Question OrbiTrader MFD - can it be extended?

[Jake]

I just recently discovered OrbiTrader MFD, via the OMP threads here. I think it's a great idea, and I needed to know if any further development is planned for it.

It would be great if there will be many more goods available for trading, if the cargo capacity would be increased according to the ship's class/size, if you could purchase your fuel from stations, bases and such etc.

One more question - is there any way the MFD's contents can be made "persistent"? I did a cargo run from the earth to the moon, sold the stuff, got the money and ran back to earth to sell there the lunar dust I got. But on the way I made a stop to Celestium, on LEO, exited the game and when I loaded the save, all of the money and extra dust were gone . Is there something I'm missing or them's the breaks?

Also, is there something like a configuration file I can edit, to tinker a bit with the materials' properties and other things?

Thanks!

 

[Wolfer]

Did you save while the MFD was selected? I think only MFDs that are open are saved, the others are all reset.

 

[Jake]

Yes, it was selected. Even if it's selected or unselected, everything in the MFD resets to defaults once you exit/enter the game.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

You know, I get the feeling that these market and trade type add ons for Orbiter really need to be made as a plug in, and not an MFD. The data file for all the planets (trade ports) and all the vessels in the scenario could then be saved on module exit CLBK, by default, just like the current scenario, and write a flag to the scenario file itself to identify it as a session using the trade plug in (to avoid it trying to activate in non-trader scenarios if the plug in is left active by accident).

Of course, you need an MFD for the actual exchanging, buying, selling, smuggling, whatever (to play the "game"), but it would come part and parcel of the add on that includes the foundation plug in.

Not too sure I am right, I say again it is my gut feeling...

 

[Jake]

these market and trade type add ons for Orbiter really need to be made as a plug in

You mean there are other trading tools? All I know of is Orbinomics, and that's a work in progress. Are there others I missed?

 

[Dig Gil]

Yeah, BTW, I don't hear about Orbinomics for ages. Where's Ar81?

 

[Jake]

Even a very basic alpha/early beta of Orbinomics would be great, I think it would enhance Orbiter's flavour greatly. You would suddenly have a purpose to simming, even if the economics are simple at first.

 

[Dig Gil]

If Ar81 doesn't gives any notice DanSteph's UCGO will turn Orbinomics obsolete even before it is released.

 

[alrik]

No if you make orbinomics with ucgo support. I've watching the ucgo api and there are many methods that could be used in that way.

Methods like:

EatCloserFuelCargo()
EatCloserOxygenCargo()
EatCloserCargoByType()
GetRessourceFromStationMineOrFactory()

Will help in future orbinomics addon.

 

[n122vu]

Was asking myself the same question earlier this week - Where's ar81 been lately?

 

[Enjo]

Apologies for becoming The Main Star of this forum for a moment instead of our friend, but to answer the original questions, yes, of course the MFD can be extended, saved to files, configured etc., but to answer another question - if there are further plans of developing it - I don't think so, at least not for now. I have a whole bunch of other projects which would also like to be finished very much.

To tell you the truth, I've been evolving the project with my mate She'da'Lier into a multiplayer module, with a central server which stores data - prices depending on market situation (registered players sold/bought cargo), items amount - ship events, such as "GL-01 landed on/left Moon orbit", "SH-02 Slinged/PowerSlinged Jupiter" for sim state reload upon logging in to the server and it really worked! The client/server data exchange was occurring in a separate thread, so not blocking the sim. All was pink. The problem was that such stuff takes LOADS of time to create, not to mention the maintenance part. As a purely multiplayer module, you'd have to deal with cheaters, because unlike in OMP, there's a visible goal - pwn everybody by becoming teh richest Orbinaut of them all.

Eventually, I think that it could be continued this way, but without multiuser interaction. Plus, let's face it - it would get boring very soon anyway, unless somebody who has nothing else to do, spends time to think of some missions or something, but note that such maintenance can be achieved only in a commercial game. I myself would not be interested in such a module.

You know, maybe I could do something about this module, at least for offline playing, but I can't promise anything. I'm über-busy these days, and begin to suffer from spending too much time in front of computer for the caviar.

all of the money and extra dust were gone . Is there something I'm missing or them's the breaks?

Oh I'm so sorry But don't worry - you can get plenty of free dust right from my own room
The data is simply not saved to a file, but that shouldn't be a big deal to code it, really.

Also, is there something like a configuration file I can edit, to tinker a bit with the materials' properties and other things?

Yes, config/OrbitraderDB.cfg

You know, I get the feeling that these market and trade type add ons for Orbiter really need to be made as a plug in, and not an MFD. The data file for all the planets (trade ports) and all the vessels in the scenario could then be saved on module exit CLBK, (...)

The same functionality can be achieved in an MFD by calling DLLCLBK void opcPreStep and this is what I do in the multiplayer version to record events like landing.
Yes, the right way to deal with states is via scenario file or flags in a scenario file.

To sum up, the module can be extended if there is interest on your side and free time on my side (or on any other coder's who wants to take over the sources). You can get the MFD sources, as always, from:
http://sf.net/projects/enjomitchsorbit

As a teaser, I'll present the latest (although as old as free dust on my desk) screenshots of Orbitrader MFD - multiplayer:

Landed

Transferring request to the server (did I mention that it's non-blocking? )

Who wanna deal with me?

Is it Evil enough ?

As for the last word - if next time you want to bring my attention to a specific thread, you must use private messages, so that I get e-mailed. I don't live here anymore