Tales from the spacelanes...

[Norby]

I'd got into the habit of keeping a stash of gemstones in the escape pod...

<grins> Yep!

Well, there is a note in my todo a year ago (since this post) to make a "GemCase" oxp which bring gems with the player in the pod up to 10.000g. An easy one just never get any priority due to my priorities somewhat controlled by requests which was surely limited by the fact that I never published my plan.

[Bugbear]

Heading in system at Erbebeti (a TL 11 Democracy in Chart 5), I was trying out my newly installed MDF Comms system and shouting out to anyone that cared to listen.

Minding my own business, I spied a Krait popping onto my scanner ahead of me, flying towards me. It was obviously under attack as it was pleading "Please! Don't shoot!" etc.

For some reason my fellow commanders in the spacelanes have been sounding much more desperate of late; I couldn't help but take pity and alter course to provide assistance.

Only problem was, the Krait had an Offender tag, and on his tail were two Vipers. In the past I would have allowed the cops to perform their duty, but I've been experiencing a moral dilemma of late. Surely a death sentence for an offender is a bit steep. So I opened fire on the Vipers.

Before I knew it, there were another two Vipers on my scanner, all four flashing red and purple. Seconds later, one of the Vipers was no more but unfortunately for me, neither were my shields. To add insult to injury, a couple of the yellow pips on my radar sensed an easy bounty and had turned red, also making a beeline for my rather large Boa.

I don't know what happened to the Krait because I had to hit the injectors and get the hell out of there. Thank goodness I still had half a tank left.

</immersion>

OK, so breaking out of immersion mode for a moment. As a Fugitive, I now get fined 5000Cr when I dock without clearance - unavoidable because the station won't give me clearance (and I suspect that traffic control take a rather dim view of a Boa injecting up to the slot, pulling a 90 degree turn and injecting into the station).

This means that I have no effective way of saving my game. How do other fugitives get around this in game? (Now that I write this, I wonder if the nearest Anarchy will allow a Fugitive to dock...)

A second question to Zireal and pkhb (authors of the MFD Broadcast OXZ) - as a Fugitive, when under attack, I have no way of saying to my attackers "Hey, cool your jets, I've got no beef with you". The possible broadcasts I can make in that scenario are either aggressive (i.e. taunt or threaten) or submissive (bribe or drop cargo). Would you think it feasible/internally consistent to provide a neutral broadcast option?

[Cody]

You can save at rock hermits now - very handy for fugitives.

Well, there is a note in my todo a year ago...

Thing is, very few players use escape pods!

[another_commander]

You can save at rock hermits now - very handy for fugitives.

Or at any non-main station defined as "deterministic" by the system populator, for that matter.

[Cody]

Or at any non-main station defined as "deterministic" by the system populator, for that matter.

Deterministic, eh? <chortles>

[Norby]

Deterministic, eh? <chortles>

Mean "this station is stay always in the same position", which is required to save at the moment due to technincal reasons. So moving dockable ships is not the places where you can save, just really stationary stations.

[phkb]

A second question to Zireal and pkhb (authors of the MFD Broadcast OXZ) - as a Fugitive, when under attack, I have no way of saying to my attackers "Hey, cool your jets, I've got no beef with you". The possible broadcasts I can make in that scenario are either aggressive (i.e. taunt or threaten) or submissive (bribe or drop cargo). Would you think it feasible/internally consistent to provide a neutral broadcast option?

I'll take your question over to the Broadcast MFD thread to answer.

[Bugbear]

You can save at rock hermits now - very handy for fugitives.

Nice. Thanks for the tip. My career as a fugitive (aka conscientious objector to police brutality and abuse of power) may have chance after all.

[Cody]

My career as a fugitive [snip] may have chance after all.

I thoroughly enjoyed my career as a fugitive, but I'm a courier now and that doesn't mix well with fugitive status.
If parcel contracts were ever extended to rock hermits, I could perhaps combine both careers - that'd be sweet!

[Paladin Tux]

You know when else the fuzz can be mean?
Starting off as a new commander in a Cobra (Yep, ditched the Wonderworm. It didn't look sick enough for my tastes.) I got a Taxi Galactica contract to Xeer in G1. Just the usua. Made a cool 8 thousand (I'm like, that's enough to buy a mil laser!). When I finished the contract, I realised that I really wanted be a combater. Not a silly old trader. I still don't see how the hell you stand flying an Annocoda! And being at Xeer, I decided to make for the near by Seccom to see if I could get some kind of job.

Stupidly I decided to use the Torus drive. So I arced around the planet and...

Ran straight into the middle of a realativly large pirate gang. I used the injectors and screamed to the nearby Seccom bouy. Then I just full on injected into the docking bay. With a few of the pirates still behind me (and the Navy doing nothing except for being decoration) I raced to the docking bay. I dodged a convieniantly placed navy minesweeper and finally. The navy responded when the minesweeper behind me lit up. I sighed with relieve then realised that I was still heading for the docking bay. Then my Wonderworm skills kicked in. You don't know how many times I have docked at Wonderworm torus drive speed, without a nav becon and with a fleet of vipers and vampires on my tail, or docking by ramming into a leaving sidewinder and turning 90 degrees into the docking port. Anyway, I used my epic skills to just barely make it through with one energy bank remaining.

Inside the station I took a breather, and applied for reserves. This is what I got:

Sorry commander, you're too green.

I'm surprised that you even made it here without crashing into the dock. The Thargoids would eat you alive...assuming you could even find them.

I'm like WTF! I was docking at injector ish speeds with pirates on my tail and you navy doing sh**!

Bust out the wonderworm! I've got a seccom to destroy!

[Ranthe]

So Commander Trescon, an occasional acquaintance and drinking buddy of mine, was telling me the other day about his recent encounters in the south-west sector of Chart Two. He used to be a 'Conda jockey, same as me, but after D.T.T Spaceways started building ships with a similar cargo capacity to the 'Conda that didn't move like an asthmatic ant with a full load of shopping he went over to the Dark Side(tm) and bought a D.T.T. Cyclops. Now I told him, the Cyclops-class is a nice ship an' all, but try getting parts for it out in the obscure ends of the galaxy - whereas the ubiquitous Anaconda can be repaired by practically anyone with a sledge-hammer and a stack of deck plates... but I digress.

Anyway. Trescon was doing a cargo run out of Onatzala, taking a full load of various luxuries, computers and other high-tech goods to Zaxerice. Pouakai dropped into the Zaxerice system without initial incident, and Trescon set course for the Zaxerice station, deciding that while being mass-locked by a Cobra MkIII off to his port side about he'd take the opportunity to do some test-firings of his forward guns. But the next thing he knows, the Cobra starts screaming "Here! You're not worth wasting money on…" out over the wideband, and promptly starts dumping cargo containers!

To say that Trescon was surprised was an understatement. I mean, he wasn't even firing in the general direction of The Raga, let alone having a target lock. Good grief, a D.T.T Cyclops isn't that threatening! But within a couple of minutes Trescon saw was was really giving the Cobra pilot grief: a wolf-pack of at least half-a-dozen raiders bearing down on him. So naturally he decided to assist, locking onto a renegade Mamba Escort at long range and blasting through its shields before finding himself in a full-on furball with ships flying every which way. He managed to get missile lock on another ship, but Trescon then said the funniest thing happened: as soon as Pouakai fired the missile all the 'marauders' broke off their attacks and tried to pretend nothing was happening ("Who? Me? I was just lurking, nothing to see here...")! Of The Raga though, Trescon reckoned he never saw it again...

Now cleared of mass-lock, Trescon engaged torus drive and resumed the journey to Zaxerice station. But a few minutes later Pouakai was again mass-locked by a ship at long range - which turned out to be the fugitive Fer-de-Lance Terrible Abomination with a 77CR bounty. "Right, I'll be having that!" Trescon declared, and once again locked onto his target at long range and pounding its shields with his military laser - forgetting that Pouakai still had her main drive running full-throttle. As a result, it wasn't long before both Pouakai and Terrible Abomination were within knife-fighting range, with both captains trying to swerve their ships into optimum firing position. At one point, the Ferdie was so close that nearly filled Pouakai's view-screen, and when the missile alarm went off Trescon thought he'd had it - but suddenly there was a violent BANG! and shudder throughout the ship, and all but one of the Cyclop's energy banks suddenly drained to zero. And when Trescon checked the scanner, all he could see was a missile (which bounced off what was left of his shields) and a rapidly expanding scattering of debris of what used to be the Terrible Abomination.

"Ramming always works", indeed!

[gammawolf]

It all started in good ol' Lave, with my unmarked Cobra III full to the brim with agricultural goods and fuel. It was my first time flying, and I could almost smell the profit beckoning. I paid for my cargo, chose a nearby planet and engaged the warpdrive. The engine hissed like a cat but I had made my first warpdrive journey.

Of course, that was where everything started to go wrong.

I was flipping through an old logbook full of piloting tips with one hand and steering with the other; an uncomfortable position, but at least I knew what I should do. 'Head to the docking station.' I read. Right. That should be simple. I leant back in my chair and eased the Torus drive on. My Cobra shot through space before abruptly slowing as I became masslocked. "Oh well," I murmured. "I'll just fly in normally." Turning my ship, I flew directly towards the planet - because that was where the docking station would be, right?

Half an hour later and singularly grumpy, I finally came within a couple of kilometres of the planet. I couldn't see the docking bay anywhere, so slowly I began to fly around the planet. I'd probably flown about half the way round - a very slow, moody half - when I spotted a small glint out in open space, space that I'd flown through twenty minutes ago.

The docking bay.

After giving my torus drive a few good kicks, I flew at top (but still achingly slow) speed towards it, fuming. I'd wasted fuel, time and a good mood to fly to that stupid planet, and now where was I? Flying towards yet another object in space.

After a good ten minutes I was facing the docking bay. Despite my sour expression, I was beginning to get a little excited. How much money would I make? What would I buy there? Where would I go next? I steered my Cobra round slowly, heading for the painfully narrow slot I had to fly in.

I wrestled with the controls for a couple of minutes, before accepting there was no way I'd get completely straight on. Timing my moment, I crept forward, rolling slowly with the docking bay. Once I thought the time was right, I slowly pressed accelerate and flew in.

Crash! The end screen greeted me as a Harmless pilot with 0 points.

[Disembodied]

Practice, gammawolf, practice ... and welcome aboard!

[gammawolf]

I'll get there at some point, although whether it'll be in an hour or a year I'm not sure.

[Disembodied]

There are some OXPs that can help you – you could try Thargoid's Neo-Docklights.