Oolite Bulletins

Sounds sensible to me.

Hmm, I somehow actually expect the Thargoids to attack cargo too (galCoop contaminated stuff, get rid of it) however rocks, splinters and such don't quite make the grade... Unless we're talking about rock hermits, of course. My preference would be for Thargoids to attack everything unless flagged not to. If only I could think of a sensible name instead of isNotThargoidVictim / isNotThargoidTarget

isThargoidFriend?

It was more the concept than anything else (and not having to write a huge list of things to include/exclude in the scanning script), brought about by me spawning a test warship under the new AI and it seeming to have an unhealthy obsession with trying to shoot a metal fragment left by the death of one of it's predecessors. The fact that it couldn't actually seem to manage to destroy the thing was a side-niggle too.

For reference, I ended up with:
As you can see, nice and simple and concise

Thargoid wrote:

For reference, I ended up with:

Code: Select all

function targetShips(entity) {return (entity.isPlayer || entity.isTrader || entity.isPirate || entity.isPolice || entity.isPirateVictim || entity.isBeacon || entity.isStation) && !entity.isThargoid && !entity.isCloaked}; 

As you can see, nice and simple and concise

You miss escorts and ships added by oxp's that are on no list. Oolites scanForNonThargoid uses: (isCloaked exist currently only in my build)
For some reason it excludes cargo but not rocks. And testing for docked is to prevent it finds a docked player.

Thargoid wrote:

escorts - good catch, can get that with entity.hasRole("escort").

OXP-added ships - that's a more complex one methinks. Any thoughts on how to do that one? Either by adding something in, or redoing things?

Maybe just scan everything and only exclude certain types. (and not select certain types)

Thargoid wrote:

For background reference I'm steering away from scanForNonThargoids both for the known cloaked ship issue (which your fix should, umm, fix), but also as I'm scanning out to 60,000m and with a bit of js/AI interaction actually allowing the Thargoids to properly use their longer scanning. If you want I can share a WIP with you for comment and input (as usual ).

This 60.000 meter scan range of thargoids is a big bug. Maybe it once worked in earlier oolite versions but at least since 1.65 all scan ranges are limited to 25.600 meter throughout the code.
The JS property "scannerRange" returns the value defined in shipdata. The easiest fix would be to clamp that value to 25.600 and leave the rest as it is.

The more difficult method would be to add a copy of "checkScanner" to the current code that does not use the 25.600 as maximum scan range but the value defined with the ship and than only use that scanner in the "scanForNonThargoid". Than you have really thargoids than scan further.

Also stuff like "performAttack" looses targets when further away than 25.600 meter. Attacking such targets can be achieved by using special AI that just flies in the direction of the target when far away and only starts attacking when within the normal limits.

I even had already written a bit of code that does that. checkScanner not returning "TARGET_FOUND" but also "DISTANT_TARGET_FOUND" Than the targoids do only a flyToDestination when they find a distant target. performAttack only starts then when within scanner range.

Eric Walch wrote:

The more difficult method would be to add a copy of "checkScanner" to the current code that does not use the 25.600 as maximum scan range but the value defined with the ship and than only use that scanner in the "scanForNonThargoid".

Could be fun to have buyable scanners with different functionality...for example my little code mod which marks non-hostile ships with bounty orange is a great help and I really think such a thing should be available to all, maybe by adding some equipment dependency so that those who don't want it can keep the current behaviour. It's similar with scanners: Some might prefer that the scanner range pretty much also tells them when they can use the torus drive or mil laser while others would prefer to see further into the distance. It also could result in nice NPC pirates which won't lose a track so easily.

Screet