Mossfoot's Tales of Woe...

[spud42]

you shouldn't be listening to country music anyway. It'll rot your brain.

I'm liking this Mossfoot character more and more..

oh yeah..
Hyper radio tuned in and waiting....

now we have Brangalina on his tail...lol

[ClymAngus]

Everyone's getting in on this act......

[mossfoot]

I think everyone remembers the day the universe changed: 2084004

Not exactly the easiest date to make a meme out of, so most say forty-oh-four. The smart ones call it the Reboot.

4004 is when the universe went to hell. When the rich got richer, the poor got deader, and everyone flying the spacelanes lost someone they knew.

What's worse, I'm pretty sure I got a sneak preview of it way back when my dark days first started.

My own 4004 story goes like this: I was taking my revamped Adder to a system outside the Xexede Cluster on a typical cargo run. Computers, some metals, nothing special. It was all I could do for now because the more interesting work was drying up.

See, I'd been working with RRS for a while on some basic retrieval missions, earning a rep, and hanging out with the guys and gals there. It gave me a sense of purpose, and frankly that was something I'd been lacking for a while now. I thought things were going good.

But the rescue guys were getting all quiet. There had been a lull in pirate activity, and it was spooking the hell out of them. You'd think they'd be happy, but it's not like there had been a huge sweep of GalCop activity flushing them out. In fact, GalCop Navy patrols had also dropped significantly. Just some basic recon being noted in each system. Where had all the naval ships gone?

The same word was on everyone's lips: Thargoids.

Some of the RRS said there was a war going on in Witchspace and we were being kept in the dark. Others said they had found the Thargoid's home sector and were mobilizing for a major offensive. But neither of these accounted for the pirates--the idea of hiring them as mercenaries didn't quite track. It would take a hell of a lot of money to convince them to join up, and if things were that desperate, we were all in trouble.

The truth, however, was far worse. The truth was the Thargoids didn't give a rat's ass about us any more than their usual "kill all humanoids" daily mantra and yoga routines.

The truth was, the universe was about to change.

So on 4004 I was heading planetward when I saw a fight going on in an asteroid field. I figured I'd check it out, see if some easy credits were to be made. I'm a coward through and through, but I got no problem playing the hero when the odds are in my favor. Makes for great pick-up lines at the local station bars, and sometimes some very grateful ship captains. Ladies.

Unfortunately they had just taken out their target when I locked on to the nearest Krait and opened fire. My beam laser usually makes short work of these jokers in their run down heaps. Only, instead of fighting back or jinking, the fighter breaks off, and one of his buddies lays into me. I turn to face him only to have him break off before I can get a shot off and start taking fire from a third. They were working in tandem weaving in and out so I didn't know which one was the current threat, keeping me off balance, taking down my shields to so many fizzled photons.

At first I thought I was running up against pros, but then I had the strangest feeling I'd seen this tactic before.

In my Fer De Lance. Back when I was happy and rich.

See, I'm not the galaxy's best fighter, but I am a damn good pilot. I know how to skin-dance an asteroid or dock on the outer hull of a cruise liner that's flying at full speed. I can bounce my ship off a planet's atmosphere so that I drift lazily up to a station like I'd banked my own eight-ball into a corner pocket. I can make my ship sing. And that's why I recognized these maneuvers being used.

Six vipers. My Fer De Lance. My body frozen on an asteroid amongst my own wreckage.

Space ninjas.

To say I wet myself would be embarrassing, yet completely accurate.

Rather than fight, my instincts now were to flee. Maybe use the asteroids to help provide cover. The only reason I wasn't already dead was because these guys were using pulse lasers, while the Vipers had military grade weapons. It gave me enough time to kick in my fuel injectors, run, try and use the asteroids as cover, and think.

Why on earth would the space ninjas downgrade to crappy pirate ships with even crappier weapons? That made no sense. But the maneuvers were exactly the same. Maybe the ninjas opened up a space dojo? Ridiculous. But here's the thing--they weren't just similar maneuvers. They were exactly the same maneuvers. I had that fight against the Vipers burned into my memory, and unlike other events in my life, it wasn't open to exaggeration. What had always terrified me most about it was the precision involved. Being outnumbered in a furball is scary enough, being outnumbered by a choreographed assault is terrifying.

I'd lost most of my major subsystems before I got out of their weapons range, only to run out of witchfuel. Now I needed to get to the space station before they could catch up. And unfortunately, Kraits are faster than Adders. My ironhide hull had taken a beating and quite frankly there wasn't much left holding me together. It was going to be a long, slow, terrifying race.

But my mind kept going back to the maneuvers. Pirates didn't cooperate like this. They were more an every-humanoid-for-itself kind of group. You had your swarms, and you had big bullies with smarmy sidekicks and all the rest, but this coordinated? Never. Even their attacks on large ships seemed more like gang-bangs than military strikes.

Then I thought back to the ASL Princess Cruise. About their leader I captured, only to be let go by the GalCops. That "ongoing investigation" excuse.

Something about that battle always bothered me. While it didn't have the same hallmarks as this, I did remember the defense pilots were mostly getting their asses kicked. And while I had the fight of my life taking them on, one could attribute that more to luck - since I was in an Adder and therefore nobody's priority target. I got through it by being underestimated, while Cobras and Mambas were going down left and right around me.

The Kraits were closing in. I was never going to make it to the station, and I was too close to the planet to Torus-drive even if I... wait. The planet. Rather than heading for the station I dove towards the planet. I had external heat shielding (well, most of it was intact anyway). If they didn't, they might give up, or hang back further, afraid to get too close planet-wise.

It worked. They fell back. Stayed locked on me, but wouldn't advance into the atmosphere. My retractable wings were shot to hell, though, so I wasn't going to be landing planetside any time soon. Still, I was able to use this to get closer to the station and enter the safety of its Aegis. Within ten minutes I was thumbing my nose as they ran from local Vipers and I prepared to celebrate another day alive and drink a hell of a lot of alcohol at the local bar.

And that's when I realized it hadn't just been a bad day for me. The bar was maybe half full, and no one was talking. Everyone was watching video feed from the all-news-networks, with headlines like "INVASION!" and "WAR!" And sure enough, some of the pilots there that had their own close encounters felt the same way.

Only it was neither of these things. The media was just being slow in figuring that out. Nothing new there... one station was still looking for a lost airliner on earth from god knows how many centuries ago. No, this was no invasion, and it wasn't war in the traditional sense. This was much, much worse.

Everyone remembers the day the universe changed: 4004. Some call it The Day The Pirates Got Smart. The smart ones call it the Reboot, because pirates never get smarter. They're just as stupid and greedy and self-centered as they always were. No, this was something else.

After I lost it all, I had always been convinced my dad had put the hit out on me. Why? Well, I've been over that before. Stupid, greedy, self-centered.... wait why does that all sound familiar? Never mind, the point is, I figured I was just an embarrassment to the family and he figured his legacy would be better off without me. And maybe that's true. After all, I was shot down by GalCop Vipers.

But another theory was building in my mind.

The tactics used by those Vipers and now by the Kraits, virtually identical in such a way that it hit the uncanny valley like an extinction level event asteroid.

I know what you're thinking--Artificial Intelligence. Well, not exactly. More like A.I. management of flight coordination. A.I. isn't at the point where it can truly fight for you. Not to mention even basic ECMs are known to interfere with their effectiveness (stations have to watch out for ECM use during automated docking maneuvers). And even Thargoids aren't keen on A.I. for their robot fighters without some kind of manual oversight on their warships. Given how long it took us to develop Hardened missiles to counter the ECM defense, I wouldn't expect great strides being made in pilotless ships anytime soon.

But this is different. What I saw then and what I'm seeing now is A.I. being used as a kind of on-the-move Command and Control unit. Not flying for the pilots, but telling them how to fly, what maneuver to use next, and sharing that information with the other ships, adapting and updating constantly when they deviate from the plan so that it fits into a new plan.

It would take months to train pilots to use the kind of systematic in-and-out hit and run tactics used on me, but with A.I. Management calling the shots? They could do fly like aces and not even realize it. All they know is they are scoring hits, getting hit less themselves, and taking down their prize quicker than ever before. As an individual, they suck pretty much as they did before, but as a group? Deadly.

How do I know this? Because I'd seen the software being developed in one of GalCop's Naval divisions during a reluctant visit and chewing out with dad--just one week before I sucked vacuum. The kicker of it is that it's one-hundred-percent software based. No hardware required. Any ship can update their computer's software and jack into the fleet of their choice.

Thing is, I thought the code was years away from being a reality. That's why my so-called space ninjas seemed like a more likely scenario for so long.

So if my dad wanted me wacked, why would he send out military grade ships, but use this new A.I.M. coordination on them? Testing? Perhaps. But he could no doubt get six of his best pilots to do the job right and not worry about unexpected beta bugs.

But if they used this A.I.M. to get to me, the possibility exists that six ordinary pilots did the job. And that raises all kinds of new questions.

And now the bigger question - how did the pirates get a hold of it? How did ALL the pirates get a hold of it? The more I watched the all-news-channels the more I saw this was hitting everyone everywhere. The Old Worlds, Galcenter, Xexede, the Iron Stars, you name it. Even out in the Pulsar Worlds. For weeks the pirates had kept their heads low, with only minor skirmishes by individuals or small unaffiliated groups. Then, in one day, they came back in force and spanked us like an S&M dominatrix.

I didn't leave the station for a week. Not many did. People were keeping their heads low till we had some idea of what was really going on. The Navy still hadn't returned, though there were some reports of seeing them on patrol in the farther reaches of the system, but none of that was confirmed.

GalCop had nothing official to say on the news--fact is, the Deep Space Operations division is separate from Planetary Security. Guess which division my dad works for? Guess I still won't be getting any Christmas cards from him.

In that week on the station we all saw the universe change. It was calculated that pirates scored more than the GNP of an entire Tech 12 planet in that time. Money that would go back to Anarchy worlds and not only rebuild, but improve their fleets. Eventually the media clued in to the real reason the pirate strikes were so effective, and have now gone into blame mode for the next week. The week after that will no doubt see the conspiracy theories pop up.

Stable systems went into lock-down, increasing patrols to make sure their interests own were defended, but at the expense of the other systems around them. Aid packages were revoked "for the duration of the crisis." Restrictions were added in all docking bays, as well as all kinds of "safety precautions" and additional paperwork. Detailed flight plans were required just to leave.

Anarchy or Feudal worlds found themselves not only slipping further into chaos, but effectively taken over by pirates, some of whom now had more money than the governments. Without the financial and military aid from neighboring better off worlds, there wasn't much they could do about it besides hold the homeworld and hope for the best.

And it only got worse.

Thanks to A.I.M., any straggler pirate in a beat up fighter could join an effective fighting force centered around a larger mothership, and go raid the wealthier planets. In response, these richer worlds installed their Viper fleets with captured A.I.M. software and organized strikes back into hostile territories. No longer in terms of military "aid" but attacks meant to cripple the offending system.

A new dichotomy emerged: If your corporate paradise happened to be surrounded by less stable worlds, you weren't safe anymore. And if your feudal state happened to be surrounded by corporations, you could expect them to routinely put you in your place. Which only ended up driving these governments to overtly or covertly fund the pirates...

There is no way in hell this can end well.

It no longer became about worlds cooperating to handle mutual problems despite their differences, it became world against world. Nobody's called it war--not yet--but if things keep going this way something has got to give.

Look, nobody ever said the galaxy was safe or stable before... but there was a new kind of organization and malice behind this new order that's made our humble space jockeys' skin crawl. The writing is on the wall, and it's in our own blood.

[mossfoot]

(the above was meant to creatively reflect changes in 1.80, such as A.I. as well as the way government systems now affect one another. Also the fact that 1.80 doesn't have the navy ship attachment anymore (unless I'm mistaken?) )

So where were you on 4004 when the Reboot happened?

[Diziet Sma]

(the above was meant to creatively reflect changes in 1.80, such as A.I. as well as the way government systems now affect one another.)

That became quite clear as I read it.. a brilliant description of the differences, and a very creative way to work it into the narrative..

Well done!

Also the fact that 1.80 doesn't have the navy ship attachment anymore (unless I'm mistaken?)

Well, the Galactic Navy OXP hasn't gone anywhere.. you can still install it -and the additions- if you like (though it hasn't been upgraded to take advantage of the new capabilities in 1.80, and may not be, unless someone else decides to take on the project. Nemoricus hasn't been seen around here in a long time. Hopefully, work on HIMSN will resume soon.)

So where were you on 4004 when the Reboot happened?

Well, as a trunk-playtester before 1.79 became 1.80, I've been living in the Reboot-ed Ooniverse for months now..

[mossfoot]

(the above was meant to creatively reflect changes in 1.80, such as A.I. as well as the way government systems now affect one another.)

That became quite clear as I read it.. a brilliant description of the differences, and a very creative way to work it into the narrative..

Well done!

Thanks. I figured it was a clever way to work in recent upgrade and advance the narrative behind Mossfoot's past. If the Navy add on never comes back, well, I can always come up with a reason for that...

[SteveKing]

So where were you on 4004 when the Reboot happened?

"Caught napping! You're damn right you were caught napping."

At least Mr Smith had the grace to look sheepish.

"Don't you dare consider jumping into an A-system again without an escape plan, or I'll have your liver on toast. This little repair job is going to set us back too many hours, not to mention the cost. I ought to have you pay for your beauty sleep doing a few taxi trips with tipless, tight-fisted corporate toadies out of Teanrebi when we next get some - if we ever get some - time out..."

But then again when Mrs. Smith slipped into an alliterative rant, he could get away with the occasional nod and... "Yes dear."

[Diziet Sma]

I'm not entirely clear on what you mean by "If the Navy add on never comes back". It hasn't gone away. Putting the GalNavy OXP into AddOns still works in 1.80 as normal.

On the other hand, (and my personal preference) you could install the current alpha of HIMSN instead. A far leaner, meaner Navy, is that. There is still much to be done with it, of course, but they already have a limited presence in-game. Just don't piss them off.. Navy Special Ops will hunt you down clear across the chart, if necessary!

Since it's a little hard to find in that thread, here's a link to the Current HIMSN alpha test release v0.701
(to install it, just put the OXZ into your AddOns folder, as if it were an OXP)

Oops.. posted an older version by mistake. Fixed.

[mossfoot]

I got a feeling it won't be long before stuff not updated for 1.80 in some way (If only to oxz status) will eventually be considered "abandoned" which is why I said that. Besides it looked pretty old gen graphics wise so I figured it hadn't been updated in a while.

I am intrigued by HIMSN and may check it out

[Diziet Sma]

Sorry.. posted older version by mistake.. fixed now..

[Ranthe]

(the above was meant to creatively reflect changes in 1.80, such as A.I. as well as the way government systems now affect one another. Also the fact that 1.80 doesn't have the navy ship attachment anymore (unless I'm mistaken?) )

So where were you on 4004 when the Reboot happened?

<shaking hands set down a near-empty tumbler of Vearinian Evil Juice>

"Where was I? Bound for Atrazama -a Poor Ag Feudal system - in Chart Two out of Lainor. Atomic Annie and I had passed through Atrazama in a few weeks ago with no issues, so I was pretty confident of going back the same way en route to Ansoreat with a lucrative gemstone contract. And I've got a 'Dangerous' combat rating, so I should have been all right. Right?

But it wasn't enough! By Giles, this time it wasn't enough! I got jumped by a pirate group practically right at the Atrazama beacon, and within moments I was being swarmed by dozens of attackers all baying for my cargo and hammering Annie's shields with what seemed like every mil-spec laser and missile in a seven light-year radius. It wasn't long before the shields were gone and we were taking laser hits directly on the hull. Even trying to run for it on full injectors wasn't enough, I couldn't even target more than two of my attackers before the big ol' Anaconda's systems began to fail and my cargo was spilling out into the big black...

<gulps rest of drink>

Thank Randomius I survived, but I don't know how. The next thing I remember is being back at Lainor Station in a med-bed along with half of my crew, with Atomic Annie's battered hull in space-dock with insurance assessors pouring all over her. They say that raiders from Anama and Inoran - Anarch and Feudal systems respectively - have joined up with those from Atrazama and are tearing solo traders apart in all three systems... and from what's being described on the newsfeeds it's happening all over the place.

Where the hell was the Galactic Navy in all this? I passed several full GalNavy squadrons inbound to Lainor and visited the GalNavy base there to trade foodstuffs and booze... but where are those uniformed flyboys when you need them? Parading up and down the space-lanes of safe systems while us traders are staring death in the face, that's what!

Why do we bother worrying about the Thargoids when we're doing such a good job of killing ourselves off?"

[mossfoot]

Once the conspiracy stories started on the all-news-networks I had the feeling it was safe to poke my head out of the rabbit hole again. They only do that once they've run out of real news to report, which meant some kind of stability had been reached--for a given value of stable.

It's funny, but for all the initial hype of invasion and war that turned out instead to be the galaxy's largest pirate raid, nobody seemed to pay much attention to who the real victims were. Space jockeys, truckers, freelancers, call us what you will--we're the ones who went down by the thousands in these attacks.

Instead they talk about the economy and lost revenue. They focus on cruise ships that were hit because they can get shots of a floating teddy bear with half its face burned off from a laser blast, and wait for their Pulitzer because they think they caught an image that captured the "horror of the day".

Now that things are somewhat stable again, some pundits are calling us traders lazy or cowardly for not getting out there and filling the space lanes with profit again. Oh, for a spiked titanium dildo and five minutes alone with those jackoffs.

It's still going to take a while to understand the ramifications of this new normal, but whatever it is, we've reached it. The pirates and rogue states that were behind organizing this strike really knew what they were doing. A.I.M. coordination was a devastating advantage, but they knew the balance would shift back quickly once the software was captured and spread amongst the various governments. Now even traders are using it for their escorts, and suddenly the balance of power has shifted towards the center again. So the rogues made the most of it while they could.

Latest reports are that total financial losses are actually closer to the GNP of THREE Tech 12 planets spread throughout the galaxy, not one. And the pirates didn't lose all that many ships in the grand scheme of things. Once things started turning against them, they turned tail and ran... with enough money to effectively rule whatever systems their bases are in.

Still sucks to be a lone trader, mind you, and this is what I mean about ramifications. The push is on for everyone to buddy up with two or three other ships and install A.I.M. coordination into their system. With all the losses we suffered the big transports will make a killing for a while, but there's a vacuum that's going to be filled by young and inexperienced pilots who are going to be terrified at the prospect of flying out there alone, regardless of incentive programs, and they'll buddy up with other noobs and A.I.M. up to even the odds.

You might think the days of the lone trader might be numbered, but I doubt it. See, one key difference in the previous attacks on me is that I didn't know what I was up against. Just knowing you're dealing with A.I. tactical coordination helps determine how you're going to defend yourself. The experienced space jockeys out there are going to adapt quickly and some smug would-be pirates are going to be in for a big surprise.

Point is, A.I.M. has been a big pain in everyone's butt, but the worst of it has passed. The danger is still there, but it's time for us to go out there and reclaim the space lanes... in my case from a distance... with fuel injectors at standby.

I guess thank goodness for small favors - a government wanting to create an empire could have used it to blitzkrieg across half the galaxy before the rest of us caught on. Hell, they might have been smarter and set their ships up with self-destruct or systems purging to prevent the software from falling into enemy hands. Who knows?

Questions remain, lots of them, but now that we've reached the new 'normal' I guess it's time to see if the boys at the shipyard have put my hunk of junk back together...

[mossfoot]

"What do you mean, SCRAP?"

"I mean I can't even let you fly this heap out of here to get a second opinion from a third-rate chop shop is what I mean. I'd lose my licence."

I knew my custom Adder was in bad shape after 4004, but I figured if I could land it, I could repair it.

"It's that Kit Kobra hull you got on. Heat melted parts of it, bent it into vital components, and going into the atmosphere after that didn't help. You're just lucky you had heat shielding left. Just about every system is compromised."

"But--"

"Look, if you were rich and this had any special meaning to you, I could restore it, sure. Would cost you the same as a new ship, though. So just let the insurance get you a new one. I know a guy who--"

"Right, insurance! Can't they pay to get it repaired?"

"I was trying to tell you before you so rudely interrupted. I know a guy who can get around the fact that you voided your insurance with this custom hull jobby. I'll have this pressed into a cube before any assessor knows otherwise. And you get a new factory spec Adder in the process. It's the best you're gonna do. Really."

I looked over the beautiful lines of my Neolite brand Kit Kobra Adder. I'm still no fan of the Adder, hell, even my combat multi-function-display seems to be surprised I'm flying one--keeps on warning me I'm on my last energy bank as if an Adder is suppose to have more than one.

But this ship had made life a bit easier, like I could pretend I was in something better, or at least more personal. Now I was getting stuck back in a squashed tissue box again. Yay.

***

The replacement Adder arrived two days later. I guess on the upside this time I had one right off the factory line. It had a bit more detailing than the earlier models which I often thought looked like they'd been made in a cheap 3D printer on some low-tech world sweat shop. But it was still a squashed tissue box.

"I don't know why you went with the Kit Kobra anyway," the mechanic said as he watched me go over the ship systems before taking ownership. "These days you could have just bought yourself a Hobby. It's what they're based on after all."

I frowned. "Hobby?"

"Yeah, you know, like the bird. Those Kit Kobras were Neolite's way of introducing their rival ship line to places like here. Places with exclusive contracts with folks like Cowell & MgRath, ZPG, Gerege Federation and Faulcon de Lacy. They're what the Big Four call "rogue shipbuilders", you know, like Outworld--not that the term ever hurt their Adder sales. Hell, it probably helps."

I wasn't so sure about that - I was always a bit iffy about the fact my ship was built by a company who didn't even have their headquarters listed on any galactic map. But they were cheap, and therefore popular.

"So, Neolite is a megacorp way out in one of those parts of the galaxy you need a Hopper to get to. Seven or eight hops away. You know, next door, but in the wrong direction."

A Hopper was this guy's slang for a one-shot galactic hyperdrive. A cute innocuous name for something mind-bending. You think witchfuel is expensive? Try spending 5000 credits on a single jump with no return ticket. Of course you end up in a whole new part of the galaxy as a result with hundreds of new worlds to explore. The downside is the only way to get home again is by doing the grand circuit around the Milky Way. 8 jumps, 40,000 credits. When someone discovers a way to Hop counter-clockwise, that person will be an instant quadrillionaire.

"Anyway, it used to be that all ships going around the galaxy were built in our neck of the woods, but that's not very efficient, is it? So the Big Four started licencing out franchises for factories. Only that raised the prices the farther out you went, even though it got cheaper for profits to return home the closer you got back to start. Economics, amiright?"

I shrugged. It's not like I invited this guy to babble on for an hour. Oh wait, I did by saying "Hobby?" Apparently that's enough to warrant a history of the galaxy being read aloud. I was satisfied with my new ship and added my personal (hacked) Ident crystal into the dashboard.

"So of course you got private ship-builders doing their own thing, but the main lines of ships are so popular that it's hard to compete. Then Neolite's president, Simon somethinorother, get's this great idea - copy the most popular designs, give them a sexy new hull design, screw the middle man and licences and voila! Worked like a charm and next thing you know they're everywhere in his part of the galaxy. Not much we can do about it here because it takes 40,000 credits just to get there to deliver a cease and desist order.

"But our neck of the galaxy is next on the grand tour for him. So when he tried to ship them here? They got impounded and melted down for patent violations. That's why he started the Kit Kobra side business. Get hobbyists excited about the look of his stuff, and it's perfectly legal--well, except for insurance problems, knowwhatimsayin? But the last year or so they've tweaked their designs to avoid lawsuits and there's nothing the Big Four can do about it. So you've seen the Neolites showing up more and more. The Neolite version of an Adder is called a Hobby, Asps are Hawks, Cobras are Eagles, you get the picture. Birds instead of snakes. So these days if you go to the right system you could have picked up a Hobby for the same price as an Adder."

It was true I had noticed a number of new ship designs, but hadn't clued in before now about the connection.

"So what's different about the Hobby over the Adder?"

"Not much. Most of the Neolite ships are still blatantly ripping off original designs, just with some minor tweaks. Slightly faster engines, different maneuverability. Usually it's a trade off of some kind. I think with the Hobby they gave up the missile slot for a more powerful energy bank."

Eh, I always thought a single missile was fairly useless anyway. But more energy? That could be interesting. Wonder if I could trade up?

"Well, thanks for the novel, pops, but I'm good. Systems check out. I'm going to take her for a ride."

"No worries, no worries. Just be careful out there. I hear them pirates have gotten a lot smarter since 4004."

I shrugged. "Not as smart as you think. But thanks."

I closed the hatch and got into the cockpit, then turned on the engines and waited for the systems to kick online. The bootup process was automatic, and the Ident crystal logged in my assumed ID.

Pilot Registration: Mossfoot

Then it asked for my ship's name. I sat back and thought about it. So here I was, stuck with a stock Adder again. Lord knows if I'll ever be flying anything else. But it is a brand new ship for once, so I might as well at least give it a proper name.

Ship ID Registration: Mossfoots Burden

No way to put in apostrophes? The future my ass.

[mossfoot]

(so the above is based on this neat little tweak Redspear made to the Neolite ships: https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f= ... 60#p221359 , allowing the Neolite ships to stay in the game but have a different pantheon of names associated with them, and allow for some minor variations on them. I personally love the idea - it effectively doubles the number of ship types out there, but in a way that isn't overwhelming. It reminds me more of how the Americans and Russians often have opposing fighters or helicopters that are meant to fill similar rolls and sometimes even look similar. My choice for a pantheon nameset is here: https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f= ... 75#p221410 . )

[Diziet Sma]

On the bright side, when 1.80.1 (aka the Bugfix Edition) comes out, you'll be able to rename your Addy to "Mossfoot's Burden".