Oolite Bulletins

My first ever suggestion as a N00B.

Let Maintenance Overhaul ALWAYS be in the equipment screen (TL 7 and above... or is that JUST TL 7 planets? I dunno I am N00B, and haven't noticed yet), but have it be yellow (like other items), UNTIL ship degredation falls below that certain threshold and then make it orange (like it is now). (I learned recently in another post that apparantly the threshold is 85 percent?)

I apologize if this has been suggested before... quite possible, as it seems logical.

Also I realize that this is out-of-line (a little) with established "documentation and purposes"/ the canon; documentation implies that "some monkey in the shipyard *notices* that your ship is worn, and offers to overhaul it for you".

Advantages are obvious.

(1) If I generally hang out in some low tech level anarchies to get kills and I am headed out that way soon, or I am ABOUT TO make a long carrier service run, then maybe I want to pay for a maintenance overhaul to "polish my ship off" before I leave to do extended actions away from TL 7 locations. "Preparation".

(2) If a player wants to upgrade to a new ship he doesn't necessarily have to wait for the "right moment" for the overhaul to become available, so that he can get a good trade-in value. If you are going to trade in your car for a new one, don't you clean and polish and wax it first, check the brakes, radiator, spark plugs, etc etc etc? Maybe even have the local mechanic check some things for you?

This could probably be done via OXP, but maybe it should be a native feature.

Concerning OXPs:
I can code; BUILT my first computer in the late 70s, when assembly language was a MUST, then basic, some pascal, and I've been writing in C / C++ since the mid 90s. But I have no experience with coding for Oolite... and I don't have a Windows-Native compiler installed (just an old compiler on my other DOS machine), or any modelling tools (an earlier version of Wings3D about drove me crazy once, I was going to use it for exporting to a Ray Tracer. Maybe its "nicer" now). I've been hesitant to install Visual C express (on my new, present computer) because of *possible* Vista issues (hehehe BOTH Microsoft products... go figure).

JeffBTX wrote:

I can code; BUILT my first computer in the late 70s, when assembly language was a MUST, then basic, some pascal, and I've been writing in C / C++ since the mid 90s. But I have no experience with coding for Oolite... and I don't have a Windows-Native compiler installed (just an old compiler on my other DOS machine), or any modelling tools (an earlier version of Wings3D about drove me crazy once, I was going to use it for exporting to a Ray Tracer. Maybe its "nicer" now). I've been hesitant to install Visual C express (on my new, present computer) because of *possible* Vista issues (hehehe BOTH Microsoft products... go figure).

Hehe - then it should be NOP not N00B. Welcome, JeffBTX, hehe .-)

JeffBTX wrote:

I can code; BUILT my first computer in the late 70s, when assembly language was a MUST, then basic, some pascal, and I've been writing in C / C++ since the mid 90s. But I have no experience with coding for Oolite... and I don't have a Windows-Native compiler installed (just an old compiler on my other DOS machine), or any modelling tools (an earlier version of Wings3D about drove me crazy once, I was going to use it for exporting to a Ray Tracer. Maybe its "nicer" now). I've been hesitant to install Visual C express (on my new, present computer) because of *possible* Vista issues (hehehe BOTH Microsoft products... go figure).

No problem at all then, because Oolite does not use Visual C (you would not be able to use it for Oolite coding even if you wanted to). Since the game is coded in Objective-C, the compiler of choice for all platforms is GCC. If you would like to build for Windows, instructions and a complete development environment ready to install can be found here. Installing the environment is as simple as unzipping it to a preferred location, no registry or system environment changes (and - thank God- no vcredist.exe )

I like it as an idea - after all a modern car knows when it needs an overhaul - some of them even do a little count down for you and even tell you which bits might need checking!

With regards the Oolite code - I'm fairly certain Visual Express will do you know good at all - I think GCC is the compiler of choice and the Code is written in Objective-C and not C++, and finally, if you'd like to get into OXP'ing then javascripting is all you need to worry about.

EDIT: A_C beat me too it!

Svengali wrote:

JeffBTX wrote:

I can code; BUILT my first computer in the late 70s, when assembly language was a MUST, then basic, some pascal, and I've been writing in C / C++ since the mid 90s. But I have no experience with coding for Oolite... and I don't have a Windows-Native compiler installed (just an old compiler on my other DOS machine), or any modelling tools (an earlier version of Wings3D about drove me crazy once, I was going to use it for exporting to a Ray Tracer. Maybe its "nicer" now). I've been hesitant to install Visual C express (on my new, present computer) because of *possible* Vista issues (hehehe BOTH Microsoft products... go figure).

Hehe - then it should be NOP not N00B. Welcome, JeffBTX, hehe .-)

Watza NOP?

Ive never built oolite on windows, only OSX which is the "original" platform but I dont think you need visual C as ooite is written in Objective C and doesnt use any mfc or anything that you need visual C for.

Instructions are at http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Running_Oolite-Windows

You certainly dont need visual C for OXPs, you can easily work in notepad or editor of your choice.

Man, I must tpe slow, about 5 replies before mine. I blmae this funny german keyboard. NOP might be Not A Programmer?

JeffBTX wrote:

Watza NOP?

6502/6510 $EA No OPeration (2 Cycles) - my favorite Mnemonic at that time to balance timecritical things...

Svengali wrote:

JeffBTX wrote:

Watza NOP?

6502/6510 $EA No OPeration (2 Cycles) - my favorite Mnemonic at that time to balance timecritical things...

Now that takes me back!

another_commander wrote:

JeffBTX wrote:

I can code; BUILT my first computer in the late 70s, when assembly language was a MUST, then basic, some pascal, and I've been writing in C / C++ since the mid 90s. But I have no experience with coding for Oolite... and I don't have a Windows-Native compiler installed (just an old compiler on my other DOS machine), or any modelling tools (an earlier version of Wings3D about drove me crazy once, I was going to use it for exporting to a Ray Tracer. Maybe its "nicer" now). I've been hesitant to install Visual C express (on my new, present computer) because of *possible* Vista issues (hehehe BOTH Microsoft products... go figure).

No problem at all then, because Oolite does not use Visual C (you would not be able to use it for Oolite coding even if you wanted to). Since the game is coded in Objective-C, the compiler of choice for all platforms is GCC. If you would like to build for Windows, instructions and a complete development environment ready to install can be found here. Installing the environment is as simple as unzipping it to a preferred location, no registry or system environment changes (and - thank God- no vcredist.exe )

I'll think about it... I'm almost afraid to get involved, getting too old for this sort of thing hehehehe. So GCC leaves that registry alone - THATS good! From reading that other post you referenced, it doesn't SOUND like there should be (serious) Vista issues. Getting into it would take a bit of "psyching up" first. Perhaps an overdose of good, select gourmet coffee some night.

Svengali wrote:

JeffBTX wrote:

Watza NOP?

6502/6510 $EA No OPeration (2 Cycles) - my favorite Mnemonic at that time to balance timecritical things...

Urgh!! I should have recognized that. And urgh!!!

If you want to contribute, but arent sure about the core game, then try a bit of OXP dev. Its easier to get into, and more directly rewarding.

On the subject of maintenance overhauls, I find it annoying that it cant be done at will, so I guess I vote yes to the change.

JeffBTX wrote:

Svengali wrote:

JeffBTX wrote:

Watza NOP?

6502/6510 $EA No OPeration (2 Cycles) - my favorite Mnemonic at that time to balance timecritical things...

Urgh!! I should have recognized that. And urgh!!!

Seems the "psyching up" has started right now

But I have left the boat in the late 80th, since that time no assembler, no scripting, nada. Hmm.

Have a good time here...

JeffBTX wrote:

From reading that other post you referenced, it doesn't SOUND like there should be (serious) Vista issues. Getting into it would take a bit of "psyching up" first. Perhaps an overdose of good, select gourmet coffee some night.

Vista issues? No. 64 bit issues? Yes.

You do need a 32bit OS to build the app / installer. You can then use that installer on a 64bit Vista without any problems.

Screet

I STILL do assembly on my "other computer".

I have a refurbished antique in the corner - a Pentium-166, with DOS 6.22 installed. I assemble in TASM, MASM; and I have Borland C++ 3.0 on it, and DJGPP, and OpenWatcom. Its a nice little legacy machine I put together. 192MB of RAM. 2 Gb hard drive. 100W power supply. SVGA chip with 2 Mb of video memory. NDMAL for telecommunications (NDMAL = No Darn Modem At All). Some old HP printer.

I use it for playing certain old DOS games (rather than struggle with DOSBox), and writing tools to hack / mod those games, and occasionally when I need to write software that will do something (like... model a tornado using a DF3 particle density file, for a raytracer that I have on my VISTA machine; if the resultant DF3 file is more than will fit on a 1.44 Mb floppy to get it over to the other computer I have ways to cope).

Screet wrote:

JeffBTX wrote:

From reading that other post you referenced, it doesn't SOUND like there should be (serious) Vista issues. Getting into it would take a bit of "psyching up" first. Perhaps an overdose of good, select gourmet coffee some night.

Vista issues? No. 64 bit issues? Yes.

You do need a 32bit OS to build the app / installer. You can then use that installer on a 64bit Vista without any problems.

Screet

Screet; thanks; unfortunately I have Vista Home Premium 64 bit.