I don't think that would be trivial at all. Different uniforms for the police, military and station personnel would be especially welcome. Faction fashions frankly feel fabulous! As for cleaning things up, some of those people look like they need it!

[attachment=1183:Vicky_Harris.jpg]

I love finding stuff like that! 😆

HAHA I'll have to add in some more of that kind of stuff then. 😆 😆 Different uniforms is a fantastic idea too! I'd like to hopefully have someone add code to make the stock market traders visible at some point aswell.

Lawful stock market traders should be suited, cargo handlers could be overalls and pirates could have a black dark outfit with eye patch or some other pirate type looks

Great find! I have a mate with that name and purple/pink hair haha 🙂 She doesn't attract flies though 😉

Started this work today 🙂

Got some basic data loading in from Lua files and need to add the planet specific market type information etc and then begins the process of determining what faction type a system will be etc.

For the non-C++ peeps, of whom I hope there are many, I'll be doing it in stages and separate parts. So there's getting the basic faction data in, then a system for determining what factions volume of space a star system is inside, then the using that data for setting up the system/prices/legal-trading/etc.

Dunno how long all of this will take as my job has me travelling for the next few days and then... well then I might be looking for a new job 🙁 again, there are times I really wish I'd picked a more stable career! 😆

Ah well, people keep wanting to hire me, it's the gaps between that are killing my bank account!

laters!

Andy, you keep working on this? I have some doubts about how to access factions data, from lua.

Yes I still work on it from time to time. It's a bit complicated at times which is why I've not got to the point where submitting a pull request would make sense.

What doubts do you have?

I started with the Lua and putting the data into the game. It's how I approach things, start at both ends and work towards the middle <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /> then once I've figured out how to join them up I go back and analyse what happens to the data to see if there's a better way of doing it.

Unfortunately I'm still at the beginning bit of getting data into it <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

Andy

I can read: Game.system.lawlessness and Game.system.population but my doubts on how to access the constants "PolitBloc", "PolitEcon" and "PolitGovType".

I might need to extend some other systems then. Not to worry.

A patch will be welcome. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//good.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Andy, you who have spent so much time on this should know what functions (possible) needed by applications (in Lua, Python, etc) of the kernel (Pioneer).

Discussed this before? If anyone knows where I can find that information, I appreciate it.

I regret that you do not understand Hispano Americano, I could dwell on it further. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//mail1.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//sarcastic_hand.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Sorry Walterar I don't quite understand what you're asking.

Do you mean what functions I should add or what functions already exist? Or something else entirely?

What features should be added.

I'm playing with the new game Achernar from hithub, fantastic!

Sorry, I'm interested in exploring this new system, do not wait for dinner. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//crazy_pilot.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Andy, I have hours of play in the new system and would be very good inclusion to Alpha 26.

But back to the topic.

I can read: Game.system.lawlessness and Game.system.population

My question is if there is someone working on the code to:

Game.system.politbloc

Game.system.politecon

Game.system.politgovtype

etc.

Walter

Well, I interpret that nobody is working on it then. Therefore the issue remains factions blah, blah, blah. And the Pioneer project is stalled in this regard, and many others.

I think, actually, although there are good programmers C++, they do not know what to do, the ideas are scarce.

@Walterar

Dude you posted asking if someone could add those functions on the 23rd, then on the 24th you post that? That's pretty damned unreasonable since we're all VOLUNTEERING OUR TIME <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//angry2.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

I haven't gotten back to answering your question because I'm currently unemployed and am trying to get a job, hence why I'm doing a 3 day long programming test right now and don't have time to dive into the code for a few hours to figure how to answer your question or do the work.

In short: fuck off.

Ok, I've calmed down again now.

Walterar if someone doesn't respond for a whole week then feel free to bump a thread to get their attention, maybe send them a 'PM' via the messaging system to ask them if they've seen the topic at all. Just change your expectations that people will respond immediately, or even within a day or two.

The problem isn't a lack of ideas it's that there are a LOT of ideas and each of them takes a long time, sometimes MONTHS to implement because we have to fit them into our lives.

I am currently unemployed, so I am looking for work so that I can pay my mortgage, that means I've rewritten my CV - several times actually to customise it for job applications, I'm also doing programming tests - these take between 3 hours and 5 days of programming, I'm also writing demo's and example mini-games or tools for level editing etc to show people.

Also today I became an Uncle again as my little sister (she's 31) just gave birth to her 2nd daughter, this isn't a burden - it's ace <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> so at some point I'll be travelling to visit them.

...Where exactly in that list do you expect Pioneer development fits into as a priority? I check this forum for pleasure, for a break from all the other stuff that's going on in life.

I had been considering how to implement fetching the information you've been asking for but it would have to wait at least the next few days until I'd finished this test.

In the time you've spent asking for things and complaining you could have learnt how to program in C++ and done it yourself.

Reassurance fluffy, is bad for health. Also may frighten children (only them). Glad you have understood me.

And I'm sorry that you have personal problems, you may need to consider not wasting time here.

I'll dusting my old notes from C + + Do not be afraid, I will not bother at you, but I reiterate what was above said. Thank you.

Walterar, I shouldn't have to remind you that this forum is not exactly a place where all the Pioneer dev hang out. So the fact that nobody says that they work on something doesn't mean that it isn't done anyway.

Furthermore, this is an open source projet, and exporting this kind of variable to Lua is usually not very complicated. I hereby invite you to write a nice patch and file a Pull Request on Github.

Oh, and this kind of code is usually more of the C kind than C++, the lua API being written in C.

laarmen, I should no remind you that Pioneer is not just a group of friends of GitHub or IRC. There are a lot of the Pioneer world, out here. Perhaps you do not understand what I think, but I do understand what you show.

Does anybody remember some of the old 8bit combat flight sims that had dynamic campaigns?

I used to have a couple when i was a kid - fighter bomber and tommohawk.

They used to use a system where there was a constant battle going on across a large area, now i'm sure that ZX Spectrums of old did not have the capacity to remember every tank, infantry man and bunker so must of worked on an odds based system. If you spent time in a certain quadrant racking up kills for one side then they would take control of that quadrant, so that the battle space was constantly changing.

I'd love to see a system like this again, where border systems could change hands - maybe that this is calculated on a batch basis. the relative strength of each faction could be calculated on the number of planets they have, with industrial planets having a greater weighting than agri ones - maybe costs of things like food stuffs could go up if there isn't enough agri planets in the factions sphere of control.

If then you could assist either side to tip the balance it would be great - imaging calculating which system a faction would go after, then, if you are of sufficient rank, you will be asked to join the invasion force, or defend against an upcoming attack.

With this type of dynamic, you could effectively see one faction getting much stronger that the other, it would be fun to go and help the underdog to keep the dynamic changing, and make massive profits by prolonging any war.

I had fighter bomber on my C64 that was a good flight/combat sim (for its time) except that i was never very good with free fall bombs and unlike the so called combat/flight sims of today (blazing angels, hawks and so on) you would have to land to rearm your plane.

i also have a quick question. will the economy be set on a planet by planet basis or will it be system wide prices?

@DaveAngel,

People have been discussing that sort of thing but it's a bit beyond what I'm initially aiming for. I know the usual approach is to aim high and see how far you get but with this work I just want to put in place the bare minimum that other people can then build upon later. Hopefully I should be able to get back to doing a little work on it... soon.

@Fish,

Economy will probably set on a per-planet basis, if you have a system with two large inhabited worlds but one is outdoors and lots of farming + tourism whilst the other is all about mining then that will be reflected in their imports and exports. It should already work that way I believe for the existing worlds.

Was the game "Wings" or "Knights of the Sky", actually now I just reread what you wrote and I think they were both Amiga games.

I think I had Chuck Yeagers Advanced Flight Trainer on my C64 <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

The current trading system has nothing to do with reality. Just look at the international commodity prices, and compare these prices in supermarkets. The difference between what the producer receives and the final consumer price is enormous. The higher cost is transportation. I do not think this will change much in the year 3200.

Balancing this trade system would be easy, in lua, but still not enough support from C + + or C.

Is possible that many work "in secret" in this, I do not know.

I see a lot of individual work doubled. It seems to be a contest of egos. Maybe that should be.

I am soliciting... for advice! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Been working on this a little again and I now have some simple volumes setup that have differing illegal goods and allegiances etc... but you wouldn't know it from looking at the Sector screen (where you pick hyperspace destinations etc) because you don't see any difference on that screen until you select a star system and go to look at its information specifically.

So there's two obvious questions that arise from this:

1. Should it be obvious that a star system has a particular allegiance on the Sector screen?
2. If it *IS* desirable to show it then *HOW* should it be shown?

Now as possible answers to the 2nd question I so far can only think of changing the colour of the text to match a colour defined for each faction.

Thus meaning that, as an example: Earth could have Green text because it's "Earth Federation" but Ross 154 would have Red text because it's "Bahnahweepgrahnahweepninnybon"-aligned. This would mean that inhabited planets with certain allegiances would be clearly visible.

What do people think or prefer?