Oolite Bulletins

i´m at a point where i´m going to OXP add jumpgates to Oolite, these jumpgates will propel your vessel to a different destinations in the same system. I allready got a working prototype, that jumpgates you from the station, to the witchpoint... in the time it takes to run a script which is 0.1 second i beleive..

This makes having realistic distances between planets feaseble, without actually messing with the original setting that the main planet will be far from the sun like in the far sun oxp.. which sets the sun 3 times the distance as normal from the main planet...

the plan is

The main planet is going to stay as it is... near the sun

this is going to be fully compatible with system redux, and any other system changing oxps.

The detection method will be distance, and this oxp is going to add its own planets, but they will be realistic far apart.. and not have realistic sizes because of the mass lock feature

for example you should barely be able to see the sun from the first planet it is going to add, which i plan to add 1 AU* away from the first planet. the next. but that is going to require a bit of tweaking and testing, and altering along as i get some input from other spacers

There is going to be ships using these new trade lanes, but these will be added by the script, and they will actively be using the Jumpgates..

There will not be jumpgates at the witchpoint, a jumpgate will be at the planet near the main station. other oxps can add these if they wish..

The jumpgate is not going to deliver you right at the stations doorstep, it is going too deliver you to a point that is similar to the witchpoint in regard to the main planet... but it is going to be at a interplanetary point in regard to this extra planet, that the jumpgate is targeting. i could make the jumpgate target multiple destinations.. but that is to be tested later...

the travel time will be roughly the same time it takes to travel trough witchspace... however totally ambush thargoid free..

the reason i´m doing this is because i find that mission OXPers are running out of systems in which to make missions...

This has the potential to tenfold the availeble planets, without interfering with existing oxps in any way.... ofcourse if a mission ciritical ship happens to fly into a jumpgate that would be bad... but the likelyhood of this is so small, that the odds beats winning the lottery...

this will be an OXP, using javascript, not a custom build of the oolite source code, just in case anyone get that idea...

Anybody with any concerns to this, raise them now, before i start writing the script, i know some people almost have a mantra in regard to the one sun, one planet Theme...

i´m leaving this up for a week.. then i begin writing it all, in the mean time, the dtp agency is beginning construction of the jumpgates ..

*one AU is roughly 150,000,000 km

Hey Frame,

don`t let anyone stop you! Who doesn`t want it, doesn`t install it, and that`s that!

I would have done this myself, but my scripting isn`t up to it and probably never will be, so I`m happy someone is stepping up to the task

Just one suggestion: You wrote that the innermost planet should have the sun barely visible ... does that make sense? I`d think an innermost planet should be a desert with a gigantic sun looming over the horizon ...

Have a look at the Solar Systems oxp thread in the Expansions Forum, many people had lots of cool ideas there what could be done. My favourite wish would be, stations on the planetary surfaces to land on ...

Wish you loads of luck with this one,

L

Excellent idea, even for a mere noob to oolite like me,

I do have one question though... How do I start writing oxps? Is there any detailed information anywhere?

The Wiki has some hints for OXP writing:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/OXP_howto
See also 'Expansion Pack' in this forum:
https://bb.oolite.space/viewforum.php?f=4

ty elmex, I'll check them out...

would be a good idea to have a way of telling ships to avoid jumpgates... thus allowing oxp'ers to input this into mission critical ships if needed. ^^

Hi Frame,

Isn't 1 AU the distance between Earth and the Sun? So won't it look a little strange to have nothing else within 1 AU of the first world's orbit? That sort of arrangement would have put Earth so far beyond Sol's Habitable Zone that we would never have existed... with Mercury at 1AU, wouldn't we be somewhere between Saturn's and Neptune's orbits? (just picturing it in my head, so not sure if inside or outside of Uranus). Or were you thinking of a (Mainworld orbit +1 AU) "swept zone" around the star with only one planet within (the system Mainworld), and then more planets closer together beyond that?

Microjumps and gates would still be a useful feature (although it might take some explaining as to why nobody has put a gate between the Witchpoint and the star... cut down on those long refuel runs!) since there are times I would have loved to be able to avoid the chance of getting caught by, um, ethically challenged merchants (the term "pirate" is just soooo inflammatory) but is it really worth adding code to add the planets further out, then adding more code to make it quicker (and safer!) to travel between them?
Do you know how long it would take to j-space between the new planets, rather than use a gate?
And if you can gate from station to Witchpoint, why not the other way?

I think I'd rather see more planets close together but requiring "realspace" transit to get between them than much further distance between them but the ability to travel most of that distance in safety - half the "fun" is sending the pira^H^H^H ethically-challenged merchants to meet their relevant deities with all due haste and a quick burst of laser fire...

That said, good on you for having a go at this, and good luck. I can't wait to give it a go once it's finished (my machine can't cope with having too many OXPs added)

BlackKnight wrote:

Hi Frame,

but is it really worth adding code to add the planets further out, then adding more code to make it quicker (and safer!) to travel between them?
Do you know how long it would take to j-space between the new planets, rather than use a gate?
And if you can gate from station to Witchpoint, why not the other way?

I think I'd rather see more planets close together but requiring "realspace" transit to get between them than much further distance between them but the ability to travel most of that distance in safety - half the "fun" is sending the pira^H^H^H ethically-challenged merchants to meet their relevant deities with all due haste and a quick burst of laser fire...

That said, good on you for having a go at this, and good luck. I can't wait to give it a go once it's finished (my machine can't cope with having too many OXPs added)

Good luck from me too. I was also wondering if there will be micro-jump gates because its easier to code vs a 'level-2' jump system - if you have been travelling at normal 'J' for 15s without mass-lock then speed goes up, occasional purple ring and steering available to planet that may not be visible yet but is selected on the (advanced) space compass. And its mass-lock abort is x10 more sensitive than the usual level-1 jump system - your speed falls back down to level 1 Jump speed and you need 15s of free space again before speeding up again - or else the mass lock gets even worse as you get even closer to pirates/planet etc and drop out of the usual level-1 jump. Maybe can't be done in OXP but needs a new Jump drive equipment added to the trunk?

One AU is approximately 93 million miles and is indeed the distance between the Earth and the Sun, but "we" are here because this ball of rock whizzing throuhg space just happened to be in the band where life was most likely to occur (for our system's particular set of circumstances) - I think the Earth is actually right on the edge of the band - something like 90% the way through it (towards the coolest edge) - so the habitable band depends purely on the output of the main star - small cool stars would have habitable planets much closer than 1AU (or more precicely more than 93 million miles since the habitable planet for a given sun IS 1AU away, from its point of view)

And of course the habitable band moves - a star that has become a red giant may have well "eaten" its original habitable planets but planets much further out fall into the new habitable band (although the chances of life occuring naturally before the sun finally goes KA-POW are estimated to be negligible)

Interplanetary jump gates, eh....

Another thing to put in my story. It's much harder this time round you know, everytime you finish a chapter some damn talented OXPer goes and add something new and funky to the universe...

It makes life tough for us Random Rationalisers TM trying to find plausible explanation for why all this cool stuff exists in Oolite and had all disappeared again by the time of FE2/FFE!

Cheers,

Drew.

drew wrote:

It makes life tough for us Random Rationalisers TM trying to find plausible explanation for why all this cool stuff exists in Oolite and had all disappeared again by the time of FE2/FFE!

Perhaps this is an alternate timeline, in which FE2/FFE will never happen?

Cool stories by the way

L

drew wrote:

Interplanetary jump gates, eh....

Another thing to put in my story. It's much harder this time round you know, everytime you finish a chapter some damn talented OXPer goes and add something new and funky to the universe...

It makes life tough for us Random Rationalisers TM trying to find plausible explanation for why all this cool stuff exists in Oolite and had all disappeared again by the time of FE2/FFE!

Cheers,

Drew.

Don´t worry about that, i got a perfectly sound explanation for why they (can you even call them they) the jump gates...

Eventually vanish, i can Pm you the details but i plan to incorporate that very reason into an OXP of mine... which is why i´m sort of careful not to reveal publicly why

Dr Beeb wrote:

BlackKnight wrote:

Hi Frame,

but is it really worth adding code to add the planets further out, then adding more code to make it quicker (and safer!) to travel between them?
Do you know how long it would take to j-space between the new planets, rather than use a gate?
And if you can gate from station to Witchpoint, why not the other way?

I think I'd rather see more planets close together but requiring "realspace" transit to get between them than much further distance between them but the ability to travel most of that distance in safety - half the "fun" is sending the pira^H^H^H ethically-challenged merchants to meet their relevant deities with all due haste and a quick burst of laser fire...

That said, good on you for having a go at this, and good luck. I can't wait to give it a go once it's finished (my machine can't cope with having too many OXPs added)

Good luck from me too. I was also wondering if there will be micro-jump gates because its easier to code vs a 'level-2' jump system - if you have been travelling at normal 'J' for 15s without mass-lock then speed goes up, occasional purple ring and steering available to planet that may not be visible yet but is selected on the (advanced) space compass. And its mass-lock abort is x10 more sensitive than the usual level-1 jump system - your speed falls back down to level 1 Jump speed and you need 15s of free space again before speeding up again - or else the mass lock gets even worse as you get even closer to pirates/planet etc and drop out of the usual level-1 jump. Maybe can't be done in OXP but needs a new Jump drive equipment added to the trunk?

That is not going to be implemented i´m afraid, it is not going to work like that, hence the word "jump Gate", the official explanation is that a jump gate jumps you from one point to another in micro seconds... there can be planets asteroids and whatever in beetween the line of start point to the end point...

The Jump gates bend space much like witch space jump drives.. however on a very very smaller scale...

The civilization is on main planet, IMO this planet should have the "correct" distance to support life. Of course, "correct" means actually nothing if there are no physic laws defined:) However, how's about giving the Oolite sun the apparent size of our solar system sun, viewed from the main planet. Standing on Earth the sun has a diameter of only 0.5 degree. I've used this code recently:

Frame wrote:

drew wrote:

Interplanetary jump gates, eh....

Another thing to put in my story. It's much harder this time round you know, everytime you finish a chapter some damn talented OXPer goes and add something new and funky to the universe...

It makes life tough for us Random Rationalisers TM trying to find plausible explanation for why all this cool stuff exists in Oolite and had all disappeared again by the time of FE2/FFE!

Cheers,

Drew.

Don´t worry about that, i got a perfectly sound explanation for why they (can you even call them they) the jump gates...

Eventually vanish, i can Pm you the details but i plan to incorporate that very reason into an OXP of mine... which is why i´m sort of careful not to reveal publicly why

Excellent! I've alluded to them in chapter nine (I think it was chapter nine) of my story, but not made any assumptions about what happens to them. I'll look forward to the OXP I think - don't spoil the surprise!

Cheers,

Drew.