I think this is probably a question for EP, here's the situation. I am doing a bubble checker script, using the TWX Proxy database to get the information. I am using a setAvoid command to put an avoid on the entrance to the bubble. Then, I am using the getDistance command to check for routes to and from each bubble sector and the bubble gate.

In the documentation, it says getDistance will return a value of -1 if there isn't enough data in the database to plot the route. But, after running my script, it appears that if there is an avoid set on the database, getDistance will also return a -1 value. Same thing for getCourse.

I have the entire universe explored in the game. And to test and make sure the data is in the database, I commented out the setAvoid line and added a clearAllAvoids command on the next line. When I ran the script after doing this, I got distances to all the bubble sectors.

If you want the true distance, I guess you need to clear internal avoids before doing getDistance. Makes sense to me...

So, it would seem that if there is an avoid set on the database it treats this just like no data in the database.

My question is, how hard would it be to change this? It would be very confusing if you weren't sure you had the universe 100% explored, since you get this same value back for courses with an avoid in them or courses with insufficient data to plot the course.

If you are busy adding more important changes and improvements to TWX Proxy I can understand you not being able to make this change, or at least not until some release further into the future. Like courses with an avoid returning 0 or -2 and courses with truly not enough data returning the -1 value. Although I could see how this would be a problem if you accidentally tried to plot a course from a sector to that same sector - that might need to return the 0, or an error code that you can't plot a course to the same sector?

Or would this kind of change be impossible/so complicated that it just wouldn't really be feasible? Thanks, Thor

Like courses with an avoid returning 0 or -2 and courses with truly not enough data returning the -1 value. Although I could see how this would be a problem if you accidentally tried to plot a course from a sector to that same sector - that might need to return the 0, or an error code that you can't plot a course to the same sector?

Are you saying that if there is ANY avoid set in the database, then getDistance returns -1 for ALL courses? If so, then I agree it needs to change.

However, if getDistance returns -1 when you have an avoid set that prevents you from getting to your destination, then I think -1 is the correct value for getDistance, because there is no valid course to that sector when avoids are set.

One thing that's confusing is twx database avoids are not synchronized with trade wars avoids. They are two different things, and if you didn't realize that it would cause confusion.



I could see -2 maybe, but not 0. Like you said, if getDistance returns 0 that means the distance is 0 and therefore the destination sector is the same as the current sector.

What you can do is plot a course using trade wars itself. The internal getDistance and getCourse requires warp data, but trade wars course plotting does not.

AC, I don't think it gives a -1 for all plots with just one TWX avoid set. And I do have the script done for getting the information directly from Tradewars, using a CIM query. So it's not a big deal to me. But, the script to get the info from Tradewars itself takes at least 20 times as long, probably 100 times as long -- would have to add a timer in each script to see for sure, or time it with a stopwatch. I do know the TWX database routine runs in a matter of a few seconds, the CIM based version of the script takes minutes to run.

As I've said before, I'm not a programmer, so I don't know how trivial/non trivial this change would be for EP in TWX Proxy. It just seems to be a sub-optimal solution using the same variable to indicate 2 different types of conditions - Condition 1, not enough data in the database, and Condition 2, avoid in the route.

I already know how I can do it in the TWX database version of the script too, was just thinking it would be better for new scripters starting out with no programming/scripting experience if they had different values being returned, they wouldn't have to think of work arounds. Maybe I shouldn't have brought it up? Pro scripters might just think it's nitpicking, probably also knowing how to work around it.