Building the frontier - an OXP dream

[Arexack_Heretic]

Just had a few moments to revisit the forums today
and it rekindled some passion I must admit.
I still don't have time, so probably nothing will come of this....but:

Enable a player to 'build' (prefabricated) permanent features in the game.

For instance

-helping a hermit install himself on a rock. Giving yourself a 25% share.

-Delivering a shipment of Vipers to an anarchic system, increasing police patroll frequency.

-Developping a base with extra turret-bearing asteroids.

-Bring X tonnes of alloys to location A, to construct a coriolis/battleship/dysonsphere/whatever.

-etc

The general theme being the player takes on a contract to do something or to deliver stuff. and the result is a permanent entity, that can be revisited later in the game.

The SWP-locations of these entities are prescripted.
Additional turret asteroids can be spawned in relation to the parent entity, (usually a station).

or in case of the hermit example randomised when the system is reloaded. (find with beacon)

For every game the location of upgradable systems could be randomised.



---

Hermit
Your 25% cut available as free minerals and some other valuables (gems, gold and platinum).
Downside: bring X tonnes food every year or the hermit turns hostile.

Hermit may give missions:
-"bring me the newest 'Civiloozatian' game, I hear the Bara-syndicate at the Leedquat anarchy is distributing a hacked version.".
- Bring some slaves for the lower levels, those droids are too expensive to maintain.
-WOOT WOOT! "Wur under attak! Gurt out thurr an protec meh!"
-"Yer won be aroun' always to protec meh", "GHo get meh a plasmaturret at the Quato Solar Corporation", "I'll jury rig it to me dockingport"
-"I gotz me'n eyedeer", "We'll rig one up to an asteroid"....
"Whattya waitin fer? Go get me 'nothur torrit boy!"
-"git me a Worm"
-"I need som 'meds'"
-"food's running low" "Only <MISSION_COUNTER_BYOHERMIT_FOOD_NUMBER> tonnes left."
-"This hermit owes protection money to the Klaatuu Incentive Company", "Pay 100.000credits now or face destruction." (PAY/NO WAY! = EJECT, battle Jawcuza)

Death_actions: reset BYOHERMIT_STARTED
(player may 'own' only one hermit, unless the mission script is duplicated in a second oxp.)
Location for 'deployment' will be randomised or determined by player.

---
All wishfull thinking for now,
but when I get some breathing room (which is not instantly claimed by the GF), I intend to give at least the hermit a try in my asteroid riddled private anarchy.
noteto self: also add Smokeys and the Admiral Leeroy.

[DaddyHoggy]

@A_H - now that sounds really really good - another way to make money that ain't straight trading and/or piracy.

Hope you get your time!

[Commander McLane]

-Bring X tonnes of alloys to location A, to construct a coriolis/battleship/dysonsphere/whatever.

-etc

The general theme being the player takes on a contract to do something or to deliver stuff. and the result is a permanent entity, that can be revisited later in the game.

There will be something like that in Equilibrium.oxp. With at least the chance that the entity will be permanent. Depending on the player's choices there will be however also the possibility of it being destroyed again.

The problem with that is that it requires the player to have a certain type of ship. How can he accept to ship let's say 50 tonnes of alloys (2 or 3 tonnes wouldn't really help in constructing something big, would they?) if he's flying a Cobra MKI?

[Killer Wolf]

could it be dynamic to allow flexibility? say the mission involves alloys for a new Coriolis : you'll need THOUSANDS of tons. so that means, in my mind, if they wanted it built fast they'd allow ANY ship to bring ANY amount. the more oyu can bring, the more money you get, but every little delivery helps. alternatively, those sorta loads are a tasty target, so a Cobra pilot could get in on the mission by accepting an escort role.

[Arexack_Heretic]

Or rob incoming ships of their cargo...

[Dr. Nil]

@AH: Some of your ideas here could also fit well into a '49ers expansion as discussed in this thread.

[Arexack_Heretic]

hey, that looks sweet!

Much better than the half-arsed mining bases I came up with. (and never dared show to the comoonity)

[Commander McLane]

There was also a serious question behind my post above, but I didn't ask directly (should've done that):

Can you query in a script how much cargo the player is actually holding and how much free cargo space he has?

[Arexack_Heretic]

I don't know.

I do not think it is...I was planning on filling the entire cargohold with specialcargo.
But I was also assuming there was a way to determine cargocapacity of the current playership.

[jonnycuba]

Wow the Hermit build sounds awesome!

You'd need to go through all 40 chapters of "GalCop Asteroid excavation regulations" in Red Chaldo's Hermit Almanac


http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Rock_hermit

[Arexack_Heretic]

Hey, thanks.

For now it's what the title said though: a dream.


Any ideas how to check the player_shipType or player_maxCargoSpace?





--- Beware: ramblings on code by a non-coder below ---


Probably needs adding methods to the game engine,
At least the shiptype is just information checking method, so should be a small(ish) thing.
From there it should be a small thing to index ships allowed and ships disalowed.

However, more elegant method would be a clean
maxCargoPlayer=> {integer} TC.

But that might involve several lists references.
(
-get playerShip in commander.info -> shiptype
-get hasCargoBayExtension in commander.info -> yes/no
-get extraCargoSize in Shipyard.plist for shiptype-> integer
-get maxcargo in shipdata.plist for shiptype
combined into:
OutputValue = 'maxcargo of playership' + hasCargoBayExtension_bool * extraCargoSize.
)

IIRC cargobayextensions can vary in size per ship, but just the one refit per vessel.
I'll have to revisit the threads where I nag Giles about more flexible cargoholds and smuggling holds etc to be sure.

Ah...It wasn't included. So just: maxcaro+bool(0/1)*15
There is a reference to improvement pending in the wiki though.