[UPDATE RELEASE] - Thargoid Witchspace Drive 0.9.4 20/4/12

[Capt. Murphy]

Not an April fool - honest. Version number kept at 0.9.x pending confirmation of no other OXP conflicts. Should be working fine. Optionally uses OXPConfig v2.0.8 or above to configure some settings.

Download from the box - http://www.box.com/s/30d33df59d7e137fdf2d

The Goid's Head is a sleazy little bar on the lowest deck of Riedquat station. The Lethal Brandy is unusually lethal, and it's hard to see for the clouds of exhaled Megaweed vapour drifting quietly around the dank atmosphere. But it's a good place to hear some of the more interesting tall tales from the less salubrious corners of the eight.

As you walk in, scanning the motley assortment of humans and rodents who tend to call the establishment home you spot a grizzled old human gesticulating wildly and talking with a level of animation unusual for the venue and its generally heavily 'medicated' clientèle. He looks worn out with a tangled grey beard, long greasy hair and a wild look to his eyes that suggests far too many years alone in the spacelanes and far too little sleep. His fore-arms are heavily scarred with old Trumble bite marks.

You take a seat nearby, nursing a watered down brandy and start to play 'Angry Thargoids' on your ooPad, whilt listening surreptitiously to the old man.

"I tell you these things exist, I've had two. Thargoid Witchspace Drives are the real deal, a spacer's dream. I've crossed each chart many times in a single extended jump, crossed the Great Rift a dozen times and even got to Oresrati. They are fast too, for a lot of routes it beats the official records set by the witchspace relay racers using Quirium Drives."

The old man pauses.

"So have you got one on your ship? Let's go see this frakkin' wonder, Grand-dad", scoffs a purple mohicaned rodent, the old man's only audience.

The old man looks crestfallen.

"Umm no, it was confiscated at Zaonce a couple of weeks ago. Galcop seem to think it's forbidden tech. The first one blew up crossing the Great Rift. They're not always the most stable of devices. Need to get another."

The rodent laughs, "So where to buy a frakkin' unstable 'goid drive, Grand-dad?"

The old man looks pensive for a few seconds, before downing a greasy tumbler of glistening silver liquid. He shudders slightly, leans forward towards the rodent and lowers his voice. You watch his lips intently out of the corner of your eye.

"You can't buy a Thargoid Witchspace Drive. If you spend enough time hunting and killing 'goids in their natural habitat you'll eventually find one intact in the wreckage of a 'goid ship. Scoop it then find someone who can jury-rig it to your ship. Some of the more advanced Anarchies have tech-geeks with the necessary skill and disregard for the law. Some of them are better than others, and can tune the drive for a more stable configuration."

The rodent's interest is piqued, "'Goids natural habitat?"

"Yep", replies the old spacer, "Interstellar space. You know the score, max pitch or dive as you hit the witch-tunnel and boom, 'goid target practice." A predatory grin spreads slowly across his grizzled face, and his narrowed eyes gleam with pleasure at the thought.

"Frak!", mutters the rodent, "Interstellar space? Deliberate frakkin' misjump to go hunt some 'goids? Suicide space is what we frakkin' call it 'round 'ere. You're one crazy feline-frakker, Grand-dad, but I'll buy you another drink for the tale."

"Thanks, but don't call me Grand-dad, Murph is the name....."

Credits: Inspired by similar work by Mauiby de Fug, Okti and Switeck. A big thank-you to Switeck in particular for getting me interested in this concept, exhaustive testing, and for his constructive comments and discussion. Model and texture used courtesy of Thargoid. Also thanks to Okti, Eric Walch and Micha for testing a prototype.

License CC BY-NC-SA 3.0: Please feel free to adapt/reuse any of the code for use in your own projects.

Requires: Oolite 1.76

Dependencies.

This OXP has setting that can be accessed via OXPConfig v 2.08 or above. Not essential for it to be installed.

Notes.

More info, including notes for other OXPers re disabling the equipment from their script when necessary and some spoilers can be found in spoilers.rtf enclosed with this OXP

[Capt. Murphy]

To those that have downloaded 0.9.1 please download 0.9.2 - silly little typo in the script. Thanks to Wildeblood for spotting it. Same download link from the first post.

[Capt. Murphy]

To those that have downloaded 0.9.1 please download 0.9.2 - silly little typo in the script. Thanks to Wildeblood for spotting it. Same download link from the first post.

Erm ..... 0.9.3 uploaded - sorry yet another typo (was isvalid, should be isValid) - really must test the 'simple' bits of code and not just the complicated bits

A few more teasers/clues.

What's this unusual radiation source - it's got a funky aura...? Lets scoop it.



Ahhh...

[Duggan]

Its a good oxp, I have captured the First variant twice thus far and will be catching it again later with the latest version of this imaginative oxp. I did wreck one of my saved games ( through my own stupidity) by jumping to Osrati in Galaxy 8 only to find myself unable to get out again.. Something to do with cats and curiosity methinks. maybe wait till I have the third or fourth variant before i go there again

[Solonar]

I like this one so far. I am currently on the second tier of this device. The jumping effect is a little weird but otherwise this one seems to work with no problems.

[Solonar]

Generation ship reported in the Beesve system - Galaxy 5!


Whoops! I must have dragged this generation ship with me in the sub-space turbulence created by the Thargoid witchdrive wormhole chain...

[Commander McLane]

Whoops! I must have dragged this generation ship with me in the sub-space turbulence created by the Thargoid witchdrive wormhole chain ...

... now imagine what kind of wormhole that ship must have left behind ...

[Solonar]

I have since reached the fourth tier of this device. It seems even at this level the police among the high tech worlds detect this device with great frequency. I have yet to pass through a high tech system without being spotted by the police.

[Capt. Murphy]

Thanks for the feedback Solonar. The way the probabilities works out for that variant 'on average' you could be expected to spotted if you spend about 1 minute 40 seconds within scanner-range of an unoccupied police vessel (compares to 12 seconds with the the first variant), in a system of an appropriate tech-level. It's a 5% detection chance tested every 5 seconds.

Too high a detection rate? The intention was that the player would still have to make an effort to 'sneak' past the Police even with that variant, and even then would still get caught out occasionally.

Is everything else as expected (energy use, where you can start it from?)

[Solonar]

The device itself works perfectly as it was intended by its design. I had no issues with it so far. I was able to dock with high tech space stations multiple times before having the device be confiscated from me, so that was not so bad. It was not being able to go into any high tech systems at all without being spotted by the police. With how it plays out it would be very difficult to avoid becoming a fugitive as long as one carries this device. Once spotted by the police one's criminal status tends to go up very quickly.

[Capt. Murphy]

Thanks,

Would you mind keeping half an eye on how often you are detected - it could just be that the dice rolls have been unkind to you so far? But if it really seems like too high a rate I'll reduce the frequency of the checks from 5 seconds to say 10 or 15 seconds (you'll still get caught out, but on average you'd need to be loitering around a police vessel for longer).

If you wanted to try that yourself and are confident in making minor script edits the lines you'd need to change are lines 221 and 255 both of which currently read - if (player.ship.equipmentStatus("EQ_MURPH_THARGOID_DRIVE") === "EQUIPMENT_OK" && system.techLevel > 10) {this.policeScanTimer = new Timer(this, this.scanForThargoidDrive,5,5);return}

The 5,5 represent the scan intervals. Change them to 10,10 or 15,15 on both lines.

[Solonar]

Thank you for the suggestion and I will make these observations. I will try the timer changes.

[Commander McLane]

Thanks for the feedback Solonar. The way the probabilities works out for that variant 'on average' you could be expected to spotted if you spend about 1 minute 40 seconds within scanner-range of an unoccupied police vessel (compares to 12 seconds with the the first variant), in a system of an appropriate tech-level. It's a 5% detection chance tested every 5 seconds.

Too high a detection rate? The intention was that the player would still have to make an effort to 'sneak' past the Police even with that variant, and even then would still get caught out occasionally.

I'd say it depends on your intention. If you want to give the player an actual chance to remain unspotted, then it's a far too high detection rate. I think there is a small error in your reasoning: to "spend about 1 minute 40 seconds within scanner-range of an unoccupied police vessel" does not mean to spend about 1 minute 40 seconds within scanner-range of one and the same unoccupied police vessel, but it means to spend about 1 minute 40 seconds within scanner-range of any unoccupied police vessel. It's not like a counter that is reset when one police vessel leaves your scanner range. You don't get 1'40'' again for the next police vessel. Every second (or at least every 5 seconds) spent in the vicinity of any police vessel adds up. So the player will very quickly reach the point where he has spent 1'40'' with different police ships on his scanner.

For every random chance that's re-evaluated after a couple of seconds, the condition will be met sooner or later. I had that when I tested the code that makes bargain equipment purchased at a Salvage Gang fail with a small random chance attached to a timer. I was surprised how quickly all my equipment had failed, even with a very small random chance. Because sooner or later it does meet the random chance, period.

If you want this effect for your OXP, it's fine. Everybody who uses the device will meet legal repercussions sooner or later, and usually it's going to be sooner than they think. That's in principle a good balance for an extremely powerful device. However, it could also be kind of an over-balancing, making the OXP less attractive for players as a result.

[Capt. Murphy]

Your absolutely right McLane (including about my simplified reasoning)- not an awful lot of thought went into the detection rates and there are a little high, although the intention does remain that this should be a noticeable disadvantage to the player to make up for the ubericity of the equipment item. Solonar - feedback from any adjustments you make is more than welcome, in the meantime I'll do some tests my end.

[Solonar]

I adjusted the timers as you suggested so that the scan timer runs once every 15 seconds. It was a little more manageable to work with but was still spotted with some frequency. With this new setting I was spotted most frequently when waiting in queue at the GalCop main station for docking clearance and this would be by police craft that often patrol near the station itself. I adjusted the timer again so that it is set for 60, hoping that means the timer runs once a minute.