Question about carriers

[pagroove]

If you land at a carrier. Will it eventually jump into another system?
If so is it then possible to add a counter so that the commander that docks can see an Estimated time before jump with destination shown. In that way the ships that don't have a hyperdrive and regular ships can actually use those liners, and carriers to their advantage.

[Commander McLane]

Good question.

First of all it will depend on the carrier's AI, I guess. If it generally doesn't jump, chances are that it won't with you on board.

The special case is of course carriers in interstellar space. It is hardcoded in Oolite that you only can launch into a system. Therefore, if you dock with a carrier (or a station, for that matter) in interstellar space, you will find that upon launch it is suddenly located in one of the adjacent systems. Which may be explained for carriers, but makes no sense for stations, of course. Which is why the spawning of stations in interstellar space is advised against.

But I think it is easy to make a test case. Just modify the AI of any existing carrier so that it jumps out a minute after spawning. Spawn it, dock with it, and wait a minute. Then you'll see what happens.

[Thargoid]

But soon to be changed, if I remember well...

[Cmdr Wyvern]

If you land at a carrier. Will it eventually jump into another system?

The Behemoths do, at least from Bugspace.

If so is it then possible to add a counter so that the commander that docks can see an Estimated time before jump with destination shown. In that way the ships that don't have a hyperdrive and regular ships can actually use those liners, and carriers to their advantage.

The counter sounds like a good idea.

I may be wrong, but I thought every ship flyable by the player automatically had a witchdrive. On the other hand, if you're too low on fuel to make a jump, then hitching a ride is a damn good idea.

[Commander McLane]

I may be wrong, but I thought every ship flyable by the player automatically had a witchdrive.

Actually every ship in Oolite has a witchdrive, even those which are not supposed to. That's because the witchdrive isn't actually an equipment. Whether an NPC can jump or not is purely a matter of AI and fuel.

[pagroove]

No time to test. I'm curious though.

[Eric Walch]

But I think it is easy to make a test case. Just modify the AI of any existing carrier so that it jumps out a minute after spawning. Spawn it, dock with it, and wait a minute. Then you'll see what happens.

I just did out of curiosity. I spawned a dredger, docked with it and changed its AI into an "exitingTraderAI". And I opened a mac-target inspector for easier following the carrier actions.

The ship jumped but I did not see as difference. Going through the F6 screen told me I still was in the old system. Then on launch things started to change. I think I launched in the old system at the location of the wormhole. I saw the wormhole at the centre of the scanner. Than I was immediately sucked in by the wormhole and ended in the system where the carrier jumped to. But because I waited some time, the dredger already had flown off the scanner.

At least it is not handled as launching from the carrier in the new system, but as launching from the carrier in the old system and following him through the hole. And I assume when I would have waited long enough for the wormhole to collapse, I would have stayed in the old system.


When you want to repeat it, get the console and type:

Code: Select all

this.ship=PS.target
this.ship.fuel=70
// (dock now)
this.ship.setAI("exitingTraderAI.plist")

[Kaks]

As Commander McLane said, if you dock to a carrier/station in interstellar space, when you undock you'll find yourself magically transported to a nearby system - the nearest system to be precise, and this without modifying AIs.

And as Thargoid semi-remembered, from 1.75 (provided we don't discover major - unsolvable - problems with it) there's going to be a new shipdata key: 'interstellar_undocking'.
In future (& in trunk), if you've got

Code: Select all

"interstellar_undocking" = YES;

as part of a carrier/station definition, you can dock in interstellar space secure in the knowledge that you'll undock in the same interstellar space!

[pagroove]

as part of a carrier/station definition, you can dock in interstellar space secure in the knowledge that you'll undock in the same interstellar space!

So you mean that the situation that Eric describes then doesn't happen anymore and you come out of the 'tube' in the right system?


O EDIT:

And on the subject of counters. Are ETA (Estimated Time of Arival) counters possible in Oolite? Would be also cool if you have an Advanced space compass stage 2 which displays the ETA- countdown to the Station based on your speed.

[tonyhippy]

Talking of stations in interstellar space, the new wasp stations definately do spawn there I found out last night. On this occasion they mostly seemed to be fighting the Thargoids and I was able to hitch a ride on the station back to normal space.

[Lestradae]

Only one thing missing then for 1.75: The option of placing suns into interstellar space by script. Or generally placing suns. Could make for 2+ star systems and/or new systems in withdrive routes, i.e.

Why is this not a scripting request already?

[another_commander]

Only one thing missing then for 1.75: The option of placing suns into interstellar space by script. Or generally placing suns. Could make for 2+ star systems and/or new systems in withdrive routes, i.e.

Why is this not a scripting request already?

Because interstellar space is defined as the absense of sun throughout the code:

Code: Select all

- (BOOL) inInterstellarSpace
{
	return [self sun] == nil;
}

[Kaks]

Yep, no suns are allowed in interstellar space by definition.

However, you can add planets, & sun-shaped ships: if the latter, you can set them to glow in a sun-like manner...

[Killer Wolf]

yeah, the whole point of WS having no suns is, of course, you can end up trapped there w/ no scooping ability to fill your tanks and escape.

[Eric Walch]

However, you can add planets, & sun-shaped ships: if the latter, you can set them to glow in a sun-like manner...

But this will lack the main feature of a sun: a is a light source
That will also be the main reason that multiple suns is unlikely to be added soon. Having just one light source is so waved through the code that adding a new light source will require a lot of rewriting.