Stealth

Even if AI ship brightness stays the same no matter what that's still not a problem... it would be more fancy to be able to spot a ship if it fires, but really, that's just too much... I know nothing about C++ so that stuff is not really understandable to me but if i get your meaning, it's possible:)

All we need now is someone with to much time and love for the game:)

Sergej

originally posted by jojobird
Even if AI ship brightness stays the same no matter what that's still not a problem

To an extent: I suppose a mostly-working stealth model is better than none at all. However, think of the player/AI balance you mentioned earlier -- if the player can power down and escape detection in a tight spot, it wouldn't really be fair that the AI doesn't have that ability. AI hiding, just like AI response to player brightness, could be hacked in through a custom handler, but the amount of work involved would be pretty excessive. Also bear in mind that this approach would override whatever the AI's previous orders were -- for it to integrate successfully with others' mods, you'd really want to provide a new AI ordering interface, then convince everyone to learn and use it instead of the one built into the game.

it would be more fancy to be able to spot a ship if it fires

I think it's still in beta, but I know MajorTom and the rest of the Consortium have implemented a variation on exactly that for WhatRocks v2. pog is, for the most part, hopeless at querying what weapons are doing, but it does have a HasFired() function; calling the function resets the state flag, so calling it repeatedly in a loop gives you 'has fired recently' -- this can be used to modify a ship's brightness depending on whether it's currently using weapons.

I know nothing about C++ so that stuff is not really understandable to me

One thing: pog isn't C++, although it's similar enough that knowing some C makes it a great deal easier to pick up. I don't know how much time (or inclination) you have for it, but there's a lot more interesting ideas around than there are available coders -- if you fancy picking up some scripting, there's people here and on INA who'll be more than happy to help you out when (when, not if, believe me) you hit the odd brick wall.

All we need now is someone with to much time and love for the game

I like the game and have a reasonably excessive amount of free time, but I'm not volunteering for this one right now -- I'm working on other things I think have at least an outside chance of being completed satisfactorily. If anyone else is up for it, you might be able to make some use of WhatRocks v2, as I said, and my Contact Filter and Sensor Overhaul , both of which do a fair bit of fiddling with sensor visiblity properties.

nOOb question...what is brightness? I understand that changing it affects the stealth aspect of the game but that's about it. Anyone?

'Brightness' describes the electromagnetic (and possibly thermal) signature of your ship. In other words, sensors look for a high electromagnetic signature, and the more powered systems (or larger reactor) the higher the signature (brightness).

No confusion; just wrong or right ... Only Solutions

Originally posted by Shane

'Brightness' describes the electromagnetic (and possibly thermal) signature of your ship. In other words, sensors look for a high electromagnetic signature, and the more powered systems (or larger reactor) the higher the signature (brightness).

No confusion; just wrong or right ... Only Solutions

Excellent description. Thanks Shane.

Does the "omnipresence" of the AI also determine whether Jafs can sense danger in an otherwise uninhabited neighbourhood?

I'm still playing through the game but got so hacked off with Jafs refusing to pick up cargo pods and hearing "that tune" all the time in otherwise empty skies that I tinkered with my sensors to see if there was actually anything out there.

With sensors tweaked up to a stupidly high "Id range" of 100000 instead of the normal 15000 I should be able to see a whole bunch more. This would appear to be so. Also....instead of the music chugging on and Jafs complaining a whole bunch.....now I see that there are in fact NO threats on my contact list, there is no "threat tune" and he willingly obliges (so long as there is no shooting going on in the neighbourhood.) Does this indicate that the game was just messing me about from time to time to keep me on my toes and with my new x-ray specs it cannot pull this stunt? or does it just mean that I have not yet run into a similar condition where Marauders have been sitting outside my sensor range waiting?
I'm back in the world of reduced vision now and still get bugged by not being able to see the threat. Even if I fly a grid pattern search around my cargo haul expanding my perimeter as I go I can never find them.
Any tips on actually hunting these hidden threats would be greatly appreciated, though I am currently conviced that there really is nothing out there.

...that's torn it.