Oolite Bulletins

Hi All

When I play missions, One of the problems is to find a target ship. So I wrote an OXP called LongRangeScanner which displays every entity in the current system.

And Gives you a chance to target at the selected entity, get near to that entity or get near to system main station.

How do you feel about me publishing this OXP, or keep it to my self as an oolite cheat.


Okti

If you want to release it as an OXP, then go ahead and release it as an OXP! Sure, some people will think it affects the game balance, and will never use it. Others will!

For example, I like the your idea, but I think it would make the game far too simple, and you'd lose the excitement and risk of not knowing if you'll make it to the station without being accosted by rogues. There is a scanner limit for a reason.

Others will believe it to be very useful, and will rejoice in new-found freedom to target anyone and keep out of other ships' way.

'Tis impossible to cater for everyone, so do what you wish. Those who like it can release it; those who don't don't have to install it in their universe!

Edit: "Those who like it can release it" should be "install it" I need to remember to proofread...

I'd go for release. The good thing about OXPs is that whoever does not like them can simply not install them.

might be a good debug tool, if you spawn a ship somewhere you could use this to see if it has been created, and got to it if necessary. Logs tell you is a spawn has worked too i guess, but this would keep you in-game i suppose.

Killer Wolf wrote:

might be a good debug tool, if you spawn a ship somewhere you could use this to see if it has been created, and got to it if necessary. Logs tell you is a spawn has worked too i guess, but this would keep you in-game i suppose.

And a good tool to have in those cases where someone absolutely cannot find a specific ship in a system. Add OXP, determine whether ship is actually there or not, remove OXP.

Not something I'd personally use for normal gameplay, though.

Looks like you have your answer there Okti. All are in agreement.

I will wait a week or so, to see more replies.

Okti

Release it, tonight preferably

Make it expensive, like 50k credits. I don't know if its possible to have a Star Wars esque Millennium Falcon huge radar dish added to the ship when you get one of these, but if that is possible too that would be awesome. Personally I think you can justify it, after all why should all ships regardless of size and cost have the same scanner limit?

OK, I can understand why perhaps a whole system scanner is perhaps a little bit too far, but for an OXP, if you can, then may have various different levels of scanner. 50km, 100km, 500km say, all at different prices? I don't know how others would feel about this, but I for one would have no issues flying around with a 100km scanner that cost me 50k.

luminous wrote:

... a Star Wars esque Millennium Falcon huge radar dish added to the ship ...

You could just edit the Falcon.oxp to have it as standard equipment, y'know...

CheeseRedux wrote:

luminous wrote:

... a Star Wars esque Millennium Falcon huge radar dish added to the ship ...

You could just edit the Falcon.oxp to have it as standard equipment, y'know...

Mmmm, now there is an idea

CheeseRedux wrote:

Killer Wolf wrote:

might be a good debug tool, if you spawn a ship somewhere you could use this to see if it has been created, and got to it if necessary. Logs tell you is a spawn has worked too i guess, but this would keep you in-game i suppose.

And a good tool to have in those cases where someone absolutely cannot find a specific ship in a system. Add OXP, determine whether ship is actually there or not, remove OXP.

Not something I'd personally use for normal gameplay, though.

If you're after a debugging tool, that's what the JS console is for. It can find you any ship in an instant, and bring you right on its nose in another instant. So for the purpose of debugging there is no need to put the functionality in an OXP.

Go ahead and release it.

Don't wait for a few weeks. If people want it then will download it.
I would like to try it out.

I would like to try it. I recommend you go ahead and release it.

i'd like to add my voice to the 'release please' choir

I actually have three installations of Oolite on my computer. Trunk, the one I use with my main Commander and one for testing.
I used to just stuff in a lot of OXPs because they sounded cool. I no longer do that as I ended up with OXP conflicts and eventually a crash (mostly because I didn't read the instructions for each OXP). On my main installation I now try to balance the game. I like missions, so there are a lot of mission OXPs on that one. I like eye candy, so there is a lot of ambiance OXPs and I also have a lot of equipment OXPs, but to compensate I have added OXPs that make the game harder such as Anarchies, deep space pirates, etc. I tend to dislike/be careful with uberships, but use some of them to make the game harder (self imposed restrictions, hence I consider them NPC only).

Anyway, all this builds up to, yes please, release. Let the player decide. If I think it throws off the balance in the game it just goes into my folder with "do not want OXPs" and no harm is done.

PS: Hey, just noticed, my bb status has gone to ELITE. Thought that happened at much higher message count. Is this a change/error after the update of the bb-system, or just something I missed.