Oolite Bulletins

Running Random Hits I get this error message (If it works I don't know, I have not seen a space bar in ages know. As I thought it could have been a clash with anarchies.oxp, I deinstalled anarchies.oxp now. See what comes )

2008-05-25 10:37:06.245 oolite[5402] [exception]: SCRIPT ERROR in "Random_Hits" ***** EXCEPTION NSInvalidArgumentException (Tried to add nil value for key 'commander_name' to dictionary) during plist script evaluation.

I'm not sure that is a problem with Random Hits as such. It works on 1.71.1, but I'm not certain about 1.71.2 (yet) as I haven't tested it. There is a bug on 1.71.2 relating to turrets and docking ports which may be problematic. I'll try to get a fixed version for 1.71.2 out over the bank holiday.

EDIT : Yep. Space Bars are not appearing on 1.71.2 at all. I suspect this has somthing to do with the handling of sub-entries. Will look into this. ATM it works on 1.71.1 but not 1.71.2.

EDIT : Doh. Hadn't put the OXP in! On Windows XP. The Space Bar is there and showing on the scanner. They only appear in Anarchies. Setting your Space Compass to B will find them. Are you on Linux? Davefaci has had this same problem and it could be to do with the Linux Build rather than Random Hits itself.

sorry I'm on oolite 1.72 without knowing.

Is 1.72 the "bleeding edge" built it yourself version? I don't know how to build stuff so cannot really test it. 1.71.2 is (I think) the latest version available as an installer. Could you give it a test on 1.71.2?

Testing at Zaati in Galaxy 7. The "Raxxla Ritiz Hotel" is there. Turrets working and I can dock with it. No errors in the log stdrr text. (Windows 1.71.2 - 10th May 2008 - No other OXPs except my ship - Imperial Courier Version 2).

Sorry bear: I'm on oolite 1.72 without knowing.

The Autopackage provided on berlios.de for linux installed me that version. I did nothing for it. The autopackage should have installed 1.71.2 to me.

I got a contract, went to the star system, encountered the baddie, killed him, and he dropped a q bomb in my face as a parting gift. Loaded saved game, went to the system....and now I can't find him. It's been about 10 runs on the spacing lanes from the witchpoint buoy to the planet, and never saw him again. Is something busted or do they like to play hard to find? 2 or 3 runs, sure, makes you feel like you're hunting, but 10? That's a bit much for a 500cr bounty.

He's still on my mission board, and I still get the reminder messages to go get him, but I *never* have encountered him again. Is this a bug perhaps?

Probabley not a bug as the ship was added (and indeed killed you!).

Weedy Victims (like 500C bounty guys) do hide though. Their behavior has a random element but a weak ship is most likely just to ignore you and hold its course when you come in scanner range of it. Ie it won't attack, send a comms message or draw attention to itself by lighting up its injectors, it'll just keep doing what it was doing and hope you don't notice it!

If you set your ASC to N and fly towards the Nav becaon from the witchspace point (or if you a saved in the system fly to the W beacon after launching) your paths will intersect. You'll need to ID check each contact you come across though, as he's unlikely to do anthying to give himself away. Better armed victims have other tactics (attacking you first or sending their wingmen after you while they leg it, so give themselves away), but a weak ship like a Cobra I, Adder etc is most likely to chose camoflage as a tactic by just acting like any other trader in the space lane.

The victims from Random Hits stick to the space lanes, but fly directly to the Station rather than the planet. Do the same and you should come across him.

OK I finally encountered the target again. And this time I avoided his qbomb, but it blew him up instead, and I got charged with a fine for using WMD! That's not right. The mission should track who's qbomb killed the target.

Thanks for the hint, I've been flying to the planet, I'll directly target the nav buoy instead.

Ahh. That WMD fine test is not ideal in V1.2 and there is a chance of a false positive. It should work 99% of the time, but that is a known bug (fixed for 1.3). You shouldn't hit it very often.

Marks will only deploy a q-bomb if on energy low and deciding to flee. All ships can sucessfully outpace their own q-bomb as long as they have fuel left for their injectors. I've only given Victims a q-mine if they also have injectors, so in theory they should always be able to escape their own bomb. The bug happens if they ran out of fuel before deploying the mine.

For V1.3, if a mine is launched the mission variable is set to "NPC_ATTACK". In the event that a mark committs suicide like this you won't get a fine, but you won't get the full bounty. The OXP tracks the last ship to shoot the victim before death. If its the player its set to "PLAYER_ATTACK" if its an NPC its set to "NPC_ATTACK" if the cause of death was neither a player attack nor an NPC_ATTACK then the OXP assumes it was an e-bomb or player launched q-mine. Treating a suicide as an NPC attack fixs it. The problem is Oolite dose not regard a Q-bomb or E-bomb death as an attack.

Thanks for the info.

I stuck strictly to the line between the two beacons and encountered the target on the way back out to the witch point beacon fairly close to the station. This time I unleased multilpe hardened missile and military laser at close range all at once to get him before he tried the qbomb trick, and collided with the escape pod to score the kill!

This is a great mission pack, thanks for doing it. I really like these "mission-generating missions," since they never run out!

In oolite-pc 1.71.2, loading RandomHits makes the framerate fall on the short range chart from 12fps to 4fps. This makes using the SRC really frustrating.

My platform:

windows xp professional SP2
Intel duo core 2.13Ghz
2GB RAM
Graphics adapter: nvidia GeForce 7300LE

The script isn't as optimised as it could be (stand by for 1.3 ), but I think the slow running on the SRC is part of Oolite 1.71.2 (introduced to fix a memory leak) rather than somthing to do with Random Hits as such.

I just saw the response from little bear explaining that the short range chart performance is a known problem in 1.71.2

But still, without RandomHits, the short range char fps is a solid 12
With RandomHits, the shrot range chart fps is a solid 4.

Obviously there's some sort of interaction there. But maybe the problem will go away with 1.72

Yeah, Random Hits makes it worse, but low frame rate on the SRC is a fact of life with 1.71.2.