ToughGuys 4 OXP.

[Smivs]

This OXP affects the level of equipment fitted to many NPC ships and the skill of their pilots.
ToughGuys v4.0 is the latest version of this popular OXP, and has been designed for Oolite v1.77. It uses new features introduced in 1.77 which allow a much wider variety of NPC upgrades.

Better than before
Pirates will have a slightly increased chance of more defensive equipment such as shield boosters and ECMs. Some will have weapons upgrades as well, with the standard beam laser being replaced by military lasers on some ships, and most will have aft lasers. These may be pulse, beam or military grade. Many pirate pilots will also be much more skillful than 'core game' pirates to reflect the fact that they are seasoned fighters with a wealth of combat experience.
Many hunters will also be upgraded, with extra equipment and better weapons. These upgrades may be superior to that of the pirates due to the hunters' improved access to GalCop stations and supplies. Some will also be very skillful due to the experience they have gained pursueing their chosen profession.
Traders and escorts also get improvements. Their combat skills may not be quite up to the high standard of the 'professional' fighters, but this is compensated for by better access to equipment and more incentive to have well equipped ships. They will have the highest chance of extra defensive equipment, and will also frequently have upgraded weapons, both fore and aft.

Simpler than before
Unlike previous versions of this OXP, there is a single download file available. The download contains the 'base' OXP plus a selection of 'shipdata-overrides.plist's, one of which will need to be added to the OXP before use.
Full instructions are included in the download, and should be carefully read before use.
This OXP has been designed to work with the default ships, Griff's ships and Smivs'Shipset. It has not been tested with other ship sets but should work with any set which uses the default ship names (eg 'Adder').

Plug-in
There is also a plug-in OXP included in the download file. This 'Extra Mayhem' OXP adds more pirates and more ships.
Half of all systems visited will be unchanged, but around 4 in 10 systems will have an extra gang of pirates somewhere between the witchpoint and the planet, and in 1 in 10 systems there will be a pirate ambush at the witchpoint, and a couple of police ships will also be approaching the witchpoint area, but will be out of scanner range when you arrive.
'Pitbull' and 'Rottweiler' pirate command ships (modified Boas and Boa Class Cruisers) will also appear occassionally. These are very tough and well armed and will have a flotilla of smaller pirate ships escorting them.
You may also rarely see a GalCop Police Constrictor in Anarchy and Feudal systems, an attempt to control the pirate menace in these dangerous systems.

Download
ToughGuys 4 can be downloaded here.

Licence/Author/Credits

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

The OXP was developed by Smivs.

Special thanks go to Gizmo for many hours of testing and much invaluable feedback, Griff for help and advice regarding making this work with his ship sets, and to Cim for scripting help and advice.
Also many thanks to Cody, Another_Commander, Fatleaf and Gogz69 for help and advice with previous versions much of which has carried over into the current version.

[pagroove]

Sounds good Smivs. Will give it a test run soon. Although my Ooniverse is dangerous enough already.

[Smivs]

Great! Let me know how you find it - any feedback is welcome, particularly on the level of challenge, which I think is set quite tough at the moment.
The big difference you'll notice over previous versions is the variety - some of the pilots are fairly tame, most are pretty dangerous, but once in a while you'll come across a real hard nut