Documentation
Readme.txt
ShieldEqualizer+Capacitor OXP
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v1.8, by CommonSenseOTB
SERS (Shield Energy Reinforcement Systems) Corp. is proud to unveil the latest development in shield defence systems technology. Shield Equalizer(75000 credits, Tech Level 14+) helps prevent damage by automatically equalizing shield levels. Shield Capacitors(front and aft, 18750 credits each, Tech Level 14+) stores unused shield energy in a capacitor when shield is fully charged and when shield falls low enough to accept the currently stored charge the capacitor discharges fully and safely!!! When equipped with both the shield equalizer and front/aft shield capacitors your ships true combat potential will be realized!
Test Version 1.75.1a was completed on feb.17 2011 but not released in order to playtest thoroughly and to insure full compatibility with Oolite version 1.75.1. I would like to acknowledge Lone Wolf for bringing forth a similar idea only days before I was to release this for testing... my apologies...I simply did not want to release a buggy OXP prematurely. I would also like to thank every other OXP author before me as I learned everything from you fine people.
I hope you enjoy this product and you may look forward to a version 2 in the future.
Acknowledgments
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Author: CommonSenseOTB
Completed: Feb 17, 2011/bugfixed, may 8,2011(test release), may 14, 2011 wiki release ShieldEqualizer+Capacitorsv1.0.oxp, may 15, 2011 release version 1.1(sound bugfix), may 17, 2011 release version 1.2(compatible with 0.14BETA or 0.20BETA), july 3, 2011 release version 1.3(remove missionVariables/installed message and sound toggles/bugfix UK Eliter's bug.)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/'' or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
The shield capacitor discharge/shield equalizer sound effects courtesy of SoundBible.com/sound effect "fizzle"/recorded by Mike Koenig/Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
The shield capacitor charging/shield capacitor charged sound effects courtesy of SoundBible.com/sound effect "strange beeping"/recorded by BlastWaveFx.com/Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
Sounds edited and renamed by CommonSenseOTB for use in ShieldEqualizer+Capacitor.oxp
User Customizability
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You now have the option of going to the startUp function of the shieldequalizercapacitors script and setting the toggles to "OFF" if you don't want the effects, the timer sound or the messages.
Toggles must be set to either "ON" or "OFF", default is "ON".
Compatibility
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ShieldEqualizer+Capacitors is compatible with and may be installed at the same time as ShieldCycler
Version History
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Version 1.8
* Capacitor discharge tops shield up, without taking next shield recharge into account.
* Only recharges capacitors if ship's energy greater than half a bank.
Version 1.7
* Changes equipment processing order, so shields are topped up with Capacitors energy, if necessary and possible, before the Equalizer balances the shields.
* Tests for NaN before updating ship's energy (assigning NaN to ship.energy maxs out the ship's energy, leading to the "invulnerable to lasers" bug if done in the damage handling path).
* Adds thoughening up of Energy Grid against damage, as it's done for Naval Grid, SHield Booster and Military Shield Enhancement.
* Changes delay for setting up spawned NPCs to at least 2s to make sure ShipVersion's shipSpawned event handler has run and had a chance to award equipments.
* Re-factors equalizer and capacitor processing functions to unify code, so aft and forward shields are parameters to the unified code.
* Reduces Capacitor prices to a cost-benefit level comparable to Shield Booster (10% more expensive for shield energy depth added), so they are not over-priced anymore; the Equalizer remains a money-sink though.
* Adds scriptInfo towbar_max_salvage_price to the equipments to limit their salvage price when salvaging a derelict.
Version 1.6
* Make the delay to setup NPC ship after they are spawned variable, between 0s and 3s. The delay is meant to make sure that any OXP that wants to award Shield Equalizer and Capacitors equipments to NPCs at shipSpawned event handler had a chance to do so before we setup the ship.
* Capacitor code re-factored so charging and discharging are in separate functions; charging is essentially timer-driven, but discharging, i.e., transferring energy from the capacitor to the shield, could be event-driven, and next version of Shield Cycler Next will take advantage of that to put the capacitors to use before balancing the shields.
Version 1.5
* Only allows NPC functionality enabling (includes the inclusion in Config for AddOns on F4) if there is a compatible OXP installed that adds shields to NPCs - right now, that's only N-Shields.
* Reset the array of references to NPC setup timers whenever all timers have ran, i.e., all spawned NPCs have been set up.
Version 1.4
* Don't transfer energy to/between shields while in Torus Drive (HardWay OXP might be keeping the shields drained), but do recharge the capacitors while in Torus.
* Make possible to enable OXP functionality for NPCs, with the user defining if it's enabled or not (has performance and game balance consequences), default being not NPC enabled.
Version 1.3
* Removed missionVariables as they are not really needed.
* Fixed a bug first discovered by UK Eliter which at first appeared to be the normal operation of the game but on closer inspection is a bug in this OXP. When you have critical energy and critical shields and either a damaged or no energy unit the equalizer can get into a loop which prevents recharging the shields. Now fixed!
* Installed toggles to deactivate messages and sounds allowing HUDs to replace messages and sounds with gauges. Player may also switch sounds and messages off by altering the variables in the script's startup function.
Version 1.2
* added Shield Equalizer equipment.plist incompatibility with TOTALLY NEW equipment.plist in Shield Cycler 0.20BETA
version 1.1
* Unaware of Bug(#18108) where soundsources keep going after the game resets. Changed loop to false on the capacitor charging sounds and put repeatcount in instead. Works good. maximum 32 seconds of charging sounds if game is reset while in flight.(usually much lower, compromise instead of rewriting code)
* Also some minor script tweaks.
BUGFIXES up to version 1.0
* Added shield equalizer/shield cycler EQ incompatibility...shield capacitors currently compatible with both.
* Mistakenly left in a test script for the capacitors... All Fixed may 8, 2011.
* Added option to sell equipment, added sound effects and made minor script tweaks including more robust construction(due to the shield equalizer's high quality cross-connected energy transfer power couplings and being over-engineered there is more resistance to damage for the SHIELD system in general).
* Wiki release May 14, 2011 ShieldEqualizer+Capacitorsv1.0.oxp
Expansion ShieldEqualizer+Capacitors