Various ideas, OXP and main game?

[Zark Montor]

Idea 1
My one gripe with Elite (no gripes with Oolite, as yet) has always been the lack of ranks, (as of now i have 590 points, thanks to the constrictor hunt giving me about 250) putting me at "Dangerous". so here is my first Idea, whack in a few extra ranks, After Harmless and Mostly Harmless, what about Fluffy? or Clumsy? Poor, Average, Above Average, Venomous before Dangerous, Deadly, Fatal and Elite. Add/replace with humourous ones?

Idea 1.5
Ranks only attainable once certain criteria are met... Harmless players need to have docked manually at least 50 times?!?

Idea 2
Build a fleet. Ok this one is restrictive, but buying a hollowed out asteroid at a Bar (Basic one with say 2 dock ports and basic security features for around 2 mill) enabling me to keep my Cobbie and say a small freighter for haulin'. This would be galaxy restricted, so you don't get to pull your asteroid into the next galaxy when you jump! Richer players can go for something that can handle a larger ship and a couple of bounty hunter vehicles, with enhancements being bought though rock hermits and other less than trustworthy outlets. This would allow a great deal of increased gameplay, perhaps putting Elite status out to 12800 kills (my ideas tend to link into each other) tweakage!

Idea-lets (little ideas)
Maintenance or lack of, affecting the performance of enhancements as well as trade in value, crumpled armour plating reducing storage, decompression closing off vast parts of cargo hold.

We have trumbles, what about those spider parasites the guy has in The Dark Wheel? Infection and quarantine from contracting a nasty strain of space herpes, at the overnight stay at Ontiat?

I accept that some of these ideas might have been covered in other OXP's that i haven't seen yet, or by other posts, so, sorry if you've covered these umpteen times before!

Regards

[Zark Montor]

Whack in the Iron Ass rating as an additional field, so you start off at Lave with 100 cr, Bare Ass'd, buy a cargo bay doesn't change a damn thing, or a pair of paper underpants, buy an ECM might put you in a nappy, Military laser gives you an Ablative Thong.... And so on and on and Ad Nauseum!

[Zireael]

Idea 1 and 1.5 can probably be easily done.

There is a precedent for both - in some versions of Elite, there was an additional rank of Archangel attained by completing a mission (roughly equivalent to Oolite's Thargoid Plans).

I see ranks as:

Harmless -> Mostly Harmless -> Poor -> Average -> Above Average -> Competent (128) -> something (256) -> Dangerous (512) -> Venomous* (1024) -> Deadly (2560) -> Fatal* (circa 4000) -> ELITE (6400)

* means new rank

Any name ideas for the filler rank between Competent and Dangerous?

[Disembodied]

Any name ideas for the filler rank between Competent and Dangerous?

"Skilled", maybe? Or "Capable"?

There are some job-specific ranks available via some existing OXPs, for example [wiki]Random Hits OXP[/wiki], and quasi-ranks via [wiki]Display reputation OXP[/wiki].

[Zark Montor]

Monitored, Observed? Something invoking a feeling of being watched, either positively or darkly.

[Smivs]

Maintenance or lack of, affecting the performance of enhancements as well as trade in value, crumpled armour plating reducing storage, decompression closing off vast parts of cargo hold.

Lack of maintenance affects more than just trade-in, it can also affect your ship in negative ways
On a similar theme my Battle Damage OXP adds hull damage during combat, and failure to repair this can lead to mis-jumps or fuel leaks.

We have trumbles, what about those spider parasites the guy has in The Dark Wheel?

Jellybaby anyone?

[Zark Montor]

Jelly babies, i think on some planets, they'd be a narcotic!

[Zireael]

Any name ideas for the filler rank between Competent and Dangerous?

"Skilled", maybe? Or "Capable"?

Skilled sounds great, now how do I make an OXP which adds more Elite Federation ranks??

[Zark Montor]

I saw an OXP called drones, which i like the concept of, but it sounds too overpowered for me to use, like laser cooling, it tips the spear in my favour, which detracts from the game, but a Drone Mount removing 2 missile mounts, that deploys a reusable (and destroyable) drone that can be scooped and replaced, if destroyed, appeals to me! Cost should be mildly prohibitive to a H/MH, but a pre-requesite on anyone above competent.

Love the escorts OXP, but it'd be nice to see it extended to in flight assistance and offers after saving someones crippled Boa.

I hope i'm not being a nuisance!

[Zark Montor]

So, no one likes the build-a-fleet idea? or is it available already?

[Cody]

... in some versions of Elite, there was an additional rank of Archangel...

That was in Elite Plus, but it wasn't an additional rank - it was merely a dumb title that replaced 'Commander'.

[Zark Montor]

Archangel sounds like it could be the missing one then, i like it, its so "ARCH" (bleh!)

[Diziet Sma]

So, no one likes the build-a-fleet idea? or is it available already?

The idea has been discussed in considerable depth.. at the moment, it's not really possible, as the player IS the ship, so far as the game's concerned.. there are some large obstacles to overcome before that can change.. however, the core code is slowly moving in that direction, I believe.. one day it will probably be possible to own multiple ships.

Some work was also done on an OXP solution to this, but development in this direction has stopped, for a variety of reasons.

[Zireael]

Admiral, would adding more rank names in description.plist break the DisplayRatingStringFromKillCount function in core?

[cim]

Admiral, would adding more rank names in description.plist break the DisplayRatingStringFromKillCount function in core?

It wouldn't break it, but only the first 9 entries will get used whatever they're called, and always at the same kill counts.