Lib PAD

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Revision as of 02:35, 28 September 2023 by Phkb (talk | contribs) (→‎Example)

P.A.D. (Personal Assistance Device)

IconLib.png
P.A.D. GalCop - showing last GNN news bulletin & other recent changes

Overview

The P.A.D. on the F4 ship-station interface screen. Lib_PAD (part of Library) is a logbook, mission-log, diary and interface. AddOns can implement data to get important organisations, events, systems or persons exposed to the player in an unified way. It also ships search functionality, a way to customize players data (species, gender, etc) and players can also add own notes.

The P.A.D. currently interfaces with the Vanilla game missions, Galactic Navy OXP & GNN.

There was an earlier version ("PAD" without the full stops!) in Vector OXP.

Categories

Textures layout
Player Data - Personal Information - choosing a portrait
GALCOP - displaying player history from Galactic Navy OXP
Persons - Information sheet on NPC

The categories in Lib_PAD are the first component of all dotted paths. Pages in a category do share a template which defines the layout of the page. All pages, except LOGS, do have 6 slots for textures (t0 - t5).

GALCOP
Category for GalCop, Police, Navy and other official organisations related to GalCop.
Contains entries: name, entry, enlisted, kills, missions, awards, info.
name is set by Lib_PAD.
GUILDS
Category for other organisations which do have a membership.
Contains entries: name, entry, enlisted, kills, missions, awards, info.
name is set by Lib_PAD.
INFOS
Category for special events, news, specific stations, etc.
Contains entries: name, location, beacon, purpose, special, notes.
LOGS
Category for standard events like rescued escape pods, bailed out, fined, etc.
Contains entries: list.
PERSONS
Category for characters you have met or you got infos about.
Contains entries: name, origin, species, gender, age, rank, ship, info, notes.
Players name, origin, species, gender, age, rank and ship are set by Lib_PAD.
SYSTEMS
Category for special systems like Leesti, Tianve, Tionisla, etc.
Contains entries: name, info, notes.

Types

Number
age, kills.
String
beacon, enlisted, entry, gender, location, name, origin, purpose, rank, ship, species.
Array
awards, info, list, missions, notes, special.

Textures

Specified textures can be any filename, but Lib_PAD also ships own textures for organisations, characters, insignia and medals. If set to a Number it will lookup the corresponding filename or if zero it won't show it.

t0 - Usually an organisation on GALCOP, GUILDS and PERSONS pages. Lib_PAD uses greyscale textures.
t1 - Usually a character on GALCOP, GUILDS and PERSONS pages.
t2 - Usually an insignia / rank on GALCOP, GUILDS and PERSONS pages.
t3 - Usually a medal on GALCOP, GUILDS and PERSONS pages.
t4 - Unused yet.
t5 - Unused yet.


The 250-odd textures (almost all are icons) tucked away inside Library.oxp include the following:

  • Medal Icon #14

  • Rank Icon #14

  • Society Icon #9

  • NPC (ovc) #89

  • ovi #1 (of 10)

  • Starmap #6

Methods

The following entry points for AddOns can be used on .startUpComplete or later.

_addPageInCategory

_addPageInCategory: function( path, content, parent, sil )

Register a new page entry in the specified dotted path. The inserted Object is cloned and merged with the corresponding template.

Parameters:

path
String. Dotted path: Category and page identifier. E.g. "GALCOP.NAVY".
content
Object.
parent
Array. Pathes to relate to one or more other pages.
sil
Bool. Add the page silently.

Returns:

true (on success) or false (if the page already exists).


_setPageEntry

_setPageEntry: function( path, value, sil )

Set value in the specified dotted path.

Parameters:

path
String. Dotted path: Category, page identifier and page entry. E.g. "GALCOP.NAVY.enlisted".
value
Primitive (String or Number). If the path points to an Array the value will be pushed. For kills ++ can be used to increase the value by one.
sil
Bool. Add the value silently.

Returns:

true (on success) or false (if the path does not exist).


_getData

_getData: function( path )

Returns the cloned data-object in the specified dotted path.

Parameters:

path
String. Dotted path: Category and page identifier. E.g. "GALCOP.NAVY".

Returns:

Object (on success) or null (if the path does not exist).


Handling

Lib_PAD leaves the handling for loading and storing of inserted data to the inserting AddOns to avoid external resources like textures not being available and thus generating errors. It loads and stores it's own entries (pathes GALCOP.GENERIC, GALCOP.NAVY, GUILDS.GENERIC, INFOS.GENERIC, LOGS.GENERIC, PERSONS.GENERIC and SYSTEMS.GENERIC)

Loading and storing of data can be achieved easily, as shown in the following example. 

this.$data = {
  GCI: {entry:clock.clockString,enlisted:"Sergeant",awards:["GCI Silver Cross"],t0:27,t1:1}
};
this.startUpComplete = function(){
  if(missionVariables.MYMISSIONVARIABLE) this.$data = JSON.parse(missionVariables.MYMISSIONVARIABLE);
  worldScripts.Lib_PAD._addPageInCategory("GALCOP.GCI",this.$data.GCI,0,1);
};
this.playerWillSaveGame = function(){
  this.$data.GCI = worldScripts.Lib_PAD._getData("GALCOP.GCI");
  missionVariables.MYMISSIONVARIABLE = JSON.stringify(this.$data);
};

Example

The following script works as a "script.js" in a specially created "Config" folder inside your "AddOns" folder: 

this.startUpComplete = function() {
   worldScripts.Lib_PAD._addPageInCategory("SYSTEMS.Digebiti G1", {name:"Digebiti G1", info:[
    "The sculpture and duelling pistols are famed exports",
    "Home to English aristocrats, Hats are de rigeur",
    "The feudal paradise of Digebiti is just south of GalCenter G1",
    "My home planet"]
   })
   worldScripts.Lib_PAD._addPageInCategory("PERSONS.Prince-Elector Rupert XIX", {name: "Prince-Elector Rupert XIX", origin:"Digebiti G1",species:"Human colonial",gender:"Male",age:41,ship:"Royal Barque: HSHS Falkland",rank:"Prince",info:["He is worried about the commie agents of Inonri & Vetitice","This led to Rupert's eschewal of Tennis for Extreme Dominoes","He succeeded after his brother Desmond died playing Real Tennis","The Supreme Ruler of Digebiti (in Lesser Walsingham)"],t0:9,t1:2,t2:0,t3:14})})
}

The following limits apply:

no more than 64 characters in a line (the 65th does not fit on the line!)
lines do not wrap and therefore must be individually specified
no more than 4 lines in an array such as that for "info" - and they must be [bracketed] together - and, confusingly, these are displayed in reverse order!
more than 4 lines will prevent the P.A.D. page loading

The "t0/t1/t2/t3" properties allow you to specify some additional images for the entry. You can enter a number (see ranges below for each type) or an image name.

t0 displays the organisation logo (1-31) (see the textures folder inside Library.oxp for files named "lib_pad_org*.png")
t1 displays a mug shot (1-93) (ditto - there are almost a hundred of these, excluding the player possibilities. Files named "lib_ovc*.png")
t2 displays a rank logo (1-17) (ditto, files named "lib_pad_rank*.png")
t3 displays a medal image (1-17) (ditto, files named "lib_pad_medal*.png")

Musings

This was only ever implemented for the Vanilla game missions - and for Galactic Navy. Other mission oxp's (eg RRS Group, Thargoid Wars, The Assassins Guild OXP, Resistance Commander, etc.) feature awards and ranks. These should be integrated with Lib PAD.

Links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php?title=Lib_PAD&oldid=79890"