[WIP] Life in the Frontier OXP

[Cody]

Perhaps they'd be playing Uckers?

[Cholmondely]

Perhaps they'd be playing Uckers?

Of course, the Coriolis at Digebiti has a Real Tennis Court, a Croquet Lawn and a professional tournament-class Extreme Dominoes balcony... and the gambling that goes on...

[Cholmondely]

Perhaps they'd be playing Uckers?

And how many 8 piecers have you chalked up?

[Cody]

That's a very nice Uckers board - six-way too!

[Cholmondely]

Cody suggested these two bars for incorporation into this oxp:

His own from Coyote (there are several)

There's a quite unusual bar in Disembodied's Local Midnight in the Vacuum Bar

[Cody]

If someone could recreate Gasparyan's Grill (from Inside Straight), I'd be very impressed!

[Cholmondely]

Names (snitched from YAH)
Original list is here

Filleted so far: YAH A, B & C, Smiv's old Accessories OXP



Hotel chains:
Hooliday Inn
Sheratoon



Restaurants:
Pizza Hoot
-Deep Dish Thargoid
-Edible Arts Graduates
-Laveian Tree Grugs
-Galaedian So Soweed
-Goat Soup
Pink Flamingo Lounge (nude lasses!)
Booger King (Flame Broiled goodies)
Fritoo Lay
-Trumble Chips
Atanon's Premier Shrew and Stlogein Restaurant (G8)
Nandoos (from Smiv's Accessories oxp)



Coffee Shops:
Starbugs
Caffe Neroo (from Smiv's Accessories oxp)
Coosta (from Smiv's Accessories oxp)
StarbOoks (from Smiv's Accessories oxp)
Cooffee Republic (from Smiv's Accessories oxp)



Food:
Lave Fried Trumble (may contain metal fragments)
Edible Arts Graduates
Raaleian Edible Poet
Ranteian Edible Poet
Fritoo Lay Trumble Chips
Laveian Tree Grubs
Aunt Edna's Goat Soup
Soylent Green - part of a complete Breakfast
Enalno Bananas
Clucking Joe's Cat Preserves (for Avians - anti-Feline?)
Atnian killer edible treeoids
Aaanqu exotic goat soup
Dianedian edible grub
Engelaian fabulous monkey burgers
Tetiedian exotic fish meat
Orriaian wold cutlet
Onxequte fabulous monkey steak
Absolut Lethal Brandy
Noocearso Brown Ale
Atistiso Doner Kebab




Drinks:
Bibean Lethal Brandy
Poopsi
Lethal Zamaon Water
Oopsi Cola
Oo-Lite (coca cola bottle: the drink of the stars)
Brendesi Coffee
Atanonian vicious Stlogein brew
Dirazaian vicious Mare brew
Larivearian evil brandy
Ontilain killer gargle blasters
Orised killer Grecouso juice
Rarereian lethal brandy
Solageonian lethal water
Rohan's Real Earth Ale with Honey




I stumbled across a set of random generators here: https://donjon.bin.sh/site_index.html

Of interest for LitF are
5e Business Events
5e Carousing Events
Alien RPG Cargo Runs
Alien RPG Colony Encounters
Alien RPG Job Generator
Alien RPG Military Missions
Alien RPG Random Generator
etc, etc.

Much of this I'm flagging for its potential in providing conversation text rather than missions. Eg Alien RPG Military Missions provides conversation to be overheard in a military bar, for example.

[Cholmondely]

Addition for Church of St Giles (new gubbins in red)

________________________________________________________________

CGC/Church of Giles the Creator

You enter an antechamber with an open doorway to the church behind it.

1) No service, church deserted (but invisible electronic watchers spying)
Peering through the doorway you can see a dimly lit room with some sort of boat in the middle of it, sitting in a moat that runs across the room from left to right. On your side of the room are pews, plaques on the walls and a path through to the boat. On the other side is a landing and an altar with a large heavy book on it. There seem to be large golden mathematical symbols carved into the walls on the far side. To the far left is some sort of tower with what looks like three sets of wings or platforms poking out of the top half of it. There also seem to be a set of massive dice on the right side. Most peculiar. {Any chance of blurring the picture of the pylon to make it fit?}



<I don't know. I don't want to know. How should I know? Let me out of here!>
<These religious fanatics do well for themselves, hunh? All that gold on the walls. Right: where am I going next?>
<How fascinating! I see there is a service in another half an hour. Maybe I'll come back then.>
<A holy church of St Giles the Creator! I must say a short prayer.>
<Interesting. Let me see what is on the other side of this trench!> - alarm rings, lights flash,
<Oops! Better scarper>
<Let me see if I can grab anything here! I'd better be quick!> somebody eventually comes - but the visit was recorded...

2) Service (possibly on return 30 mins later)
The antechamber is brightly lit and some people are milling around in it. They slowly filter through to the chapel and sit in the pews.
<Let me out of here! I'm not a religious nutter!> flees!

<I'll make my way to a pew, I want to see what happens here!>
<A service! Super! I want to pray.>
As people settle down, spiritual music wells out of the ceiling, and an impressive figure in golden robes swinging a gem-encrusted thurible makes his way from the antechamber doorway to the boat moored in the moat. The boat carries him over the moat and as the music reaches a crescendo he moves to the golden alter and opens the book. Holding it, he turns and faces the congregation.

Optional addition (maybe just at Feudal states?): An acolyte then enters bearing aloft a large golden platter with some sort of mouldering blue-ish substance on top. As it is carried by you, you catch a whiff. It is quite ghastly - something between rotting flesh and mouldering fungus. It is ceremoniously deposited on the alter, and everybody bows.

The congregation cry aloud: "For thee, Saint Giles! For thee!"

The officiant starts intoning a prayer - about the Occultation of St Giles & the Holy Jens and a plea for their return. Apparently they are needed to help cure the sourness of modern apples.

This is followed by a prayer for the poor of the <planet beneath> and the need for all to help them.

There is then a collection. <How much do you give?>

There is a final blessing, and the service is over. People wend their way home or back to work without talking.

<Time to go! Where next?>
________________________________________________________________

[Massively Locked]

Cholmondely-

v0.04 is up. Since the Dodo is the latest layout, the following systems in Galaxy 1 are Dodos: Aleusqu, Arxeza, Biarge, Bierle, Ceesxe, Cevege, Enonla, Ensoreus, Entizadi, Gerete, Lerelace, Malama, Onlema, Onrira, Ororqu, Rexebe, Riredi, Sorace, Tianve, Tionisla, Veisti, Xexedi.

[Cholmondely]

Cholly's chuntering: Initial observations.

Much better than the original!

Got successfully scragged by your lobsters - and then successfully healed in the health centre. Got the HDBG screen twice on arrival at the Coriolis, once for the docking fees, second time for LitF.



Minor "buts":

*Music (Arquebus's jukebox oxp) & station noise (BGS oxp) cuts out while LitF-ing.

*Got so lost waltzing around in the Rock Hermit that I had to quit the game to get back to my ship.
- maybe some signage (eg to the bar which can be followed back to the ship - or find someone who tells me how to get back to my ship.


Now off to dig up a Dodo!

Edited to add:

Dug up my Dodo!

Well Done. Very different feel. You scored again!

[Cholmondely]

Guide to Resources

Original Battleplan (3 posts)



1) Bookshops with links to books
Books (Intro to Cheesy Wotsit)
Books (Cheesy Wotsit, Elements of Plumbing, Manetho & Euclid)
Books (cim's Ship's Manual on sociology & history)
Books (Combat Manoeuvers)



2) Churches
Witchspace Lobster
St Giles with extra added blue cheese
Randomius Factoria, Happy Eye, Zenarchy, Black Monks of St Herod



3) Bars & Restaurants, Food & Drink



4) Using the ship's mediStim bay



5) Slot Machine/Fruit Machine/One-armed bandit (links to free code)



6) Edited & expanded random encounters text

Some further goodies from the thread above:
Mohawk's bumping into someone you interacted with in space before docking
Ffuture's wish to spend the game's downtime in LitF activities
Mohawk's downtime in LitF activities, view contracts etc in LitF, getting hurt
Ngalo's differentiating between RH's
Libervuto's juicier deals in the bar
Norby's addition of names, Station Dock Control & Sell-All seedy buyers
PAGroove's inclusion of Station Dock Control, contracts & HOopy games
Sundiver's Hunt the Wumpus (would be better with a Trumble, I think!)

Important note:

This is one of those projects that could benefit a lot from a 'stone soup' approach. As it is, the framework is interesting but very incomplete, and there's not enough random events, outcomes, and missions to sustain interest for long. If the author ever returns and the engine got a proper re-working, everyone in the community could contribute a few events each to it and really flesh it out. I'm not just talking ideas, I mean, actually send a few paragraphs of text descriptions each (those who feel comfortable with writing, that is, and from the looks of things around here that seems to be quite a few) to the creator for use in the oxp. The creator adds them in, and before long an oxp with twenty random events has fifty, or a hundred, or more, with everybody interested pitching in a little.

This should go here:
Phantogorth's Coriolis Interior

[Cholmondely]

Since one can now vary what goes in to correspond to the species below, how about this church variant for the Witchspace Lobster?

For Lobster worlds (possibly some batrachian/reptilian/humanoid worlds too?):

Some parts of the station are "underwater" - including the temple!

The corridors are quite different: there is an air-filled glass passageway running through the centre of the water-filled hallway with connections to doors along the walls. The water-filled hallways are populated by lobstoids, some batrachians, reptiles & humanoids, and some pet fish on leashes. There is no interraction between the two spaces, except possibly at "tank" rooms, where the water dwellers can enter the airspace through a well at the bottom of the air-filled tank room.

Witchspace Lobster Temple (Lobstoid Worlds water-logged variant)
1) Temple is 'empty'
You enter a air-filled space inside a circular room: the room is full of water, but your space is inside it (rather like a fish-tank) and is separated from the water in the shrine by glass walls. You can see an altar at the far end, bizarre metallic adornments dangling from the ceiling and various metal grilles separating this room from what lies beyond. There are also a couple of doors.
<Scarper!>

Over the altar is a design which you can barely make out a blurred version of this (the emblem of their Supreme Seer, the Ebriated Veneration):


2) Temple contains worshippers
Entering the door, you find yourself in a glass-lined air-filled space surrounded by a room full of water - and of lobstoids. They face the far wall which contains an altar and are sacrificing some sort of what seems to be an air-breathing being at it. One of the lobstoids turns around and notices you. It strikes another over the head and they both move towards your tank. They peer in through the glass walls and goggle at you.
<Scarper!>

<I stand my ground and motion that I have come to worship the Holy Decapod>
They return to their former positions and ignore your presence.

<I stand my ground and ignore them>
They start beating at the walls protecting you.

<Scarper!>
Next choice...

<I leave!>
The two lobstoids follow you out of the room into the hallway, and move with you as you walk down it, keeping pace with your movements.

<Scarper!>
<Something else?!>

[Cody]

Oi! Come back 'ere with my Rolling Thunder decal!

[Cholmondely]

Oi! Come back 'ere with my Rolling Thunder decal!

?

That's the holy icon of the Gross Prophet of the Weird and Wondrous Witchspace Lobster. Go and argue with him, if you dare...

[Cholmondely]

Govt Offices (ML's new addition)

Not the same as BB's GalCop Precinct.

This is the representation of the Planetary Govt on an Orbital Station which they have either partially paid for (eg Dodo at a Corporate State) or allowed GalCop to put up but contribute minimally too (the inexistent governments of Anarchies, Feudals, etc).

There are also differences regarding influence over the GalCop viper patrols in system (anarchies - no influence, GalCop pays for all of it. Feudals - ditto for all but a few systems, if any. Multi-Govt - ditto (maybe one or two planetary govts give a pittance to GalCop). Dictatorships & Commies pay for their own Navy/police forces which "co-operate" with GalCop's vipers. Confederacies would be more likely to rely on GalCop than Democracies & Corporates, which might also have their own navies.

There will be a planetary "Station Viceroy/High Consul/Governer" of some sort or another (see BB's notes about a commie Peoples Palace, etc.) whose powers will be constrained by GalCop.

Brainstorming
What would the Planetary Govt need the offices for? I'm not thinking about programming issues here.

This list is attempting to be exhaustive in considering all possibilities. In reality, constraints of available resources and pirate/Thargoid/enemy system activities will intervene and make this merely a wish-list for some systems...

*Important meetings with visiting dignitaries (GalCop, other systems) who lack the time to go down-planet

*Trade Office
- organising permits for imports (or even exports?) - and would they be needed for both legal & illegal items?
- advertising needed items to traders who won't go downplanet so that they can get them (a source of some cargo contracts to be brought to this orbital)
- attempts to sell planetary exports - some sort of showroom, maybe
- investing down planet

*Immigration control - middle/long term visas to go downplanet (Diplomancy only sells batches of one day visas to visit the orbital & to go downplanet). See Redspear's Station Variation.oxp ideas. Since this is controlled by the system govt, not GalCop, the length of the visa should vary from system to system (5 days or 3 months in one, 7 days or 50 days in another, etc). Oh - and do all planets rotate at the same speed?
•Dealing with arriving Refugee Adders
•Emergency one-day visas - a highly-priced visa for those who forgot to buy Diplomancy's cheapo before docking, thus allowing travel throughout the system. (needs to be disabled if Diplomancy is not present).

*Tourist Office - logical, but could be a major pain to make realistic/believable, since the planets are so different, especially with Famous Planets loaded!

•Citizen's Office - Services for citizens (new passports, other stuff - what do our embassies do? Emergency loans? Advice on travel to other systems)
Question - who controls the local Orbital Station Police force? In anarchies, it is obviously GalCop. In a dodo, paid for by the local system government, it would probably be the local system government - and this would be very important for Commies and Dictators to (try and) achieve (source of local machiavellian politics?). See Malacandra's super description.

•Spies - spying and counterspying

•Local Naval Office - mostly dealing with procurement of goodies for the system's navy, if there is one? Not for Feudals (each noble provides instead). Important for Dictatorships & Commies. Would some of the Corporates & Democracies just leave this sort of stuff to GalCop (whom they pay to provide the better Viper Interceptor patrols?).

•Local Solar system control - regulating Rock Hermits/Mining Outposts/Salvage Gangs etc (possible source of information as to where they are?) and other space stations, regulating Deep Space Dredgers, asteroid clearances, stuff to do with other planets in the system (if any), watching what goes on at the Witchpoint beacon, etc. This could be the source of some of the more relevant GalCop missions.

So what?
The Govt Offices will contain the following suites:

*Viceroy's Palace/Suite - only obviously relevant for eg Picking up the feal tribute from a Feudal State for a more important Feudal State
One would never get into it otherwise, unless possibly of ****Elite**** or noble rank and invited to a social gathering - or asked to perform an errand... Irrelevant for LitF v.1.0 unless the Feudal States tie-in is seen as important enough. Of course with Dictators loaded there would be differences between the agricultural juntas (naval officers) and industrial empires (nobles).

*Trade Office - Irrelevant for LitF v.1.0 (needs to be tied in with Smugglers/NewCargoes/Home System/a new contract system for bringing in imports)

*Immigration Control - Irrelevant for LitF v.1.0 (needs to be tied in with Diplomancy & possibly PlanetFall) - but can add flavour text for refugee adders, etc.

*Tourist Office - does anyone have any ideas about handling this one?

*Citizen's Office - Irrelevant for LitF v.1.0 (needs to be tied in with Diplomancy)

*Spies - Irrelevant for LitF v.1.0? And hidden away, anyways.

*Local Naval Office - only if the system has a navy - see ramblings at top of thread.

*Local solar system control office - ditto. There might be a licensing system for the rock hermits etc. in weaker systems - but how would it be enforced?



Appendix:

Stationmaster's Office. For the day-to-day running of the Station.
Depending on the system this might be
a) in the GalCop precinct (Anarchies? Some feudals? All Multi-govt's?),
b) in the Govt Offices (Commies? Dictators? Some of the Corporates/Democracies? Fewer of the Confederacies)
c) elsewhere (handful of wealthy feudals, remaining Corporates/Democracies/Confederacies)