Control Station 1.1.0: screens you program yourself – and backup power
Five new script screens up to the 3 × 2 m large display, own pictures via description or IC10 chip, and battery bays so the control room keeps running during a power cut.
I gave the Control Station a big upgrade. Until now the screens showed fixed pages – overview, power, rooms and so on. From 1.1.0 you decide what each screen shows.
Five new screens with own models: script screen small (0.5 × 0.5 m), medium (1 × 1 m) and large (2 × 1.5 m) for the wall, a script desk (1 × 0.5 m) for the floor and the large display with 3 × 2 m for halls and hangars. Each has a slot for an IC10 chip, a battery bay, the keys F1 and F2 and a main switch.
Own pictures without learning to program: in the screen description you write one line per element, for example value 1 3 "Room".Pressure format=kPa warn=110. Texts, values, bars, gauges, trend curves, symbols and flashing warning bands all work this way – with values straight from the devices, conditions and formats. There are no loops and nothing gets switched, so it is always safe.
For IC10 fans: a chip can write a draw list into the station memory with put – text via STR, colours via Color. Like in the control desk, the chip in the screen reaches every device on the data network.
And LUA: if you want to really program, write LUA 5.2 – with tick, key and alarm as events, read and switch device values, draw pictures. It runs in a sandbox on the server: no files, no network, limits for computing time and memory. An endless loop only stops that one script and shows you the line, the server keeps running. The interpreter is MoonSharp, which the game already ships.
Backup power: every Control Station device now has a battery bay, the control desk even two. Put a battery cell in – if the power fails, station, screens and chips just keep running. You see charge and remaining time on the screen, in the terminal and at the cursor. Charging only uses the grid's spare capacity, so it never tips a tight grid over.
And now you can hear them: buttons and the main switch click, the station audibly starts up and shuts down. If the power fails you hear the announcement "Warning", with an almost empty battery "Power low", and a chime when the grid is back. Chips and scripts report errors with a beep – and may play the game's speaker sounds themselves (s db SoundAlert Sound.Warning), at most 12 per minute. I only used the game's own sounds, they come in 3D from the device and can be switched off.
Everything is paintable too, and old saves load as usual – the battery bays are simply empty.
Server and all players need 1.1.0. More in the guide.