spob attacks but lets you land

Larry Niven's ringworld has a meteor defense system that mistakes ships for meteors. Once a ship gets close though, it can land.

I would like to simulate this. I guess the planet would always be hostile, and therefore it would shoot at you, but how would you get it to let you land without bribery?

Hmm. Maybe two planets nested on top of each other? One could be a regular planet that would let you land, nav 1. The other could be named something like "Defense Grid" that was hostile towards the player, and couldn't be landed at. A disadvantage to this method is you would be shot at as soon as you took off from the planet. Is this what you're looking for?

PigDog4, on May 5 2005, 02:38 AM, said:

the player, and couldn't be landed at. A disadvantage to this method is you would be shot at as soon as you took off from the planet. Is this what you're looking for?

The Meteor Defense System is automated. If you were one of the makers of the ring, you'd have some kind of device that says you won't be shot at. Alternatively, you'd leave the ring by its blind spot "under the ring"

So yes, you would be shot at once you left.

I'm pretty sure you can do this easily. Try setting the mincoolness to a negative value. The planet should shoot at you as long as you have a negative rating with it (defined by initialrec) but still let you land as long as you're above the mincoolness.

Ok, not sure what's going on now. Everytime I enter the system, the game crashes. I am guessing I am giving contradictory info and the game is getting confused. The debug log gives me nothing as I never seem to actually GET to the ringworld system.

Guy, on May 5 2005, 04:45 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure you can do this easily. Try setting the mincoolness to a negative value. The planet should shoot at you as long as you have a negative rating with it (defined by initialrec) but still let you land as long as you're above the mincoolness.
View Post

Thanks, I'll try that.

This guide might be useful. It gives a list of when a spob will attack various ships, and from that you should be able to work out a set-up that will give the results you want (perhaps give the spob a gövt that hates everyone else?).

Easy! Make an invisible mission to that planet when you start a new char in the OnStart field. Make it so the govt of that planet is hostile always. I remember reading in the Bible that some number like -32797 make them hostile always, but I'm not sure where in the Bible or if that's the right number.

The number is -32768, if the variable is a 16-bit integer (which it seems to be).

One problem. This already exists in Nova, with Harbor and a couple of missions. It shoots until you press 'L' or get out of range.

Does it matter that it wont actually shoot asteroids? I think, if you are already going to make a mission, you might as well make the mission create invisible, intertialess ship on top of the planet with 'scoop bits' set. Im not sure how well it would work, but it would be cool if it actually did shoot down the asteroids. The only problem is the cooldown from the planetary weapon and the ship thing are comlpetely unrelated.

NebuchadnezzaR, on May 5 2005, 04:50 PM, said:

Does it matter that it wont actually shoot asteroids? I think, if you are already going to make a mission, you might as well make the mission create invisible, intertialess ship on top of the planet with 'scoop bits' set. Im not sure how well it would work, but it would be cool if it actually did shoot down the asteroids. The only problem is the cooldown from the planetary weapon and the ship thing are comlpetely unrelated.

Though yes it would be cool to see the ring shooting asteroids, the idea is that the Ringworld builders cleared the system of asteroids. Therefore the only danger would be to character.

I had really only intended to move the ring to another place on the map and leave it at that, but then I started to wonder about the Meteor Defense System.

zapp, on May 5 2005, 10:07 AM, said:

Easy! Make an invisible mission to that planet when you start a new char in the OnStart field. Make it so the govt of that planet is hostile always. I remember reading in the Bible that some number like -32797 make them hostile always, but I'm not sure where in the Bible or if that's the right number.

From the PDF version of the Bible I have:

Quote

MinStatus The point on your record in the current system that you'll be denied landing clearance on this stellar. -32767 Ignored(playercanalwaysland) -1 to -32766 You can be this evil before they shun you 0 to 32766 They have to like you this much before they let you land 32767 Playercan never land.

If I give the system a Government, it seems by the Bible that I am allowed 4 Enemy groups.

I still haven't been able to get the system to shoot me. (Gee, most people are trying to avoid that )

The Apple Cřre, on May 5 2005, 04:29 PM, said:

The number is -32768, if the variable is a 16-bit integer (which it seems to be).

One problem. This already exists in Nova, with Harbor and a couple of missions. It shoots until you press 'L' or get out of range.
View Post

Maybe I have this all wrong, you know? I have the spob mincool set to the above number (negative). The system and spob government are set to -1 (Independent). I have tried characters new, "Ori'hara-ized" and in the middle. All can enter the system and not be shot at. Actually nothing is shooting at anything.

Vast Deathmaster, on May 5 2005, 06:17 PM, said:

Maybe I have this all wrong, you know? I have the spob mincool set to the above number (negative). The system and spob government are set to -1 (Independent). I have tried characters new, "Ori'hara-ized" and in the middle. All can enter the system and not be shot at. Actually nothing is shooting at anything.View Post

ahem

Edwards' Complete Guide to Spob-based Weaponry said:

A spob will fire at the player if either of the following conditions are true:

1. The player is disliked by the system's govt ( not the spob's!), or
2. The player's ship has an inherent combat government that is an enemy of the spob (not the system- isn't this fun , class? ).View Post

Having the system's gövt set to -1 won't work very well, as it won't default to hating you. I'd give the system its own gövt, and have the player start out with a record of -15000 or so. The planet's gövt and MinCool have no effect on whether the planet will shoot.

Edwards

Edwards, on May 6 2005, 02:35 AM, said:

Having the system's gövt set to -1 won't work very well, as it won't default to hating you. I'd give the system its own gövt, and have the player start out with a record of -15000 or so. The planet's gövt and MinCool have no effect on whether the planet will shoot.

Edwards

Thank you, now it works.
But people add a minor plug to their game usually in progress. ex: "not happy with not enough money? Download this plug and have millions!" or "Not happy with the color of your ship? Well, just add this paint station and your ship is now what ever color you want..."

If I am in the Polaris mission and I really care that the Ringworld shouldn't be in Polaris space, then I would have to start a new game.

So, is there another way without having to start a new character?
--------------

I think I figured it out....sort of. I changed the Government's Crime Tolerance to -1.
On screen it says Vituous citizen, but you get fired at and are able to land.

Now that I have that done, I think I will either upload it as is, or see about adding a little mission to the ringworld. That way people won't have to hunt for it.....................well, they will, but at least they'll get paid for it

Thanks for everyone's help and or suggestions.

This post has been edited by Vast Deathmaster : 05 May 2005 - 11:29 PM

Vast Deathmaster, on May 5 2005, 08:57 PM, said:

If I am in the Polaris mission and I really care that the Ringworld shouldn't be in Polaris space, then I would have to start a new game.View Post

No, you don't have to start a new game. For the most part, the only thing you can't change for an existing pilot is an in-progress mission.

Edwards, on May 6 2005, 05:37 AM, said:

No, you don't have to start a new game. For the most part, the only thing you can't change for an existing pilot is an in-progress mission.
View Post

Could you explain more, or at least point to a thread?

When I edit the Char resource and then try to implement the plug with a pre-existing character, the effect does not work.

Also, when I read the Nova Bible for the Char resource, it makes no mention of using the Char resource for anything but a new character.

What are you changing in the char resource? Create a new government with a really low initial rec and it should (hopefully) work fine without having to modify the char.

All right... so that's what you were asking. Sorry. I'll answer the last two posts in four points:

1. To get the govt of the ringworld's system to hate you, you will either need to start a new pilot using a chär resource that makes the system's govt hate you, or use a mission to make the govt hate you. (If it is offered 100% of the time, in the main spaceport of any govt's spob, and has a blank dësc, it will be automatically accepted the first time you land on a planet... After that, I'm stuck for how to get the CompReward granted/removed automatically.)

2. The chär resource is only used when creating a pilot. Any changes you make to the chär resource will not effect any existing pilots.

3. About "the only thing that doesn't change in an existing pilot is the current missions", the reason for that is simple:
   The pilot file stores nearly everything as resource IDs, so that most of the information is ctually stored in the data files. This is why you get such weird effects when using a stock scenario pilot with a TC. However, this can't work for missions, as they need to store temporary data as well, such as how many ships you have killed. Therefore, the data for the currently active missions is stored in the pilot file, and can't be changed by plug-ins.
   There's an odd bug attached to this- I think that the game loads the missions from the "last pilot" on start-up, at least if the missions' RIDs do not conflict with any missions in the data files or plug-ins.

4. If you create a new gövt, and use it with an existing pilot, the govt will have a neutral stance towards the player. I tested a gövt with an InitialRec of -32700, and an existing pilot had "no record" in their system. A new pilot was a "galactic scourge".

Edwards

Edwards, on May 7 2005, 06:33 AM, said:

4. If you create a new gövt, and use it with an existing pilot, the govt will have a neutral stance towards the player. I tested a gövt with an InitialRec of -32700, and an existing pilot had "no record" in their system. A new pilot was a "galactic scourge".

Edwards

Well, I'm going to keep the Char resource out. There's no real point to using it at least in this wee plug.

By having the new Government have a negative Tolerance level, the system "hates" me and I get shot at in the same manner as I would if I had a negative number in the Char resource.

I do wonder if by setting the Tolerance level to a negative number if there is a detramental affect.

I submitted this plugin, and I think it got 'shot down', as I have not seen it posted while at least one other plug has been.

Not a big deal. I can just chalk this up to another learning experience.