SWmud

2021 Shuttles Patch

Here are the main changes in the Sept 2021 "shuttles in space" patch:

SHUTTLES AND CABS Almost any means of traveling between planets (including public shuttles, cabs, and HM shuttles) will now fly through space. They can't be shot at or slowed down, but you can use sense and pks and other such skills to detect if anyone is on a shuttle as it flies through space.

The messages can get quite spammy - check <panic ignore> for a way to gag most shuttle messages (other than launch and land messages).

One other side effect: old-style HM homes now must exist on their actual planet, because otherwise how could the shuttle get to them? If you have an old-style HM home, we will make any of your rooms no-force and no-pks upon request.

Not everything is on this system (yet). Known TODOs:

Please let us know if you find any inter-planetary transportation that don't seem to use this system - they are almost certainly out there!

DOCKS We used to have to hard-code the space system that a dock would launch its ships into. So like, we could tell a Berchest room, "your system is /d/sys/eichbaum_s" and ships would launch into Eichbaum space from that room.

However, we now have an easy way to tell what system any given room is in. So we removed the hard-coded paths and are relying entirely on this new method of determining what system you should launch into. If you notice any weirdness with launching from any docks (especially dynamic docks like merch shops, villa docks, and old-style HM homes), please <bug> it.

MOB ACTIONS DURING FIGHTS We made a tweak to the way we set up mobs' combat actions (i.e. skills). It shouldn't be noticable, but if you see any mobs not doing their usual stuff, please <bug> it.