Can anybody explain to me in simple language why a mission bit differs from the misson identification number and how one can find (locate, identify??) the bit for a particular mission and how does one assign a bit to a mission?

For instance, I have looked in existing plugs to try and understand and it shows something like, say,

Mission 332, requires bit set 62 and sets bit 145. Whence come the two last numbers and how does the mission developer know which numbers his mission will need?

How can he go back and find which mission will set bit 62?
Many thanks

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Okay, quick background on mission bits:

The numbers are in no way related to the mission ID numbers. Think of mission bits as 256 light switches, that can be in one of two locations: Set or Clear. They all start Clear. To make a mission, ship, system, or outfit available, Override first checks the mission bits. When you make a mission, there is a field that says "Avail Bit Set". That bit needs to be set for the mission to be available. In addition, there is "Avail bit clear" and "Comp bit set". To make a mission string, you make the first one have no Avail Bit Set (put -1 in the field). Then, put a 1 in the comp bit set field and a 1 in the avail bit clear field. This will say:

"To make this mission, no bits need to be set, but bit 1 needs to be clear. Once the mission is done, bit 1 will be set."

This also ensures that the mission will only be available once. If you try to get it again, it won't be available because bit #1 is set.

Then, for the next mission, you make "avail bit set" = 1, comp bit set = 2, and avail bit clear = 2. This will say:

"To make this mission, bit 1 needs to be set, but bit 2 needs to be clear. Once the mission is done, bit 2 will be set".

And so on. You see, mission bits are just little things out there that, in reality, have no direct linkage to mission ID numbers. It's just however the plug developer wants to do it.

So, to find what mission sets bit 62, you look through all the missions to find the place that has the field Comp Bit Set = 62. Or, if you know that that mission makes a new technology available (Lets say, the UE Cruiser), then the mission that gives you that would be a good place to start.

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Dan! The food's gone!

Quote

Originally posted by Kevin Jordan:
**Can anybody explain to me in simple language why a mission bit differs from the misson identification number and how one can find (locate, identify??) the bit for a particular mission and how does one assign a bit to a mission?

For instance, I have looked in existing plugs to try and understand and it shows something like, say,

Mission 332, requires bit set 62 and sets bit 145. Whence come the two last numbers and how does the mission developer know which numbers his mission will need?

How can he go back and find which mission will set bit 62?
Many thanks
**

Thursday has given a good explanation of mission bits and how they are used, I won't attempt to duplicate it.

For your question on how to find out which mission sets which bit i have two words: Plug Checker. Actually the correct name is "EV Plug Checker" (but it works with both EV and EVO) It is a great little utility that can locate many different types of bugs in plug-ins and also generate lists of all the different resources in a plug- including a list of missions and which bits are set or cleared by each mission. I believe a version of Plug Checker is available in the "utilities" section of this site, or get it from
(url="http://"http://www.ixoft.com/")http://www.ixoft.com/(/url)

follow the link to "old DYNA stuff."

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Joe Burnette

"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

Quote

Originally posted by Thursday:
Think of mission bits as 256 light switches, that can be in one of two locations:

Theres 512 in EVO, 256 in EV.

Chamrin