Orbital Yards for iOS now available in the iTunes App Store

[AnotherDilbert]

1)
Add a carried craft. Press Save.
Select the carried craft, and change which craft is carried.
Crash.


2)
Add carried craft. If two craft have the same identifying string (class, type) both are selected.

 

[agorski]

Adding a Particle turret gives me a factor 2 battery. Adding a Particle barbette gives me a factor 1 battery. Seems the tables are transposed?

Nope, that is correct. A barbette is not as good as a turret. It's only advantage is that it is available at TL14, while a turret requires TL15.

 

[agorski]

1)
Add a carried craft. Press Save.
Select the carried craft, and change which craft is carried.
Crash.

Fixed. Will be in the next update.

2)
Add carried craft. If two craft have the same identifying string (class, type) both are selected.

Yeah, don't make 2 ships with exactly the same class and type. The combined name string is how I distinguish these.

 

[atpollard]

Is there a way to start from an existing ship design that I have created and then modify it to create a new ship? For example if I wanted to create a J2 version of a ship that I had already created a J1 ship for, do I need to re-enter all of the data or is there a faster way to save it/clone it and edit it as a new ship?

 

[agorski]

Code Example

For those who like coding, here's how I do something in Xojo:

Each vessel in the app is a an instance of ShipClass, which has a whole bunch of properties, computed properties, and a few methods. Some of the properties are class instances themselves. Turns out there's a lot of computed properties, which simplifies saving and restoring data, since these don't need to be worried about.

One of the computed properties is QuartersSmallCraftCouch, of type Integer, which calculates the number of acceleration couches installed. The code consists of a getter and no setter. Here's the getter code:

Dim couch As Integer = 0, seats As Integer = 0

If Hull.Tons < 100 Then
	If ControlsBridge Then
		seats = 2
	End If
	seats = seats + QuartersSmallCraftStateroom * 2
	couch = couch + Max(0, (CrewTotal + CrewMedicalOfficers + _
	CrewMedicalPettyOfficers + CrewMedicalRatings + _
	CrewTroopsOfficers + CrewTroopsOtherRanks + CrewPassengers) - seats)
Else
	couch = 0
End If
		
Return couch

Hull is a property of ShipClass that is an instance of HullClass. It has a property named Tons.
ControlsBridge is a property of ShipClass that is a boolean indicating whether a bridge is installed.
The Crew properties are all computed.
The Max function makes sure we can't have a negative number.

 

[agorski]

Is there a way to start from an existing ship design that I have created and then modify it to create a new ship? For example if I wanted to create a J2 version of a ship that I had already created a J1 ship for, do I need to re-enter all of the data or is there a faster way to save it/clone it and edit it as a new ship?

Not right now. I'll consider adding a duplicate function in the future. But it really doesn't take that long.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Nope, that is correct. A barbette is not as good as a turret. It's only advantage is that it is available at TL14, while a turret requires TL15.

Sorry. I should have checked.


Particle barbettes are marked as not allowed on small craft, but they should be allowed:
LBB5, p36:
SMALL CRAFT DESIGN CHECKLIST
...
8. Select weaponry from turret table, such as sandcasters (block 16). lasers (block 21), energy weapons (block 22), particle accelerators and barbettes (block 23), and missile racks (block 25).


In the app any turret on a small craft require a Gunner. The rules are not quite that simple, a single battery require no gunner:
LBB5, p34:
Weapons: A small craft may mount the equivalent of one turret. In actuality, the mountings are probably rigid, and no actual turret is present. All computations, however, may assume that the craft carries one turret. Weight, tech level, cost, and energy point restrictions must be observed. The pilot is assumed to be the gunner for one type of weapon on the craft. If additional types are mounted (a craft could conceivably have three different types of weapons), a gunner is required for each additional weapon. Exception: no additional gunner is required for sandcasters.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

When you add a carried craft and then change the carried craft, the changes are not reflected in the carrier. If you save a reference to the carried craft you could update the carrier when it is opened.


If you add a carried small craft the small craft crew is correctly added to the flight section of the carrier, but any troops specified in the small craft is forgotten. They need staterooms too?


If you add a screen to a ship of 1000 dT or less no Gunners are allocated.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

When you add a carried small craft to a ship of 1000 dT or less, a flight officer is added, but the entire crew of the small craft should be added to the carriers crew.
LBB2, p16:
Other crew positions may be created depending on the facilities of the starship: for example, a starship with a cutter would have a position for cutter pilot (and possibly cutter gunner) in addition to the normal positions. Specific jobs or tasks require crew members to perform them.

 

[agorski]

If I add a Missile bay, then add a Missile turret, the Missile bay is overwritten in the USP. Adding Missile batteries when Missile batteries are already present should be invalid. Default type of turret is Missile, Invalid only shown if other type selected.

Added improved warning messages when the same weapon type is used twice. Warnings added to Weapons view, and now correctly display when adding or editing a bay or turret battery. Will be in the next update.

 

[agorski]

When you add a carried small craft to a ship of 1000 dT or less, a flight officer is added, but the entire crew of the small craft should be added to the carriers crew.
LBB2, p16:
Other crew positions may be created depending on the facilities of the starship: for example, a starship with a cutter would have a position for cutter pilot (and possibly cutter gunner) in addition to the normal positions. Specific jobs or tasks require crew members to perform them.

I thought about this and decided that it's too hard to figure out when to add carried craft crew to small starships. On small ships, you might double up crew positions and can't justify having someone who's only the Gig pilot.

Another assumption I made is that in the case of carried craft of 100 tons or more, like battle riders, that the crew uses the accommodations of their own craft and is not allocated staterooms in the mother ship like for small carried craft.

 

[agorski]

If you add a carried small craft the small craft crew is correctly added to the flight section of the carrier, but any troops specified in the small craft is forgotten. They need staterooms too?

I would propose that troops in a small craft design are, like passengers, merely used to generate the correct number of couches/small craft staterooms.

In this case I would make sure that the mother ship had a troop complement from which troops aboard a small craft would be allocated.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

No staterooms are allocated to troop officers.

Fuel purifiers are not deducted from available space.

 

[agorski]

No staterooms are allocated to troop officers.

Yes they are. As with all other sections, only one full-sized stateroom is allocated if the roominess slider is set to Normal. Increasing roominess provides a stateroom for all officers.

Fuel purifiers are not deducted from available space.

Fixed.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Yes they are. As with all other sections, only one full-sized stateroom is allocated if the roominess slider is set to Normal. Increasing roominess provides a stateroom for all officers.

Version 1.1. Make ship of 100 t. Use Normal quarters algorithm. Add 99 troop officers. Total allocated staterooms: 2. Should be 50?

 

[agorski]

Version 1.1. Make ship of 100 t. Use Normal quarters algorithm. Add 99 troop officers. Total allocated staterooms: 2. Should be 50?

Found the problem and fixed it. Thanks. One full stateroom for the crew of 1, one full stateroom for the commander of the troops, and 49 for the other 98 troops, with the slider set on normal. 51 total.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Wrong USP code for computer on small craft w/o bridge. Without bridge the computer number - 1 is the correct USP code?

If a computer is installed, but no bridge is present, then the computer is treated as one level lower in combat (Model/2 is treated as Model/1; Model/1 is treated as Model/0, but at least the craft's weaponry may be used).

At least the existence or absence of a bridge must be noted in the USP.



A small craft w/o a computer may not mount weapons. Error should be indicated?

A computer is required if the craft is to mount weaponry.

 

[agorski]

Wrong USP code for computer on small craft w/o bridge. Without bridge the computer number - 1 is the correct USP code?

At least the existence or absence of a bridge must be noted in the USP.

The rules aren't clear on this but since the USP is used in the combat rules where the effective computer capacity is a modifier I agree that the reduced capacity should probably be indicated in the USP. Fixed.

A small craft w/o a computer may not mount weapons. Error should be indicated?

Added a warning message that a computer is required to add small craft weapons on the Weapons view.

 

[agorski]

Version 1.2 is now (or shortly will be) available. It incorporates the bug fixes and enhancements discussed in this thread up to now. Thanks to AnotherDilbert for all the help!

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Already updated. Looks good!