Oolite Bulletins

o.k. Spent AGES shuttling between Laenin and Xexedi with Cobra then BCC to get the 1.6 Mill to get a Caduceus Omega - Got it - and it ROCKS..... or rather it ROCKED!

Got into one hell of a battle, won through - but ended with "Damage Control Node N/A" (i.e. The Damage Control system is SNAFUd). I have since been to a TL15 world (and there was no option to repair there), and have just had a Maintenance Overhaul on a TL14 world - which didn't fix it either.

I know I COULD edit the save file and change the "EQ_DCN_DAMAGED" tag - But I want to know if there is any FAIR way to get the Damage Control system repaired?

I was under the distinct impression that the Damage Control was designed to fix itself if it ever sustained damage.

I'm sure ClymAngus or someone else more familiar with the Caddy will be along to confirm or deny this shortly.

EDIT:
From the NeoCaduceus ReadMe:

The Caduceus also contains a certain piece of specialized kit the Damage Control Node.
Based off Thargoid's repair bot mines, the Damage Control Node is a nanoforge that interfaces with the Caddy's AI and biosystems, and assists the crew in inflight repairs, manufacturing replacement components as they're needed.
The DCN manages repairs slowly over time, repairing more equipment than the
Repair Mine, and often with a better chance of success. Yet it doesn't always repair a piece of kit the first time it tries, and sometimes takes two or more tries to repair a device. The AI will tell you if they fail to fix a device. Nor can it repair every piece of kit on the market, though most common devices and some rare ones are within it's capabilities.
And if the DCN gets damaged? Repairs are halted if the DCN takes a hit, but it heals itself! Priority is given to healing a damaged DCN, and healing a DCN happens fairly quickly. Repairs resume soon after the DCN heals.

Moved to Discussion.

The DCN only functions inflight, so while docked, pull out your wallet and pay the station mechanics to fix what they can. This gives less damage your crew has to deal with, so self-repairs, - including a damaged DCN - goes a little quicker.

On that note, the DCN is like the cloaking device: Tech so rare and exotic that no station wrench anywhere knows enough to fix it.

o.k. Something is very wrong. Everyone says the DCN will repair itself over time. Since it went N/A I have flown 72 "missions" and have had two maintenance overhauls. No other component is broken (and actually none has actually gone to N/A since the DCN went AWOL. I get the feeling that whatever is wrong is not likely to fix itself.

My plan now is to wait until I have enough cash to sell my current Caduceus and buy a new one (should they ever show up for sale again).

Allonnissos wrote:

o.k. Something is very wrong. Everyone says the DCN will repair itself over time. Since it went N/A I have flown 72 "missions" and have had two maintenance overhauls. No other component is broken (and actually none has actually gone to N/A since the DCN went AWOL. I get the feeling that whatever is wrong is not likely to fix itself.

My plan now is to wait until I have enough cash to sell my current Caduceus and buy a new one (should they ever show up for sale again).

Hmm. That is odd. The DCN's self-healing function worked fine in testing prior to release. I'll have to look into this.

In the meanwhile, here's a desperation fix:
Open your savefile in a text editor - I strongly recommend Notepad+ for this; avoid Windows Notepad at all costs!
Find EQ_DCN_DAMAGED
Change it to EQ_DCN
Save file

That should kickstart it back to normal functionality.

ok out of interest what version and operating system are you running oolite under?

ClymAngus wrote:

ok out of interest what version and operating system are you running oolite under?

My esteemed colleague asks a good question.

The DCN was tested with Oolite 1.73.4 on Windows XP, Mepis Linux 8, and OSX Leopard. Not to mention the who knows how many other platforms it's been run on since release. So far, only one report of this problem.

It could be a fluke, but I don't have enough info to say for sure.

Hi,
I have a Caddy Omega and have never seen mention of a DNC, so I looked in the shipdata plist. Nope no mention of it.
I've had this one for quite a few months and am running version 1.73.3 oolite.
Is it my version of the caddy or oolite causing the omission of a DNC?
How easy would it be to write it in rather than downloading a newer version? I have monthly download limits to consider.

Alex wrote:

Hi,
I have a Caddy Omega and have never seen mention of a DNC, so I looked in the shipdata plist. Nope no mention of it.
I've had this one for quite a few months and am running version 1.73.3 oolite.
Is it my version of the caddy or oolite causing the omission of a DNC?
How easy would it be to write it in rather than downloading a newer version? I have monthly download limits to consider.

Heya Alex,

It's called the Damage Control Node (abbreviated DCN) in your installed equipment list, the F5 screen.
If you've downloaded the most recent version of the neocaduceus.oxp from ClymAngus' sig, then the DCN should appear in your installed equipment. If you have the latest version of the oxp but no DCN, then you may want to purchase a new Caddy. Sorry about that.

The DCN relies on a rather convoluted javascript to make it work, and just downloading it is a lot less effort than trying to write java code from scratch. Or even trying to modify another javascript like I did for the DCN. Java code makes my head want to explode.
Fortunately, the oxp package isn't too large.

This might be a little off topic (?) but what is required for the broadside plasma cannon to operate?

When I try to buy eqpt there is no option that works in this capacity

I just took out the Omega for a spin. The DCN seems to work fine for me, it repaired my shield boosters in flight, but then again it itself did not get damaged.

Broadside cannons have just been there standard and just worked for me.
Seeing a ship on the radar fly by my side and simply disappear is quite funny.

You may need to target a ship with the Ident system in order for the broadside plasmas to fire on it.

Zbond-Zbond wrote:

This might be a little off topic (?) but what is required for the broadside plasma cannon to operate?

Only three things:

1) you must have targetted another ship; plasma cannons only fire on targets which are targetted by you;

2) your target must be hostile to you; plasma cannons don't fire on friendly or neutral targets;

3) your target must be inside the actual firing range and angle of the cannons; plasma cannons have a range of 5000 meters and a firing angle of approximately 150 degrees. Therefore your starboard cannon will never send a shot to a target on your port side, even not to a target right in front of you.

My O/S is Ubuntu V9.10 (Karmic Koala - released in October 2009)
My Oolite is version 1.73.4
My neocaduceus.zip is the file from alioth.net originally downloaded 30th September 2009 (size 3246983) - replaced by newer download (also from alioth.net) downloaded 31st January 2010 (size 3246932).

-The DNC became U/S on 18th January 2010 (i.e. when running the older version of the neocaduceus.oxp) and has been that way ever since.

Note: I did have a bug in the older neocaduceus.oxp:

When I started up the game and restored my last saved game - it showed my cargo capacity as 40 t. (even if I had left it with 50 t. already loaded). I found that by selling all the cargo - and then the Cargo Bay Extension, and then purchasing the Cargo Bay Extension again it returned to 50 t. which would stay that way until I was forced to Load Commander again.

This bug was fixed by the latest version of the neocaduceus.oxp.