That was no mere log, though! It had a log in it somewhere, but it was much more. An actual, simple log book just for the player to type notes into hadn't been suggested.

i like this later on it can be a basis for forming colonies and other second tier type missions like survey planet for pirate faciton, system becomes a base for pirates and then u get to go hunt them or deliver

I encountered a not quite unexpected problem: Trying to find a system in significant distance to the current system takes time. A LOT of time, to be exact, at least with the currently available means. I guess I'd need some "Give me ONE random system between this and this range, with this and this criteria". I.E. the algorithm would start at a random point and return the first system he finds that fits the criteria. As far as I can see, this cannot be realised with GetNearbySystems, is that correct? If not, I'll have to file another feature request...

(also, can I somehow add two or more filter criteria to GetNearbySystems?)

Yes, it does. It has to fully generate every system. We know that we need to improve the caching around starsystems. Please do file a feature request so we don't forget about it.

Yes, just include them in the filter function. For example, to find all the systems within 10ly that have more than one billion people and are >90% lawless:

Space.GetNearbySystems(10, function (s) return s.population > 1 and s.lawlessness > 90 end)

I've written a function to put in the distance:

It returns a SystemPath that is distance sectors away. Sectors, not light years. It will be somewhere in a sphere about the current system, at about that distance (or slightly less), and will be system number 1.

You'll need to use that to search around it for your intended system. So, to find a system something like 80-ish light years away, we pick a far system that's 10 sectors away, and search 10ly around it for our system.

Related to survey missions, what about reconnaissance missions? I recall there were a fair number of those in Frontier/FFE. "Fly to system X and reconnoiter facilty Y" sort of thing, usually a heavily defended military base.

But I'm proposing something less adversarial, such as, "fly to system X and do a surface survey of every planet in the system, then bring us the records"? Wouldn't have to be long-range, and there could be a myriad reasons for such missions, such as a big corporation looking for worlds to terraform or exploit, or some cult looking for Mars Faces on other worlds to prove some wacky theory. This would provide an excuse for a person to really explore a system, get to know it, maybe locate some unanticipated features.

Another type of reconnaissance mission could take the form "locate a rocky world within 30 ly with a methane atmosphere and less than half Earth's gravity." When you found one, some bit would get flipped that meant you'd satisfied the mission requirements, and returning with the info gets you paid, and the mission completed. But I don't know how well the current system deals with such variables (if at all).

I'll happily write some missions if there is logic in the game to support it.

Ah, that's the way it's done. Thanks a lot!

How big is an actual sector? I'm not quite clear about that...

I tried something similiar, but of course didn't think of throwing an "and"-operator in there. Thanks!

I just did something along those lines, if I didn't screw up completely I guess it will be included in the next Alfa. Although the recon is done by entering orbit around a target planet and staying there for sixty minutes, while your "long range sensors" make a sweep of the area and log it in your computer, and as of yet there's no secret military installations to be recon'd. Majorly because there ain't no militaries yet. Once factions get established, I'll add some faction specific flavours.

This goes more in the direction of a patrol mission, which would be several recon missions in a row. Planned, but I want to get basic ground survey done first.

A cube of 8x8x8 light years.

Actually, it's an ugly hack. pcall catches the red-screen that comes up when the SystemPath you've randomly made up doesn't actually exist (there are empty sectors about). It's important to then go about checking OK, and choosing another one if OK is not true. Basically, that line on its own is only half of the necessary magic.

Also, in my example, you'd need to consider farsystempath:GetStarSystem() as a candidate, as well as its nearby systems...

I personally would LOVE this idea. Exploring is the thing I love the most about these games. I really like looking down at a planet and going 'hmmmn what's that down there?' and then being able to fly down and take a look.

There could be different types of survey missions. And here you'll have to forgive me as I've only have limited knowledge of where development is at for this game.

The simplest could be 'Jump to Star A, travel to planet A3, take x photos, return'. You could add something about 'from an altitude of x feet' too maybe?

Landing Rough could be a trigger too - go to this system, land on planet B

there could be survey equipment that works like a fuel scoop where you fly through an atmosphere and it 'scoops data' or something

twists could be

rival surveyor ships

"You'll pay for attempting to conduct surveys for Patricia Brett!!!"

"Get out! This claim is mine!!"

mis-jumps

'distress calls' - ALIEN style. ur on your way somewhere and don't make it as there's a call for help

I think people are right about Alien relics being a very low percentage value and very remote - the halo ring world is cool, or perhaps a planet sized orbiting tablet of the 10 commandments.

Remains form former civilisation could be really small though - not necessarily something you would even find on a planet without a good look at low altitude

a beacon (there must be someway outta here said the joker to thief)

anything that makes the player have to fly in and around the planets descending to surface level would be fun though in an exploring kind of way

and yeah, flying around snapping some photos could be fun in itself, especially if it makes money for the player!

good luck

britannia just likes to eat people alive ( perhaps eating slaves missions or hauling carnivious animals around) that said good work so far giving it a go and the feedback is great looking forward to some new content to go along with the ever improving graphics efforts

err... what?

I haven't contributed to this thread because I don't have anything to say except to offer encouragement and thanks. Then I thought maybe that's worth saying so, Thanks UncleBob! 😀

Well if missions are set up to survey for minerlas/ore or whatever could mining not be introduced too?.Go to planet a search for minerals/ore if you find x , bring an amount of x back and we ll pay you.That type of thing would be cool,as well as being able to mine for yourself just so you can make profit.

Currently, all I'm doing is mission scripting. What you suggest would mean extending the system generator to put minerals on planets, which, as far as I know, is planed. But as long as that isn't forthcoming, it doesn't make much sense hack a premature system together. Designated survey missions work because you get paid for looking, not for finding, so I don't have to make up a system that provides me with findings as long as the game engine isn't ready for it yet.

You're welcome. Thank you for making Pioneer more visually apealing in the meantime! 🙂

Actually, some of it is in place.

Every body already has a metallicity value determined by the star type. There is of course randomness introduced, so not all bodies around a star with a high value will have a high value and not all stars of a type with high value will have a high value.

With the mining laser and a cargo scoop one can mine bodies that are classified as asteroids. Deimos, Phobos, Nereid, and Proteus are the Sol bodies classed as such.

There has been discussion of other mining methods such as a mining machine that can be deployed on larger bodies.

Metalicity and available materials are not quite the same. It's all a question of what is available in the crust (since anything hanging around in the core isn't much use). That's why we can predict asteroid compositions relatively accurately, but planetary crusts are somewhat of a different matter. As far as I know something along the lines of crust composition is planned for the generator, so it just doesn't make sense to hack something together on my own. I'll only have to change it again afterwards... 😉

Well, once there is something on planets to mine, I would expect something like the good old M5 mining machine to come around the corner pretty fast.

Actually, a comment in the code states that the metallicity value is for the crust.

The mining laser only working on asteroids has more to do with the asteroid not having enough gravity to pull the spawned mining output down to it's surface before the player has a chance to scoop it.

Probably better being done on demand as it won't be needed that often, though as far as Lua is concerned it makes no difference.

Sorry, I wasn't suggesting you should. Best done in the game code anyway for consistency and speed. Also, the relevant values haven't been exposed to Lua. I was just trying to clarify that some of the work towards mining has been done.

Speaking of which, s20dan has been hacking on mining a bit in one of his branches.

blowing my own trumpet here:

anyone like the twists I suggested?

failing that the 'go here, take pics, return' and the 'data scoop' device surely have merits or am I missing the motive on this one

it's certainly an option, and pretty easy to do, so i don't see why i shouldn't add it. One thing, though: there's no way to evaluate the pictures you take, so a bonus for actualy pretty pictures as opposed to just random shots cannot be arranged, i'm afraid.

that is true, but taking a photo a different altitudes could trigger different results that give a semblance of this and then of course the player is role-playing the mission so they'd probably make an effort.. those that don't are just 'grinding' and good on them if that's the way the want to play it

Not exactly. It could be arranged so that when the "photo" is taken we look at what's currently being drawn. If there was a single object for a station or outpost or whatever, we can check if all of it is on screen, how close to the centre of the screen it is, how much of the screen it fills, etc, and then use that data to come up with some kind of rating.

This immediately makes me think of the game Dead Rising where you can take photos and it rates you for drama, action, artistic merit and eroticism etc 🙂

Obviously we'd be looking for other criteria but a bit of projected screen area calculation, determine if another ships is "on fire" <-- loose terminology alert! All that sort of thing and we could certainly rate images.

Just don't expect me to write the algorithm, I can't even rate images myself, let alone teach a computer to do it! 😆

Yup, I know. I'm waiting for that branch to merge again... 😀

Sorry for the thread renaming, I hope there's no confusion. I just thought I don't need to open a new thread for every silly idea.

The basics of the survey missions are done, but to make them really worthwhile I will need to wait for some additions to the source code. Main reason is that currently there's no meaningfull way for the world to communicate with the player except via BB, and of course a BB is what we don't have somewhere in the outback of the galaxy. And for stuff like unregistered settlers showing up, secret installations getting discovered and similiar stuff, a short message on the scanner is just not enough. So, I'll put the survey missions on hold for the time being until I can implement them the way I want to (relevant feature requests have been posted on GitHub, so I should get those features at some time).

But, surveys are not the only thing that I have in mind. Next up is Bounty Hunting.

Yes, we have assasinations, but it's not quite the same thing. Bunty Hunting can actually be legal... or it cannot, depending on who put the bounty out on whoms head. The major difference in a bounty hunt is that you don't exactly know where your quarrel is. You'll get a name and a last known position from your employer, and then off you go searching.

Of course, you cannot search the whole galaxy, so there will be helpfull people aka Info-brokers that will sell you information if they have it. That information will cost more or less based on how specific it is (you won't buy the cat in the bag. You will have information on how specific the information sold will be before you pay up and receive it). A possibility that comes to mind would be that information could also be obtained for free at the local police, although they have somewhat less reliable inteligence than the people working in the business, and only if the individual in question is a criminal. The question here would be wheather or not it is possible to add stuff to the police section of the board, a thing I'm not quite clear about yet.

Anyways, the more info-brokers you ask the more money you will spend on hunting down your prey and the more risk you run that one of them will sell some information back to your prey and inform him that somebody's looking for him, which results in the culprit being better prepared and more heavily armed when you find him. Or him sending some goons after you, depending on how powerfull the man is you're trying to take out. Especially if the bounty isn't legal, asking around too much can become a liability, so paying a little extra to get better information might well be worth it.

Sooner or later you will find your quarrel hiding somewhere on a desolate moon or jetting around the galaxy, from then on there's nothing left except to go in for the kill and collect your bounty.

As a a little side bonus, information brokers will not only sell info about currently active bounties, but also sensitive information about current freight traffic. Want to know if there's a ship leaving the system that might be worth robbing? here you go.

Sounds fun? any Ideas what might add to the expierience? Any Ideas what other information a broker might sell that could be worthwhile?