Question for LoveCats oxp

[Tivva]

Just jumped to Gal 4 & d/l Lovecats oxp.
When you're offered the mission to capture Romeo Valrisian & bring him back alive, Can it be done?

I've tracked his Asp down to Esarqure & immobilised him with a Lawmaker missile but he didn't do anything. Tried to persuade him to eject by repainting his ship with carbon scorching but he still didn't eject. Then he blew up

So, should I go back a save file?
or is he supposed to be uncatchable?
Does it matter?
Should I have done something different? (apart from not killing him...)

Thanks

[Lestradae]

I did manage to get him out alive when I played that mission, so it can be done.

Perhaps your lawmaker missile fried his escape pod? Don't know if that's possible, but it could well be, perhaps you could try another missile.

Cheers

L

[Thargoid]

Try lasering him just enough to make his ship spark, but not to explode. Then wait until his energy recharges a bit and repeat until he decides to hit the pod. Then you're in business.

Missiles I would say are not recommended for this procedure

[Tivva]

Cheers guys
Back 1 save file & try again.

Tiv

[Tivva]

Mission accomplished now, think I was being too clever using a lawmaker missile....

[Screet]

Mission accomplished now, think I was being too clever using a lawmaker missile....

Hmmm. I lasered him out...scooped up the pod and got slaves. Yes, I understand that they want him as a sex slave for that feline...but it's for the good of a whole world, so why not?

However, I'm afraid that the pod doesn't count. Nothing upon docking, but a ton of slaves to sell. Still the message that I should find him and in the save file, the mission info went to "DESTROYED".

Is this normal?!?

Screet

[Screet]

OK, I'm beginning to be fed up with this mission.

I've made over 200 kills in the target system without finding that ship more than twice - and the result of scooping up slaves.

I then changed the AI from sun patrol to planet patrol...that made it far easier to find him.

However, I just had a few dozen attempts at catching him. Either the escape pod turned out to be filled with slaves or the pod crashed into the ship that did launch it.

So I guess that I've got a really big problem here: I'm sure that
1) the escape pod is somehow one form an oxp that does not allow pilots to sit in it, but only slaves
2) the escape pod also has stats that almost always cause it to destroy itself during the launch process

Has anyone a good idea?

Screet

[Screet]

OK, some more changes to lovecats and disabling of all neolite stuff did it.

Here's the changes I made to shipdata.plist from lovecats:
1) Add an eject position to the asp, copied from the original model. This is done to prevent the capsule to hit it's own ship

Code: Select all

        <key>aft_eject_position</key>
        <string>0.0 -8.0 -21.5</string>

2) Change the patrol AI to this entry to force him to patrol planet-W buoy instead of towards the sun.

Code: Select all

		<key>ai_type</key>
		<string>route1patrolAI.plist</string>

I'm still failing to see which neolite oxp did override the escape pod with one which only contains slaves. Will contact Simon about it.

Screet

[Screet]

Hmmm. Is this a bug?

After delivering that male, I did jump and dock at a research station. There was the female waiting and asking to be brought to another planet. I said yes...but there was no mission description. However, the save file revealed "stage 98". Thus I thought that the description is missing and did fly through the whole galaxy to finally get rid of this misison.

Nothing happened.

Looking at the code, I think there might be a bug, including that I should not have received that mission at a research station (in another attempt I got it at a ConStore):

Code: Select all

                {
                    conditions = (
                        "mission_wedding equal STAGE98", 
                        "dockedAtMainStation_bool equal YES", 
                        "missionChoice_string equal YES"
                    ); 
                    do = (
                        resetMissionChoice, 
                        "set: mission_wedding STAGE99", 
                        "setMissionDescription: wm1_short_desc6"
                    ); 
                }, 

Anyone with ideas?

Screet

[Eric Walch]

Anyone with ideas?

Screet

Its a bug of another oxp that messed up your lovecats. mission_wedding STAGE98 should never be in your save file.

After the missionpage is shown you made a choice. Now the script is waiting for conditions = ("missionChoice_string equal YES") . When found it proceeds and sets mission_wedding STAGE98 to STAGE99

But I know of a lot of other oxp's that don't respect other oxps and just reset missionChoice_string without checking if it is in use by another oxp. Or another oxp did overwrite your missionpage so you never saw it in the first place. But the script is still waiting for the YES answer.

This is not a loveCat bug but from another oxp that just overwrites stuff. (The wellknown mission clash) However, one can script loveCats in a way so it can recover from this. I have always warned for not using the mission_variable itself to flag the offer. That way you never can recover from it. e.g . UPS_courier will recover from such oxp conflicts.

In your case set the variable back to "mission_wedding = STAGE98".

PS
I think you are not using the latest version 1.1. (that would have suffered from the same problem). In the past I changed the code so it wouldn't disturb other mission oxp's. It's probably 10 minutes work to change the code in a way it can also recover from clashes induced by other oxp's. I'll look at it this weekend.

[Screet]

That way you never can recover from it. e.g . UPS_courier will recover from such oxp conflicts.

Interestingly, the next time when I did dock, I had the "space view" still active while docked and then UPS told me that it detected that some oxp tried to show a screen but failed to *grrrr*

I think you are not using the latest version 1.1. (that would have suffered from the same problem). In the past I changed the code so it wouldn't disturb other mission oxp's. It's probably 10 minutes work to change the code in a way it can also recover from clashes induced by other oxp's. I'll look at it this weekend.

Is there a way to check the version number? The version I've got installed doesn't show any version info.

Thanks for the tip with the save file - I hope that it's ok if I continue with some other tests before I reactivate it by setting back that variable?

Screet

[Eric Walch]

Is there a way to check the version number? The version I've got installed doesn't show any version info.

Thanks for the tip with the save file - I hope that it's ok if I continue with some other tests before I reactivate it by setting back that variable?

With that variable value it will never continue the mission. In the mean time I added code that makes sure it will redo the offer after a new docking when the offer gets overwritten. (will re-upload after a few tests)

I just notice the structure of your code sniplet was different from 1.1. The original had no version number, 1.1 has it in its name. For version 1.2 I add an info file so is stays in even when someone is renaming it.

[Screet]

I just notice the structure of your code sniplet was different from 1.1. The original had no version number, 1.1 has it in its name. For version 1.2 I add an info file so is stays in even when someone is renaming it.

If the eject position for the asp has not been added yet, may I suggest to add it? Probably even one more safe than the values I took from the built in asp...it still had a good chance to cause the escape pod crashing into the ship from which it did launch.

Screet

[Eric Walch]

If the eject position for the asp has not been added yet, may I suggest to add it? Probably even one more safe than the values I took from the built in asp...it still had a good chance to cause the escape pod crashing into the ship from which it did launch.

I already did add it based on your other mails. I even added a custom pod now. Also started to rename some of the stuff to make naming conflicts less likely.

On the point of your mission clash: there are two moments were a clash results in breaking the mission as happened with you. I now changed it in a way that it will recover from such a previously clashed mission. So no need to edit your save-game. (Still have to test it before uploading)

[Eric Walch]

If the eject position for the asp has not been added yet, may I suggest to add it?

Okay Screet, could you look at it Lovecats 1.2?

When also okay on your system I put the link on the wiki.

When you're offered the mission to capture Romeo Valrisian & bring him back alive, Can it be done?

Back to the original question: Yes, but with difficulties. All oolite ships start throwing sparks when energy drops below 25%. Escape pods only launch with a 25% change when energy dropped below 12.5% because of a hit. So you must hit the ship in its lower energy region. Not a problem with strong ships or when using weak weapons. Doing this mission with a military laser is more difficult. (Theoretical you could cheat the code by always spawn a pod with pilot. But that removes the challenge or not?)