SpaceSimCentral

19 April - 5d61822New stuff for today includes some changes to the way targeting and set-speed work. Set-speed is now always calculated relative to the current frame of reference (ie that nearby planet) rather than relative to the thing you have targeted. This seems to be a little more intuitive as you don't find yourself "drifting" with set-speed 0km/s just because you have some distant planet (or God-forbid, distant ship) targeted.Shortly after this change went in it was noted that there was now no way to tell that how far away you are from your target. So you'll now find the distance to target right there below the target square, just like the old Frontier days.

robn wrote:
New stuff for today includes some changes to the way targeting and set-speed work. Set-speed is now always calculated relative to the current frame of reference (ie that nearby planet) rather than relative to the thing you have targeted. This seems to be a little more intuitive as you don't find yourself "drifting" with set-speed 0km/s just because you have some distant planet (or God-forbid, distant ship) targeted.Shortly after this change went in it was noted that there was now no way to tell that how far away you are from your target. So you'll now find the distance to target right there below the target square, just like the old Frontier days.
To see the new HUD in action, check out this video. I fly from Brasilia to Gates on manual control the entire way. If you ever wondered how to coast around planets and across space to rendezvous with stuff in orbit, you probably won't learn much from my video other than that it's possible...

That was a nice bit of flying Brianetta

nice bit of flying, now any chance of a trading video

Thank you both. Ollo, isn't trading a little pedestrian for a video?By the way, Brasilia to Cydonia took me 24 game days and nearly nine game hours. Transit to Mars' orbit was largely unpowered, but I must admit that it wasn't quite as efficient as the flight in the video. The holy grail here is a true Hohmann transfer, which uses one burn to break the current circular orbit into an eliptical one which goes from your current orbit to your intended one, then a second burn to circularise into the intended orbit. Sometimes I'm not sure of the velocity to use (especially around an unfamiliar planet) and I end up doing a few small transfer orbits to get a feel for the place.The latest build gives you your velocity relative to your nav target, as well as your velocity relative to your current gravitational frame, which makes orbital rendezvous even easier. It also means breaking orbit using a Hohmann transfer from an orbital spaceport is easier. You can see your velocity relative to the spaceport, and by selecting the planet below, you can see how fast, and in which direction, your ship and the spaceport are moving. You then pick a direction - forwards to break away and slow down, backwards to fall in and speed up. Do it gently, and you'll stay in an elliptical orbit.Flying in orbit is fun. The obvious thing (burning towards or away from the planet) almost never maintains a stable orbit, so if you plan to play with gravity, keep it perpendicular. If you're chasing a spaceport around a planet, in roughly the same orbit, and need to catch up, you can do it two ways.
[*:avip9gih]Use the engines the old fashioned way. Use loads of fuel to force the universe to bend to your will. Accelerate hard, brake hard, and pretend you're in an aeroplane.[*:avip9gih]Use gravity. Slow down, and fall into a faster orbit, overtaking on the inside. Then, speed up, and rise up to meet your target from in front. Less fuel, more time, and an immense feeling of utter smugness if you get it right. It's hard to beat.If you have the time and inclination to practise, get the latest build and head to Barnard's Star. See if you can figure out the efficient ways to get between the two spaceports there. Using the star as a target shows you the way you're moving in orbit around it. Remember, speed up to slow down, slow down to speed up. Orbits are counter-intuitive. In the scale of that system, expect to use the stardreamer a lot.

Awesome! There are people trying to turn Orbiter into Frontier, and people using Pioneer like Orbiter!

Yes quite correct Marcel, perhaps both games will met in the middle someday.

Marcel wrote:
Awesome! There are people trying to turn Orbiter into Frontier, and people using Pioneer like Orbiter!
I'd consider trying Orbiter, if I was one of those Windows-types. Alas, I'm not.

Quote:
I'd consider trying Orbiter, if I was one of those Windows-types. Alas, I'm not.
Well, I'm rather glad you're not. I'd otherwise be afraid that Orbiter would draw you away from Pioneer like Pioneer drew me away from Orbiter.

perhaps a happy medium

28 April - b14bffaToday's build has the new Lua mission/module API. The entire module system has been completely rewritten. Mostly its about internal code consistency but portions of it will make it very easy to expose parts of the core to Lua scripts.For the most parts you'll find no user-visible changes (bugs notwithstanding). For budding mission authors, you'll find a really nice event-driven API that should let you do all sorts of things you couldn't before. I'll be documentation the whole mess so far as soon as I can (in time for alpha 10).Note that the assassination missions are not currently available, as I haven't rewritten the script yet.And for people who'd like a nice little incentive to try a new build, here's a nice little script that adds a "body shop" to the bulletin board. For a modest fee, the friendly mechanics will repaint your ship and swap your registration plates. Not sure yet if this will make it into the game proper - it was just a fun thing to write this morning :)BodyShop.lua

the lua mission will it allow changes to planets if u plant colony or do other things that affect system stats or something

The plan is to allow scripts some ability to modify a system. Most likely that will be limited to adding and removing starports and other non-planetary bodies (satellites, other things). The details haven't been figured out yet and implementation is probably a fair way off. We do have some interesting mission ideas that require it, so we're keen to do it.

Last night build and one before this. I can't cheat and increase my money with a new game using Ctrtl-M.Is this a feature you have now removed form the source code?

leondhay wrote:
Last night build and one before this. I can't cheat and increase my money with a new game using Ctrtl-M.Is this a feature you have now removed form the source code?
Yeah, that's my mistake. I've been playing with the debug compile options and it got left out. I've re-enabled it; the next build will have the money cheat, the ship spawn and the object viewer back.

Wow looks like things are coming along wonderfully! I'm loving the sound of the new features I'm not able to try any new builds until I get proper internet that doesn't charge me an arm and a leg per mb but I'm proper excited to now. Looks like my asian blokes are slotting together nicely too!

In the most recent dev builds I can't purchase a new ship without being dropped to the desktop.Dev build: f2d735f-win 32Windows Vista32 SP2Nvidia 9600 mError message:Assertion failedfile: ship.cppline 1015expression f=>type==m_shipflavour.type

SeanN wrote:
In the most recent dev builds I can't purchase a new ship without being dropped to the desktop.
Thanks for logging that on the tracker, Sean. It's been confirmed, and will be sorted soon.

I've finally gotten around to messing with 5d61822. Perhaps this comment is a bit out of date, but here it is anyway. I started a new game at Brasilia, bought a Ladybird, and launched. I set the autopilot for LA when I was near the ground right after launch and it performed flawlessly. I'm really impressed with the Earth, s2odan. Flying over Central America and being able to recognize the Andes and Peru was really cool. Also, the game picked out medium detail for planets and cities for me this time. In 9.1 this would have slowed my aging machine unacceptably, but it runs reasonably well on 5d61822 and looks good! A big pat on the back for everyone involved.

Thanks Marcel Im wondering when we're going to be able to kick back in that snazzy new station interior I keep seeing snippets of