Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...

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1298 days, 12 hours, 19 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not even sure I could play this game (and also find time to sleep) without some of the timesaving plugins like Planetary Management and Idle Object Visualizer. Here are some of my favorite extensions.

1) Planetary Management

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/6127-planets-nu-planetary-management-plugin

Tired of changing tax rates and building factories every turn? Tell this plugin about your planetary management strategy and it will take care of the turn-by-turn details.

2) Idle Object Visualizer

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/6442-planets-nu-idle-object-visualizer-plugin

The "ready checkbox" is a great timesaver for finding the ships that still need orders. But do you really want to cycle through your ships in random order? This plugin shows ready status from the starmap, so you can quickly cycle through ships in whatever order you wish.

3) Show Notes

http://chmeee.org/project/planets.nu/wiki/ShowNotes

Why write all those notes if you can't see them? This plugin lets you see all those notes directly from the starmap.

Also gives a summary of the ship types at each location.

4) Ion Storm Prediction

http://userscripts-mirror.org/scripts/show/130614

Ion storms throw your ships all over the place. But with this plugin, they'll still end up exactly where you want them.

5) Map Draw

http://userscripts-mirror.org/scripts/show/133919

Border agreements, hints about a homeworld location, planned routes... How to track all this stuff? With Map Draw, you can just draw on the starmap.

6) Enemy ship List

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/5994-planets-nu-enemy-ship-list-plugin

You've seen enemy ships, a few at a time, throughout the game. But how many Gorbies do they have? And where were they last seen? Enemy Ship List keeps this list for you automatically, but also allows you to make manual changes.

7) Redraw and Filter

http://chmeee.org/project/planets.nu/wiki/RedrawAndFilter

So much information on the starmap, and each planet takes up how many pixels?!? This plugin keeps your starmap lean and mean, so you don't miss any details.

8) Improved Hover Text

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/2618-planets-nu-improved-hover-text

Shows extra information when hovering over planets and ships. I especially like seeing the max population of a planet or what ship is being built at a base.

9) Gravitonic Connections

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/5020-planets-nu-gravitonic-connections

Find hidden connections, in which a gravity well lets you travel more than 81 ly in a turn. This plugin is similar to the connections you see by pressing Q, but adjusted based on the gravity wells.

10) Show Messages

http://chmeee.org/project/planets.nu/wiki/ShowMessages

Shows ship explosions (and other message information) on the starmap for faster access.

===

If you've never installed browser extensions before, check the "installation" section on this page:

http://chmeee.org/project/planets.nu/
1298 days, 12 hours, 1 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
There has never been any information on Plugins in the documentation. I think this thread might provide some good information to start creating that page.
1298 days, 11 hours, 44 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
I was going to repost once a month to ensure that new players didn't miss this information. If it can become part of the docs, even better. :-)
1298 days, 10 hours, 13 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
All the above add-ons have been put into the documentation.

http://planets.nu/#/howtoplay/addons

If the authors of the various add-ons would like to add their add-on to the list, or change the description, please feel free to post here.
1298 days, 9 hours, 12 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
"I would like to give credit to the authors in the docs."

1) Planetary Management - @DotMan

2) Idle Object Visualizer - @Kedalion

3) Show Notes - @McNimble

4) Ion Storm Prediction - @Big+Beefer

5) Map Draw - @Big+Beefer

6) Enemy Ship List - @Kedalion

7) Redraw and Filter - @McNimble

8) Improved Hover Text - @Big+Beefer

9) Gravitonic Connections - @RoboDoc

10) Show Messages - @McNimble
1298 days, 9 hours, 8 minutes ago
View gnerphk's profile
gnerphk
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Nicely done, gentlemen.
1298 days, 8 hours, 49 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
The last of the authors has been entered into the doc. We now have a functional template for adding more, as they're posted here. That will make future work on this page easier.
1298 days, 4 hours, 20 minutes ago
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strangelove007
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Thank you very much for this!
I feel I should familiarize myself with some of these plugins because I spend way too much time on my turns and limit myself to playing only one game at a time because of this. However, why do we need plugins at all? Wouldn't it be possible to integrate the functions of good plugins into the site? Planetary Management and Enemy Ship List would be my first picks.
1298 days, 3 hours, 38 minutes ago
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quasimodoh!
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Thanks, I didn't even know about the Q key feature, probably means there are a load more built in tools I don't know about too!
1298 days, 2 hours, 31 minutes ago
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spectre
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Can anyone tell me if these mods work with IE 11? Maybe requiring Trixie as the installation guide suggests?
1298 days, 0 hours, 2 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@quasimodoh! Look in the menus at the top of the starmap. Lots of useful stuff in there. Q is just a shortcut.
1297 days, 22 hours, 59 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Spectre,

If you can figure out how to get add-ons running under IE11, please inform me. This needs to be documented.
1297 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Strangelove007,

> Wouldn't it be possible to integrate the functions of good plugins into the site?

I'm sure it would be if Big Beefer had some spare time. With the list of forthcoming enhancements that Joshua went over at PlanetsCon (I don't remember the Badges being among them), it should be obvious that the current priorities are elsewhere.

This is unfortunate, as there are quite a few browsers that don't accept JavaScript add-ons.
1297 days, 22 hours, 44 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
If anyone's browser does not fully support PlanetsNu, including plugins, I recommend downloading a new browser. They're not very expensive. ;-)

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
1297 days, 22 hours, 10 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Ericlavigne,

It's important to realize that plugins are NOT part of Planets.nu. It's possible to fully support Planets.nu while not supporting plugins. It's also possible to play Planets.nu without the use of any plugins (IIRC, Gnerphk doesn't use plugins). Browser manufacturers normally choose to not support plugins for reasons of performance, security or simplicity. I'm not saying that this is right or wrong, just that it is.

Some people like or dislike certain browsers, for various reasons, including, but not limited to, usability (the definition of this changes from person to person), performance, reliability, feature set and source. In my case, I don't like Chrome, as I have issues with Google (no, I don't use their search engine). I also don't like FireFox because it uses too CPU time when I'm not bringing up new web pages (I don't like to hear the fan spin up when I'm not doing anything). Again, I'm not saying that this is right or wrong, just that it is, and I'm giving examples.

If someone plays Planets.nu from work (hopefully outside of normal work hours), they're limited to the software that can be installed on the computer. Some companies limit browsers for various security reasons, including the ability to centrally manage/configure the browser.

Finally, for some devices, changing browsers just isn't worth the effort. Some phones and tablets run a browser with intentionally reduced functionality. Getting a different browser on these devices, especially one that supports plugins, is not something that all players are willing to do, and not something that can be done on all of the devices.

Please don't be so quick to criticize someone's choice of browser. Sometimes the choice isn't what you think it is.
1297 days, 21 hours, 18 minutes ago
View rudel's profile
rudel
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
While I really like the Planetary Management Plugin, I feel that it's not flexible enough to provide an optimal game without checking every planet. I.e. sometimes I need to put my happiness to 50 even though the natives might grow. Just because I need money asap and losing 3-4 turns of growth is not as important as building ships every turn for the first 20-30 turns.

Another problem is that the addon is not "wasting" taxes, so if you are 1 colonist short it will set the max tax to the value where you can get 100% of the taxes. This sometimes results in 100-200 less mc each turn (Which is obviously unacceptable).

So I end up checking every planet anyways. It's still a good plugin because I can adjust the taxes with 2 clicks.

I take the enemy ship list is invaluable. Whoever did this build an awesome addon that I completely rely on.
1297 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes ago
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guyeto
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Is there a plugin to program ships? I seem to remember a function in vgap so many years ago where you could program a ships path along with what to pick up and drop off at each planet, and you could set it it repeat. Thanks!
1297 days, 20 hours, 58 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
"sometimes I need to put my happiness to 50 even though the natives might grow."

I do this sometimes when I'm short on cash to build a ship in 1-2 turns. This is a fairly rare case, and I'll realize this while reviewing base strategy. (There are only a few bases before turn 20, so doesn't take as much time as cycling through all planets.) In this case I'll change the planet's tax strategy to safe tax 40 and add a red note to put it back later. With the ShowNotes plugin, the note will be obvious.

"if you are 1 colonist short it will set the max tax to the value where you can get 100% of the taxes."

The rounding is in the other direction when choosing between 0% and 1%, which is important for getting factory/mine building money on small colonies. In other cases, rounding down tends to be a small issue because the increased happiness will let you tax higher on a later turn. It's not perfect, but is close enough that I wouldn't cycle through every planet to fix it.

Cycling through planets just isn't the most fun part of the game, and I'm glad to have left it behind. I probably wouldn't still be playing if a plugin like this didn't exist.
1297 days, 20 hours, 55 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@guyeto There is a fleet management plugin that helps with moving a bunch of ships at the same location. I don't think it allows specifying actions in future turns, but am not sure because I haven't used it.
1297 days, 19 hours, 53 minutes ago
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somujot
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Ericlavigne the "2) Idle Object Visualizer - @Kedalion" doesn't seem to work well in the mini view (the upper left frame listing all objects in current location).

I have ships highlighted in the map but sometimes they don't have the yellow square around them on the mini view.

When you have many objects in the same location that is very helpful.
Does anyone got around this issue?
Thanks.
1297 days, 18 hours, 14 minutes ago
View rudel's profile
rudel
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
I like the cycling through planets.. after all, the way to win is mainly based on your logistics and production. I have to be sure that those are managed perfectly. And not by some automated process, that does it right in 90% of the cases. I do understand that it's convenient and the addon is still great because as you said you can just set "safe tax xx" and click one button instead of adjusting it manually. But in the end, the last 5%-10% of your overall productivity depends on managing your planets perfectly. Like.. 100%. Not 99%, 95% or 90%. 100 MC can make the difference between building Mark 7 or Mark 4 or even building a ship at all.

BTW "later" as in "tax higher on a later turn" is something that is not written in my handbook for a good start. :)
1297 days, 17 hours, 46 minutes ago
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dtolman
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
If we're plugging plug-in's, I'd like to humbly point out that I have written some of the most popular plugins for planets.nu:
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/search?q=dtolman

The Ship Lists Plugin adds a number of functions which help analyze ship movements for potential mistakes, as well as letting you command fleets or individual ships based on location or destination - friendly code, ready status, and you can match another ships destination.

The Map Color plugin gives _all_ objects for an enemy a fully customizable color - ships, minefields, planets, etc. It also lists ship names next to explosions on the map

The Map Tools add on adds new functionality such as temperature, ownership, clans, closeness to completing a SB, and others to the map

The fleet mod adds a new pane to the ship map view that lets you control groups of ships - set group readiness, destination, speed, and see the fleets total cargo, minesweeping, minelaying, etc. If you have the ship list mod installed, the two actually work together letting you jump to the ship list display from a fleet view


I also have some smaller mods which players might find useful - a new mod to improve the planets list view on the dashboard, a mod to display Colonial fighter minesweeping, a new mod to display glory device explosions on the map (only ones in your messages), and uh... a few I don't remember :)
1297 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
"I have ships highlighted in the map but sometimes they don't have the yellow square around them on the mini view."

@Somujot Sometimes? Have you figured out the pattern for when the boxes show or don't show?

If I change a ship's ready status, the yellow circle on the map and the yellow square on the mini view will only change after I select a different ship or deselect the current ship. In other words, the yellow marks will be correct as soon as I can no longer see the checkbox. This slight delay doesn't cause any problems for me.

Is that the pattern you are seeing also? Or are you seeing longer-lived discrepancies between the ready status and the mini view boxes?
1297 days, 14 hours, 13 minutes ago
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somujot
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Ericlavigne, it seems to be somewhat correlated with having ships being towed in that point but I'm not sure. It seems that it's not a deterministic occurrence. I don't understand it. Thanks anyway.
1297 days, 9 hours, 23 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Dtolman,

Three of the listed plugins have been added. The third ("Map Tools") isn't listed in the link you provided, so was not added.
1297 days, 2 hours, 10 minutes ago
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dtolman
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Whisperer the Map Tools formal name is "Clan Display and Temperature addon for Planets.nu Starmap" and is on the link. Thanks!
1296 days, 21 hours, 15 minutes ago
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megalomaniac
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Hail,

This is a nice thread. I really want to thank each and every modder that has made this game even more enjoyable for us.

@Gnerphk - If you don't use any mods, it puts you at a disadvantage compared to the guys who use them all. At the very least, you will spend a lot more time to accomplish the same result

Planetary Management - This one gets a ton of kudos as well it should. Unfortunately for me as Borg, I was reluctant to trust it when it would really be useful to run. I like toying with the first 50 planets or so to maximize their output and get SBs built on most of them. It is a drag for the next 100-130 planets but if I click the wrong button, the assimilated could go berzerk and put the game in jeopardy. I am resolved to try this plug in when I try a new race where each planet doesn't have 5 million colonists.


There are some plugs in that are so critical to me, I don't even know they are running and assume them to be part of the interface until I am forced to run a turn on an IPAD with chrome and see I don't have any installed there are as follows in no particular order

"Default plug ins" these require no extra actions on my part. Indeed, I had forgotten they aren't in the default UI as they seem so natural to me.

-Show ship history - Clicking on a ship shows you where it has been. It is automatically turned on with this mod. It really should be default when you click a ship. The true default is off for history unless you load this script

-Colonial ftr minesweep - I had forgotten about this one until I practiced around with Hiatus. It really should be default for Colonial players. One caveat I remember when first installing it as that it didn't play well with an older script that did something entirely different and was written for the old UI. As I recall, ship pics wouldn't show when you clicked on them (particularly if you owned a ship that wasn't originally in your race ship list). I believe the older script was updated or replaced by a new script there is no issue with the colonial ftr sweep now.

-Show minehits - Those nice Xs are so integral I forget there is a script involved in displaying them

-Show fascists glory pops - I just added this one and haven't seen it in action yet but it seems to do the same thing for glory hits that the minehit script does so it will seem to be default for me

Minescoop script - This one should be mandatory for the crystals and really for anyone else as well. Nothing more frustrating for your opponent then to just enter your web or be near your minefield to sweep and you use your lower ID ship to scoop up just enough mines so his weep won't work. This one gives you a nice yellow circle so you can keep picking up a few clans or minerals/supplies until you put your minefield out of reach for his big sweepers. He then rushes into your planet assuming he won't take any minehits but is likely to come in damaged and much easier to defeat. Even if he doesn't rush into combat, it takes him forever to sweep your mines unless he gets a low ID minesweeper there which isn't so easy to do.... Its much easier for me as a borg to chunnel my low ID minescoopers anywhere faster then he can bring in a sweeper.




Other Default appearing plug ins where new information is available without having to do anything except perhaps clicking a new item in the Map tools menu. You can see how helpful they are when you don't see all these choices in say an IPAD menu with no scripts.

Ion storm prediction - I will turn this one when there is an Ion storm inbound. Its important to make your ships heavy to sustain less damage and this must be done two turn before the Ion storm hits. This one is pretty important for all races but particularly the cloakers who don't have advanced cloaking ships.

Temperature display - This adds to the menu where a quick click shows you the arctic and desert planets in bright blue or red. I pretty much use it when I have acquired a climate ship and wish to stop hearing the screeching of all the assimilees on those planets.

Planetary growth limit - This one adds a very useful line to the planet screen where I can see the max growth and how many turns until I get there for both natives and colonists. Really useful for the Borg. Even for nonborg, you can see how many more turns it will take to max HW popuplation when you are pulling out LF full of clans. I believe this comes from Nu Tax assistant script but can't recall for sure. It is critical one for me to know at a glance as I chunnel clans off intemperate planets.

-Ship information plugin - This is a relatively recent one for me but critical and on by default. The guy who made it said it was his first public plug in and its a doozy....
-Beam transfer result on ship screen: I can't recall how many times I would be transferring ftr building supplies to an allied race and forget which ship was giving him what mineral or supply. If I clicked on the transfer ships to learn it would create a new transfer and cancel the old. This one tells me at a glance where my transfers are going
-Even more critical for me is that at a glance I can stop my previously not uncommon error of dropping one neutronium when I thought I was dropping a clan which meant I would have to assign another ship to drop a clan on that planet later on
-This same script tells me crew experience...which I never was able to learn elsewhere and would only have a rough idea after my ship took actual ion storm damage. Here I know the crew experience going in. The link below even shows what your ship picture looks like and how many KeV your ship can survive although I don't recall ever seeing that number on one of my ships.
-You get to see your hull mass which is important when calculating supplies for mine hit repairs

https://greasyfork.org/system/screenshots/screenshots/000/001/951/original/Ship_info.jpg



Plugins which modify the home screen or make a change that you can easily see is not standard UI

Alien Starships - This adds a new icon on your Home screen. It is pretty important if you wish to remember what beam type/torps etc a particular ship had. Not as accurate against the Feds since they refit, but their fully refit top of the line ships are minor annoyances to a Cube anyway :)

Minefield Reporter plug in: This summarizes all your minesweep mssgs. You can view sweeping by ship or just view the minefield size changes to have an idea how well your minesweepers are doing and how well your own minefields are surviving enemy sweepers

Quicklinks - This adds rows of missions and friendly codes to your ship list. Indeed, I have changed from 100% default zoom to 90% zoom with firefox to use these quick links even though at 90% my planet build screens are off set a little because the quicklinks save time. I keep it on as default.

Fleet mod - This one is critical for me but not for any fleet movements.

1. Highlights in red moves that are likely to be mistakes and most of them are.
2. Highlights in yellow risky type moves (like using bdm code when you don't intend)
3. COMMAND VIEW - This one is critical for me. This is the ONLY view I have found where I can see ship mission and warp speed at the same time. I always check this before hitting end turn to make sure all my tracking ships at warp zero intercept are actually warp zero and don't fly off into the netherland.



Mods that worked fine previously but seem to be broken with UI updates

Open slot filter plug in: This one was great for finding games that interested you with many different filters (race, turns per week, rank...). When the interest section got added, it was NOT displayed with the filter. Now that difficulty modifier is playing a role, it likely won't work with that either unless there were an update


Future Mod ideas
Easier depiction of minerals in the ground or on the surface of a planet - The skinny/thick blue and orange circles really aren't as intuitive as they could be so I simply use the home screen planets menu under resources to find what I need. Others have made some nice circles on the UI so there should be an easier way to show this on the map. A good start would be different colors for each mineral.

Chunnel Arrows - This one has been kicked about in the past. Many a chunnel goes in the wrong direction by mistake and arrows along the path or at the end of the path would be nice. Look, its not like the borg are so dominant anymore since every race simply gangs up on them now, esp in the champ games. I hope in Aquarius the other players recognize that crash chunnel could be the only thing that stops a two time emperor with the strongest champ game race if he survives early and allow the borg to live.

Cheers,

MEGALOMANIAC, Benevolent Dictator but possibly Coffee Boy to the Deck Swabbie after Demotions
1296 days, 20 hours, 33 minutes ago
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ericlavigne
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
"Planetary Management - This one gets a ton of kudos as well it should. Unfortunately for me as Borg, I was reluctant to trust it when it would really be useful to run."

This plugin is more difficult to use as borg, but that hasn't stopped me. A few tips:

1) There are a few important planets where you are ferrying colonists away to ensure that natives aren't assimilated. Give these colorful notes and handle them manually.

2) When you plan to fully assimilate the natives, safe tax 40 works well on the natives... Except that the plugin doesn't seem to know about the max tax rate of 20. Each turn after running the planet management tool, I go to the planet list and sort by native tax rate. There are typically 1-3 planets each turn that I need to reduce the tax rate from 30% to 20%.

3) Don't waste colonist happiness by taxing before assimilation has completed, because you get a lot more money from the same tax rate later. I set colonist tax rate to manual 0% to start and switch to growth tax after assimilation has completed. Each turn I use the "planets with > 1 mil colonists" tab in planet management and quickly skim the list for planets that are fully assimilated and still have manual taxation, so I can switch them to growth tax.

All of this is extra work, but only a few minutes per turn. It would still take me a lot longer to handle taxation and factory building in the default UI.

All of this is fixable. I wonder if Dotman would be open to getting help with this plugin.
1296 days, 12 hours, 12 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Dtolman,

Got it.
1295 days, 5 hours, 25 minutes ago
View ecatoncheires's profile
ecatoncheires
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Dammit, we need sticky posts... this thread (and many else) should be on the front page forever.

Lacking stickies, we could resort to a "manual sticky post" with the most relevant threads (totally opinionable concept) posted once every start of month and maintained by volounteers. Better than nothing.
1295 days, 5 hours, 19 minutes ago
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frostriese
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
An easy way - make a "most memorable post" page in the .NU Documentation ... or compose an article in PlanetsMag (http://www.planetsmagazine.com/). They have already two posts about addons ;-)
1295 days, 4 hours, 9 minutes ago
View gnerphk's profile
gnerphk
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
With specific regard to the Mag: If the editors don't have time, get in touch with me and I'll see what I can do.

But this is the sort of thing we could host in the Documentation here at Nu. We have a space ready and waiting, but few of us on the editorial staff use plug-ins and add-ons.

Memorable posts and such, on the other hand... That's not an easy one. We don't have a robust Forum here at Nu; it's functional, but resources are limited, as I understand things. Hosting a page of links in the documentation seems to be unnecessary duplication, not truly to the point and not a terribly effective use of the resources at hand.

Likewise, unless something meets the standards of the Mag, it's unlikely to find a home there either.

My own suggestion would be offsite hosting of a forum archive -- not complete, but one that's carefully picked and chosen from the vast content that we have here. Give me a good external site and I'll see to it that a link exists in the Documentation.

Thoughts? Discussion? (If extensive, perhaps a new thread would be appropriate?)
1295 days, 3 hours, 23 minutes ago
View ecatoncheires's profile
ecatoncheires
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Sure, any generated goods could (should) be linked both to the docs page, and planetsmagazine.com web page, to the benefit of both.

RE: the forum archive, I asked several times if there were any way to access it (read-only obviously, to prevent any abuse) via an API interface of some sort, but got no luck until now. I was worrying about what has become a treasure of updated information about Vga Planets in general, and not much time later we had that nasty newsfeed crash, where everything disappeared for a time - that let my heart skip a beat! I believe that one has been resolved now.

As for the issue at hand, my (own, humble) idea was of a place where in a single page (not several pages) and in a few macro-categories (not a deluge of micro-ones) every major interesting thread could be linked.

That would be like a "FAQ" - the first step towards which, has been the creation of the FAQ tag earlier. I had no special hope it would have actually been used, but I can now read 400+ posts tagged with that.

If a special, external web page would be needed to host all this, I'm ready to register and ready a dedicated domain on any of the low-cost providers... what do you think of a really specific name like... don't know... FAQPLANETS.ORG?

No wait... maybe it doesn't sound so well... :D
1294 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes ago
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thrane
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
how about Q&APLANETS.ORG?
1294 days, 22 hours, 5 minutes ago
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faweq
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
I didn't know these existed; most of these are really useful and I've started running many of them. There should definitely be a page/link from the main site for most of these, they're too helpful not to.
1294 days, 21 hours, 30 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Faweq,

> There should definitely be a page/link from the main site for most of these

There is. Click on "How To Play" at the top of your screen, then click on "Scripts and Plugins" near the bottom of the Table of Contents (on the left-hand side of the screen). That will bring you to the page.

http://planets.nu/#/howtoplay/addons

The plugins listed by @Ericlavigne are in that page, as are the plugins listed by @Dtolman. The plugins listed by @Megalomaniac have not been added, as no links were provided.

It should be noted that neither Gnerphk nor myself use plugins. That means that we don't know where they are, what they do, what compatibility problems exists, or which ones are good/bad. It also means that we have no reason to search out new plugins. If adequate
information is provided, we'll add it. If not, ...

It would be helpful to the community if one of the Editors with plugin experience would take over this task.
1294 days, 21 hours, 28 minutes ago
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frostriese
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
You will find most of the addons wiht links and a very short description here: http://www.planetsmagazine.com/gettoknowplanets/addons/available-mods-for-planets-nu/
1294 days, 21 hours, 20 minutes ago
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dtolman
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
I updated the planetsmagazine page just this morning with new listings from the past few months, so as far as I know every mod ever made for planets.nu should be listed off of there.
1294 days, 21 hours, 9 minutes ago
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warhound
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
I like that you are posting about the plugins. But I feel that if the game is attract new players, we need development to push to a point where plugins are not needed to be able to use core features of the game. Things like chunk taxing should be developed out of the game, or made so its plainly obvious to new players this is a better way to tax instead of just setting a percent which is common in most games.
1294 days, 20 hours, 25 minutes ago
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major tom
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
It seems to me that planets.nu could start by hosting the best plugins directly from planets.nu. They would have to be carefully vetted of course. But, these would be loaded directly from planets.nu. They could add plugins to the settings page where users could turn them on or off.

This way, plugins would work without needing to monkey with browser extensions because they would not violate same origin policy.
1294 days, 19 hours, 59 minutes ago
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martinr
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@MT

Problem being plugins are second party programs not sponsored by Planets Nu. Has @BB the time to vet and guarantee that a long list of plugins are compatible? Then spend the time to confirm they are still compatible when he makes a minor change to the host or web site?

Probably not.

So if you use a plugin you use it with no guarantee of it not working.
1294 days, 19 hours, 37 minutes ago
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catflap
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Most of them work fine! Sometimes the one or other conflict appears when several addons (from different authors) are used simultanuosly, so you have to find the ones that work together without problems.
There are some very useful addons i don't want to miss - and i don't need them to be implemented into the game. They exist - just use them!
1294 days, 17 hours, 51 minutes ago
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glyn
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
The new/current web Client is the old web Client with many of the community mods integrated into its design... and Big Beefer started as a modder... so don't be surprised if addons become apart of the new-new Client some day.
____

@Megalomaniac: "Show minehits - Those nice Xs are so integral I forget there is a script involved in displaying them"

That is included in the new/current web Client, you don't need a script for it anymore. Whoa... deja vu, I've said this before I think.

"Minescoop script"

I think Big Beefer included this in the new web Client last year, but I may be wrong on this one.

"Future Mod ideas
Easier depiction of minerals in the ground or on the surface of a planet - "

McNimble has created his own script that does this, check it via the link in his profile.
____

@Ecatoncheires: "If a special, external web page would be needed to host all this"

Joshua approved the setup of the wiki at www.vgaplanets.org and you could possibly see if www.vgaplanets.ca guy is interested.
___

@Dtolman: I don't think you added McNimbles to the list. He has a comment on the page with a link to his site however.
1294 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes ago
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martinr
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Minescoop: You now have a nice yellow circle around your minefields when msc and in a minefield. So you can exactly scoop enough mines / web mines out of the range of enemy ships. So they may think they swept a number and then advance to the new border. But they slam into a mine / web mine.
1287 days, 15 hours, 9 minutes ago
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kedalion
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Rudel: I'm still here... I'm super busy with RL for some time now, so I took off some time from NU. I'm still gonna try to update my plugins some time. If anybody finds specific issues, please send me a PM. That way I won't miss it on the thread as I rarely get to read here. But I will add them to my todo list.
1287 days, 7 hours, 17 minutes ago
View rudel's profile
rudel
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Good to hear :) I'm only playing 1 game at a time, that's manageable even with a heavy RL and keeps me from getting a planets burnout. I have no idea why I remember you from the beta phase, but somehow the name stuck. ;)
1286 days, 17 hours, 33 minutes ago
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captain storm
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Ok, I am a total noob and could not get ANY plug in I tried to even work! Any ideas what I might be doing wrong. Some of these sound interesting, but I am disabled, mostly home bound, so have plenty of time to play. Just don't know what I am doing!
1286 days, 17 hours, 6 minutes ago
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cyrus
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Captain,
Skip the add-ons for now. Just learn the game and decide on add-ons as you see the need and understand their functions.
1286 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes ago
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guyeto
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
I could not get plugins to work with IE or Chrome, but I downloaded Firefox and they run beautifully.
1286 days, 13 hours, 51 minutes ago
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glyn
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
As of January 12, 2016... Internet Explorer is dead, good riddance.

Now we get to wait and see how awful Microsofts next abortion of a browser is.
1286 days, 13 hours, 47 minutes ago
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glyn
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
For help getting scripts working in the competent browsers, go here: http://www.planetsmagazine.com/gettoknowplanets/addons/installing-mods-with-planets-nu-2/


For the scripts, here:
http://www.planetsmagazine.com/gettoknowplanets/addons/available-mods-for-planets-nu/

And here for McNimbles scripts: http://chmeee.org/project/planets.nu
1286 days, 12 hours, 25 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Glyn,

> As of January 12, 2016... Internet Explorer is dead, good riddance.

No. As of January 12, 2016, the ONLY supported versions of IE are 11, and (on Vista only) 10. IE10 is not supported on OSes newer than Vista. IE11 is supported on Windows 10, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

Also, please remember that "no longer supported" is vastly different from "dead". This is clearly demonstrated by the millions of computers still running Windows XP.

> Now we get to wait and see how awful Microsofts next abortion of a browser is.

Why wait? Windows 10, with the Edge browser, has been in GA (General Availability) for over 6 months. If your system hasn't offered it to you, you can download it.

For anyone running, or wishing to run, Windows 10, look here to remove the critical security issue (keystroke logger) and telemetry:

https://github.com/dfkt/win10-un*#&@

NOTE: Use of the this might be a violation of the EULA for some versions of Windows 10.

While I have not yet installed Windows 10, I've heard that it's the best Windows experience Microsoft has yet delivered. Also, the Edge browser is claimed to be considerably faster than IE11.
1286 days, 12 hours, 13 minutes ago
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kedalion
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
I've seen Edge and it looked and handled fine on my friend's computer, but have no idea if or how it supports plugins. Has anybody actually tried Edge with plugins?
1286 days, 10 hours, 33 minutes ago
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glyn
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
Software isn't alive because it exists, it "goes live" on release... when people talk about software being dead or not, they tend to mean it is on the way out of everyday use... which is communicated from the developer as support being dropped. A dead browser can still be supported but dead to the public.

A dead language for example can still have people speaking it, but is classified as dead since it has fallen from everyday use.

Internet Explorer will be used for a long time to come, I still see Netscape being used (unless the set it up to report as Netscape as joke).
1286 days, 10 hours, 25 minutes ago
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glyn
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
I use OpenBSD now... so Win 8.1 is as far as I got... outside removing Win10 and putting Win7 back on for a few friends (multiple times, damn updates!)
1285 days, 19 hours, 46 minutes ago
View whisperer's profile
whisperer
RE: Plugins make PlanetsNu even more fun. Actually, I'm not...Write Reply
@Glyn,

> I use OpenBSD now

I would be happy to use UNIX or Linux as my desktop. I've used various flavors of UNIX since before you were born, and I'm moderately well versed in how to use it. Unfortunately, many of the apps that I use on a daily basis don't exist for any UNIX or Linux.

UNIX, Linux and BSD are all fine tools, and for some tasks, they're the best tool, but not for all tasks.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MAJ5GG

@Foolish+Troll,

> when people talk about software being dead or not, they tend to mean it is on the way out of everyday use

Of course, there are several ways for software to become "dead". By specifying a date of the death, you imply that there was an event on that date that caused the death to happen. I clearly described the IE-related events that occurred on that date, and none of them are related to IE dying.

> A dead browser can still be supported but dead to the public.

While this statement is true, it does not apply to IE at this time. FYI, as per your favorite data source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers), IE has 50% of the hits from desktop systems. That's hardly dead to the public.