Split from the Larger Convoys topic in Suggestion Box
Ok, Convoys OXP is available in the manager under the Mechanics category. Now more freighters can fly in the same group to create large convoys occasionally. Small ships also make large formations sometimes to defend themselves, as well as pirates, hunters and police, especially in bad governments. Even miners and shuttles can be seen in formation.
The central ship in a convoy is the leader, named like "Boa Leader". This ship is stronger than others because often hold aft laser and better shields. Defeating fugitive leaders pay high bounties.
Moreover Convoys OXP contain a patch for Escort Formations which was written before Oolite 1.79 therefore missed many new ship roles.
Please test it (so find convoys with leaders) and report your feelings.
I would think larger convoys would be seen more in less safe area's, safety in numbers?
Exactly. The wiki say that the number of ships will be between "min" and "max", with "max" more likely in Anarchy systems and "min" more likely in Corporate States.
Freighter Convoys OXP is also available in the manager. This add more ships into a group but without gameplay changes to fit into the Ambience category. You can install it next to Convoys OXP which create only small convoys in safe systems. If you use these together then you will have larger freighter convoys in the best systems too. But if you want to use only cosmetic packages then install Freighter Convoys alone.
{ "role" = "[boa]"; min = 1; max = 5; },
{ "role" = "escort-medium"; min = -2; max = 6; },
{ "role" = "escort-heavy"; min = -3; max = 4; },
Usually in the average governments somewhat less boa and more escorts are predicted but rarely possible to see Boas even without escorts.
Of course we can fix this by increasing the "min" values of escorts but I think better if we leave this as is, because the original goal is to make some new fleets which was not seen before.
Of course we can fix this by increasing the "min" values of escorts but I think better if we leave this as is, because the original goal is to make some new fleets which was not seen before.
If it is expected, although seldom, it's fine by me.
This reminds me that once I looked for a way to get a random number in a normal ("bell curve") distribution (PRNGs provide a uniform distribution). It seems to me that a number of OXPs try to approximate it using methods more or less... empirical.
Thank you, fixed by v1.1 both in Convoys and Freighter Convoys. Moreover:
-Pirate leaders show the assigned bounties in their names.
-More variations for many convoys.
-New red lookout for Thargoid Queen, the leader of the largest alien convoy.
Although I'm not sure about putting the bounty amount into the ship name. It's a bit of an immersion breaker in my view, as by default no other offender or fugitive has their bounty displayed that way. Plus, there's also the Bounty Informer and the Bounty Scanner which do the same job for all ships, but would end up duplicating the same information (I suspect - I'm not sure because I don't use them in my Oolite universe!).