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2024-04-25 TEU Containers, Salvage Order, Designer Tweaks

#1
TEU Containers
Deantwo suggested that exploding spacecraft should leave cargo containers behind.

When spacecraft explode their cargo is now disbursed in cargo containers. The algorithm for this insures that no ship will ever leave more than 100 containers behind when it explodes.

Access Containers
A TEU containers sitting on the ground begs for a way to access its contents.

A UI was added to access the contents of any container you are looking at. A Content button appears on the screen to do this.

TEU Containers on Sensors
TEU containers should show up on sensors.

Done.

TEU Containers on Helmet HUD Radar
TEU containers should show up on the radar display of my EV helmet.

Done.

Transport TEU Containers
Transporter should be able to beam up a TEU container.

Done. When beaming up a TEU container, the contents are placed directly into the hold. If the entire contents cannot fit, nothing happens. Messages report the various results.

When beaming to a TEU, nothing special happens. You just beam down somewhere near the container.

Salvage Order
A mission order is needed to salvage cargo from nearby TEUs.

Done. A Salvage Cargo order was added. Every TEU in range is collected one-by-one until no more will fit into the hold. Range is 500m. If the ship has a transporter, the range is the transporter range.

Messages report progress. This order is reported by the officer if there is one but the ship actually carries out the order; no officer or crew are required.

Pirate Crash
A crash happened when a pirate was encountered.

Fixed.

Pins at Site Vertices
Sites drawn in a building design respond to red glow at the vertices, to decide how much influence each vertex has on the terrain. This is impossible to see.

Added "pins" at the vertices that have a non-zero red glow. If a vertex has red glow, a cap is placed 1m above the vertex. A line is drawn from the vertex to the cap. The length of the line, from the vertex to the pin, is modulated by the amount of glow. A vertex with .75 red glow will have a line that is .75m tall, then there is .25m gap before the cap at 1m, to assist in visualizing the amount of red glow.

This revealed errors in the default coastal and agricultural sites. Those were fixed.

Buildings that used those sites were also fixed. This will not affect buildings that were already built.

Paths in Preview
There is a way in the code to show the paths in a design. Could this be useful in the designer preview?

Done, whether or not it is useful. Preview settings now has a check box to show the paths through the buildings or spacecraft.

Designer Repeat Command
It would be nice if there was an easy way to repeat the last command that was used in the designer.

Done. Esc key kills the current command. When there is no current command, Esc key now restarts the last command.

Designer Esc Key
Esc key in the designer kills all running commands. Could this step down by one command when they are stacked?

Done. For example, if you start drawing a mesh extrusion, then use the command to reposition the grid, the Esc key will kill only the grid movement command and fall back to where you were in the mesh extrusion command. Previously one hit on the Esc key would kill both commands.

Map Orbit Bug
Right-click menu on the world map shows two options to orbit low and no option to orbit high.

Fixed a copy constructor bug in the orbit at coordinates order.

Orbit Altitude on Every Order
The mission order UI shows the combo box to select orbit altitude on the options for every order, even those where it is not relevant.

Fixed control visibility bug.
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#2
So now in addition to the "meat umbrella" of bodies falling to the planet below, you get a mix of spinning cargo containers too. I've seen this happen many times over the past few days. It is fun to watch, especially when one or more of the crew get lit on fire in the explosion.

This brings to mind an observation about gravity and orbiting.

If the ship was moving, the pieces would inherit its movement vector, modified by the explosion. They would continue to orbit if the ship was orbiting.

Since our ships just hover there in orbit instead of orbiting, the pieces don't orbit either. They fall to the ground with gravity.

I am only pointing this out so you know why the pieces don't stay there in orbit for you to salvage. I don't want to require objects to actually orbit worlds due to the constant motion of all those objects that would create quite a load for a little gain in realism. It could complicate the flying code for NPCs considerably.

To compensate for this I made TEU containers extremely tough against falling damage. They aren't invincible. At a normal size world I was seeing about one in ten containers get destroyed in the fall. There are many factors. World size affects strength of gravity. Atmosphere density induces drag on the container on the way down.
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#3
Here is a pic of a TEU container that fell from the sky.


Attached Files Thumbnail(s)
   
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#4
(04-25-2024, 10:35 PM)Haxus Wrote: TEU Containers

Access Containers

TEU Containers on Sensors

TEU Containers on Helmet HUD Radar.

Transport TEU Containers

Salvage Order

Sounds awesome. Now we just need pirates to actually spawn more often, since I assume it still uses the old MMO spawn chance based on number of empires having explored or something.

Having some buildings spawn a TEU container when destroyed could work too.

(04-25-2024, 10:35 PM)Haxus Wrote: Paths in Preview
There is a way in the code to show the paths in a design. Could this be useful in the designer preview?

Done, whether or not it is useful. Preview settings now has a check box to show the paths through the buildings or spacecraft.

I remember finding this extremely useful when I had access to it back in the day. It will make debugging pathing so much easier.

It could maybe use some slight improvements though. Maybe have paths disabled by a closed door color it red or something. Have little nodes at the ends of each path, and maybe the node could look different if it is a deadend nose that doesn't have other nodes with it.
Hazeron Forum and Wiki Moderator
hazeron.com/wiki/User:Deantwo
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#5
I didn’t mention that I changed the encounter frequency for pirates to make them appear more often.
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