Congrats and thanks on the DGIII; and a couple of questions. :)

[Staiduk]

Hello!

I just recently downloaded the latest version of the DGIII - the one with the spaceguys - and I'd just like to extend
my admiration to Dan Steph for his fantastic work.
The DGIII is easily the best ship in the Orbiter universe; this latest version makes it that much better.

There are a couple of questions, if I may:

1: Potential bug. I do a lot of work on the Moon*; and often while cycling the airlock to EVA it makes a most unusual
sound. Rather than the normal hydraulic hum; it sounds sorta like an alien saying "Ticky tack! Ticky tack!" at 78
speed. :D Is this normal/is there a fix for this?

* My regular play is an ongoing scenario called the 'Life File'; which is saved after every session without alteration. If I
die in the course of a mission; the LF is reset and I start my career over. At the moment; I'm prospecting on the moon
out of a base near Tycho. During the months when the prospecting ranges are in darkness; I run refuel missions to
the FSS with the Shuttle-A2. Not important; just fleshing things out.

2: I see from the forums that the next version of Orbiter will support virtual cockpits. Once that version is out; will a
future DeltaGlider have a VC? Please say yes.....

3: I recently downloaded the Shuttle-A2; a splendid upgrade to one of my favourite vessels - almost on a par with
your own. (I have a thing for the Shuttle-A - I like the 'workhorse' feel. ) It seems to me these two vessels - the
DGIII and the Shuttle-A2 - complement each other beautifully in a 'near-future' setting. Could there be any possibility
in the near to distant future of the respective authors getting together to allow EVA transfers between the two ships?
Just an idea.

4: Re: the long-range antenna: A lovely addition; I was wondering if there was some possibility of adding a gauge
somewhere on the panel that would show where the thing was pointing?

Thanks; and again much admiration for your superb work!
Cheers!

[canadave]

Staiduk,

Glad you're enjoying the DG3.  I'm intrigued by your ongoing LF scenario...can you elaborate on that a bit?  How
exactly are you "prospecting"?  And how you model your "gameplay"? i.e. do you do time acceleration, and to what
degree, etc?

I think Dan'll have to answer your questions, but I can tell you regarding Q1: I don't experience that kind of sound
(interesting description you provided!) when performing an airlock cycle.  Have you considered the possibility that
you DO have an alien in the airlock?

Regarding question 3...that's a great idea, and it raises another question for me: is it possible in future versions of
Orbiter to have some sort of "standard" EVA mechanism and astro/cosmonaut guy?  In other words, instead of the
shuttle having its own MMU, and the DG3 having it's own "Joe", maybe there could be some standardized component
that can be added to ships with a simple CFG modification.

Until then, though, here's a suggestion (which has no doubt occurred to you already).  I know you like the Shuttle A2,
but maybe you should just insert a second DG3 into the scenario in place of the A2.  I'd make the 2nd DG3 different
from the 1st one in the DeltaConfig program (i.e. higher/lower engine thrust, less/more crew complement, different
skin, different crew names, different amount of fuel/O2 supply onboard, etc) to make it more interesting.

Good luck!

[Staiduk]

Hi CD; thanks for replying.

Well; most of what happens in the 'prospecting' side is pretend - I fly to one of the existing lunar sceneries and drift
around. Every few minutes (5-10) I roll a percentile die to see if I see anything. There's a 1% chance of finding
something.

I want to try building ground sceneries; this weekend I'm going to try making a resource model - basically a flat waxy
whitish crystal to represent ice - and sticking it at random into an existing scenery to go find. (Who knows? Might
actually work.

If I ever do find anything - via the die - then I land at the nearest flat spot and set up first a test site and
ultimately a mine; shipping things out via Shuttle-A. When enough resources have been collected (i.e. mined, refined,
sold); I have enough money to buy parts to buily my own stations bases. Of course; that hasn't happened yet. :D

Another way to get money is to fly servicing missions to the orbital stations - fueling the FSS for instance. (I was using
the shuttle-A and guessing. When I found the Shuttle-A2; I assumed a large ship came along and drained the FSS
( :D ) so started over with that excellent craft. At $2000 a flight; it takes a while but every little bit helps.

As for using a second DGIII; hey, it's a great ship; but not designed for heavy hauling. You can pretend; but that's
unsatisfying.

Actually what I'd really like is a Shuttle-B - same as the A-type; but twice the size. I plan on contacting the
authors and asking.

Thanks lots!

[DocHoliday]

There is a discussion on the main Forum about the Shuttle-A2 and what could/will be added.

About your sound problem. Is it possible that the sound you are hearing in fact belongs to the Shuttle-A2? Namely,
until the next version of Orbiter comes out, the OrbiterSound has a slight flaw in that it mixes up sounds from
different vessels under certain circumstances. There is no known solution, but it will be solved in the next version of
both Orbiter and OrbiterSound.. What you can do is to change the order in which vessels are defined in the .scn file..
The last ship that is declared, has dominance with regard to sound.

About the antenna. There is no gauge as such, but you CAN observe certain data, the antenna outputs on the
central computer display, both on the middle and lower panels.. Press "D" and then "8" as in "Display no. 8" and you
should see the data stream from the antenna, target, distance, bearing,... if it's not deployed, you'll get the
appropriate message.

Cheers,
Janez

[canadave]

Well; most of what happens in the 'prospecting' side is pretend - I fly to one of the existing lunar sceneries
and drift
around. Every few minutes (5-10) I roll a percentile die to see if I see anything. There's a 1% chance of finding
something.

I want to try building ground sceneries; this weekend I'm going to try making a resource model - basically a flat waxy
whitish crystal to represent ice - and sticking it at random into an existing scenery to go find. (Who knows? Might
actually work.

That is a GREAT idea.  A really fun activity would be to have differently-sized spots of precious metals (gold, silver,
lunatitanium, whatever--or, as you put it, your "whitish crystal") scattered about a suitably large celestial body (the
Moon, Titan, whatever) and have people go look for them.  The spots would have to be relatively "blended in" to the ground colour, so as not to make it too easy (i.e. brilliant white against a dark grey background wouldn't present much of a challenge).  If someone finds a spot, they can report back the location of the find (lat/long).  Of course, it'll be really neat to find that huge deposit no one's found before!

I really like these "task-oriented" applications of Orbiter (same as the DG3 rescue scenarios and so on).  I think one
can only make so many trips between the Earth and [insert celestial body name here], and one can only dock with
ISS and re-enter so many times, before one starts pining for a bit of a task to complete.



Post Edited ( 11-05-04 08:48 )

[DocHoliday]

heh, damn I really need to get my adventure finished.

Hm. How would one find the site? Visual reckoning only? I mean, the DG3 has the antenna, so you could... hm.. plant
marker beacons on the ground to guide the prospector ship.. Let's see... the story could go like this:

- deposits of whitish crystal have been detected by orbiting satellites (who obviously have the right equipment)
- the sats also deployed recon beacons, that deeorbited and crashlanded near the site
- your job is to get there and determine the quality and quantity of the minerals at the site.
- use your antenna to get guidance to the beacon and then use dead reackoning to pin point the site.
- good luck ?

Anyway, for the beacon, I suggest using the one that you can find in the Mars 2060 scenario..
http://www.orbithangar.com/download.cfm?ID=168

There is a Mars polar beacon, that would be perfect

Cheers,

[Staiduk]

Hi; thanx for your interest!

Doc: The odd sound is most definitely not coming from the Shuttle-A2; I ran into it before downloading that ship.
However; it's entirely possible it could be coming from something in the list; I'll check it out by moving the Whistling
Weasle (my prospecting-rigged DGIII) to the bottom of the list; with the Alpha Ranger (my Type-A2) just
above it - thanks for the info on that flaw.

As for the antenna; OK; I'll try using the D8 display in the manner you suggest; see if I can figure out a location
scheme with it.

Back to the A2 - I looked for a bit earlier; but couldn't see anything on the A2 - I'll keep looking. (I assume it's in
the 'Addons' section?)

Re my prospecting ideas: Interesting ideas folks; I'll have to look into it. I just created the LF to keep track of my play
and give me something to do; as Dave says doing the same things over and over again is monotonous; however
wonderful Orbiter is. I'll think on it a while and see if I can't come up with something useable by the group.

Thanks again!

[Staiduk]

Doc:

I had the opportunity to test out the 'D8' panel on the antenna. That's perfect for my needs; guess I shoulda checked
the docs before asking, eh? Thanks!

[DanSteph]

Hello Staiduk,

I'm late here, seem almost all your questions where answered already

About VC and others stuff I have a whole box of exciting idea and improvment
for Orbiter: new site, new stuff for the DGIII possibly a DGIV with a new model.
The bad news is that I don't have time now and i seem not until somes month.

About the sound, this "bug" wasn't reported yet so I don't have a precise idea
but it could be as said janez: one add-on replacing the sound slot (it could be also
a MODULE add-on the old NavMFD is knowed to do that)

Do this bug appear if the DGIII is alone in one scenery ?
could you tell me more ?

Dan

[Staiduk]

DS: Pleasure to meet ya.
I'm not sure if it happens when the DGII is alone in scenery; I'll set it up and try it out for a bit.
Expect an answer tomorrow morning.

Cheers!

[DanSteph]

Ok cya tomorrow

Dan

[Staiduk]

Hello!
Dan and Doc: Apparently you were right about the sound; I tried the DGIII with a variety of ships - as long as the
Weasle is the last ship on the list the sound is OK, so that problem is solved, thanks.

[DocHoliday]

Glad to be of service