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Expansion Telescope

Content

Manifest
Documentation
4 Equipment
1 Ships
0 Models
8 Scripts

Manifest

	from Expansion Manager's OXP list	from Expansion Manifest
Description	Extended targeting and scanning features, masslock borders and sniper ring.	Extended targeting and scanning features, masslock borders and sniper ring.
Identifier	oolite.oxp.Norby.Telescope	oolite.oxp.Norby.Telescope
Title	Telescope	Telescope
Category	Equipment	Equipment
Author	Norby	Norby
Version	1.15	1.15
Tags
Required Oolite Version
Maximum Oolite Version
Required Expansions
Optional Expansions	oolite.oxp.Norby.Telescope_Extender:1.0 oolite.oxp.Norby.CombatMFD:1.9	oolite.oxp.Norby.Telescope_Extender:1.0 oolite.oxp.Norby.CombatMFD:1.9
Conflict Expansions
Information URL	http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Telescope	n/a
Download URL	https://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/7/77/Telescope_1.15.oxz	n/a
License	CC BY-NC-SA 4	CC BY-NC-SA 4
File Size	n/a
Upload date	1610873341

Documentation

Also read http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Telescope

Telescope readme.txt

Telescope forum topic: http://bb.aegidian.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14961

Quick start as a Hunter

* Copy the .oxp folder to the AddOns directory, hold down the Shift when starting the game the first time after copying.
* Buy Telescope with Extender equipment or load the included savegame ("Telescope demo.oolite-save"). Injectors, ECM System, Fuel Scoop, Military Laser and Scanner Targeting Enhancement are used also in this guide.
* After undock (F1) you can see the magnified target in top center position.
* If you bought Gravity Scanner then stop near the station, turn off your weapons with underscore (_) and wait for the scan results.
* Turn your ship where you see lollipops at the edge of your IFF scanner. The Panorama targeting will countinually change the box to the most centered target.
* Choose your enemy for the strength of your ship: start with a small ship flying alone.
* Use Injectors (i) to fly into scanner range where you can see a Red ball which means visible ship with bounty. Do not hunt Yellow traders and Purple police ships if you want to remain in clean status.
* Use Ctrl+arrow keys to put the target into the middle of the crosshairs to turn on the sniper ring which magnify the difference from the correct line-up.
* Turn on your weapons (_) and fire (a). You can try to hit with Military laser over normal scanner range but within 30km and a stopped target will turn when successful, but if your target is too small then fly inside 25.6km where the red target box indicate the correct line-up.
* Press ident (r) to lock the most centered target if there are more, press again to start auto steering or to lock another if it's more centered than the current target.
* Telescope can be primed (Shift+N) then activated (n) to lock the nearest target, mode (b) change the function of the activate key.
* If a missile is coming then a cyan ball warns you: start ECM (e), target it (t), try to avoid (i) or shoot it (a).
* If you win and the pilot ejected then shot down the derelict ship to get the bounty, then fly after the small White balls and scoop the Escape Pod, metal fragments and cargo pods.
* Fly back to the station and dock to get the reward for the pilot and sell the cargo (F8). Congratulations, you are richer. :)

Telescope Equipment

This OXP realizes some requests for an extended scanner described in this topic:
http://bb.aegidian.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13274
Can determine the direction, distance, orientation and legal status of all visible ships.

The detection range is equal with the scanner range if you use it without the Telescope Extender (still or willfully), but you can use the following features:

Visual targeting

The virtual model of the target ship is displayed and a console message shows the name, range and direction.
The direction is marked by <^ or v> symbols to read faster than the Port Up or Down Starboard words.
The ranges and directions are calculated continually to help turn in line and see the decreasing range while traveling to the target.
The orientation of the model is equal with the target if you centered it and you can spin the model if turn around your ship.
You can set the size of the model with the $TelescopeVSize variable in the Scripts/telescope.js.

Lightballs

Far targets get coloured lightball markers in the view and lollipops with darker colours near the edge of the scanner.

Red: Hostile ship with bounty (pirates and thargoids),
Pink: Tharglet until active and Drones with bounty in HardShips OXP,
Yellow: Neutral ship with clean status (traders and co),
Purple: Police,
Cyan: Missile or Mine,
Green: Buoy or Station,
Blue: Derelict (Wormhole also from Oolite v1.79),
White: Cargo, Escape Pod or Sun,
Gray: last known position of a lost target (moved out of telescope range),
Lightgray: Planet or Moon (a bit darker than Planet),
Orange: Gravity Scanner detected ship too far to be visible,
Brown: Gravity Scanner detected ship under 130t mass (less dangerous, especially with ShipVersion OXP).
Black: lollipops in red alert over 30km to help focus on near targets.

Beacons are identified in the whole system due to the transmitted radio signals.
If a ship transmits a beaconcode then it's detected anywhere but coloured as a ship and turns to orange if too far to be visible.

The current target is also marked with a gray "shadow" lollipop at the edge of the IFF scanner to help determine the direction, especially at close range, to avoid zooming the scanner.
If the target is closer than 1000m, the lightball will be removed as the ship almost covers the ball and cargo pods are large enough to detect with your eyes, but the shadow lollipop still remain.
You can set the minimum distance with the $TelescopeVMarkMinDist variable in the file Scripts/telescope.js.

Targets within the range of the Military Laser (30km) are marked with a larger ball and a normal (not darker) coloured lollipop.
You can use this feature to determine exactly where you can open fire on the target so it's large enough to stand a chance of being hit.

You can disable the lightballs of the ships by setting $TelescopeLightBalls to false, but non-ships with Blue, Cyan, Gray, Green and White colours will remain to help find these. Auto targeting functions can still lock far targets; there seems to be an empty box but the ships are in there.

You can restrict lightballs in Red Alert to 10-30km if you set $TelescopeRedAlertLimiter to true to save a few CPU cycles but it is worth it on slow computers only.

Sniper ring

If you have almost lined up with your target who is between 10 and 30km then a ring will appear.
The movement of this ring magnifies the variance to the correct line-up, to help fine tune your aim.
You can hit if the target box of the Scanner Targeting Enhancement switches to red.

Snipers can use the distances between 25.6 and 30km to fire before the enemy can see the attacker on its scanner.
This was possible without Telescope, but the size of the ball gives another aid to knowing when the target runs out of range; and the ring can guide your aim without red box, which only works in the normal scanner range.

If you think this is a cheat then fire only when the target can also see you (red box) or set the $TelescopeSniperRange variable to 25600 which will shorten the appearance of the ring and the largest ball (but there's no way to shorten the range of the Military Laser).

Auto steering

With the Telescope primed (Shift+N) the activate button ("n") can steer to the nearest lightball-marked target, which is useful in picking up cargo from the near field, rather than zooming the scanner to find them. Now you can just press activate instead of hitting zoom, locate, turn and unzoom.

Auto-steering starts only if your ship flys in a line (not turning) and stops instantly if you touch the controls. It will stop steering before a perfect line-up so as not to aim for you.

In Red Alert the activate button steers to the nearest attacker. You can disable this by turning off the weapons, in which case you can lock and steer to any near target regardless of the alert condition.

Auto scanning

Telescope checks for new targets every second and performs an autoscan if it finds one: simple light sensors can see new dots in the whole sky without using energy but must zoom with the main scope to determine the ship type which needs 2 energy points.
The autoscan can be turned off if you set $TelescopeAutoScan false in the telescope.js file but it's usually worth the cost to get new information sooner.

Far target locking

You can lock far targets also which is not in the normal scanner (beacons and planets are always lockable). The distance is shown before the name of the ship with Scanner Targeting Enhancement, due to the fact that the second line shows the range of the virtual marker (which is always near the edge of the IFF Scanner).
We must use this workaround because the core game does not allow locking onto a target outside of normal scanner range. So the locked marker coinsides with the lock of the target (can only fix this in the core game).

If you cannot see a ship then it may have been destroyed, jumped out or flew farther than the visible range; or it has a Military Scanner Jammer and you do not have a Jammer Filter so you cannot get target lock.

When a target flys too far and is lost, the telescope renames it to 'Lost target' until the next scan.

MFD with the nearest targets

The built-in MFD shows the 10 nearest targets, ships first then others.
A "*" mean "red" targets (pirates and thargoids).
Hostiles (who targeting you) are flagged with "!".
Your current target is bracketed with [].
If [[CombatMFD|Combat MFD]] is installed then the newest detected target is displayed in the last line in Combat MFD.

Masslock borders

In green alert you will see circles around detected targets where these ships can block your Torus Drive.
Without a Telescope Extender, these are shown around planets and stations only, but if you buy one, it allows for detection of ships that you can see with your Mark-1 eyeball (escort ships at 2x, traders near 4x scanner range) and you will then get circles around all the ships before you.

Until you enter these circles you will stay in condition green, but cloaked ships can cause surprises.

The colour of a masslock border is the same as the lightball in the middle (see above).

To get the shortest route, you can safely go forward near the largest circle without touching it or going inside. Imagine this is the border of a sphere so if you fly direct to the center then you will be masslocked sooner than if you flew to a point of the circle. If you steer just a little outside the circle, you will fly forward as near as possible without masslock.

These are also a good indicator of the distance to the ships because the radius of the circles represent exactly one scanner range for the ship at its center.
Planets have rings that are double its radius as they can masslock you within this range.
The sun also has a large masslock field but this is not displayed by rings - it's less important and mainly a distraction.

You can also turn on masslock borders in non-green alerts if you turn off your weapons.
You can turn off all circles completely with the Telescope primed to the Lightballs menu (see below).

Keypress functions

The ident button ("r") gets a new feature from Telescope: it can lock the most centered target even if it's not shown on the screen.
The next press will start auto steering to the target if the most centered target is the same, otherwise it will lock onto the new target; a third ident press will unlock it.
In Red Alert it will not narrow the locking to the attackers; it can lock any target.

Works only if there was a locked target beforehand, due to the triggering of the shipTargetLost event, so if there's no target it won't get called. Press "r" again or get something into the crosshair or use equipment buttons to lock a target. (Usually only an issue when leaving a station, exitting witchspace or Torus drive.)

If you turn off the weapons with the underscore button ("_") then a scan happens and you enter into "Navigation Mode", where autolock helps you see through targets (called Panorama targeting): continually relocks to the most centered target.
This button is choosed to avoid unwanted fire if you have turrets.
In Red Alert you can lock any target and see far targets if you turn this mode on.
The Ident button presses can turn Panorama targeting on and off when in Navigation Mode.

With the Telescope primed (Shift+N), the mode button ("b") cycles through the functions of the activate ("n") button:

Nearest target
Rescan
Step forward in the target list
Step back in the target list
Lightballs: off / navigation only / ships / masslock borders / large
Sniper ring km: off / 5-25.6 / 10-25.6 / 15-25.6 / 5-30 / 10-30 / 15-30
Steering: off / nearest target only / both nearest and step in the list
Targets: 20 and limitation in red alert / 50 / 100 / 200
Visual target: off / weapons off / no ring / no station / no question mark / all
Visual target size: 1-8

The first 4 functions are commands which happen instantly when activated.
The "Step forward" and "Step back" will rescan if you step over the end of the target list.
The Target list contains hostiles first, if any, then all ships in normal scanner (25.6km), followed by Cargo and Escape Pods, then ending with ships which are not in the normal scanner.

The last 6 functions are some of customizable properties in the telescope.js file, which you can change during flight.
Your settings are stored into missionVariables and saved when you save your game after docking.

[When the core game provides more equipment buttons, a back button could step back to the previous function (maybe Ctrl+"b").
With a second equipment button (maybe Ctrl+"n") settings could be separated from the commands.]

Cost: 500.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Telescope Extender

You must install "Telescope Extender and Gravity Scanner" OXZ package and buy this equipment separatedly to confirm you want step over the rules of the standard game.
This will increase the detection range based on the size of the target so you can lock onto it when the core game sets it to isVisible and shows at least a dot in the sky.
For example you can see:
-Adder at 32 km,
-Viper and escort ships around 50 km (2x scanner range),
-Anaconda, Boa, Cobra MkIII and Python about 100 km (4x scanner range),
-Rock Hermit in almost 500 km (if not visible from the Main Station then fly around),
-Coriolis Station at 1000 km (right from the witchpoint).

Cost: 500.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Gravity Scanner Equipment

You must install the separated "Telescope Extender and Gravity Scanner" OXZ package to use this and the following uber-ranged equipments.

If the mass of your ship more than 130t (Cobra MkIII and above) and there is a station within 5km, you can then extend the detection range of Telescope using a mass detector, which scales by third power of distance:
the mass of the target in kg must be larger than d2*d2*d2/100 where d2 = distance*2 in km.

Detection of the player ships and the Hard versions in HardShips OXP:
t km Hard t km
Adder 11 52 23 66
Moray 40 79 81 100
Cobra Mk I 47 84 94 106
Fer-de-Lance 51 86 102 108
Asp 59 90 118 114
Cobra Mk III 186 132 371 167
Boa 192 134 385 169
Phyton 222 141 445 177
Anaconda 430 175 1289 253

Beacons are detected in the whole system and Rock Hermits usually as well (from 900km).

A station needs to be near as the largest parts of the gravity scanner system is fitted into the stations, which broadcast some important data and it needs a large mass (at least 10.000t, the station itself) nearby as a reference to refine the results.
Mobile bases can scan anywhere.

It takes 4 minutes from undock or hyperjump to reach the maximal detection range when your ship is on the move.
The detection progresses 4 times faster when your ship is stopped, needing only 60 seconds to finish.

The mass is scaled with the elapsed time: an Anaconda is detected at half time as its half mass (215t) would, which means 140km, and needs more time to detect it from the maximal 175km.

When the gravity detection is done and you remain at maximum speed until docking or jumping, the computer only needs to calculate in the new area coming into range from travel and not the whole sphere.

The Gravity scanner works only when you turn off your weapons with underscore ("_") button, otherwise only visible targets are displayed.
You can define a more comfortable key in the Oolite/oolite.app/Resources/Config/keyconfig.plist file.

The auto-relock feature will continually change your target to the most centered one, so the box will jump during your turn; your ship helps browse the many targets. The ident ("r") button can lock the same target only in this mode, it cannot step to the second centered target.

Gravity scan consume 8 energy points (visual scan uses only 2).
You can hear the sound of the Gravity Scanner at work, which is to remind you of the energy usage.

Orange and Brown lollipops and lightballs mark the detected targets out of the visible range.
Brown if the ship is under 130t mass which means small ships, usually escorts - avoid Orange ones and target single Browns while your ship is not very strong.
The mass usually cannot tell if a ship is pirate or not, coloured identification need visual contact.

If you see a lighter ball then there are two or more ship in the same place.
The smallest orange and brown ball means the target is farther than 150km, these get dark orange and dark brown lollipops.

The Gravity Scanner cannot determine the orientation. If the target is not visible then the view position of the virtual model will be a fixed view from the top.

There are no passive gravity sensors so AutoScan will happen only if a new target arrives into the visible range.
When you undock or arrive at a new system, the telescope scan is performed automatically but if you want to scan the final frontier then you must turn off your weapons.

Beware: aliens can sometimes detect the signal of a Gravity Scan, so if your ship is not strong then do not use it often and pay for the full repair if it's damaged.

Cost: 10000.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Secondary Gravity Scanner Equipment

Cuts in half the time to get the full detection range and works as a single scanner if the primary one is damaged.
Can only fit into ships over 400t mass (Anaconda and heavy OXP ships).

Cost: 20000.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Small Dish Equipment

Detect ships from one third farther out (for example an Asp at 120km) but can only fit onto ships over 130t mass (from Cobra MkIII) due to the size.

Needs Gravity Scanner, it is just a piece of metal.

Fast CPUs can draw 200 targets without relevant FPS drop, slow systems draw it also but with some drop (tested on Intel Atom netbook). In this case scan for Gravity targets only when needed and turn it off when Telescope range is reached.

This is not a primable equipment (there are no buttons on the pure alloy) and a passive extension so will not increase the energy usage of the scan.

Cost: 5000.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Large Dish Equipment

Detect ships from double the range (an Asp at 180km) but can only fit onto ships over 400t mass (Anaconda and over) due to the size.

Small Dish will not increase this range further so you can refund it when you buy a Large Dish.

Ships over 1000t (Hard Anaconda and big OXP ships) can use the hull mass to refine the gravity signals to reach 4 times range than without Large Dish.

Will only show the nearest 200 targets to save CPU and avoid serious FPS drops in systems with many ships.

Cost: 10000.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Cheap Repairs

You can buy small fixes for 1/10 the cost of the new equipment instead of the normal 1/2 price but the following drawbacks will be applied:

Telescope: get back the lightballs but will not fix the virtual model display, auto steering and sniper ring.
Gravity Scanner: the cheap spare parts can interfere with the hyperdrive and often cause misjumps.
Small and Large Dish: uses less durable alloys and can break during hyperjump.

After a cheap fix you can buy the full repair which costs the difference between cheap and normal repair: 2/5 of the full price.
You can only refund fully repaired equipment.

Dependencies:
Oolite v1.77 or later. No shaders needed.

Instructions:
Unzip the file, and then move the folder name ending in ".oxp" into the AddOns directory of your Oolite installation.
Savegame included: put the "Telescope demo.oolite-save" file into the oolite-saves directory to load it.

Settings in Scripts/telescope.js:

$TelescopeAutoScan = true; //check continually for new isVisible isPiloted target and scan if found
Scanning use a very little energy if a new target arrived but you strongly need this to avoid often scan manually.

$TelescopeAutoScanMaxRange = 1000000; //meters, how far targets will be reported

$TelescopeAutoLock = 1; //if no target and something in crosshairs with max. this degree diff., 1=lightball size, 0=off
AutoLock is set to 1 degree (size of a lightball) and lock only if no current target to make it similar with the original ident function plus can lock far targets also. Disabled if set to 0 but in this case you can lock targets in 25.6km only.

$TelescopeFarStatus = false; //red ball reveal pirates over normal scanner if true
If false then bounty detected within 25.6km only which is more real and exciting but Thargoids get red ball at any range and a red ship will not change back to yellow if fly over the normal scanner range.

$TelescopeGravLock = 20; //gravity scanner relock in this degree cone (0-180, 20=about the screen)
Panorama targeting offer auto-relock to the most centered target during manual turning and can be switched on or off in-game frist with the weapons and second with the ident button when you see gravity targets. Disabled if set it to 0 but it is not recommended due to in this case you can not lock far targets, so set it to 1 degree at least, or simply use the ident button in-game to reduce it to the level of the AutoLock and leave the possibility to turn it on again.

$TelescopeIdentLock = 180; //if ident pressed or target lost then lock in this degree (0-180, 180=the whole sphere)
Can lock the most centered target even if behind you if set it to 180 and the second press will unlock it so you can clear the virtual model when not needed. If set it to 1 then the locking radius reduced to the size of a lightball so can do unlock only. Note the AutoLock will relock in 0.25 second if the target centered exactly, in this case turn a bit before unlock.

Red alert is an exception where the IdentLock target hostiles only (who target you) to help find attackers. Can be override with AutoLock and GravLock, so if you unlock the current target and point exactly to another then the AutoLock will target it regardless of the hostile's status, or if you point it and turn weapons quickly off and on again then lock it regardless from you has lock on another target (but not too quickly, the timed function need max. 0.25 second to lock).

$TelescopeLargeLightBalls = false; //lightballs are increasing depending on the distance or remains small

$TelescopeLightBalls = true; //turn on or off all lightballs, but marks on the scanner will remain

$TelescopeMassLockBorders = true; //coloured circles around ships and planets in green alert

$TelescopeRedAlertDist = 30000; //show lollipops in red alert within this distance only

$TelescopeRedAlertLimiter = false; //a bit more FPS in dogfight if true but show all marks with weapons off only

$TelescopeRing = true; //show a ring around the visual target

$TelescopeShipLightBalls = true; //turn on or off the lightballs with scanner markers of the ships, but cargo, etc. remain
Non-ships with Blue, Cyan, Gray, Green and White colours will remain to help find these. Auto targeting functions still can lock far targets, the targeted ship are in an empty box.

$TelescopeShowVisualQuestionMark = false; //if a ship has no virtual model in effecdata.plist show a big "?" model

$TelescopeShowVisualStation = true; //show or not show the 3D model of the targeted station

$TelescopeShowVisualTarget = true; //show the 3D model of the target if weapons are on (except stations if VisualStation is false)

Set it to false if you want to use the weapon toggle button to show and hide virtual model also.

$TelescopeSniperMinRange = 10000; //meters, show sniper ring if the target is over this distance

$TelescopeSniperRange = 30000; //meters, if the target is inside then show sniper ring and large lightball
Set it to to 25600 if you want to shorten the appearance of the sniper ring in the name of the fair play.

$TelescopeSniperRingSize = 2; //size of the sniper ring (between 1 and 5, default: 2)

$TelescopeSteering = 2; //auto steering if lock nearest or step in the target list with activate, 1:nearest only

$TelescopeTargets = 200; //limitable to reduce FPS drop in systems with many ships, min. 10, max. 200

$TelescopeThargoids = false; //you will get aliens right after undock to test Telescope

$TelescopeVMarkMinDist = 1000; //meters, if target is inside then remove the lightball marker

$TelescopeVMarkShipMinDist = 5000; //meters, if target is ship and inside then remove the lightball marker

$TelescopeVPosHUD = [0, 0, 0]; //position shift for your HUD's built-in visual target screen if any

$TelescopeVSize = 4; //size of the visual target with online weapons (between 0 and 10, default: 4)

$TelescopeVZoomSize = 6; //zoomed size of the visual target with offline weapons (between 0 and 10, default: 6)

If size is 0 then the visual target is not shown at all.

Script_info support:

OXP makers can alter the detection of any objects in shipdata.plist to avoid revealing mission secrets.

Stations with non-standard roles and ships with the word "stealth" within their dataKey or role are detected in normal scanner range only. Must specify "telescope" script_info key to detect it farther to stay compatible with the existing OXPs, for example Rescue Stations.oxp, Stealth.oxp and Vector.oxp.

Standard Station roles: "station", "coriolis", "dodo", "dodec", "dodecahedron", "ico", "icosa", "icosahedron" and "rockhermit".

Hiding ships need "stealth" role or set telescope = 0; in script_info.

script_info = {
telescope = 0;
};

* 0: detected within normal scanner only as without telescope.
* 1: detected in visible range only (due to gravity scanner can see a ship with 1kg mass from 2km only).
* Positive integer: give new mass to the ship in kg which can increase the gravity detection.
* Negative integer: will be substracted from the ship.mass in kg to reduce gravity detection.

If this key is not placed at all then get the normal detection.
Objects with disabled detection (0) are not detected when arrive into visible range (need scanner range), but once detected then tracked over scanner range while in visible range until next scan (small help and save performance).

Problems:
If you do not see the model of a ship (or see a question mark if enabled) then you probably installed a custom ship OXP.
The core game currently does not support making visual effects from ships directly, but there is a workaround: copy the Config/shipdata.plist files in your OXPs to effectdata.plist or insert into the full contents if exists to avoid overwrite.

If the model still not appear and the definition of the ship using like_ship then copy the model = "filename.dat"; from the original ship into the section of this ship. Original cobras arrived after I do this only.

If a custom ship use shaders with uniforms then you may see errors in the log but the visual target usually appear with less detail (need several core improvements to fix properly). To avoid the errors you can try commenting out the referred lines with // from the effectdata.plist or replace the inputs with fix numbers based on the wiki. For example the Griff Boa ( http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Griff_Boa ) is included in the effectdata.plist file of the Telescope OXP.

If you ride a custom ship and the visual target is misaligned (not in the top center position) then copy the view_position values from your shipdata.plist into the $ShipLibViewPosition array in Scripts/shiplib.js .
From Oolite v1.79 the player.ship.viewPositionForward property solve this.

Opened wormholes are not auto targetable. You can put a box around with the standard ident but the script receive an empty target only. Can not get a pointer from the list of allShips nor allVisualEffects in v1.77, but from v1.79 the isWormhole flag will solve this.

If a ship flys over a station then the lightball hides behind the station. To solve this need resizeable flashers which will be available from Oolite v1.79 only.

Right after undock or hyperjump the first ident press can not target the most centered ship, only the second press. The first does not call any event, so you must press "r" again.

Distant targets writes double message when locked, sometimes the first shows the name of the previous target. This seems to be a problem in the core game (tried to log it but only one log line created). Simply ignore the first message.

License:
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License version 4.0.
If you are re-using any piece of this OXP, please let me know by sending an e-mail to norbylite@gmail.com.
ScanSound source: http://soundbible.com/878-Martian-Scanner.html

Changelog:
2017.06.24. v1.15 Further speed improvements by cag.
2017.06.20. v1.14 Serious speed improvements and a fix for targeting boulders by cag.
2015.05.25. v1.13 Asteroids are lockable with ident press not in the crosshairs also.
Selectable bright masslock borders.
2014.10.28. v1.12 Masslock borders with very bright textures for fluxxx.
2014.10.28. v1.11 Masslock border brightness is adjusted.
Default lightball size is smaller, except for large ships over 400t mass.
Very far targets over 1000km show a dot only.
Show hostile/offender/derelict flag in CombatMFD.
2014.10.12. v1.10 A fix to prevent sudden target changes reported by Bogatyr.
2014.10.11. v1.9 Show the list of the nearest 10 targets in a MFD.
The newest detected target is displayed in the CombatMFD if installed.
A small fix if Visual target:off and size is changed, thanks to Anthony.
2014.07.06. v1.8 Fixed the restore of lightball settings after load game, thanks to Anthony.
Dark far lollipops in yellow alert except if weapons are offline.
Virtual target model is within a ring by default with offline weapons also.
Range extenders are separated into Telescope Extender and Gravity Scanner OXZ.
2014.01.28. v1.7 Targets marked with dots from far distances for FarPlanets OXP.
Lock the nearest from overlapping targets within 0.5 degree.
$TelescopeRedAlertDist change lollipops over 30km to black in red alert.
Reduced chanche of timeLimit.
2014.01.16. v1.6 Fixed reorientation during Asteroid hunting, thanks to Duggan.
Improvements for FarPlanets OXP.
Sun is added into the target list and got orange lollipop.
Planet lollipop color is changed to lightgray, masslockborder also.
Targets over $TelescopeSniperRange (30km) get tiny lightballs.
2014.01.04. v1.5 Planets are targetable within scanner range also.
2014.01.02. v1.4 Polished masslock borders and planet targets.
2013.12.29. v1.3 Masslock borders: coloured circles around ships and planets.
Planets are included into the target list.
In Oolite 1.79 show visual target models of new ship graphics.
Thinner ring around visual target, smaller sniper ring.
2013.11.02. v1.2 Gravity Scanner can fit from 130t mass again but restricted to use near stations.
Small Dish introduced, Large Dish need at least an Anaconda.
Ship lightballs minimal distance raised to 10km, cargo lightballs stay at 1km.
Lightball size of ships under 30t mass reduced to tiny.
Fixed infinite lost messages caused by piloted rocks in Lave.oxp.
2013.10.22. v1.1 Double ident press will start auto steering to the target.
Need Telescope Extender to see over scanner range.
Gravity Scanner need ship with at least 400t mass.
Custom stations are lockable from 4x scanner range.
2013.08.06. v1.0 Telescope configurable during fly: press mode key to cycle, activate to choose.
Settings stored into missionVariables and restored with load game.
Gravity Scanner is not primable anymore due to functions merged into Telescope.
2013.08.03. v0.92 FCB speed almost doubled by Svengali, many thanks to him!
Maximal handled Telescope targets increased to 200.
False $TelescopeFarStatus to do not reveal pirates over normal scanner range.
Gravity scan need some time to calculate.
Added Secondary Gravity Scanner Equipment for faster scan in large ships.
$TelescopeLargeLightBalls set to false by default for small balls.
$TelescopeLightBalls can turn off lightballs but leave lollipops on the scanner.
$TelescopeShipLightBalls turn off ship lightballs only and show non-ships only.
2013.07.23. v0.91 Cheap repairs get nice drawbacks.
Gravity scan sometimes detected by aliens.
FCB speed improvements to prevent Timelimit in trunk.
Fixed rescan bug if target has Military Jammer awarded by ShipVersion OXP.
Changed $TelescopeShowVisualTarget to always show the model in weapons off mode.
2013.07.20. v0.90 Activate steer to the nearest target or to the nearest attacker in Red Alert.
Mode lock and steer to the most centered target or attacker in Red Alert.
Large lightballs added, show within $TelescopeSniperMinRange (10km).
Added telescope script_info key and hide custom Stations, thanks to Svengali.
Added $TelescopeThargoids if you want a test in instant action.
Fixed $TelescopeRedAlertLimiter, thanks to Solonar.
2013.07.17. v0.86 Gravity Scanner cost increased, repair discounted.
Tharglet get small pink lightball until active.
2013.07.16. v0.85 Debug version to Duggan and Solonar with many Tharglets and without crash.
2013.07.15. v0.84 Internal updates to avoid timeLimit.
2013.07.15. v0.83 Gravity Scanner range reduced and made another performance improvements.
2013.07.14. v0.82 Added $TelescopeGravLock and $TelescopeIdentLock sensitivity in degree.
Added $TelescopeShowVisualStation and $TelescopeShowVisualQuestionMark.
Added is_external_dependency = yes; to griff boa, thanks to Svengali.
Bugfixes and preformance improvements.
Can lock asteroids in crosshairs with ident press.
2013.07.11. v0.81 Added $TelescopeAutoLock, if 0 then must manually lock targets as before.
2013.06.17. v0.8 Lightballs and shadow lollipop added.
2013.06.10. v0.7 Visual targeting and Auto steering added.
2013.05.05. v0.6 Minor fixes.
2013.04.08. v0.5 First working version.
2013.03.31. v0.1 First test files.

cag/Norby.readme.again.cag.txt

After posting in 'OXP Performance tips' about the speed gains of the function
_index_in_list, I realized I forgot to back-port that little gem into the
version I made for you.  So it's included in "telescope -after final.js", so
you should see a few more fps.

I also fixed a few minor bugs (HA! not) that I introduced (you didn't test it
much, did you) and excluded docked escorts and the tow ship from Nearest,
Steering and stepping through the List. No doubt Murphy will find a way to
make me regret it!

Unless someone (else) finds a bug(s), I'm going to stop here and move onto
other things.
=============================================================================
Enclosed are the following:  ('*' indicate new or modified)

  telescope.orig.1.13.js            - copy of your last published version
  telescope -stage1.js             - after stage1 changes
  orig-stage1.diffs.txt            - output from DOS's FC (file compare)
  telescope -stage2.js             - after stage2 changes
  stage1-stage2.diffs.txt          - output from DOS's FC (file compare)
  telescope -final.js              - after final changes
  stage2-final.diffs.txt           - output from DOS's FC (file compare)
* telescope -after final.js        - after more 'final' changes & bug fixes
* after-final.diffs.txt            -  output from DOS's FC (file compare)
  Telescope 1.13 readme.cag.txt    - updated readme (grammar)
* Norby.readme.txt                 - this file

Let me preface this by saying I wanted to avoid changing anything in the logic
or calculations in your code - that's how bugs are born!  Most edits were just
house keeping and should not produce any behavioral changes.  I say 'most'
because a) I did rewrite Telescope_MostCentered2 and b) some of the closures
benefitted by moving functions inside.  I don't see any differences but, being
much more familiar, you may.  

stage1:
 - eliminate JSLint errors (220+)
   - if you're not using one, JSLint is a syntax checker that also reports
     strict usage violations and some basic speed improvements
   - mine is a plug-in to NotePad++
 - remove all 'delete' statements
   - a poorly named statement, delete actually removes a property from its object.
     This is an expensive op, esp. if you add it back on.  Setting the ref to null
	 or some other value, is sufficient for garbage collection. eg.
	 	delete ws.$TelescopeList; 	// not necessary
		ws.$TelescopeList = [];		// reduces # references to previous array to 0
 - dynamic FCBs to replace 50 static ones
   - I discovered by accident that the 50 hard coded FCBs to ws.$TelescopeVFCBM 
     were costing me a few fps, so I replaced them w/ a dynamic scheme.  This 
	 turned out to be tricky, as changes can take a few frames (5 on my PC) to
	 take effect.  Adding a callback was fine, as this was done before processing
	 the VFCBMarks, and I always had more than 16 in the List, doing 4/frame.  But
	 removing a callback kept triggering my error checks until I realized the delay.
 - rewrote Telescope_MostCentered2
   - I usually equip my ship w/ a mining laser to port and was having trouble 
     targetting boulders. The problem is in the ordering of the subtracted entity 
	 positons.  It seems backward to me but
		ps.vectorForward.angleTo( psp.subtract( t.position ) )
	 counts down from 180, whereas
		ps.vectorForward.angleTo( t.subtract( psp.position ) )
	 counts up from 0!  So, if you always .subtract( psp ) instead of psp.subtract(...,
	 you get what you'd expect from angleTo and it makes coding easier.
	 
stage2:
  - here I placed 3 FCB ( _VFCB, _VFCB2, _VFCBVisualTarget ) inside closures to reduces
    the # of WorldScriptsGetProperty, ShipGetProperty & EntityGetProperty executed, as
	they were usually the top time expenditures.  Function addresses and some global
	variables do not change or the course of a game.  Those are stored in the closure's
	scope and are only evaluated once, from the initiaton call in startUp.  In a few
	cases, I was able to move global variables into a closure, as they were not 
	referenced elsewhere.
	I avoided doing _SteerFCB and _VFCBMarks, as I'm a chicken at heart! (I have not
	dealt with _SteerFCB at all so far and you had already done _VFCBMarks).

final:
  - here I placed _TimedS in a closure along with 3 functions, as they were called no
    where else: _IsPilotedVisible, _IsNonHostileStaion, _MFDTarget
	I also folded _IsScannerTarget into _IsPilotedVisible to eliminate repeated property 
	checks. 
  - I added a few more locals to _TimedVMC() and cut a third off its execution time

I'm sure _List3 could also benefit but I failed (twice) trying to put it in a closure 
(I introduced bugs) and so reverted to its original form.

frame rates (fps):
  - with no Addons, telescope demo varied
    from 58 - 85, using ver.1.13
      to 74 -112, using final
  - with 156 Addons, telescope demo varied
    from 18 - 30, using ver.1.13
      to 23 - 36, using final
  - with 156 Addons, telescope demo, my re-write varies between 35 - 48 fps
  
Given the numbers above, I think it best for me to halt optimizing current telescope code
and continue with my re-write.  Unless you find a bug (or 2) in my edits but you wouldn't,
would you? ;->

cag/Norby.readme.cag.txt

Enclosed are the following:

telescope.orig.1.13.js - copy of your last published version
telescope -stage1.js - after stage1 changes
orig-stage1.diffs.txt - output from DOS's FC (file compare)
telescope -stage2.js - after stage2 changes
stage1-stage2.diffs.txt - output from DOS's FC (file compare)
telescope -final.js - after final changes
stage2-final.diffs.txt - output from DOS's FC (file compare)
Telescope 1.13 readme.cag.txt - updated readme (grammar)
Norby.readme.txt - this file

Let me preface this by saying I wanted to avoid changing anything in the logic
or calculations in your code - that's how bugs are born! Most edits were just
house keeping and should not produce any behavioral changes. I say 'most'
because a) I did rewrite Telescope_MostCentered2 and b) some of the closures
benefitted by moving functions inside. I don't see any differences but, being
much more familiar, you may.

stage1:
- eliminate JSLint errors (220+)
- if you're not using one, JSLint is a syntax checker that also reports
strict usage violations and some basic speed improvements
- mine is a plug-in to NotePad++
- remove all 'delete' statements
- a poorly named statement, delete actually removes a property from its object.
This is an expensive op, esp. if you add it back on. Setting the ref to null
or some other value, is sufficient for garbage collection. eg.
delete ws.$TelescopeList; // not necessary
ws.$TelescopeList = []; // reduces # references to previous array to 0
- dynamic FCBs to replace 50 static ones
- I discovered by accident that the 50 hard coded FCBs to ws.$TelescopeVFCBM
were costing me a few fps, so I replaced them w/ a dynamic scheme. This
turned out to be tricky, as changes can take a few frames (5 on my PC) to
take effect. Adding a callback was fine, as this was done before processing
the VFCBMarks, and I always had more than 16 in the List, doing 4/frame. But
removing a callback kept triggering my error checks until I realized the delay.
- rewrote Telescope_MostCentered2
- I usually equip my ship w/ a mining laser to port and was having trouble
targetting boulders. The problem is in the ordering of the subtracted entity
positons. It seems backward to me but
ps.vectorForward.angleTo( psp.subtract( t.position ) )
counts down from 180, whereas
ps.vectorForward.angleTo( t.subtract( psp.position ) )
counts up from 0! So, if you always .subtract( psp ) instead of psp.subtract(...,
you get what you'd expect from angleTo and it makes coding easier.

stage2:
- here I placed 3 FCB ( _VFCB, _VFCB2, _VFCBVisualTarget ) inside closures to reduces
the # of WorldScriptsGetProperty, ShipGetProperty & EntityGetProperty executed, as
they were usually the top time expenditures. Function addresses and some global
variables do not change or the course of a game. Those are stored in the closure's
scope and are only evaluated once, from the initiaton call in startUp. In a few
cases, I was able to move global variables into a closure, as they were not
referenced elsewhere.
I avoided doing _SteerFCB and _VFCBMarks, as I'm a chicken at heart! (I have not
dealt with _SteerFCB at all so far and you had already done _VFCBMarks).

final:
- here I placed _TimedS in a closure along with 3 functions, as they were called no
where else: _IsPilotedVisible, _IsNonHostileStaion, _MFDTarget
I also folded _IsScannerTarget into _IsPilotedVisible to eliminate repeated property
checks.
- I added a few more locals to _TimedVMC() and cut a third off its execution time

I'm sure _List3 could also benefit but I failed (twice) trying to put it in a closure
(I introduced bugs) and so reverted to its original form.

frame rates (fps):
- with no Addons, telescope demo varied
from 58 - 85, using ver.1.13
to 74 -112, using final
- with 156 Addons, telescope demo varied
from 18 - 30, using ver.1.13
to 23 - 36, using final
- with 156 Addons, telescope demo, my re-write varies between 35 - 48 fps

Given the numbers above, I think it best for me to halt optimizing current telescope code
and continue with my re-write. Unless you find a bug (or 2) in my edits but you wouldn't,
would you? ;->

cag/Telescope 1.13 readme.cag.txt

Telescope forum topic: http://bb.aegidian.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14961

Quick start as a Hunter

Telescope Equipment

The detection range is equal with the scanner range if you use it without the Telescope Extender (still or willfully), but you can use the following features:

Visual targeting

Lightballs

Far targets get coloured lightball markers in the view and lollipops with darker colours near the edge of the scanner.

The current target is also marked with a gray "shadow" lollipop at the edge of the IFF scanner to help determine the direction, especially at close range, to avoid zooming the scanner.
If the target is closer than 1000m, the lightball will be removed as the ship almost covers the ball and cargo pods are large enough large to detect with your eyes, but the shadow lollipop still remain.
You can set the minimum distance with the $TelescopeVMarkMinDist variable in the file Scripts/telescope.js.

You can disable the lighballs of the ships by setting $TelescopeLightBalls to false, but non-ships with Blue, Cyan, Gray, Green and White colours will remain to help find these. Auto targeting functions can still lock far targets; there seems to be an empty box but the ships are in there.

You can restrict lighballs in Red Alert to 10-30km if you set $TelescopeRedAlertLimiter to true to save a few CPU cycles but it is worth it on slow computers only.

Sniper ring

Auto steering

Auto-steering starts only if your ship flys in a line (not turning) and stops instantly if you touch the controls. It will stop steering before a perfect line-up so as not to aim for you.

Auto scanning

Far target locking

When a target flys too far and is lost, the telescope renames it to 'Lost target' until the next scan.

Masslock borders

Until you enter these circles you will stay in condition green, but cloaked ships can cause surprises.

The colour of a masslock border is the same as the lightball in the middle (see above).

You can also turn on masslock borders in non-green alerts if you turn off your weapons.
You can turn off all circles completely with the Telescope primed to the Lightballs menu (see below).

Keypress functions

With the Telescope primed (Shift+N), the mode button ("b") cycles through the functions of the activate ("n") button:

The last 6 functions are some of customizable properties in the telescope.js file, which you can during flight.
Your settings are stored into missionVariables and saved when you save your game after docking.

Cost: 500.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Telescope Extender

Cost: 500.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Gravity Scanner Equipment

You must install the separated "Telescope Extender and Gravity Scanner" OXZ package to use this and the following uber-ranged equipments.

Beacons are detected in the whole system and Rock Hermits usually as well (from 900km).

The mass is scaled with the elapsed time: an Anaconda is detected at half time as its half mass (215t) would, which means 140km, and needs more time to detect it from the maximal 175km.

The auto-relock feature will contiunually change your target to the most centered one, so the box will jump during your turn; your ship helps browse the many targets. The ident ("r") button can lock the same target only in this mode, it cannot step to the second centered target.

Gravity scan consume 8 energy points (visual scan uses only 2).
You can hear the sound of the Gravity Scanner at work, which is to remind you of the energy usage.

If you see a lighter ball then there are two or more ship in the same place.
The smallest orange and brown ball means the target is farther than 150km, these get dark orange and dark brown lollipops.

The Gravity Scanner cannot determine the orientation. If the target is not visible then the view position of the virtual model will be a fixed view from the top.

Beware: aliens can sometimes detect the signal of a Gravity Scan, so if your ship is not strong then do not use it often and pay for the full repair if it's damaged.

Cost: 10000.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Secondary Gravity Scanner Equipment

Cuts in half the time to get the full detection range and works as a single scanner if the primary one is damaged.
Can only fit into ships over 400t mass (Anaconda and heavy OXP ships).

Cost: 20000.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Small Dish Equipment

Detect ships from one third farther out (for example an Asp at 120km) but can only fit onto ships over 130t mass (from Cobra MkIII) due to the size.

Needs Gravity Scanner, it is a just piece of metal.

This is not a primable equipment (there are no buttons on the pure alloy) and a passive extension so will not increase the energy usage of the scan.

Cost: 5000.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Large Dish Equipment

Detect ships from double the range (an Asp at 180km) but can only fit onto ships over 400t mass (Anaconda and over) due to the size.

Small Dish will not increase this range further so you can refund it when you buy a Large Dish.

Ships over 1000t (Hard Anaconda and big OXP ships) can use the hull mass to refine the gravity signals to reach 4 times range than without Large Dish.

Will only show the nearest 200 targets to save CPU and avoid serious FPS drops in systems with many ships.

Cost: 10000.0 Cr.
Techlevel: 5

Cheap Repairs

You can buy small fixes for 1/10 the cost of the new equipment instead of the normal 1/2 price but the following drawbacks will be applied:

Telescope: get back the lightballs but will not fix the virtual model display, auto steering and sniper ring.
Gravity Scanner: the cheap spare parts can interfere with the hyperdrive and often cause misjumps.
Small and Large Dish: usees less durable alloys and can break during hyperjump.