visible charges

Post ideas & suggestions you have pertaining to the game here.
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relanat
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I was going to create a Ministry topic or bump an existing one to put forward the idea of having visible charges included in the 1.8 stable release. Playing The Final Strike with Version 1.7 showed me how much the game has improved since then. The UI changes are numerous and excellent.
But I realized I hadn't thought it through so am putting it out there for others to contribute (ie, none of us is as smart as all of us).

Features I can think of are:
Show charges remaining for analyzers.
This could be a number displayed in itemPicker lists and in the 'U'se menu. A number superimposed over the icon image would be one way of doing it. This would work for both the lists and the 'U'se menu.
Or a line (tag?), "Charges: n", in the item description text (same as military, WMD: n, etc) would help determine which analyzer to buy/sell or jettison.
It might be worthwhile to have both the number over the icon and a text equivalent in lists as this would help explain what the number is.

Visible setting number for the Jotun deflector.
I like this shield but it is just so cumbersome to use that I rarely install it. It's potentially more useful now that solar refueling is disabled. Although shield hp can be seen in the game screen normally, from which you can quickly calculate the current setting, the circular HUDs use a percentage value instead which shows 100% for every setting, so the setting can't be determined from this.
The setting number could be shown before or after the shield name in the armor/shield HUD. Same as the ammo count in the weapons HUD.
PS: if anyone has any ideas on how to make the Jotun easier to use, please post them.

Ammo count in disposable launchers.
When installed the launchers clearly display missile numbers. But in itemPicker lists, when buying/selling or jettisoning, it's a mystery. Relative counts for multiple launchers can be determined from item price (lower price, less missiles) but a clear count would be better. As in the analyzers, a number superimposed over the icon image would do this nicely for both lists and the 'U'se menu. Or a number displayed in the item description for lists. Maybe fully charged ones could have 'new' added to the item name, eg "a new DM600 disposable..." although this may conflict with reload mods, not sure.

Others which I think could use this feature: (I've never used these so can't comment on them)
Gaian demolition cannon
Qianlong archcannon
And the rechargable Reenu weapon in VOTG.

Also armor repair items could show how much repair capability is left if they have been partially used. Ty, NMS

And a couple of vague mod ideas could maybe use this as well.
A weapon which has a limited lifespan. So the active crystals inside the super-particle-whatever weapon degrade slowly for so many ticks until the weapon becomes unusable. The lifetime remaining could be displayed as a number on the icon image (or something, only a thought at this time).
A drive device with a number of inbuilt non-replaceable speed boosts. Boosts remaining could be displayed numerically.
An armor dealer who resold damaged armor could have armor damage show as a hp number.

This feature could also help end some of the confusion for new players about why you can get multiple, seemingly identical items displaying separately in itemPicker lists.

Any other ideas?
Last edited by relanat on Sat Mar 24, 2018 2:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
NMS
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There is a ticket for making the number of charges visible.

However, armor repair items don't use charges, they just have a chance of not being used up when repairing less than the maximum amount. (The chance of being used up is the fraction of the maximum amount that they repair plus a constant, so using them this way is inefficient.)
PM
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I do not want charges visible for all items by default. Weapons can have variants based on charges, which I have taken advantage of for some of my more exotic mod weapons. Also, I have used charges as an easy data storage variable on the item itself (e.g., place to store result of (unvGetTick), number of drones or zapsats to spawn, etc.), and I would not want such items to blindly reveal magic numbers to the player. Items should be able to opt out of charge revealing features (aside from debugging purposes).
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Derakon
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PM wrote:
Thu Mar 22, 2018 3:23 pm
I do not want charges visible for all items by default. Weapons can have variants based on charges, which I have taken advantage of for some of my more exotic mod weapons. Also, I have used charges as an easy data storage variable on the item itself (e.g., place to store result of (unvGetTick), number of drones or zapsats to spawn, etc.), and I would not want such items to blindly reveal magic numbers to the player. Items should be able to opt out of charge revealing features (aside from debugging purposes).
You shouldn't be using charges for non-charges-related data storage, so that's your own fault there. Use objSetData instead. Though I'm curious about the "variants based on charges" thing -- how does that work?
PM
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objSetData (or typSetData for that matter) is inadequate once linked-fire weapons start using several otherwise identical weapons at the same time. Your one ship object fires four such weapons, they overwrite each other (because there is only one place to store the data). This is something people need to deal with once they want to add capital ships to their mods (or anticipate other people making mods with capital ships that want to use their items). I need to for Playership Drones.

If I use itmSetData, then I have a problem with items not stacking. Setting the data to Nil to (attempt to) clear it during uninstall does not allow the items to stack, and thus open a way to defeat buying limits for that item, not to mention ugly UI clutter of seemingly identical items not stacking like they should. Not unlike ionized items not being able to stack with clean items even after ionization wears off. Charges seem exempt from this problem; if I set charges to their default number during uninstall event, they stack with other such items. Also, charges are guaranteed to be a number, and I do not need as many checks (like checking for "nil").

Also, revealing charges assuming they are ammo or something is not a good assumption for items that use charges as variants. The stock dual Efreet blaster (standard D&O2: Vault of the Galaxy weapon) uses charges as variants. (EDIT: Not to mention Jotun deflector in part 1, which has been as it is for years.)

Variants for weapons are similar to missile launchers with ammo. Recently, that functionality was expanded for item charges or item levels, not just missiles only. However, such launchers with non-missile variants get automatically converted to primary weapons. If you want a launcher that varies by charges or level, that is not possible, sadly.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
PM
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PS: if anyone has any ideas on how to make the Jotun easier to use, please post them.
If my item has more than a few settings (and/or features a secret setting), I would consider a dockscreen where player can either type in the number or use arrow keys to access the desired variant quickly, plus view a cute dial or other image at the left side of the screen as player fiddles with settings. Check out some of the weapons in my Drake Technologies mod if you have not yet.

Other items that can use charges is armor. There are few weird armor types that can acculumate charges then use them to regenerate armor. For example, Eternity Port's amorphous armor that absorbs ion damage for charges, then uses the charges to regenerate and heal from damage.

It could be handy for individual items to display their ammo count or charges in their description. One example is one of the Remora's ammo.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
relanat
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I've added a comment to the Ministry ticket supplied by NMS above referring back to this topic.
Also included a vague idea about showing the installed/uninstalled state of a patch spider in the image in the Use menu.
PM wrote: Check out some of the weapons in my Drake Technologies mod if you have not yet.
Thanks. Downloaded but not yet looked at. Same as Semesta/YourCorp, Living Minutes, the two thirds or TBR I haven't seen yet, etc, etc.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
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