Your browser does not seem to support JavaScript. As a result, your viewing experience will be diminished, and you have been placed in read-only mode.
Please download a browser that supports JavaScript, or enable it if it's disabled (i.e. NoScript).
Or, any way to reevaluate NCBs?
So I had a cool idea, but due to the way the EV3 engine evaluates NCBs I don't think it can work. But maybe there is a chance I'm missing something and my plan can proceed.
What I wanted to do was to use the Mission BBS as more than a place that all kinds of missions get randomly dumped into. I wanted to separate mission types from each other. Personal messages like the "ATTN: Oy'Hara" would be kept separate for things like "Carry Cargo to Blah" The way I planned to do this was have a few "menu item" missions that would let the player switch between which type of missions he wanted to see at the time. Each menu item would set or clear a bit, and by doing that the Mission BBS would display the appropriate missions.
An Example: When the player first starts playing his mission BBS would look like this:
Quote
(Main Menu) --Messages --Cargo & Shipping --Ferry Passangers
The player would accept the Cargo & Shipping "menu item" mission which would auto abort and the Mission BBS would change to something like:
(Cargo & Shipping) --Carry stuff to Earth --Pick up stuff from Tidal --Haul junk to Somewhere (Back)
The player could then accept as many cargo missions as he wanted like normal. The player could then accept the "(Back)" menu item mission which would clear or set a bit and the Mission BBS would return to the main menu.
So I set up two test missions. Test 1 would only display if bit998 or whatever was not set. When accepted it would set b998. Test 2 would only display if b998 was set. When accepted Test 2 would clear b998. Unfortunately what would happen is Test 1 would disappear like it should but Test 2 wouldn't appear unless I took off and landed again, which is bad because it might cause the player to miss a low % chance of occurring mission. Can anybody else think of a way to get the Mission BBS window to update without having to take off and land?
I love the idea, though I don't know how you could solve the problem.
Have you tried looking in the other places (bar, shipyard, trade centre & outfitter) then going back to the BBS? (just a suggestion like that don't know if it will change anything) And is it an auto-aborting mission?
I don't think that it would work. You'd need dummy missions to take the place of catagories with an availability of 100%, and have the rest be invisible due to NCB or contribute/requires; and after the categories are 'opened' have the previously hidden missions becoma visible. I don't think that the engine reevaluates any kind of missions (or anything, for that matter) without leaving the planet and landing again.
I'd love to see this, though.
If you wanted them available as outfits it would be easier, as outfits can be hidden and revealed dynamically in the Outfitters screen (or I have accidentally done it at least).
In EV, you could refresh missions by accepting one, going to the mission info panel thingy, and aborting it...
Does that still work? It'd be a pretty bad requirement, though, and I seem to remember something preventing that from working in EVN...
Weepul 884, on Feb 27 2005, 11:49 PM, said:
Does that still work? It'd be a pretty bad requirement, though, and I seem to remember something preventing that from working in EVN... View Post
Nope it didn't work
Ragashingo, on Feb 28 2005, 05:26 AM, said:
Nope it didn't work View Post
Nuts. That was a great trick to use to get missions with low probabilities to show up. Well if this ever does work, it'd be pretty cool. You could add other things like special actions and stuff into another menu and have it like a generic computer terminal rather than specifically a mission computer.
Chalk that up for EV4. There should be a list of desired features somewhere. But alas, it won't be done (probably).
rmx256, on Feb 28 2005, 06:12 PM, said:
Chalk that up for EV4. There should be a list of desired features somewhere. But alas, it won't be done (probably). View Post
Yeah, its on The List. Of course if somehow there was an EV4 I'd rather have a dedicated implementation of this instead of faking it with missions and NCB's...
I'm not familiar with how the BBS is updated, but it would make sense for it to be updated whenever you advance a game day. Try giving the auto-aborting mission a DatePostInc of 1 and see what that does. If it works, it'll mean spending about a week on a planet just to check the BBS, though.
PBoat
PBoat101, on Feb 28 2005, 08:05 PM, said:
PBoat View Post
It was a good idea, but didn't seem to work, the day didn't advance until I took off or maybe landed after taking off.
Ragashingo, on Feb 28 2005, 06:02 PM, said:
Yeah, its on The List. Of course if somehow there was an EV4 I'd rather have a dedicated implementation of this instead of faking it with missions and NCB's... View Post
There's a lot that EV4 would have to have differently, but I digress. I would of liked to have seen this too.
I know it's kind of akward, but: what about aborting missions?
orcaloverbri9, on Mar 1 2005, 12:10 AM, said:
I know it's kind of akward, but: what about aborting missions? View Post
I tried that too, no effect...
Ok, I had a thought. A mission can flip a NCB upon competition right? If the objective was to land (or deliver cargo or something that involves landing) wouldn't that mean that there would be no possible way for the next mission to be offered until the player takes back off and lands again? And if so isn't that sorta a bug?
Ragashingo, on Mar 1 2005, 10:35 PM, said:
Ok, I had a thought. A mission can flip a NCB upon competition right? If the objective was to land (or deliver cargo or something that involves landing) wouldn't that mean that there would be no possible way for the next mission to be offered until the player takes back off and lands again? And if so isn't that sorta a bug? View Post
No, it can be offered right away. In the stock scenario, there are a lot of missions that are completed and then tell you go to the Bar, such as the missions to join the Rebels. You open the window and the next offer pops right up. So, it would seem that upon landing, bits are set and then missions are made available accordingly before the main spaceport dialog is even displayed. That should mean that you would only have to take off again if a mission aborts while you are on a planet.
What happens if the mission evaluates a set string which moves the player to the same planet they're currently on?
How would that happen? If you mean Qxxx or Mxxx, that would kick the player off the planet and they would have to land again manually.
If you mean setting bits that would cause a Visbit change to another system and then back again, I would expect that the entire set string would be evaluated before anything else is done, meaning no visible effect. That would make the most sense, for ease of programming if nothing else. If that's not the case, Nova would probably choke, since the player would temporarily be on a planet that doesn't exist.
This post has been edited by PBoat101 : 02 March 2005 - 08:04 PM
Here's where having a scripting language would be really nice...
The problem with the Nova engine is that it was based on existing code from the EV engines prior. I think that a whole lot of neat features, or the possibility to add them, would of been more likely if it wasn't simply an extrapolation of an earlier engine.
Not dissing, though, still a whole lot better than my limited efforts to code in HyperCard
PBoat101, on Mar 3 2005, 01:03 AM, said:
I don't recall that happening when you beat the Nova scenario. Don't you get transferred directly to s7evn?