Change Log for v7.2 Discussion

[Steve Walmsley]

For purposes of starting a new "grand campaign", is the release of 7. 2 some days or weeks away?

More likely weeks than days. I managed to get a lot done over Xmas as I had 10 days off work. Now I am back to working long days so don't have much time for development work.

[bean]

It was technically against various international agreements to mount weapons to certain vessels I. WWII but that stopped nobody. 
They assumed that as long as they popped out a military flag before opening fire with the hidden guns it was fine, but that's not really how the law works.
What's really interesting is that the controversy at the time was actually based on how commercial vessels were protected from being fired at under international law, however as most countries integrated such ships into it's intelligence system, ie such ships would watch out for and radio the position of enemy vessels, so it was argued that they weren't protected as non belligerents and could be fired at by submarine[1]. In practice though where possible crews were usually given warning so they could evacuate, except in cases where a convoy was too well protected so only a stealthy torpedo could be used to destroy the vessel.

Reference:
[1] http://www.lawbookexchange.com/pages/books/42170/robert-w-tucker/the-law-of-war-and-neutrality-at-sea

It was more complicated than that.  Subs were originally supposed to be under prize rules, which meant they had to take aboard the ship's crew and put them somewhere safe.  Telling them to take to the boats was theoretically not enough unless they were within sight of land.  In practice, you can't do that because there's not enough room.  So it became common practice for the sub to come alongside and say "Boats, and we'll sink you in a bit."  What stopped this was Q-Ships, which pretended to be merchant vessels, then opened fire when the sub pulled up.  Then, the Germans began unrestricted submarine warfare.
In WWII, nobody really had much expectation that these rules would be followed, and most merchant ships relatively quickly acquired some weapons, usually antiaircraft guns. 

[ardem]

Hi Steve, What ever happen to adding maintenance supplies to ground forces needs, to feed a ground force army. (I know you were keen on it at some stage)

Now you made changes to maintenance for the purpose of ships and help with micromanagement, how about adding it for ground forces. Or atleast they have a MSP setting that get used up in a ground war.

[TMaekler]

Hi Steve,

have read on your 7. 2 feature list that you have added an option to disable civilian ship building.  How about a "control button" to allow the number of civilian ships which can be build? Or generally the civilian colonies.  It is nice that they do their job of creating them in the background but sometimes it would be nicer to control how many of them are created or are allowed for the calculation mechanic to create them.

Thx

[83athom]

Its a toggle. If you want more, uncheck the box. Want them to stop, check it.

[Mor]

With the new Maintenance supplies mechanic Maintenance Facilities will produce supplies. Does it effect overhull mechanic except consuming more supplies?

[metalax]

So just to check I have this right, with the introduction of commercial hangars, the following will be the case?

Military Hangar
  Deployment clock stopped
  Maintenance clock stopped
  Maintenance supplies not consumed

Commercial Hangar
  Deployment clock stopped
  Maintenance clock continues
  Maintenance supplies consumed as normal

Commercial Hangar + Maintenance Modules
  Deployment clock stopped
  Maintenance clock stopped
  Maintenance supplies consumed by Maintenance Modules

Can docked ships undergo overhaul? There doesn't seem to be any pressing reason they shouldn't.

Is there or will there be, any effective detriment for a commercial ship carrying commercial parasites without providing sufficient flight berths?

[Steve Walmsley]

With the new Maintenance supplies mechanic Maintenance Facilities will produce supplies. Does it effect overhull mechanic except consuming more supplies?

Overhauls are the same except they now consume supplies instead of minerals.

[83athom]

Everything looks fine. Also, all hangars can repair.

Can docked ships undergo overhaul?

No.

Is there or will there be, any effective detriment for a commercial ship carrying commercial parasites without providing sufficient flight berths?

Probably not. As commercial designs naturally need to have months of deployment, it is presumed they are comfortable, so they would be content to stay in their ships the duration of being docked.

[Steve Walmsley]

So just to check I have this right, with the introduction of commercial hangars, the following will be the case?

Military Hangar
  Deployment clock stopped
  Maintenance clock stopped
  Maintenance supplies not consumed

Commercial Hangar
  Deployment clock stopped
  Maintenance clock continues
  Maintenance supplies consumed as normal

Commercial Hangar + Maintenance Modules
  Deployment clock stopped
  Maintenance clock stopped
  Maintenance supplies consumed by Maintenance Modules

Can docked ships undergo overhaul? There doesn't seem to be any pressing reason they shouldn't.

Is there or will there be, any effective detriment for a commercial ship carrying commercial parasites without providing sufficient flight berths?

Correct except for:

Commercial Hangar
  Deployment clock continues
  Maintenance clock continues
  Maintenance supplies not consumed (unless there are also maintenance modules or there is a system failure)

In effect, a military ship in a commercial hangar is treated as if it wasn't in a hangar at all for maintenance purposes.

As the code is written, a ship in a commercial hangar can be overhauled. May have to check how you would give that order though

[QuakeIV]

Steeeeve, you are making cooool thiiiiiingssss

[db48x]

Correct except for:

Commercial Hangar
  Deployment clock continues
  Maintenance clock continues
  Maintenance supplies not consumed (unless there are also maintenance modules or there is a system failure)

In effect, a military ship in a commercial hangar is treated as if it wasn't in a hangar at all for maintenance purposes.

As the code is written, a ship in a commercial hangar can be overhauled. May have to check how you would give that order though

What if the commercial hangar is in a station with a population? Wouldn't that reduce the deployment clock?

[metalax]

Correct except for:

Commercial Hangar
  Deployment clock continues

Really? I would have thought using the mothership/stations facilities and flight berths so as not to run up the deployment clock for the crew would have been one of the things that would work for a commercial hangar. So as it stands commercial hangars are, by themselves, only of use for repairing systems of military ships, and require sufficient maintenance modules to have any other effect at all?Derp, was only thinking in the context of a station, of course they would also avoid needing to spend fuel on likely much less efficient engines.

Can box launchers be reloaded in a commercial hangar from the new commercial magazines?

[TMaekler]

Would be nice to have an option that conditional commands would be inserted before the actual command instead of replacing all actual commands - so the ship then can resume its former duties.

[Steve Walmsley]

Would be nice to have an option that conditional commands would be inserted before the actual command instead of replacing all actual commands - so the ship then can resume its former duties.

This is very complex because the program would have to calculate if the last order of the conditional command made sense if followed by your existing first order. Because of the huge variety of potential orders you could have set, this is likely to result in logic-breaking situations. Therefore the orders are removed so the human player can intervene.