[1.0] LCARS Mark II - Dev and Support - Beta Release (29.04.2015)

[LordMark]

I'm not saying I don't like any of these mods and I didn't mean to portray a negative attitude, I just wanted to be adamant about my problem with this GUI issue because it was hindering my ability to even test everything. I already knew that you made the LCARS mod and not the shipyard I don't know why you assumed otherwise.

Anyway I just tried a clean installation and got it working, so perhaps there is another mod that was screwing with it.

I'm going to put all my mods back in(they're not even big mods) one by one just to see if it breaks the LCARS.

If it breaks I'll be back so we can work together on finding a solution

By the way great job on this mod, love the impulse abilities. I do wish I could read the text on the left a little bit easier though. My eyes aren't perfect and perhaps my screen resolution is too high, I'm not sure.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that when testing it on a clean installation I had made a new sandbox save file. Tested with mods, and it worked. Then I went to test it on an old career save and it did NOT work. Then I went to test it on a new career mode save file(cheated to buy all the tech of course) and it works. After deleting this cheat career the game tells me I have invalid saves and upgrading may not work. I clicked upgrade. I will copy this save folder and cheat to see if it works. If it does work(crossed fingers), everything should now be working. Be back soon with result.

Edited September 12, 2014 by LordMark

[philotical]

I'm not saying I don't like any of these mods and I didn't mean to portray a negative attitude, I just wanted to be adamant about my problem with this GUI issue because it was hindering my ability to even test everything. I already knew that you made the LCARS mod and not the shipyard I don't know why you assumed otherwise.

Anyway I just tried a clean installation and got it working, so perhaps there is another mod that was screwing with it.

I'm going to put all my mods back in(they're not even big mods) one by one just to see if it breaks the LCARS.

If it breaks I'll be back so we can work together on finding a solution

By the way great job on this mod, love the impulse abilities. I do wish I could read the text on the left a little bit easier though. My eyes aren't perfect and perhaps my screen resolution is too high, I'm not sure.

fair enough, no hard feelings :-)

I assumed otherwise, because some weeks ago, starvision and I decided it's a good idea to locate LCARS in side SciFi..

back then it was a good idea - but since then, it seems to produce more confusion than clarity for most people who need support..

I appologize if you felt my frustration about this detail.. wasn't ment negative either..

It works?

Wonderfull - so far it's allways been a folder issue btw - so my best guess is, you had somethng at a wrong location..

however - I'd appreciate the feedback if you figure out any incompatibilities and be assured you have my cooperation :-)

Thanks for the flowers :-)

I was afraid it'll be too big on the screen, so I made it as minuscule as possible - you are not the first to point out, that I overdid it..

right now the buttons are fixed size png - so to just zoom the window would not help a lot - I'll probbably also attack this for next bigger update.

but more about that below..

So whats planned for V8.0 BETA ?

Well - it depends..

I had/have regular planns, but now because of NCI some other things came up that need to be done..

So I decided yesterday to rewrite most of LCARS to get rid of my beginner mistakes.

It became needed because NCI requires a much more open communication between the classes and LCARS is not ready for that.

I could patch it untill nothing is left - but I'd rather have a clean restart

in the process, the system will gain performance and stability (I hope lol) - after all I located some redundancys and idiocys on my end

if new features beside NCI integration will fit in the first release of the new version right away has to be seen..

Maybe it will come first without any subsystems at all - since that part wasn't ment to get that big at first either..

it has outgrown it's frame and needs a new one - so all subsystems have to be rewitten too.

Planned was allways to get open ends closed like scanner array, shuttle bay and the torpedo bugs..

Now it's more like: Torpedo will completely be rewritten, shuttlebay will be much easier after all things I've learned with turbolift and NCI and scanner array will grow in size tremendousely because NCI will use it for almost every mission.

All that made it much easier to plan a rewrite than an update..

So it might take a while for V8 to come out - I even might skip 8 now completely and start with a clean 9 right away..

In other words, this is the time to place feature requests, changes and problems on the table..

Since all will get new, I can implement many things on the way..

Edit:

EDIT: I forgot to mention that when testing it on a clean installation I had made a new sandbox save file. Tested with mods, and it worked. Then I went to test it on an old career save and it did NOT work. Then I went to test it on a new career mode save file(cheated to buy all the tech of course) and it works. After deleting this cheat career the game tells me I have invalid saves and upgrading may not work. I clicked upgrade. I will copy this save folder and cheat to see if it works. If it does work(crossed fingers), everything should now be working. Be back soon with result.

Intresting - since .24 I haven't even started a career game - I don't even know in what tech my shuttle comes up - will fix all when a 1.0 release is near, I promise - so I only garantee right now sandbox - it's beta after all..

but I doubt if LCARS could be related to the upgrade message - you would only have some LCARS ships in "Flightstate" - but other than that no changes at all at the persistent file.

if you had scansat in the save file and scannsat is not installed now, that might cause such a message - after all you would have a huge scenario with no plugin to read it.

but I'm just guessing here..

Edited September 12, 2014 by philotical

[LordMark]

Hmm, I could dropbox and post my logs and my persistent file if you think that might help. And I suppose I could restart career mode to fix the issue(you say it's not persistent file related but what else can it be?)

I'll have to consider the idea of restarting or just not having it in my game just yet. Sure, I can always play around in sandbox but it just doesn't feel that much like a game, more of a simulator.

Anyways thanks a lot for your advice. Can't wait for the release!

[philotical]

if you post the log, maybe I can spot something - but no promises.. :-)

[StarDrive85]

fair enough, no hard feelings :-)

I assumed otherwise, because some weeks ago, starvision and I decided it's a good idea to locate LCARS in side SciFi..

back then it was a good idea - but since then, it seems to produce more confusion than clarity for most people who need support..

I appologize if you felt my frustration about this detail.. wasn't ment negative either..

It works?

Wonderfull - so far it's allways been a folder issue btw - so my best guess is, you had somethng at a wrong location..

however - I'd appreciate the feedback if you figure out any incompatibilities and be assured you have my cooperation :-)

Thanks for the flowers :-)

I was afraid it'll be too big on the screen, so I made it as minuscule as possible - you are not the first to point out, that I overdid it..

right now the buttons are fixed size png - so to just zoom the window would not help a lot - I'll probbably also attack this for next bigger update.

but more about that below..

Well - it depends..

I had/have regular planns, but now because of NCI some other things came up that need to be done..

So I decided yesterday to rewrite most of LCARS to get rid of my beginner mistakes.

It became needed because NCI requires a much more open communication between the classes and LCARS is not ready for that.

I could patch it untill nothing is left - but I'd rather have a clean restart

in the process, the system will gain performance and stability (I hope lol) - after all I located some redundancys and idiocys on my end

if new features beside NCI integration will fit in the first release of the new version right away has to be seen..

Maybe it will come first without any subsystems at all - since that part wasn't ment to get that big at first either..

it has outgrown it's frame and needs a new one - so all subsystems have to be rewitten too.

Planned was allways to get open ends closed like scanner array, shuttle bay and the torpedo bugs..

Now it's more like: Torpedo will completely be rewritten, shuttlebay will be much easier after all things I've learned with turbolift and NCI and scanner array will grow in size tremendousely because NCI will use it for almost every mission.

All that made it much easier to plan a rewrite than an update..

So it might take a while for V8 to come out - I even might skip 8 now completely and start with a clean 9 right away..

In other words, this is the time to place feature requests, changes and problems on the table..

Since all will get new, I can implement many things on the way..

Edit:

Intresting - since .24 I haven't even started a career game - I don't even know in what tech my shuttle comes up - will fix all when a 1.0 release is near, I promise - so I only garantee right now sandbox - it's beta after all..

but I doubt if LCARS could be related to the upgrade message - you would only have some LCARS ships in "Flightstate" - but other than that no changes at all at the persistent file.

if you had scansat in the save file and scannsat is not installed now, that might cause such a message - after all you would have a huge scenario with no plugin to read it.

but I'm just guessing here..

There is something i have been dying to see in Lcars. but it will be a REALLY BIG PAIN TO MAKE!.

add a subsystem of some kind that will let voyager send out a Tachyon beam from its main deflector. i don.t know what it would do/how much power it would take/or what it would look like. but it would be very cool!!

[LordMark]

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zgpvodtikb83gzp/AAAEc68_OIb2kl-gTpGfLWFUa?dl=0

[philotical]

yup - there's a lot going wrong with the LCARS window and with the vessel_manager..

I can't debug why it happens from those logs but I can confirm it's LCARS that's failing..

Let's stay for now with the following conclusion:

LCARS prevents save file upgrades for now..

As said - I'll rewrit most - so let's just skip it and hope for the best for next verision :-)

[Teto]

Hey philotical good news dont ask how did it i broke the game couple time messing with my save file and texture replacer but I got the Lcars working I career mode cheers! Unfortunately after fixing the bridges sounds on starvisions starships they broke the sounds. Oh we'll I just guess I'm going to go back into the files and manually play the sounds.

Edited September 13, 2014 by Teto

[philotical]

Hey philotical good news dont ask how did it i broke the game couple time messing with my save file and texture replacer but I got the Lcars working I career mode cheers! Unfortunately after fixing the bridges sounds on starvisions starships they broke the sounds. Oh we'll I just guess I'm going to go back into the files and manually play the sounds.

Glad you got it solved..

Just to prevent that you guys think, this is dead..

LCARS Mark II - Dev Preview

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this LCARS version will be up to the jobs planned for it in NCI..

NCI will become a huge thing - and I alleady love it..

So if only for NCI, it's worth the work to restart LCARS from scratch..

Edit:

===================

Official infos on LCARSMARKII

The new tasks NCI demends from LCARS made it necessary to restart from scratch!

New features:

- Better performance

all LCARS ship are now levitated by one single background worker

- Plugin based subsystems

code your own subsystems and let them be loaded automatically into the game.

- Damage capable

all ship systems and panels can be damaged with visible effects - it's planned to have many different damaging causes in different magnitudes and a random spread on the systems

you can assign 3 independent ExoCom-repair teams to fix

If you attack a ship, you can just attack it as a hole (as it is now) or select a subsystem to disable - if you only target the propulsion matrix of a hostile ship, that system will take the most damage

- better code structure and clearer class hierarchy

- interplugin communication - LCARS can communicate with NCI or any other plugin with some API- The GUI is split up in the typical Star Trek Stations

1. Bridge/Command - Ship status, etc and formation command

2. Helm - you guessed it - the helm

3. Engeneering - powersystems, ODN, Damage Controll, and stuff like transporter, tractor etc..

4. Science - scanner and experiments also somespecial subsystem to solve NCI mysteries

5. Communication - it will open up automatically everytime you receive a message.

Messages can be: "Engeneering reports Tractor beam is damaged", "Sir we picked up an automated warning signal - It sais: Stay away from my refugee", stuff like that

Also the shuttle bay communications and fueltank dialogs oght to go there somehow - we will see..

6. Tactical - as seen on the screenshots, I try to recreate the target scanner form the old Frontier-Elite game.

Tactical will be a lot of fun if I have it my ways - it's ambitiouse for me - so cross your fingers..

Edited September 20, 2014 by philotical

[Teto]

Oooooh I'm exited to see what your cooking up! But how does the panel damage work is it when you crash that impressive thou!

Edited September 19, 2014 by Teto

[philotical]

There is something i have been dying to see in Lcars. but it will be a REALLY BIG PAIN TO MAKE!.

add a subsystem of some kind that will let voyager send out a Tachyon beam from its main deflector. i don.t know what it would do/how much power it would take/or what it would look like. but it would be very cool!!

(Sorry, I missed that one)

HAHA - lol - well, ok..!?

StarDrive85, you seem to see my intentions - kind of - it's intended to allow such techbabble to be part of NCI solutions/missions..

For example: you could be required to use a tachion converter on the object first to be able to find the artifact - if you don't you'll never find anything

To allow such quirks, I had to rewrite LCARS - old one couldn't do these kind of intractions with other code..

However - I'm not sure this will go farther than getting a message (visible at the Comunication Station) from NCI to use the tachion converter.

Maybe, there won't be any tachion converter other than the button you get from NCI to use it.

Why, I also have no clue "what it would do/how much power it would take/or what it would look like"

Still I'm very inclined to include such stuff.. - I'd love to have dozens of such things to use as NCI story elements.

Just need to find a good way to do so.. - if it does absolutely nothing except in this one "mission",

it might not be worh, the effort and added lag you carry around in all gamesituations, even if you don't play that one story.

In other words, keep em comming those suggestions - they do help!

If you have more such specific ideas - please post them here..

Now is the right time..

Edit: I just had an idea how to cope with it..

but I need a extensive list of such systems to make it happen

All things you can remember from the show, please list here..

I start with

- Tachyon beam

-Tachyon converter

- Polaron device

- Magnetic Pulses

- (I just got up, my brain's still tired - so I continue later when my memory is awake)

Such systems could also be combined "Reroute the EPS flow to overload the defletor dish"

might just be what's needed for a Magnetic Pulse" who knows hihi

After that, a repair team has to be sent to revert the damage.

Oooooh I'm exited to see what your cooking up! But how does the panel damage work is it when you crash that impressive thou!

Teto, that's a good question - right now, only the functions are done to inflict or repair damage..

But right now, damage never happens on it's own..

I need to code that part..

Please feel free to make suggestions..

So far I thought it will be be as followed:

- Torpedos and Phaser shall damage systems if the ship is hit

- Natural Causes shall be able to damage systems..

"Captain, that EPS-Interference nocked out our navigational controlls and the Propulsion matrix, we are a drift"

Than you can send a repair team to fix it (you have 3 of them)

The NCI-damage will be inflicted by a required script included in the NCI-Object

- Maybe, I add a gravity-jolt sensibility. Gs above a certain threshhold and some damage may be inflicted..

Each system has an "integrity" of 100% at first, and damage can be inflicted on a decimal level.

So anything between 0.00001 and 100 is possible - many such small damages from g-jolts will eventually bring a system down.

But just send repair teams all the time and you can keep all working..

Now - if you think there might be some more possibilities to use that damage code, let me know..

I'm open to suggestions..

[Teto]

One idea maybe planets can affect by going into Jools atmosphere it can crush the panels. But that's just amazing I'm really fascinated to see how people can do all this stuff!

[philotical]

Planets - sounds great - we could have too much G or too much heat on reentry..

I guss I can implement some damage with that..

If you are allready fascinated by my posts, you should start coding!

You might get a regular boner by doing it your selfe.. :-)

Happens to me every day..

All you need to code, is fascination for the product you intend to do..

The coding is like learning how to use a hammer..

it's just a tool and part of the task but no big problem..

Go on, start coding.. - I'll help as much as I can..

as a teaser related to this:

Subsystems are now seperate DLLs - so everyone can add subsystems by connecting to my ILCARSPlugin-Interface..

I just learned how to do that 2 days ago - but now the LCARS system can be extended by anyone at any time..

In other words, if you start coding, I show you how to include your own subsystem!

Deal? :-)

I can send you the "Dummy-Subsystem", and you can experiment with that..

Just add some text to your own LCARS-Subsystem and learn to do more by doing it.

ok - the experimenting needs to wait until I release an alpha form MarkII - but that won't take long I guess..

Now you say "Uhh, I never could do that" - but you are wrong - trust me..

If you can solve a cross word puzzle, you can code a subsystem..

it's not harder, just different.

No colledge degree needed - if you have one, it doesn't hurt - but not needed.

I don't have one btw..

[Teto]

K thanks! Buuuuttttt I don't even know where to go to code lol.

[Teto]

Well gosh darn it i broke lcars in career mode again lol. This time when I fiddle around with it I'm backing up my saved game and not loose it. What! The heck? Lcars is working now lol. It's kinda kreeping (creeping) me out works doesn't work sometimes oh well at least it works.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Teto

[philotical]

Lol - poor guy.. - I'm sorry for the trouble..

but it's not tested for career mode - I won't lose sleep over it right now hahah :-)

Coding:

dowload something like visual studio express - it's the free version..

then download a simple plugin from the forum - take one with project file included..

after that, try to figure out what you see there by using google and online docs..

after two days, you will have your own little plugin - even if it's only writing your name in the logs..

that allready counts..

and you will smile for an hour if you read your name in the logs as expected..

from there on, it's just one step after the other - take up challanges and succeed in them by not giving up..

it's like a cross word puzzle..

if you don't feel like, don't - but if you think "I would like that" - then start right away - you will never regrett it.

It's even more fun than playing KSP..

[Teto]

K thank u ill try it like someday like tomorrow. So I know you can do stuff like in lcars but what else can u do coding I'm kinda guessing anything.

[Teto]

Yeah it seems like if I try to activate tricorder while the ship doesn't have lcars it breaks it.

[philotical]

K thank u ill try it like someday like tomorrow. So I know you can do stuff like in lcars but what else can u do coding I'm kinda guessing anything.

Look if you want to help but not want to code,

There are some tasks that don't need coding but still are important..

1. I need science texts for LCARS and tricorder..

StarVision once offered to wrtie them - but it seems he has changed his focus and priorities..

2. NCI needs stories and missions..

I'm sure you could write some..

intrested :-)

Both needs no coding - but both is essential..

I can give you more details and explanation once you volontier

To answer your question - to code for a game means to have all the power a devine beeing would have..

I can make the grass violet and the kerbals yellow if I want to..

That is what can be done with coding..

FAR,DRE,KAS,Kethane,Karbonite,BDArmory - alll that and more..

To use a quote from SpongeBob Squarepants:

"IMMMMMAAAAAAGGGGIIIIINNNNNAAAAAATTTTIIIOOOONNNN" (BBcode does not allow to spawn the required rainbows - sorry)

Yeah it seems like if I try to activate tricorder while the ship doesn't have lcars it breaks it.

Oh I see - thanks - helpfull info..

I'll fix/test that in future versions..

[Teto]

K ill volunteer but no promises that it'll go we'll lol well maybe u make it sound easy but I have to go bed soon my time it's 2:30 I'm really afraid of getting no sleep lol!

[philotical]

LCARSMarkII Progress:

- Powersystems done

- Damage Controll done

- Repair Teams done

- Main ODN Junction done

- Plugin System done

yesterday I was bored from coding so I created the "Space Cruiser Aurora" as seen in the episode "The Way to Eden" TOS season 3.

(original http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Class_J_starship)

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it will fit 33 Kerbals including the pilot.

she needs now a plugin for the workstations. Also the IVA is still missing..

but other then that, she's done..

[StarVision]

LCARSMarkII Progress:

- Powersystems done

- Damage Controll done

- Repair Teams done

- Main ODN Junction done

- Plugin System done

yesterday I was bored from coding so I created the "Space Cruiser Aurora" as seen in the episode "The Way to Eden" TOS season 3.

(original http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Class_J_starship)

http://imgur.com/a/1PdmL

it will fit 33 Kerbals including the pilot.

she needs now a plugin for the workstations. Also the IVA is still missing..

but other then that, she's done..

I think I remember that ship. Also the internal is looking good!

[philotical]

I think I remember that ship. Also the internal is looking good!

Thanks - comming from you, that's high praise.. :-)

[Teto]

Sweet! Nice lookin ship.

[philotical]

Sweet! Nice lookin ship.

Thanks :-)

Official anouncment:

Teto delivered me the promised science texts for the tricorder and even some captainslogs - also those will be put to good use..

I've tried to give him some reputation..

but: "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Teto again"

I did a week ago allready for something else..

Those science texts will stay confidential until LCARSMarkII will be released..

the currently online beta's don't include them by now - sorry..

As soon as I update the first post, I will add a "credits" section to show some gratitude to the people who helped me here.

Teto and (ofcourse) StaVision will be on it!

MJY will also be mentioned for all the bug reports he sent me in the beginning of the mod..

MarkII Progress report:

The message system is working!

features:

- receive status messages from the ship

- receive messages from outside - like NCI story elements

- send/receive messages to/from all LCARS ships in the save file

- receive encrypted messages

- attempt to decrypt messages that can come several encryption modes/levels..

Not all messages can be decrypted propperly - some have errors or are made with an unknown codex

All that adds a lot of mystery-options to NCI stories

Talking about stories..

Are any hobby writers here?

NCI needs stories..

head over to that thread and volunteer please..

All star trek stories welcome..

the more I have, the more I know whty to implement in the code..

Tell me what kind of stories NCI should be able to do by writing one!

I'll post an example script today...