Ship index

[rjwut]

Until v2.3.0, bit 2.2 of the player ship object was ship number (1-based). We are uncertain what field it is now. We suspect bit 5.8 is now ship index (0-based), but we've also observed a value of 0xff, which puts makes that less certain. Ship number/index is a pretty important value to know, so let's try to figure out what it is.

[NoseyNick]

PlayerShip bit 5.8 is ShipNum, char/byte.
0=Artemis 1=Intrepid 2=Aegis etc. 255=fighter (or -1 if you're signed I guess?)

[NoseyNick]

Not sure what bit 2.2 became. Seems to still be an int. Almost always 0 except when it's 1 ☹️

[StarryWisdom]

if you set the char of bit 5.8 to always be 0 you are unable to select any ship other than ship 1 (IE 0) on the client and connect - thus I think 5.8 has to be ship num, 0xff being fighter as suggested seem likely esp if it was a signed value and set to -1 as an "this is not a ship num" value (this presumably can be tested with captures?)

[NoseyNick]

Analysis of my "top 15 capture files with the most ShipNums", obviously messed up by those pesky humans being allowed to rename ships and even fighters, but hopefully fairly convincing?

      5 ShipNum=>0 Name=Artemis  <<<
      1 ShipNum=>0 Name=Cygnus
      1 ShipNum=>0 Name=Hopper
      5 ShipNum=>0 Name=ISN Oblivion
      1 ShipNum=>0 Name=USFP Minnow
      1 ShipNum=>0 Name=USN Luna In Umbra

      1 ShipNum=>1 Name=Blazitron Ind. EscortSvc
      5 ShipNum=>1 Name=ISN Relentless
      5 ShipNum=>1 Name=Intrepid  <<<
      1 ShipNum=>1 Name=Tommy Wiseau
      1 ShipNum=>1 Name=UES Tauntology
      1 ShipNum=>1 Name=USN Crasher

      6 ShipNum=>2 Name=Aegis  <<<
      1 ShipNum=>2 Name=BORG!!!
      5 ShipNum=>2 Name=ISN Invictus
      1 ShipNum=>2 Name=Red 4

      6 ShipNum=>3 Name=Horatio  <<<
      5 ShipNum=>3 Name=ISN Excision
      1 ShipNum=>3 Name=Red 1

      5 ShipNum=>4 Name=Excalibur  <<<
      1 ShipNum=>4 Name=Red 3
      1 ShipNum=>4 Name=USN Phoenix

      5 ShipNum=>5 Name=Hera  <<<
      1 ShipNum=>5 Name=Red 2

      1 ShipNum=>6 Name=BORG
      5 ShipNum=>6 Name=Ceres  <<<
      1 ShipNum=>6 Name=Red 1
      1 ShipNum=>6 Name=Slate's Spiffy

      5 ShipNum=>7 Name=Diana  <<<
      1 ShipNum=>7 Name=TSN Phoenix
      1 ShipNum=>7 Name=cygnus

      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=AHA-2
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=ComJNJ-0
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=DeeETE-0
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=KEK-0
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=KTK-0
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=LTL-0
      3 ShipNum=>255 Name=Odysseus
      2 ShipNum=>255 Name=Perseus
      3 ShipNum=>255 Name=Proteus
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=RRR-1
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=TJT-1
      4 ShipNum=>255 Name=Theseus
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=USU-2
      1 ShipNum=>255 Name=YVY-0

Where parser.pl has had "ShipNum" on bit 5.8 for all v2.3.0+ files for quite a while