Pioneer Alpha 15 released

[Potsmoke66]

definately i must have lost sense, no

[robn]

potsmoke66 wrote:
robn or anybody else,i could need a comprehensive list of the new arguments used for models, that would really help, since i didn't find such on the wiki.
Ahh, here's the post I couldn't find. I answered it here: http://www.spacesimcentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=23355#p23355:)

[UncleBob]

Good work on the new Alpha, cool cities! will need a bit more variety and some form of floor covering, but that's already being discussed in other threads. I'm noticing a slight "problem" with delivery missions, the time available is very short. Except for in-system deliveries I haven't found a delivery mission I could complete with the starting eagle (and no, I have not only picked the "fast delivery" missions). Is that by design? If ship capabilities now become a factor for completing delivery missions (which would make sense), it would a be a good idea to not only have distance but also eta or travel time displayed in the galaxy map (or at least a pointer at how to calculate eta, but I think such stuff should be provided by the interface directly where possible).

[Geraldine]

I suggested just such a thing on Git Hub in a feature request for an advanced navigational aid to help budding traders and couriers.

[Brianetta]

Journey time isn't constant. The same journey could take a radically different amount of time. Here are some of the factors, without changing the ship at all:
[*:c666flp5]Your jump will take less time if you have a more powerful hyperdrive.[*:c666flp5]Your jump will take more time if you are carrying cargo.[*:c666flp5]Your flight across the destination solar system will take longer if your jump arrival is a long way from the destination starport.[*:c666flp5]Your flight across the destination solar system will take longer if you are carrying cargo.[*:c666flp5]Your flight across the destination solar system will take longer if you have a heavier hyperdrive.So, it's a little more involved than, "It will take this long." You can make your journey times shorter by going light. An Eagle with a class 2 military drive, carrying only one tonne of fuel and no cargo, jettisoning the radioactives as soon as you've jumped, will probably get the best our of that ship, but then a class 1 military drive might actually make the jump quicker by simply being less massive, for jumps of a certain length. There's also a great deal of chance involved in where you enter the system relative to your destination.

[UncleBob]

I am aware that the random hyperspace arrival makes exact predictions impossible, but I wasn't really talking about in-system flight. Just displaying the duration of the hyperspace jump to a selected destination with the current ship configuration would be a great help and should be added sooner or later. It can stand right under the distance in the galaxy map, and I'm sure there's not too much number-crunching involved.

[Brianetta]

UncleBob wrote:
I am aware that the random hyperspace arrival makes exact predictions impossible, but I wasn't really talking about in-system flight. Just displaying the duration of the hyperspace jump to a selected destination with the current ship configuration would be a great help and should be added sooner or later. It can stand right under the distance in the galaxy map, and I'm sure there's not too much number-crunching involved.
That's already in there. Not under the distance, but to the right of it. It's been there since April.

[UncleBob]

Huh? Sorry, I'll have to get my eyes fixed in that case...

[ollobrain]

ANother suggestion for some delivery missions, start with a maximum payout by a set date and then a % reduction for every day it is late allowing some addiitonal variance.

[fluffyfreak]

ollobrain wrote:
ANother suggestion for some delivery missions, start with a maximum payout by a set date and then a % reduction for every day it is late allowing some addiitonal variance.
That should be pretty simple for you to implement if you wanted to give it a try?It's a pretty awesome feeling actually getting something added to this game!

[durandal]

Actually that is pretty bad idea and it breaks point of mission and gameplay as whole.Instead you should get bonus if you deliver item much before due date.

[ollobrain]

fluffyfreak wrote:


ollobrain wrote:
ANother suggestion for some delivery missions, start with a maximum payout by a set date and then a % reduction for every day it is late allowing some addiitonal variance.
That should be pretty simple for you to implement if you wanted to give it a try?It's a pretty awesome feeling actually getting something added to this game!
any tips about how the lua system might work to achieve this is there a ability in there to time it behind the mission end date.

[UncleBob]

Quote:
That's already in there. Not under the distance, but to the right of it. It's been there since April.
Sorry, I finally had another few hours to play, and all that I find written to the right of the distance in the galaxy map is "1 t". If that is the time it takes for the jump, I have no idea what format it is in... plus it seems to be the same for pretty much any system I choose... ??By the way, is there a short tutorial somewhere about how to add nissions to the game? I'd kind of like to try my hands on that.

[Brianetta]

UncleBob wrote:


Quote:
That's already in there. Not under the distance, but to the right of it. It's been there since April.
Sorry, I finally had another few hours to play, and all that I find written to the right of the distance in the galaxy map is "1 t". If that is the time it takes for the jump, I have no idea what format it is in... plus it seems to be the same for pretty much any system I choose... ??
From this image of the galaxy map, I cropped this:To the right of the distance comes fuel required,and the time it will take. It's the last number written in green, if you need further prompting, and it's in hours. Yours will be slightly different, since you're flying an Eagle with a class 1 hyperdrive (which is also why you never need more than one tonne to jump).
UncleBob wrote:
By the way, is there a short tutorial somewhere about how to add nissions to the game? I'd kind of like to try my hands on that.
Short depends on whether you know Lua or not. The API is documented, but there isn't a "getting started for newbies" at the moment. Basically, though, it boils down to: Any .lua files placed in the data/modules directory (or subdirectories therein) will get run by the game's Lua interpreter. That might change before release.

[UncleBob]

Thanks for the screenshot, The jump duration was indeed not shown on my screen. After thinking it through for a few seconds I concluded that the most probable cause is that I don't have enough fuel (i.e. none). Loaded a ton, and there came the time on the display.
Quote:
The API is documented
Thanks, found it on the Wiki. I don't know lua, but after C++ it should be relatively easy to learn. I guess I'll launch a few attempts of getting something done and see if my computer doesn't explode...

[Brianetta]

Properly up to date API documentation can be found here:http://eatenbyagrue.org/f/pioneer/codedoc/The reason it doesn't give you jump duration when you don't have enough fuel is that the duration is dependent on mass, and that will change when you buy the fuel.Sometimes, annoyingly, the amount of fuel that is apparently needed to jump to a system increases when you buy fuel. This only happens with higher classes of hyperdrive, which need multiple tonnes of fuel. I might raise it as a bug.

[UncleBob]

Quote:
Properly up to date API documentation can be found here:
Ohhhh nice, I was just about to post some questions after finding the documentation on the Wiki rather unsatisfactory. Together with the already included examplesthis should do nicely, thanks.I'm trying to make a scout mission for starters, so far it looks like a scout mission, but doesn't really play like one, since I have to check for uninhabited bodies, have to have an occasional pirate ship waiting there etc. I think I should be able to come up with some solutions for those shortcomings now that I have the complete documentation.
Quote:
The reason it doesn't give you jump duration when you don't have enough fuel is that the duration is dependent on mass, and that will change when you buy the fuel.
Yeah, I figured that much after seeing your screenshot.

[trumpet]

Been a while since I downloaded the OS X version... My god. It's full of stars... Hats off to you all - it is getting so much better! Went for a fly through the canyons of Titan and was very impressed - love the detail on earth... flew out to Charon...blessOMG Rings working around Saturn!!! Crashed into the Sun just so I could see the textures Was really really satisfying and hope you are very proud of the latest build - you are very clever. thankyou!PS: Plotted astrogation nav course to Altair to take in the sight of a White Giant.... that was still a little lack-lustre/didn't seem incredibly large. I remember the first time in Frontier I jumped into the Altair system - the first giant I'd come across and me and my brother both just went 'wow!!!' the size of the star at 18 AU was simply massive... Still great night flying like a madman around Sol.There's a whole stack of celestial bodies I want to add to Sol... I've just got to get a grip on the numbers in the LUA and how they translate from numbers I can lift from wikipedia... I have aspirations to make some sort of converter in excel so you can dial in the number from wiki and it'll convert it to the LUA equivalent

[Geraldine]

trumpet wrote:
I have aspirations to make some sort of converter in excel so you can dial in the number from wiki and it'll convert it to the LUA equivalent
That's a great idea trumpet. Not only would that help with updating Sol, but it could also be used to update other star system's planets as they are discovered.

[fluffyfreak]

ollobrain wrote:
any tips about how the lua system might work to achieve this is there a ability in there to time it behind the mission end date.
Not personally familiar with it but I'd guess that you have the mission end date already, otherwise how would it know you have failed?So you just need to get that, and it's start time (probably already recorded too), then work out whatever scaling factor you like: