I'm thinking perhaps you shouldn't get alerts at all if you don't have a scanner.

I like that.

Is there a missile alert?

Not yet. Is there a difference between detecting a missile has been fired in general, and detecting one that's aimed at you?

like the idea no scanner either no warning or very limited range

and the other bit as far as missiles should be ones directed at u i would think to keep it simple

I'm more thinking about the game mechanic. What equipment does your ship have that allows you detect a missile fired at you? And if its not a specific piece of equipment, then how is it doing this? And how is it not able to, using the same mechanism, detect laser fire directed at you?

Depends how guided missiles follow you. If they're passive (as is likely) there's simply no way to know. If they're active (which is less justified in space, what with it being impossible to hide oneself without breaking the second law of thermodynamics) then your ship might sense itself being painted by some radiation source.

If I were designing a missile, I'd choose the cheap, effective, hard to counter version that didn't give itself away. In this case, simply announcing that a missile launch has been detected (filtering out the player's own, of course) would be what I'd expect.

Suits me - its already 99% implemented 🙂

Most of the time there aren't going to be multiple ships around, and if there are, they're probably all after you. So you'll know that if a missile on its way you should probably run away.

well if its 99% implemented then it sounds like a direction to finalize

Mostly because a missile is just a special kind of ship, and we're already looking for nearby ships. The check is currently "if there's a ship and its not a missile, sound the alarm". It becomes "if there's a ship and its a missile, sound the missile alarm, but if its a regular ship, sound the regular alarm".

(Well that's a bit simplified but close enough for the purposes of this discussion!)

hi to all in this forum, i'm new here, but i've tested this project since alfa8 and i find all this an impressive piece of software and a good promise for an awesome full and expandable game. for this i want to thank all that have worked and those who still works on this project.

BUT, since i've seen you are opened to ideas, here's my 2cents on scanner ranges:

in 21th cen. we have radars that scans hundreds or thousands km away. i think that at the end of 32th cen. a ship should be able to scan the space in the range of ... say 100000 km minimum in deep space (surely much less near planets, where altitude is displayed).

more, there could be some sort of mass scanner (like the sonar in a submarine) able to identify the mass signature of bodies in space.

so you will have, like old fe2 & ffe a color scale brief indication of the mass of other ships. plus you'll have system bodies echos on the scanner.

maybe, for practical use, a ship could have long range (say 100000km to 1000km) less accurate scanners for navigational purpose and early alert of proximity, and a more accurate 2way short range scanner for final approach (1000km to 50km) & combat (less than 50km) purpose.

in that case, a ship will be "plotted" on the hud as soon as it enters the long range scanner perimeter, and a first alert is then raised: at this point no more info is available, only the ship transponder signature ("unknown" or "no response" for hacked pirate or secret military ships).

as soon as it enters the 1st short range perimeter, the "mapper" (if fitted) should begin retrieving raw data from the targeted ship (class of the ship) and the mass scanner should identify the level of the "threat". if signature is available, given the ship class, the main compute of the ship could query the naval database and search and display the eventual bounty.

in the 2nd short range perimeter, full data is displayed by mapper (if fitted), plotting hull and shield integrity and maybe scanning some cargo signature, like animal/human/radioactive/chemical/metallic presence; the short distance could permit the mass detector to precisely "weight" the target ship mass and display it (to give us, the pilot, a brief information on opposite inertia and thus reactivity in navigation manouvres).

(again i write too much... sorry for this!...)

No i like this idea some sort of ranged radar-scanner. Gives u basic details and if u want to investigate further then u get closer higher risk higher detail of target

GAlex: That's an excellent suggestion, and it really belongs on the issue tracker, where it won't get overlooked or forgotten. The link's in my sig, just down there. You'll need a Github.com account, but they're free and harmless.

@brianetta: done.

er.. how do i add the requested feature label? or it's up to you?

That's my job. All new issues are emailed to me, and I tag them up for the devs.

10 May 2011 - 18f049e

There's been a flurry of activity over the last few days as we prepare for the alpha 10 release (just a few days away hopefully!). Lots of bugfixes and other minor tweaks are in this build, but the main thing you'll notice is that the female faces are now working.

I look at that and think that if the future looks like that then perhaps I'm quite happy to stay here, but that's just me 😮

is there any planned changes as far as donations to the various charities ie to arms dealers will this lead to more illegal guns on markets, will donating to travel agencies lead to more potentially moving passanger missions and so forth

Female faces are looking good

You already know the answer - no plans, ideas welcome, working code even more welcome. Alpha 10 is sporting a sweet (and heavily documented) module/mission API so you'll have lots chance to experiment with this sort of thing very soon.

They're just as frightening as the men....

Well ok, maybe not quite as frightening 😀

Haha you picked quite a freak out there! Somehow though, I think I still would....... 😳 😳

is there a change in data/ or in the seed or algorithm used for planetary generation?

'cause many interesting places (planets) just disappeared since 5d61822... in this build there's a lack in earth-like planets (ST "M-class")...

as an example: where is the habitable planet in Altair gone?

and there are some odd spiky planets (mostly small rocky balls) scattered around, ugly to see and very difficult to land on (seen also in 5d61822 in Alioth system).

more, i noted an inconsistency in planet's data:

1 - how could a planet orbiting at 0.027AU from it's type G or K star be icy and at -273°C when a rocky one much more distant give a +50°C or more?

2 - how could a planet with atmosphere be colder than its rocky moon (encountered many times in my travels)

3 - volcanic planets should have a plus in temperature given their nature

these are only neutral consideration from what i saw jumping around in the neighborhood of Sun.

thanks in advance.

The Pioneer universe is not fixed yet. With the exception of a small number of hand-made systems, it's not possible to rely on specific planets existing. They have changed, and they will change again, and this remains the case as long as Pioneer is in an alpha version.

Hand-made systems are supposed to be rare exceptions. Rather more numerous are the 1,000 or so nearby stars, which are only defined in terms of location, name and star type. The rest is psuedo-random. Work is on-going on the balance of planet types and so on. It's chaotic; even a minor change to the number of gas giants to rocky planets, for example, will probably render every system very different. The last of these, I believe, came when white dwarfs were tweaked so as not to have unrealistically close planets.

Other work is taking priority right now, but the balance of the system generator is something that will be tweaked until it's right. Until then, don't buy any real estate.

As to your numbered points:

1. Atmospheric conditions, perhaps? Venus is hotter than Mercury because of this. You're probably right, though, if there are lots of obviously extreme cases.

2. Reflective atmospheres (or any high albedo surface) means less absorption of radiation, and lower temperatures.

3. Not always, but mostly, sure. Triton has cryovolcanos, and isn't warm at all.

1. yes, but mercury is NOT an icy planet at absolute-zero. Venus is "hotter" than mercury (the goddes of Love surely is "hotter" than a carrier pigeon) because of it's atmosphere? Yes, and this bring us to...

2. make ANY atmosphere the most reflective (pure carbon-dioxyde atmosphere should work) but infrared pass through the clouds, warms the soil that radiates part of the heat received plus what comes from the interior of the planet itself (radioactive elements, volcanism, tidal effects) and create some "effetto serra" (i can't translate in english, sorry, it's the heat feedback from the atmosphere to the soil). moreover, atmosphere helps distributing the gradient of temperature from the lighted hemisphere to the dark one, thus raising the medium temperature at the surface.

3. cryovolcanos are present on moons of massive planets and are caused by endothermal heat that the moon receive via tidal effect from orbital resonance with the planet and other moons (the case of Io, Enceladus, Triton). this results in an increment of the body temperature respect to other bodies orbiting at the same distance from the sun. a planet or moon doesn't have to be warm to be volcanic, but if it is volcanic is warmer (Io is warmer than Europa, Enceladus is warmer than Rhea but colder than Titan given Titan dense atmosphere).

I think i've been correct in my assumptions, but i'm waiting to be denied. if not i think the engine should make use of these simple criteria.

As Brianetta quite clearly stated, the system generator will be worked on before the final release of Pioneer, whenever that may be. At that time it will be studied, the relevant research considered, and something produced that provides a reasonable balance of realism and fun.

If you want to expedite that process, you're quite free to download the code and implement your ideas - I'd love to see some live tests. Until then, you're free to discuss your ideas but please do not insist that it be done your way.

other bits, comets, asteroid belts, keipeir belt objects.

They all sound very nice.