Screenshots

[Cholmondely]

hi CaptKev, the busy ports oxp is sort of in limbo at the moment, plus it's also fairly old and doesn't have any shaders, so if you want the 'trade outpost' with all the glowy lights and ads and stuff you can find it in the link Commander McLane posted above.
If anybody wants any of the ships out of the busy ports oxp then feel free to grab them.

Griff,

what were you trying to do with "busy ports"? Before reality hit and you found that you couldn't. Some of it seems obvious, but I wonder if I've missed anything.

[Cholmondely]

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As I understand these were to be a port (top - now a Black Monk Monastery) with a mining robot (bottom - now in Random Hits)



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And these below included a freighter with 6 cargo pods (now in dictators). But what about the rest? What were they supposed to be? And do?



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Might there be sense in removing the Busy Ports elements simulating asteroid mining from Random Hits? They are currently linked with Bounty Hunter hangouts in anarchies! That is the only place I encounter them in my Ooniverse.

Would it not be better to link them with Rock Hermits and Mining stations (such as Imperial Astrofactories/SLAPUS/Kiota Manufacturing stations/SW's KOS-M etc.)? Then the mining activity occurs where expected, and adds ambience where it makes sense!

Would it not be possible to add in the "Busy Ports" elements around our stations? We now have the AI for some of it (Thargoid's Hammerhead).

[Griff]

Re: busy ports.
If you look really close at the bottom screenshot there's these tiny 'claw' like ships, a bit like an upsidedown Y, these were going to spawn from the big train like ship which would park somewhere near the station. The tiny ships would transfer cargo from the big train ship over to the station one cargo pod at a time lol they had an AI that flew them roughly in front of the station bay and then full speed into the docking port, this probably would have been a nightmare in game for players!

I think the tall ship with two engines hung around the asteroid miners and collected the ore the miners were going to eject every now and again, and maybe ferry it over to the big train ship.

The gun looking thing with the two big metal ears was a security turret in the asteroid field to help defend everything, and the black monk ship was a security escort for the big train ship.

[cbr]

Excellent fuel buy from thargoid carrier.



Plasma turrets still work though!

[Cholmondely]

Re: busy ports.
...

Thanks for the information!

But back to your original thinking...

"busy ports" implies (to me) that you wanted realistic activity around the main orbital stations and (from the asteroid mining) the surrounding systems too.

What were you hoping to do?

Was it just having mining goods visibly extracted and then carted to the main station for sale? Or were there other things in mind too?

Was there something which you saw which had inspired you? Another game, or a film or some such?





PS: I'm sorry, I'd have put this in your original thread, but I could not find one dedicated to your Busy Ports.

[Griff]

Yeah, it was just a wish to see lots of things happening around the main stations in game or out in the asteroid fields. I always liked those huge ships parked up by the stations in Frontier, I always imagined them loading or unloading cargo

I think the plan of the oxp was just to write a few AI's that all depended on each other and would make these 'looping' centers of activity the player could happen across and just watch for a while, another idea was to have medical stations and morays etc in orbit around planets cursed with diseases in the descriptions etc. in the end I didn't really know this to get the AI's to work and to be honest I think the objects found better homes in the other OXP's

I'm sure there was a busy ports.oxp thread, but yeah there's no sign of one, interestingly I just had a look and it seems the 'Trade outpost' station was originally part of all this too as I'm yapping about it in some posts around 2007 or so

[Cholmondely]

Yeah, it was just a wish to see lots of things happening around the main stations in game or out in the asteroid fields. I always liked those huge ships parked up by the stations in Frontier, I always imagined them loading or unloading cargo

I think the plan of the oxp was just to write a few AI's that all depended on each other and would make these 'looping' centers of activity the player could happen across and just watch for a while, another idea was to have medical stations and morays etc in orbit around planets cursed with diseases in the descriptions etc. in the end I didn't really know this to get the AI's to work and to be honest I think the objects found better homes in the other OXP's

I'm sure there was a busy ports.oxp thread, but yeah there's no sign of one, interestingly I just had a look and it seems the 'Trade outpost' station was originally part of all this too as I'm yapping about it in some posts around 2007 or so

Interesting. You seem to be the only person (i) to have identified this as an issue & (ii) to have tried to do something concrete about it. How I wish you had been able to do so! It would have really enriched my Oolite.

And ditto with the medical business. We've several OXPs which do something about medicine - there are quarantines ( GalCop Missions &  Diplomancy) on the one hand. And medicine (from  SWEconomy & from  New Cargoes) on the other. There is no concrete linkage of which I'm aware between them - or with either of them and with the medical morays.



Did you ever have any other similar ideas which never saw the light of day?

[cbr]