MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available

@guy, on Jul 9 2008, 01:31 AM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

Freezes when opening a DITL with no elements.

Fixed, thanks.

@0101181920, on Jul 9 2008, 02:37 AM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

In the shďp editor, you have a little thing to put in the target pic and the 200x200 pic, but there isn't one for the cinematic thingie in the shipyard when you click on the info button.

As Guy says, the large image displayed in the Info window is controlled not by any reference in the shďp resource, but by the 'Graphic' field in the ship's dësc resource. I find this highly unintuitive, but I couldn't make it work any other way without substantially distorting the format, and automating things which are better left at the user's discretion.

Oh. Sorry. As you might be able to tell, I haven't done much with ships. Mostly weapons and outfits. Thanks, though.

No worries. As I said, I don't consider this at all intuitive; it took me ages to figure out how they were connected back when I first received beta 1.

Very minor issue: in the weapons editor, when you have the ammo set as fuel, after the number, there is always a point, but nothing after that.

@0101181920, on Jul 10 2008, 02:22 AM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

Very minor issue: in the weapons editor, when you have the ammo set as fuel, after the number, there is always a point, but nothing after that.

Fixed, thanks.

What I'd really like is a way to autmatically generate STRs the same way you would descs in the mission resource. Just, when one is required, pop up an editor for an appropriately numbered STR (or put it in a STR#, for things like system beacons).

When MissionComputer starts up there's a window with buttons to create a new plug-in or load an old one. If I close that window is there any way to make it come back without quiting and restarting the program?

@qaanol, on Jul 11 2008, 12:11 AM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

When MissionComputer starts up there's a window with buttons to create a new plug-in or load an old one. If I close that window is there any way to make it come back without quiting and restarting the program?

Open and close a plug-in.

You're right, that works. It seems unintuitive though.

You can also press apple n for a new mac document, apple o to open a document, or go file>new>EV Nova Windows Plugin. Probably faster.

@lindley, on Jul 10 2008, 11:44 PM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

What I'd really like is a way to autmatically generate STRs the same way you would descs in the mission resource.

For STR resources this feature exists in various places - can you point out somewhere that its absence is problematic? Implementing it for STR# is more complicated, given that each resource contains multiple strings, but I'm going to look into something of the sort for 4.1.

@qaanol, on Jul 11 2008, 12:11 AM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

If I close that window is there any way to make it come back without quiting and restarting the program?

The Welcome screen reasserts itself whenever you close all open windows, but as 0101181920 says, it really isn't all that important, since it's just a shortcut for broader functionality available in the menu bar. In fact, the real purpose of the Welcome screen is to cover for the fact that MissionComputer can't create an empty document when you launch it, as most programmes do, rather than to provide any useful functionality.

@david-arthur, on Jul 11 2008, 01:14 PM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

For STR resources this feature exists in various places - can you point out somewhere that its absence is problematic?

Well, system beacons are what I'm working on right now; and not only is there no way to do it automatically, there isn't even a resource selector button to help out there.

This post has been edited by Lindley : 11 July 2008 - 09:12 AM

@lindley, on Jul 11 2008, 10:12 AM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

Well, system beacons are what I'm working on right now; and not only is there no way to do it automatically, there isn't even a resource selector button to help out there.

The problem there is that you aren't selecting a resource, but a particular string from a single STR# resource, so the Resource Selector wouldn't be of any help; the same applies to the comm and hail quotes in the përs resource. In all three cases, the solution is a purpose-built String Selector, which is on my list of future possibilities (4.0 is close to feature-frozen).

This isn't a bug, but just a request, which I hope isn't too complicated. You know when you create a new resource, the little box that pops up at the top of the window asking for the name and ID? My problem with that is it covers up the lowest ID's that I've used. I always start from the highest ID possible, and work down, so it blocks off the one directly before the ID I'm going to use. So my request is to have it be a separate window that you could drag around, and, if possible, have it remember the position it was in last time. Thanks.

A way to "list" all the RleDs and PICTs in a plug-in so that thumbnails wouldn't appear and the names of the resources are displayed would be very useful, along with a means of seeing the resource ID numbers of the descs and PICTs and so-forth that are linked to an outfit. I'm asking for this right now because somehow, either because I missed a memo or because something really, really weird happened in Mission Computer, all my outfit placeholders in CTC-C have been offset by one resource, and I can't figure out which resources it effects. I had named all my PICTs so that when I received a PICT from a graphic artist for a specific outfit, I'd be able to sort through the PICTs by name and replace it. Now, because of the offset, if I replace a PICT for a specific outfit by name, it'll show up for the outfit one resource below it. Very annoying. I may have to transfer my files back over to EVNEW, because it had this sort of capability.

@jacabyte, on Jul 12 2008, 04:28 PM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

A way to "list" all the RleDs and PICTs in a plug-in so that thumbnails wouldn't appear and the names of the resources are displayed would be very useful...

Open the Preferences window, and un-check 'Use graphical resource pickers where appropriate'.

@jacabyte, on Jul 12 2008, 04:28 PM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

...along with a means of seeing the resource ID numbers of the descs and PICTs and so-forth that are linked to an outfit.

I'm planning to modify the buttons that appear in various resources (including oütf and shďp) for editing associated dësc, PICT, and other resources. It's been requested that they display in their caption the ID of the associated resource, and this seems reasonable to me.

I won't be doing this until the next version of MissionComputer, though, since I don't want to complicate things by introducing a new feature this late in the Crusoe development process (there are only two features left on my list of things that need to be done before 4.0 can enter beta).

@jacabyte, on Jul 12 2008, 04:28 PM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

...either because I missed a memo or because something really, really weird happened in Mission Computer, all my outfit placeholders in CTC-C have been offset by one resource, and I can't figure out which resources it effects.

Just in case this is MissionComputer's fault, can you give me the details of what has occurred?

Well, it wasn't MC, I had just forgotten to close a gap in the IDs of several resources when I deleted an outfit. Problem solved.

I still think that MC should have a feature that's included in EVNEW, which is a much simpler plug-in editor.

@jacabyte, on Jul 12 2008, 08:24 PM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

I still think that MC should have a feature that's included in EVNEW, which is a much simpler plug-in editor.

Sorry, which feature are you referring to?

Sorry, I was referring to having the ID numbers for the PICTs and the descs linked to from an ouft resource listed in the ouft resource itself.

@david-arthur, on Jul 13 2008, 09:24 AM, said in MissionComputer 4.0a9 now available:

Open the Preferences window, and un-check 'Use graphical resource pickers where appropriate'.

Say, how about adding buttons to the toolbar to quickly switch views?