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 Post subject: Probes are back!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:20 am 
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Ok, I spent all day and all night getting probes back online.

They are now fully classes so new probes can easily be created and added to the game. And since I had to rewrite everything I went ahead and templated everything to do with probes. This makes the pages considerably smaller since they can now use gzip compression.

There are currently only three probes you can use.

Sentry Probe

This probe never moves. It just sits there waiting for a ship to pass through the sector. If it's sensors are high enough it will scan the ship and report the information to the owner of the probe. There are TWO tech levels on the Sentry Probe you need to increase. The Sensor tech so it can scan ships. If it is too low a passing ship cloak may prevent it from seeing the ship. Lastly the Cloak tech should be increased as high as possible to prevent passing ships from seeing the probe and destroying it.

Warp Probe

This probe uses only warp links to move around the universe. As it find sectors with things in them it will report them back to the owner of the probe. If the probe enters a sector with sector defenses it WILL be destroyed. The warp probe will try to move every 10 minutes and it will use ONE TURN from your available turns each time. So be careful and don't place too many Warp Probes or you will run out of turns. There are TWO tech levels on the Sentry Probe you need to increase. The Sensor tech so it can scan sectors.. Lastly the Cloak tech should be increased as high as possible to prevent passing ships from seeing the probe and destroying it.

You should give the Warp Probe a sector name to try and find. It will move along warp links looking for that sector. When it finds it the probe will stop moving.

Realspace Probe

This is a one shot realspace probe. It will move directly to the sector if it has the turns. If it doesn't it will just sit there. Remember, a probe will use the SAME number of turns for the SAME engine tech level of a normal ship to realspace. The Sensor tech should be increased so it can scan sectors.. Lastly the Cloak tech should be increased as high as possible to prevent passing ships from seeing the probe and destroying it.

You should give the Realspace Probe a sector name to try and find. It will move along close sectors looking for that sector. When it finds it the probe will stop moving.


Last edited by Panama Jack on Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:16 am 
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I am so happy to see probes again!!! I just tryed one out... I was unable to tell the probe what type of probe it was going to be, It let me upgrade it and to program it to a certain sector, but I was unable to select realspace or warp... but I am very happy!!! It is about time to start sending donations to you folks again!!! Thanks so much!!!



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:35 pm 
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What template were you using when this happened?



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:53 pm 
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AAT Dropdown classic...Im switching templates now to see if that might be the cause



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:47 pm 
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Well, I uploaded the exact same template files for the probes to all template directories. So changing shouldn't matter.



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:56 pm 
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It works now...I havent a clue what I might have done...but big deal it woorrrks!!!woop woop



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:59 pm 
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You didn't do anything. I was either too tired to remember or damned retarded. :razz:

I forgot to upload the probe classes to the game server so it didn't know what to do and everything defaulted to Sentry Probes. Should be fixed now.



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:13 pm 
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You now cannot go to the probe menu screen you get a 404 error... The probes that i released out into space work perfectly so far. But I am unable to release more probes because of page not found error



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:25 pm 
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I was just too damned tired this morning when I moved the probe code to the server. I forgot to upload the updated base_template_data.inc file that contained the new link to the probe page.

It should be working now.

I am going to be tweaking the probe movement code over the next day so if the probes stop moving or act funky just wait and they should be back to normal in about a day.

I would like to add one new probe before I call the probes finished. :) I hope I can get a SG Probe working. This is a probe that tries to find SG sectors and gateways into SG sector. It doesn't report on anything as it moves around except when it finds SGs/Gateways.



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:42 am 
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Lucky Starr wrote:
I am so happy to see probes again!!!


I knew exactly thats what you were thinking. Its Funny how I had thought about the probes just a fewq days ago. I am glad they are back too. I had almost forgot how to use them when I played game of the 0.21 version a couple months ago. :)


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:18 pm 
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PJ wrote:
I hope I can get a SG Probe working
I hope you thought about increasing the cost, higher sensors needed, turns used, or something with this type of probe. Maybe something for builders to try and camouflage the entrances from these SG probes. It is bring Automation back into the game. There was too much of that in that 'other game' you based this 'better game' off of. :)


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:27 pm 
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I'd dont think they will magically find them, they still have to move and scan like we do. I don't know the particulars but it still wont be magic ;)


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:36 pm 
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Yeah, the SG probe will only use warp links with a random chance of emergency warping to any non-SG sector. It doesn't just home in on them. It is like a regular player looking for SG sectors.

When it finds an SG sector it will report the SG sector it found and also report the LAST sector it was in as the gateway sector.

Since most gateway sectors are heavily defended by sector defense the SG probe has to have high enough cloak tech to sneak into the sector. So it will cost alot of money to get a probe with high sensors and cloak. And since probes carry ZERO armor they are easily destroyed even by a Pioneer with no tech upgrades or even ONE sector fighter if detected. That's why all probes need very high cloak.

Also, I have reduced the number of probes a ship can carry from 100 to 5. You only need 5 and if you deploy those 5 you can always buy 5 more. You are just locked into carrying only 5 probes on your ship.

Right now I am trying to get the warp and realspace movement routines rewritten. They have to be GENERIC so they can be used with the Auto Trades or anything else in the game that will move on it's own. The old routines were a mess. Sigh...



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 5:21 pm 
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You know what I was thinking? I was thinking The probe was gonna be able to detect the SG sector when it got to the Real space sector adjacent to the sg. I should of known it wasn't going to be implemented like that.


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 8:09 pm 
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There have been a couple of changes to both the Realspace and Warp probes.

If you enter an invalid sector name, a sector owned by the Federation for the Warp Probe or an SG Sector for the Realspace Probe it will revert to a Sentry Probe.

The Realspace probe is a one shot probe now. If will try to move directly to the sector you indicated. Make sure you have large enough engines or it will just sit there and notify you of the problem in your Probe Logs.

When either the Warp or Realspace Probe reach their target sector they will change into a Sentry Probe.

The Warp Probe randomly follow warplinks looking for the target sector. If it enters a sector without warplinks it will change into a Sentry Probe and just sit there.

Probes are also so small they can completely avoid ALL mine fields no matter how big they are. Only fighters can possibly detect probes and destroy them but they are hampered in detecting probes because of their small size.

Oh... Warp and Realspace probes should now be moving around the galaxy. :)

One final new item. Warp probes now leave a trail just like a ship as they move around the galaxy.



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