Pirate Coves

[Eric Walch]

And the marketplace can be sorted out with the Market shipdata.plist key (if the entity is spawned as a station).

Not any more. It used to work in the old version of pirate cove. Problem was that everybody adds custom versions op rock hermits to their system. If I add fixed rock hermits, they will stand out between those.
The current version of Pirate coves has no longer models in it. Therefor there is also no shipdata.plist to add a 'market' key as there was in the older versions.

And I must correct my previous message: Also the core hermits have no scan-class defined and will be added as neutral scanclass when added by anything else than the populator. I thought this bug was fixed long ago. ScanClass won't be an issue in trunk were scanClass will be read/write.

Seems adding this to the pirateCove.js script causes the Pirate Coves to use the right market commodities.plist file:
station.primaryRole = "pirate-cove"; // was rockhermit[/quote
This should already happen in the shipscript with shipSpawned. If not, that it is only fixed in my local copy. It will be in a next release.

[cim]

Also the core hermits have no scan-class defined and will be added as neutral scanclass when added by anything else than the populator. I thought this bug was fixed long ago.

Fixed in r5449.

[Eric Walch]

Thanks Cim.

And for those that already want to try the 1.4 version op Pirate Cove, can download it here. In my opinion this will also be the final version, unless someone finds a bug.

Main difference to older versions.

- Script added coves are always added at the same location for a 32 days period.
- Destroyed coves stay destroyed for a 30 day period.
- Script added coves no longer mass-lock you in trunk or later.
- Market should always be the pirate market.

[Switeck]

The pirateCoveAI.plist has an oddity.
Under its ATTACK section, it has an ATTACKED line that uses launchPirateShip.
But in the rest of the ATTACK section it uses "sendScriptMessage: $launchDefender".

It also does not react to Q-bombs being launched near it using the new v1.77 command, "CASCADE_WEAPON_DETECTED". It probably should attempt a last-ditch launch of ships and tell already-launched ships to either attempt to destroy the Q-bomb(s) or flee.

Something that could probably be done on all station-type AI.plist files...combining "SCAN_PREY" or "SCAN_DEBRIS" into the IDLE section. Like this:

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	IDLE = {
		ATTACKED = (setTargetToFoundTarget, "setStateTo: ATTACK");
		"CASCADE_WEAPON_DETECTED" = ("sendScriptMessage: $launchDefender", setTargetToFoundTarget, "setStateTo: ATTACK");
		"INCOMING_MISSILE" = (fireECM, setTargetToFoundTarget, "setStateTo: ATTACK");
		"NOTHING_FOUND" = ("setStateTo: SCAN_DEBRIS");
		"TARGET_FOUND" = ("setStateTo: ATTACK");
		UPDATE = ("pauseAI: 15.0", scanForRandomMerchantman, decreaseAlertLevel);
	};

Having a panic state of pirates/scavengers trying to launch and flee when the Pirate Cove is at low energy might be advisable too. Why die inside an unarmed station?

[FeelGone]

This isn't really a "bug", but I've realized that using  Random Ship Names, Rock Hermits gain names, but Pirate Coves don't. This means a Pirate Cove can be remotely identified. (Another being that the [wiki]Bounty Scanner[/wiki] gives Pirate Coves a bounty value of 100 Cr when targeted.)

[Eric Walch]

This isn't really a "bug", but I've realized that using  Random Ship Names, Rock Hermits gain names, but Pirate Coves don't.

That is a bug in Randomshipnames_OXP. An oxp should not affect other oxps. And this is an oxp that simulates being a rock Hermit, so Randomshipnames_OXP should threat it as such.

(Another being that the [wiki]Bounty Scanner[/wiki] gives Pirate Coves a bounty value of 100 Cr when targeted.)

That is correct because rocks only give 10% of the bounty that was defined in shipdata. The rock hes a bounty of 1000 so the player receives 100 credits. But, looking through the code, I think I do not set explicit a bounty for script added coves. They probably don't have a bounty at all now.

I'll change this completely by not giving any bounty in shipdata at all. That way bounty-scanners can't identify them. Than only set the bounty on destruction, making sure the player receives its reward.

[FeelGone]

This isn't really a "bug", but I've realized that using  Random Ship Names, Rock Hermits gain names, but Pirate Coves don't.

That is a bug in Randomshipnames_OXP. An oxp should not affect other oxps. And this is an oxp that simulates being a rock Hermit, so Randomshipnames_OXP should threat is as such.

Ok, thanks - I'm terribly uncertain about how OXPs interact, so I wasn't sure where to bring this up.

(Another being that the [wiki]Bounty Scanner[/wiki] gives Pirate Coves a bounty value of 100 Cr when targeted.)

That is a problem because not all oxp added rock hermits are defined as scanclass_rock. And bounties are handled different for rocks than for ships. That probably can be (and should be) fixed by giving coves with the wrong scanclass a different bounty. So that the player effectively gets the same bounty.

Well, should there be any bounty at all? Aside from it being a way to identify pirate coves - which seems contrary to the idea that they're a hidden surprise - it doesn't make all that much in game sense. They are large, stationary objects, and while the pirate fleets they contain are well armed and numerous, the asteroids themselves are no harder to vaporise than a standard asteroid.
Ok, you edited your post while I was typing, so nevermind on that front; your solution sounds like it will eliminate the ability of bounty scanners to identify them, so it solves that problem.

[Commander McLane]

This isn't really a "bug", but I've realized that using  Random Ship Names, Rock Hermits gain names, but Pirate Coves don't.

That is a bug in Randomshipnames_OXP. An oxp should not affect other oxps. And this is an oxp that simulates being a rock Hermit, so Randomshipnames_OXP should threat it as such.

Thanks for the report. I don't have Pirate Coves, thus I didn't realize there's a problem. I'll look into it.

[Eric Walch]

[Thanks for the report. I don't have Pirate Coves, thus I didn't realize there's a problem. I'll look into it.

I don't know why it goes wrong, because the coves are always added initially as a rock_hermit role. Only when the universe starts updating, the role changes to that of the pirate cove to give it the correct market.

About the bounties: The rocks already start clean. The bounty is only set when the cove starts launching ships against the player. At that moment the player already knows it are pirates, so I think this needs no further change at all.

[Commander McLane]

[Thanks for the report. I don't have Pirate Coves, thus I didn't realize there's a problem. I'll look into it.

I don't know why it goes wrong, because the coves are always added initially as a rock_hermit role. Only when the universe starts updating, the role changes to that of the pirate cove to give it the correct market.

This happens in the shipSpawned event of the cove's ship script. Randomshipnames adds the name in the shipSpawned event of its world script. So I guess that the ship script's shipSpawned code is executed first.

It's easy to fix by adding "pirate-cove" as a role to the randomshipnames script.

EDIT: And fixed.

[Eric Walch]

I just uploaded version 1.4.1 of [wiki]Pirate Coves OXP[/wiki]

Main change: After destroying a pirate cove, the station will stay away from that system for a 20 day period. (The time for the pirates to build a new station)

I announced this version already half a year ago, but never realised that I never put in the wiki link.

[Wildeblood]

Code: Select all

this.pirateCoveSystems = new Array(255);

Really?

[Eric Walch]

Really?

The array runs from 0 to 255, but I have to define 256 elements of cause. Thanks for pointing out. The oxp is replaced with a corrected version 1.4.2.

[Anonymissimus]

Pirate coves seem to be way too frequent in "safe" systems. It feels as if even in corporate states there's at least one pirate cove.
Ships are launching reluctantly and one by one, not much of a challenge. Perhaps put a patrolling group of pirate fighters into the cove's "aegis". If these or the cove come into scanner range, both should attack, and the cove launches fighters.
The cove itself is destroyed too easily, 2 barrages with military laser until they overheat seems enough.

[Layne]

Pirate coves seem to be way too frequent in "safe" systems. It feels as if even in corporate states there's at least one pirate cove.
Ships are launching reluctantly and one by one, not much of a challenge. Perhaps put a patrolling group of pirate fighters into the cove's "aegis". If these or the cove come into scanner range, both should attack, and the cove launches fighters.
The cove itself is destroyed too easily, 2 barrages with military laser until they overheat seems enough.

Pirate Coves is somewhat due for an update for 1.82, in any event-- the markets, like all older oxp markets, no longer seem to work at all. Might be time for this little oxp gem to get some polishing.