Perhaps one could debate whether the NEU should be portable or not. In Oolite it is not, and I don't see a reason why it should be.
However, and I've told Lestradae this before, the first line in the following array is a bug, and a game-breaking one. It makes the built-in Thargoid Plans mission meaningless, which is why I said before that this mission is one of three in-built missions which get broken by RS. (Considering that there are only four built-in missions that is quite a lot.)
Code: Select all
<array>
<integer>16</integer> <-- here is the bug
<integer>5000000</integer>
<string>Naval Energy Unit</string>
<string>EQ_NAVAL_ENERGY_UNIT</string>
<string>Bleeding-edge Technology. A special improved efficiency energy recharge unit, as supplied to Navy vessels.</string>
<dict>
<key>portable_between_ships</key>
<true/>
<key>available_to_all</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</array>
The number has to be 99 and nothing else, in order to allow the built-in Thargoid Plans mission to give the player a reward as planned, namely the possibility to re-purchase the NEU at any TL14+ station after buying a new ship. Which means it is exactly the bug which prevents Screet from re-purchasing a NEU.
Please note that the above configuration is not final. I have gotten a suggestion from McLane how to solve what I want to do here in a probably better way and I will perhaps implement that solution. This is a WiP, people, and Screet is testing it!
RS is
not a WIP, but is being announced by its author as a working OXP. This and other serious bugs have been present in every version of RS since its first release, and they continue to be present in the very latest version.
McLane: In Elite/Oolite, there is no such thing as a MASC. If you got something like this in the first place, I consider that a bug (coming from an OXP). Weird behaviour is to be expected out of bugs.
The MASC is an equipment item that was created by aegidian,
who never introduced it into the game. And I guess he had good reasons for not doing so. As far as I can see at least the MASC-jammer does have a serious problem: I once tried to award it to my test commander, and it showed up on the F5-screen
twice. This is certainly not a bug-free behaviour.
Therefore it seems obvious to me that these two items are not ready for use. Any attempt to make the player believe otherwise (for instance by making them available) is at least a nuisance, but I call it a bug.
I've said it before and will repeat it a thousand times again if nescessary: Oxp's are optional. If you don't like it, don't use it.
This
would be true if every OXP author would make sure to explain what "it" is, read: to to explain exactly what his OXP does. Then, and
only then players can decide if they like it and want to use it. Myself I have never downloaded RS and don't know what its documentation says. Does Lestradae clearly explain in the ReadMe (or somewhere else) that RS
- breaks the built-in Constrictor Mission by making it possible that an NPC shoots the Constrictor before the player even got the mission (I am not sure, there is the possibility that this bug was removed in the latest version of RS; in that case I would take back this point);
- alters/breaks the Thargoid Plans mission by disabling the reward that existed in Elite/Oolite;
- alters built-in behaviour like the fact that usually equipment items are not portable between ships;
- breaks the Cloaking Device mission by allowing the player to buy a cloaking device before the mission, which makes the mission meaningless;
- and so on...?
If all this is properly documented, the player may indeed decide whether he wants this behaviour, which is all
contrary to the behaviour that was intended by "the guy who created this game in the first place, himself"; or he wants Oolite behaviour, which he won't get with RS installed. I doubt it, though.
.
