Tales from the spacelanes...

[snork]

To get more complaints in the line of "I use sensible suns, ..., to make up for the boring looooong flight to the sun..." ?

-----------------------

CapnSweek - a pity you did not survive long enough to see those strange blips on the scanner suddenly multiply.
Makes for a nice little bit of panicking.

[Smivs]

I've been testing the Battle Damage WIP a lot of late, and got a nasty surprise recently. My testing consisted of getting shot to hell, then surviving so I could dock and save and have a look at the save file and the log.
On one occassion, I'd got well beat-up at a nice low-tech Anarchy and lost my energy unit and injectors amongst other things, so was happy to see my next stop was a Rich Industrial TL14.
I jumped there expecting it to be safe, so started cruising planetward under torus drive. I got masslocked by a Boa and her escorts so just carried on at 'normal' full speed. Next thing I know about 10 other ships appeared on the scanner. It was a Python with escorts, and a whole bunch of pirates. The pirates attacked both traders, and a lonesome Viper that also appeared, and the mother of all furballs commenced, with me right in the middle! I really didn't want to get involved so just maintained my course. One of the pirates, a Cobra Mk III targeted me and opened fire. In my weakened state I would not last long, so I targeted him and emptied the forward laser into it, and to my relief he blew just as the gun overheated.
There were ships and laser-beams everywhere, and I'd all but given up any hope of surviving, but this time I got lucky. The others were all so busy with each other they all ignored me, and after what seemed like an eternity the last one disappeared off the bottom of the scanner. I hit the Torus and made a bee-line for the station.

[CapnSkweek]

Nice writeup Smivs. It is a relief when you can sneak off without getting shot up.

[snork]

...

This is perfectly what I like when playing Oolite.

Ship all torn down, vital equipment damaged, then finally come to a system with adequate TL, and a "safe" system even - and then all hell breaks loose.

love it.

[SandJ]

I decided to start again with a Cobra Mk I by selling the Mk III and using the 7k ₢ cach-back for equipment. That was a mistake.

The non-upgradeable 10 tonne cargo bay means making money is a very slow process, made even slower by promising myself I wouldn't use any OXPs for trading, e.g. ConStores. And after many hours of playing, making about 450 ₢ on each round trip, I was bored. Very bored. It didn't help when I saved up and bought an Ore Processor before remembering this tin can does not have side laser mounts.

So I installed the Galactic Navy OXP so at least I could volunteer for some missions. At Galactic Navy Sector Three Command ("SecCom 3" to you) at Isinor they politely turned me down ("You'd be a liability - you wouldn't last 5 minutes.")

So off I go again, scoop some more fuel (I can't afford to BUY the stuff) and set off to cart another 10 tonnes of Furs across space.

Except the Thargoids had other plans for me. I appeared in Witchspace surrounded by coloured dots on the scanner - loads of Thargoids. But purple dots too - one behemoth and three other Navy ships. I had been pulled into a Thargoid ambush.

I ran until I was no longer in the centre of the swarm and then turned and fired; was attacked, and so, having overheated my front beam laser, turned and ran, finishing off a chasing Thargoid warship with the rear laser.

And that's all the time it took for the brass knobs in the Navy to die. So much for ME not lasting 5 minutes!

So now I have a cloud of Thargoid ships all chasing me!

Using the standard rear-laser fighting tactics - sniping at maximum range - I took out another two Thargoid Warships and a whole handful of Thargon drones. The hardest part was the waiting for the lasers to cool down each time.

"Yeah, Military Lasers are like that" I hear you say. Err, no. Beam Lasers, front and back. No Extra Energy Unit, no Shield Boosters, no Missiles, no Energy Bomb. No side lasers, no Q-Bomb, no cloak. Remember, I'm saving up for a bigger ship. I have just the basic Dusty Cobweb™ shield and two DodgyCell NeverReddy™ energy units between me and sucking vacuum. And firing each Beam Laser drains a ⅓ of one of those energy units.

By this point I have a dilemma. I have enough fuel to jump back to Isinor. But these insects (or whatever they are) have a bounty on them.

I put my faith into the mythical Giles and prayed my Ingram lasers could keep cutting the chitin.

Next nearest in the Thargoid cloud chasing me is a Thargoid Carrier. This will take a while.

Three Warships die. There's a Thargoid Cruiser on my tail. (I wonder where the Carrier went?) It's 250 Credits for killing a Thargoid Cruiser, by the way. Even in my clockwork Mark I Cobra with a beam laser.

... another Warship bites the dust. I have now doubled my kill-score.

Oh, then it got really tough. Two Thargoid Warships on my tail, both at 20km. If I use my usual tactic - stop, face one, empty the front laser, turn, full speed, empty the rear laser - I will be dead before I take out either of them.

So we keep on running, with me slowing down enough for them to start hitting me and chucking out Thargons, but me close enough to start hitting back, then I push forward until my lasers cool down, rinse and repeat.

Eventually, I have milked them of all their Thargons, I hoped, then I just needed to hit the brakes and hope I can damage one when it gets within 15km before the pair of them take out my two energy banks. Or I could run away...

"Well use your unusual volcanoes for our cutlet!" Target lost. Bounty 100 Cr.

"We'll use your weird dust clouds for our steak!" They won't you know.

I headed back in the direction I had come from and mopped up. There were a few stray Thargons and another Warship and some wreckage. Shame my super-massive cargo hold already had its full quota of 10 tonnes of Furs.

Well, I jumped out of witchspace back to Isinor where I came from. "No heavy pirate presence" said the Welcome Mat. 20 seconds later there are three pirates on my tail!

"Kill one, then run away. Live to trade another day."

I was shaking all the way to the main station - it would be just my luck for the Docking Computer to ram me into the space station - I docked the ship myself.

Ship docked, and game saved. Phew! 39 kills, almost all Thargoids, 600.6 Credits richer (all bounties!), 2¼ hours Real Time playing. And I am back at the station I started from with the cargo I was trying to take to Ensoreus.

I left rated "Poor" and returned "Above Average". Wa-hey! Off to the Navy SecCom Station for a mission ... maybe they'll give me a medal.

"You need a few more kills before taking on the Thargoids. Come back when you've gained some combat experience."

Ha! What would a salaried desk-pilot like that know about real fighting?

[Talisker]

I think the Navy OXP should really change its tune if you have actual Thargoid kills... pretty funny as it is

[CapnSkweek]

Not a bad little hunting trip. Now that you've got the light work done, are you going to seek out some excitement?

[Diziet Sma]

I think the Navy OXP should really change its tune if you have actual Thargoid kills...

Oolite doesn't track what kind of kills you make.. no separate tally is kept of Thargoid kills, or any other.. Though perhaps it should.. for Thargoids at least..

That said, SandJ's experience does smack of typical bureaucratic idiocy at its best..

[Jack_Sterling]

What Ho chaps!
Sterling here. I've not reported in for a while, as I've been exploring. I have now been right round Galaxy One, returning to Lave a few jumps ago. I currently have 109 kills to my name and am ranked Above Average, but continue to avoid conflict where I can. I am happy to go to the aid of others, and of course will fight back if attacked, but I have so far resisted the temptation to become actively predatory.
BullDog One continues to serve me well - The Cobra Mk III is surely the Spitfire of these times, a truly impressive craft indeed. She is now very well equipped and I have recently installed a wormhole scanner and rock-hermit locator. The only piece of kit I lack is the military shield enhancement, which is still out of my price range, but must be my next priority.
There was a right old ding-dong here at Atriso on my run in. Multiple bandits and several Police vessels slugging it out, with a trader or two somewhere in the furball as well. The bogies were pretty tough as well, a Blackdog and Moray amongst them, and I did get shot up pretty badly, particularly by the cove in the Moray who snuck up on my six while I was busy dealing with a bandit Cobra Mk III. However the old crate hung together and we eventually made it safely to Atriso Main where I was able to have repairs made.
As I clearly need to raise some funds for the shield enhancers, I think for the next few weeks I'll be concentrating on trade/salvage so might look around for a good milk-run or two.

BullDog One docks at Atriso Main after sustaining heavy damage.

[SandJ]

What Ho chaps!

Our favourite ace pilot! Welcome back, Flying Officer Commander Sterling.

Still bringing the old bird in upside down I see.

[Jack_Sterling]

Still bringing the old bird in upside down I see.

Hrumph! Upside-down indeed! Nonesense, old chap, definitely sunny-side up.

[CommonSenseOTB]

Still bringing the old bird in upside down I see.

Hrumph! Upside-down indeed! Nonesense, old chap, definitely sunny-side up.

This is your brain on drugs.

Any questions?

[Solonar]

Thargoid Invasion!

Massive Thargoid invasion reported at, Vereza - Galaxy 3. I jumped into this system shortly after a failed bounty hunt. Damned GalCop stole my kill after the fugitive jumped out of one system and into the midst of a small navy frigate squadron. When I came into Vereza I got a comm message that said only, "THARGOID INVASION!". That was it, thus the title I chose for this report. I looked down the space lane and thought, "Holy crap! There is some weirdness going on up in there.." I counted eight (8) Thargoid carriers launching many Thargoid warships approaching planet orbit. I was only able to capture five of them in the picture before I went in to engage. I spent about two hours in this system along with GalCop and Navy vessels repelling the invasion. I rescued many police and navy personnel in the midst of the battle and in its aftermath.

[Commander McLane]

I'd be interested to learn which OXP this is from, and which version of the Thargoid Carrier it uses.

[Solonar]

Not really sure how this happened. This was the first time I ever encountered such a scene. I have Thargoid Carrier 2.0 though I hacked it slightly to ignore the stations in the planet orbit distance limit.