Oolite Bulletins

The other night whilst watching a film, I hit upon a sudden idea, I wanted to see what "happened" when a pilot hits elite in oolite. I think I was expecting something other than a rank change after having seen the elite display in elite+.

To this end I cheated, but in a way I considered unlikely to be detected by the game, rather than edit a pilot file I mere repeat q-bombed the tionisla graveyard till I got to elite, but got no special message when I docked. I dont know if the game can detect this form of cheating, or if there isnt actually a display when you get to elite?

IF there isnt, how easy would it be to make up an oxp that pops a mission as soon as a player docks after turning elite where the mission text gives a nice storyline congratulations, and theres a background like the random hits missions screen - instead of showing a ship it could show a 3 "Elite" badge or similiar? Not sure if that sort of mission text with a background is possible to trigger on docking with a normal station?

Also not sure if its possible to add a "blank" mission like this where it doesnt give you a mission to complete, its just a possible way of abusing the system to put a nice "congratulations" display in.

All that should be easy.

I am pretty sure oolite doesnt try to detect cheating.

It's a brilliant idea and I'm amazed that no-one has thought of it before!!!

(but isn't this always the case with brilliant (and therefore obvious) ideas!)

Cmdr James wrote:

I am pretty sure oolite doesnt try to detect cheating.

Actually, it does. Check out the -setTrumbleValueFrom: method. It doesn't really act on it, though, other than displaying a message like "Bad boy, don't do that!"

Out of idle curiosity... how many q-bombs did that take?

another_commander wrote:

Cmdr James wrote:

I am pretty sure oolite doesnt try to detect cheating.

Actually, it does. Check out the -setTrumbleValueFrom: method. It doesn't really act on it, though, other than displaying a message like "Bad boy, don't do that!"

I thought I remembered reading somewhere about editing the credit and kill values in a save game spawned a trumble or something.

Hence I cheated in a less direct manner - to see what happened.

If anyone else has time on their hands then feel free to use this idea if not I will attempt something ham fisted and rough and ready as soon as I finish my current free time killing project.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Out of idle curiosity... how many q-bombs did that take?

9 from my current saved commaders status. (only 3000 ish kills)

16 from a "harmless" jameson I would guess.

I dont know if the graveyard respawns itself or not, but I forced an instant respawn by simply moved the oxp file done a shift restart saved the commander then moved the oxp back into add-ons then the graveyard respawned as if it was a new oxp being used for the first time.

Davidtq wrote:

I thought I remembered reading somewhere about editing the credit and kill values in a save game spawned a trumble or something.

Editing credits, kills, pilot name or trumble count will raise the cheat alarm but will not spawn anything in addition to what may already exist in that savefile. But now that you said it, it doesn't sound like such a bad idea ater all (OK, joking).

another_commander wrote:

Cmdr James wrote:

I am pretty sure oolite doesnt try to detect cheating.

Actually, it does. Check out the -setTrumbleValueFrom: method. It doesn't really act on it, though, other than displaying a message like "Bad boy, don't do that!"

Now that you mention it, I've been meaning to ask what triggers this in the logs

[cheat.tentative]: POSSIBLE CHEAT DETECTED

I don't recall now just what editing I'd done to a save-file to get this.. money or ship type, I suspect.. My guess is that any editing of the save file means that the checksum saved in the file will be incorrect. Is this what's happening?

<key>checksum</key>
<integer>34572</integer>

Diziet Sma wrote:

another_commander wrote:

Cmdr James wrote:

I am pretty sure oolite doesnt try to detect cheating.

Actually, it does. Check out the -setTrumbleValueFrom: method. It doesn't really act on it, though, other than displaying a message like "Bad boy, don't do that!"

Now that you mention it, I've been meaning to ask what triggers this in the logs

[cheat.tentative]: POSSIBLE CHEAT DETECTED

I don't recall now just what editing I'd done to a save-file to get this.. money or ship type, I suspect.. My guess is that any editing of the save file means that the checksum saved in the file will be incorrect. Is this what's happening?

<key>checksum</key>
<integer>34572</integer>

If you want extra credits for testing purposes etc its quite easy to do without edit the save file. Even more so if you are using an oxp ship, I normally fly a personalised ship anyway with my own texture even if its just a comra mk 3.

What you do is buy a oxp ship at regular price then edit the appropriate plist to put the price up by a silly amount then do a shift restart then trade in your ship for a standard ship - hey presto big cheated profit, without editing the save file...

If you want to change ship for testing again just edit up the "chance" in the plist file and remove other oxps then land a few times until the ship you want turns up.

I normally have a load of saved games at different stations nowdays so I wouldnt need to alter "chance" I just flick through the save games till I find one with the ship I want for sale. As its only for testing it doesnt matter that the saved game may be 1000 kills before my current commander.

Davidtq wrote:

I dont know if the graveyard respawns itself or not, but I forced an instant respawn by simply moved the oxp file done a shift restart saved the commander then moved the oxp back into add-ons then the graveyard respawned as if it was a new oxp being used for the first time.

Jumping out of the system and back again should work too. :-)

Diziet Sma wrote:

I don't recall now just what editing I'd done to a save-file to get this.. money or ship type, I suspect.. My guess is that any editing of the save file means that the checksum saved in the file will be incorrect. Is this what's happening?

<key>checksum</key>
<integer>34572</integer>

Don’t tell anyone, but that checksum is a red herring. It’s carefully calculated from various saved game settings, but never actually checked.

Ahruman wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

I don't recall now just what editing I'd done to a save-file to get this.. money or ship type, I suspect.. My guess is that any editing of the save file means that the checksum saved in the file will be incorrect. Is this what's happening?

<key>checksum</key>
<integer>34572</integer>

Don’t tell anyone, but that checksum is a red herring. It’s carefully calculated from various saved game settings, but never actually checked.

So uhh.. how does it detect changes so as to be able to report this in the logs?

[cheat.tentative]: POSSIBLE CHEAT DETECTED

Ahruman wrote:

Davidtq wrote:

I dont know if the graveyard respawns itself or not, but I forced an instant respawn by simply moved the oxp file done a shift restart saved the commander then moved the oxp back into add-ons then the graveyard respawned as if it was a new oxp being used for the first time.

Jumping out of the system and back again should work too.

Diziet Sma wrote:

I don't recall now just what editing I'd done to a save-file to get this.. money or ship type, I suspect.. My guess is that any editing of the save file means that the checksum saved in the file will be incorrect. Is this what's happening?

<key>checksum</key>
<integer>34572</integer>

Don’t tell anyone, but that checksum is a red herring. It’s carefully calculated from various saved game settings, but never actually checked.

So I did rather more work than was necesary for the experiment ah well.

Clearly I have much to learn (eventually) about the ways oolite works

Perhaps a failing of mine that I ran with a solution that appeared to work instead of looking for a simpler still solution. It never occured to me to jump in and out of the system. I guess thinking about it, it makes sense .

Even simpler way: Debug console. Load it up, load Oolite. Type: Buy stuff to ironass-up quickly. Launch and kill one ship. Yo, Elite in a couple of minutes.

@Diziet Sma: Black magic!
No, actually, it checks using another number which is also in the savefile. I'm not gonna say which one, though.

another_commander wrote:

Even simpler way: Debug console. Load it up, load Oolite. Type:

Code: Select all

player.credits=10000000
player.score=6399

Buy stuff to ironass-up quickly. Launch and kill one ship. Yo, Elite in a couple of minutes.

I remember reading somewhere around about a debug console, but hadnt got round to investigating it yet . The joys of greater knowledge

Theres probably a far easier way to do the whole Elite Display thing as well I just came up with a method I thought might work based on what Ive seen as a part time user, and having dabbled inefficiently with oxp'ing

The more familiar I am with a subject the more efficient my ideas are likelly to be but when just brain storming between doing two jobs at once at work I go with what something based on what I know Just havent got the time to delve in and learn it all right now