Thargoid Worlds

[Redspear]

Here a clip from the Digibitter

What? That old rag...

They all had something I think but typically lacked a decent ending.

Years ago I asked a friend which alien film she liked best and she said Aliens vs Predator.
After my initial surprise I thought that wasn't a terrible pick/pic.

The new Romulus one is interesting in places, even if it does rehash more than one of its predecessors.

[Pleb]

The first two are the best. I have spoken. This is the way.

[Cholmondely]

How's this?

According to my AppleMac .plist parser, it is syntactically sound.

But I have no idea where the station is "named" in the "thargoidifier.js" file, so I have no idea how to rename it so that it appears!


shipdata-overrides.plist:

Code: Select all

	"Thargoidificated Coriolis" = // name needs tweaking to conform to what is in the "thargoidifier.js" file?
	{	like_ship = "KW_CoriWreck"; // I think this is the "name" in the Wreck.oxp
		name = "Coriolis Station";  // needs tweaking to conform to what is in the "thargoidifier.js" file?
		is_carrier = 1;
		"market_capacity" = 0;
		"market_definition" = (
			{
				// no market
				"type" = "default";
				"price_multiplier" = 0;
				"price_randomiser" = 0;
				"quantity_multiplier" = 0;
				"capacity" = 0;
			}
		);
		"market_monitored" = no;
	};

[Cholmondely]

2. The market: I think everything should be thwarted except a prisoner-exchange - you bring in an "alien item"/captured Thargoid, they sell an equivalent number of their slaves (Galcop citizens desperately awaiting rescue). Thoughts on this, anyone?

They will massacre all non-Thargoids.

If there were some way of communicating with them first, they might let me live to get to them long enough to do a deal. Or they might well just try to murder me too. Would they have allowed any "slaves" to survive?

[user2357]

there was stuff in the Dark Wheel/original docs that came w/ the game that said they lived in hives, i believe like towering termite mounds. presumably they were on a planet, maybe the ship are similar inside.

For completeness (I like completeness) [Don't mind me]:

Space Trader's Flight Training Manual (SBG38/B1), pp. 50 - 51

Insectoids. The most dangerous insectoidal life form is
the Thargoid, which is mentioned in the Combat section.
Insectoidals are usually highly intelligent, often existing
as a group mind. There is rarely any individuality among
insectoids, and the trader must beware making deals in
such a way. One life form builds earth cities up to four
miles high, and over four million drones live in the
middle levels. According to legend, any trader who
voluntarily ascends the earth passageway from ground
to upper surface of these immense mounds is honoured
with the rare title Ascender of the Scent City. And then
consumed alive. But trading with insectoids can be
immensely profitable, as there are so many of them (to
trade in wrist watches, for example, means two to four
watches per individual in a clone-group of perhaps ten
thousand).

In dealing with any alien life-form, for the purposes of
trade, there are three cardinal rules:

Learn the body language of the alien race
Cover up your body scent
Beware of Carapace concealed weapons.

[Cholmondely]

"Guard your shyness, human arts graduate goat!"

I notice that the most recent incarnation includes "Station_Self_Destruction" as an optional OXP.

"requires_oxps" = (
{
"identifier" = "oolite.oxp.Killer_Wolf.Wrecked_Coriolis";
"version" = "1.0";
"description" = "Provides a unique, detailed space-station model.";
}
);
"optional_oxps" = (
{
"identifier" = "oolite.oxp.Wildeblood.Station_Self_Destruction";
"version" = "1.0";
"description" = "Provides a method of revenge against Thargoid invasion.";
}
);

I am becoming more and more convinced that this "optional OXP" field does absolutely nothing other than act as information for the handful of people who break open OXZs and peer at the manifest.plist. Am I wrong?


And the "requires" field will do nothing other than block the usage of the OXP unless the required OXP is on the Expansions Manager.



I was wondering if the market should be changed for the KW's "Wreck OXP" - either no market for an abandoned wreck (and no ability to dock either?) - or dirt-low prices with no demand at all for commodites while everybody is still fleeing the station (would also need to have lots of ships undocking and fleeing - and appropriate messages broadcast: "Flee! Flee! Run/Scuttle/Fly/Hop for your lives!")

And... difficult to dock and take advantage of the prices (no break in those launching) - and you might need to bribe the stevedores to stay and load your ship (unless you can offer them safe passage to somewhere).

[Wildeblood]

I am becoming more and more convinced that this "optional OXP" field does absolutely nothing other than act as information for the handful of people who break open OXZs and peer at the manifest.plist. Am I wrong?

I've no idea. I assume it's visible if you press whichever key displays the full description while browsing the expansion manager, but that's just an assumption.

And the "requires" field will do nothing other than block the usage of the OXP unless the required OXP is on the Expansions Manager.

There you are wrong. It doesn't have to be available through the manager, it has to be among your add-ons ManagedAddOns. Making it available through the manager is just the most convenient way of getting it to be among your add-ons ManagedAddOns.

The only changes I made from KW's ZIP file were deleting the test script that made it spawn in every system, and adding a manifest file with the identifier "oolite.oxp.Killer_Wolf.Wrecked_Coriolis" (and deleting a hidden Thumbs.db file dating from 2010 ). Then I uploaded it here:

https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... riolis.oxz

Edit: Damn it. ManagedAddOns. Whatever.

[Wildeblood]

I was wondering if the market should be changed for the KW's "Wreck OXP" - either no market for an abandoned wreck (and no ability to dock either?) - or dirt-low prices with no demand at all for commodites while everybody is still fleeing the station (would also need to have lots of ships undocking and fleeing - and appropriate messages broadcast: "Flee! Flee! Run/Scuttle/Fly/Hop for your lives!")

And... difficult to dock and take advantage of the prices (no break in those launching) - and you might need to bribe the stevedores to stay and load your ship (unless you can offer them safe passage to somewhere).

Yeah, well. You're off on one of your tangents again.

If you set the system tech level to 0, the station will only sell fuel - no equipment for sale and no ships for sale. And the market script I've included in Thargoidifier blocks trade in all commodities except Thargons and slaves, with the number of slaves they're offering matched to the remaining population displayed on F7.

Updating that detail on F7 after you rescue some could be an interesting challenge in kitchen-sink-ification (for Someone Else, who is not me).

Speaking of F7, this looks suspiciously like a placeholder function:

Code: Select all

    this._createSystemDescription = function (sysID) {
        return "Mostly harmless.";

     // const sys = System.infoForSystem(galaxyNumber, sysID);
     // DO SOMETHING
     // return SOME TEXT;
    };

[Pleb]

They will massacre all non-Thargoids.

If there were some way of communicating with them first, they might let me live to get to them long enough to do a deal. Or they might well just try to murder me too. Would they have allowed any "slaves" to survive?

Any 'Thargoid' systems would be purged of anything that isn't Thargoid. So any stations would be wrecks or simply just destroyed. Planets would be purged of all non-Thargoid life. Essentially, if they take over a system, they'll just wipe it out. That's my understanding anyway...

[Wildeblood]

Any 'Thargoid' systems would be purged of anything that isn't Thargoid. So any stations would be wrecks or simply just destroyed. Planets would be purged of all non-Thargoid life. Essentially, if they take over a system, they'll just wipe it out. That's my understanding anyway...

Yes, but that makes the whole concept of a "Thargoid-conquered system" utterly pointless. Apart from the presence of a star and planet (contributing nothing to game-play), it would be indistinguishable from interstellar space. If you just want to shoot bugs, you can do that any time.

So we need to bend the rules.

[cbr]

conquered-planets terraformed by replacing the planet texture with something else?

[Wildeblood]

Conquered-planets terraformed by replacing the planet texture with something else?

That's a good idea. My Thargoforming only goes as far as the Thargoids renaming any planet they conquer to "Thar-something".

Now I'll introduce a tangent: has anyone ever experimented with "seasons" for a planet, by periodically alternating textures?

[Cholmondely]

Yes, but that makes the whole concept of a "Thargoid-conquered system" utterly pointless. Apart from the presence of a star and planet (contributing nothing to game-play), it would be indistinguishable from interstellar space. If you just want to shoot bugs, you can do that any time.

So we need to bend the rules.

Does it? Really?

1) Arrive at enemy system => need to escape! Can't buy fuel at station, so have to sun-skim if fuel is low - and avoid the bugs whilst doing so!

2) One can possibly scoop a few alloys or Alien Items, or scavenge some asteroid minerals, but no trade presumably possible.

3) Possible anti-bug missions (locate and rescue hidden survivors/destroy something/capture a rare Thargon/spy on what is happening at the wreck or taking off from the planet surface etc).

4) Possible other missions - need to harvest rare resources or whatever.

5) Be part of a Resistance Commander-style operation debugging the system!

[Wildeblood]

Tonight we're gonna kitchen sink like it's P H K B time.

https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... difier.oxz

https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... riolis.oxz

[Killer Wolf]

Any 'Thargoid' systems would be purged of anything that isn't Thargoid. So any stations would be wrecks or simply just destroyed. Planets would be purged of all non-Thargoid life. Essentially, if they take over a system, they'll just wipe it out. That's my understanding anyway...

Yes, but that makes the whole concept of a "Thargoid-conquered system" utterly pointless. Apart from the presence of a star and planet (contributing nothing to game-play), it would be indistinguishable from interstellar space. If you just want to shoot bugs, you can do that any time.

So we need to bend the rules.

Maybe they dominate/subjugate the place but keep entire planets/stations fairly intact to use as freshly stocked pantries. that would enable missions to go in and free/rescue people etc.