Ball Run
As a developer of more experience than I care to recall, I have ambitiously decided to write a mission OXP, foolishly decided to make it big, and arrogantly decidedly to start a topic about to document my progress, and beg for help periodically.
The basic outline for the mission is as follows:
The rich playboys of the universe are bored of their inexhaustible supply of nubile young playthings. They seek the honour and acclaim of becoming the most famous and daring of pilots in the galaxy spanning galactic grand prix. You manage to scrape together the deposit to enter the winner takes all race for the championship.
There is a Racing Mother Ship – home base for the racers. When you dock you can buy a racer. Racers are very, very fast, highly manoeuvrable, but have no injectors, no hyperspace, no weapons and minimal shields. They have a cargo scoop but only a very small cargo bay. The racers have extra scanner range.
The start and finish line for a race is the launching/docking with the mother ship.
The basic race type is a slalom race. The “gates” are hollow ships – enormous ring doughnuts. For easier levels they rotate around their central axis. For more complex levels they rotate end over end. At the centre of the gate is a cargo pod containing gems or other lightweight cargo. Thus there is a bonus for the first racer to reach each gate. When the cargo is scooped the next gate is created. There is also a big floating arrow pointing to the next gate. The last gate shows a chequered flag instead of an arrow when cleared.
The simplest approach to implement this would be a time trial. It would not be necessary to show the other competitors.
Enhancements would include adding mine fields, asteroid fields and pursuit ships hunting you down.
Other racers would be a nice touch, but in the short term coding for them retrieving the cargo pods would be problematic as you would still have to force the player to go through the gates.
Now I know there are some real issues (challenges) in the outline above - the gate passage detection code is very very interesting.
Anyway - thats the outline. First thing to learn is how to build a model. I'll report back when it flies...
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:18 am
by LittleBear
Nice idea. I made a start on a similar project, but havent got much further than building 1 track. A lot of people contributed racing-paint jobs, but Real Life means I don't think I'll get back to it anytime soon. If you want to use any of the models, I'll send you over the WIP oxp. The thread is here:-
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=3786
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:48 am
by The Cobra Ball Run
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Racers
Now you pointed out where to look - there's lots of stuff.
Fixed link. — Ahruman
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:19 pm
by TGHC
Excellent stuff, will there be exorbitant fines and points deductions for dastardly teams that resort to spying
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:44 pm
by The Cobra Ball Run
TGHC wrote:Excellent stuff, will there be exorbitant fines and points deductions for dastardly teams that resort to spying
But definitely no disqualification for a little ship to ship contact...
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:47 pm
by Commander McLane
Hi, The Cobra Ball Run! First of all welcome to the boards and of course to this great game!
(And apologies for my dear colleagues who have missed to bid you a welcome.)
That's a nice and ambitious project you have there. Together with the discussion about the racing league LittleBear pointed you to, are you aware of
ringpod.oxp, which already does a little of what you are planning? Feel free to take anything out of it you may need. There is no need to re-invent the wheel, even if it's huge and floats in space, if I may say so.
Wishing you all the best for your OXP. Hope you don't run into problems that are insurmountable! (But afraid that it may happen, really very ambitious.)
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:16 pm
by Helvellyn
Nothing wrong with being overly ambitious! I've got a ridiculously ambitious plan up my sleeve (far too big for me, when you consider the trouble I've had just getting a few ordinary ships to do what I want), which some day I may start on. Probably before I finish the ArcElite ships. No doubt I'll someday end up with a hard disc full of unfinished OXPs.
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:05 pm
by jonnycuba
I love this type of OXP It sounds very atmospheric
good luck in the code trail...
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:09 am
by Commander McLane
Helvellyn wrote:No doubt I'll someday end up with a hard disc full of unfinished OXPs.
Sounds a bit like where I am today. Hmmm....
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:06 am
by The Cobra Ball Run
Day 1 in the big OXP camp; and the lesson of the day is if you increase a ship's max speed to stupid levels, the marker buoy outside the station appears very hard and very fast.
I have been making notes as I go and I am inclined to write them up as a practical tutorial - a bit more formally than here. Sounds like a wiki page to me.
Whereupon I hit my first snag. Have registrations for the wiki been closed? The login / create account seems to be lacking create account options. Looking at the blocked IP history, it appears that the wiki came under spam attack and shut up shop.
Who do I pester to create an account?
Could there be a message about who to pester on the "login / create account" page to make it easier for the next bloke?
Ta muchly.
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:24 am
by TGHC
I think you have to pm Winston
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:54 am
by Commander McLane
Yes, that's it. See also the notice on the wiki-mainpage:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:18 pm
by The Cobra Ball Run
Commander McLane wrote:Yes, that's it. See also the notice on the wiki-mainpage: ...
That would have been a sensible place to look - I have tended to by pass the front page and head into the Oolite pages.
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:49 pm
by The Cobra Ball Run
Thanks to Winston who sorted me out re: the wiki.
There is now a OXP_tutorial page on the wiki which mirrors my stumbling process into the art of the OXP. In a bout of more egotism, I thought I'd write it up some more.
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:24 pm
by TGHC
I've looked for it but can't find it, can you post the link please. It should be a very interesting read!