Why not have another "flavour"-OXP, that does the same to Anarchy-systems that has been done before to Communist and Dictatorship-Systems? Adding a couple of system-typical features.
Together with that there was the idea of making the pirate-choice (the choice of each player to go for a career as a pirate rather than a trader) more credible. Up to now it's not very credible, due to the way Oolite handles the player's legal rating.
For now the OXP is still in the early stages of development, but it already does some things, not only to Anarchy-systems, but also to general gameplay.
So what does it do?
1) First of all it changes the legal rating system in Oolite. If you are a FUGITIVE, you will remain FUGITIVE for a long time, much longer than the couple of jumps that used to clear your record without this OXP.
2) Up to now there was also the easy way out of your legal trouble: Buy yourself an escape pod, use it, and you will get a brand-new ship together with a CLEAR legal status for only a handful of credits. That is not going to work again! Use your escape pod as much as you like. On arrival at the next safe station you still will be FUGITIVE.
3) On the other hand this OXP introduces a new way of coming to good terms with GalCop again: Help them to wipe the bad guys off the galaxy! Together with every bounty you collect you will get a (small!) bonus on your legal record. But don't expect that just blowing up a handful of pirates will make GalCop forget all the bad things you have done! This will take a LOT of kills. And in the meantime, while rewarding you for the occasional good deed, the cops will still come after you.
4) And then there are the Hacker Outposts. Found in some high techlevel Anarchies, if you follow a hint of a helpful henchman, these bunch of hackers offer you a Multipass. Technically that's a device that, if plugged into your ship's transponder, browses through GalCop's central database and clears your legal record. Together with the price of the device itself you have to pay for the sub-ether broadband connection to the database. For cleaning out a very long legal record the combined installation costs and connection-fees can mount up to as much as 8000 credits. Should you run out of cash before, be aware that there may be some nasty entries still left in the database.
5) There are Salvage Gangs in lower tech Anarchies that offer a similar service for a much lower price. But don't be surprised if there is a catch in the end!
That's all it does so far. What does it still need?
a) For now the Hackers and the Salvagers inhabit usual Rock Hermits. I would like them to have their own asteroid each.
Killer Wolf already has offered to do the Hacker Outpost. Thanks a lot! Are there any volunteers for the Salvage Gang?Commander McLane wrote:I imagine both to be bigger than the rock hermit and I envision both Hackers and Salvagers to live within the asteroid, in caved structures, but with some visible signs of their presence outside.
The Hacker Outpost should be fairly sophisticated, but in a do-it-yourself way. After all they are outlaws.
The Salvage Gangs rip off stranded ships (remember, they are living in Anarchy systems only) looking for usable parts, and when they see a nice ship flying by they surely could do something to make it strand. So also the visible technical structures on their asteroid should reflect that.
b) I would like to give both Hackers and Salvagers a specific defense ship in case their asteroids are attacked. Now I recall someone writing in another thread that there are lots of ships out there and available, that haven't been used for a specific purpose. I'd love to incorporate one or two of them in Anarchies.oxp, as Hackers' and Salvagers's ships. Are there any suggestions on which would be good ships for them? Or is there any ship-designer out there longing to have his ships used for them?
c) When the player docks with a Hacker Outpost for the first time he is met by Cap'n Hack, a sinister Fierce Furry Feline who introduces the hackers and the Multipass. I've tried to let him sound like a pirate, but I guess that could be done much better. After all I am no native English speaker or writer and my knowledge in visualizing slang is very limited. So I would like someone else to go over it, perhaps even completely redo it.
d) Of course like in Commies and Dictators the spacelines in Anarchies should be populated with some system-specific ships. I have got some ideas on that, but am neither a modeller nor a texturer myself. So I need some more help here.
Assuming that Anarchy-systems in Elite/Oolite are not systems that are governed by anarcho-syndicalists in Bakunin's tradition, but are more like what we use to call "failed states" in RealWorld, I can imagine a couple of ships that would be found in those systems:
1. Warlords (see Somalia, Afghanistan, Congo, etc.). They could be similar to commissar limousins in Commies, escorted.
2. Weapons Smugglers/Transports. As violent conflicts need to be fed they are to be found in any danger zone. Smugglers could use any ship, "official" weapons transports could be similar to the Armoured Transport 1 (perhaps an Armoured Transport 2?). Their likely cargo should of course be firearms.
3. GalCop Peacemaking/Peacekeeping Troups. In some of the most infamous Anarchy Systems GalCop could make attempts to restore peace and order. They would need Troups Transporters and some other ships.
4. Some kind of Factory and/or Mining Stations. Some Anarchies could be rich in natural resources, and in fact in RealWorld this richness in some cases is directly related to them being anarchies. Think of Zaire/Congo, which has been made an anarchy by various local and regional players exactly because of its rich natural resources, which seem to be easier to exploit when there is no strong central authority. (If you don't recall the news over the last decade or so, think of "Blood Diamond", which deals with that, I presume (haven't seen it myself).)
5. Therefore also some kind of Transport Ships, in order to export these natural resources (perhaps gold, platinum or gemstones).
6. Fighters to protect all those.
7. Humanitarian Helpers / Foreign Aid Ships / NGOs working in the danger zone.
8. Reporters, also working in the danger zone.
Myself I'm not able to do any of that. So the help of anybody who is interested is appreciated very much. What I can do however is working on the shipdata of these oxp-ships rather than their physical appearance, and spend some thoughts on their AIs.
Anarchies.oxp works as it is now, but I really see it as a torso. Without help by the community it'll never get hands and feet. In order to give you an impression of the work done so far I have uploaded it as version 0.1 to Oosat 2. So before joining me you can download it and see how it works so far (as soon as Winston has put it up). If you like it and want to support it, you're welcome on board!
Last but not least I want to give lots of thanks to all who have contributed so far: Julyy for the original "A Pirates Joice"-thread, Killer Wolf for a couple of very good suggestions that I could incorporate, Arexack_Heretic for a lot of very useful and practical advice, LittleBear for pointing me to BlackMonks as an example for some things I was trying to do, and all the others who contributed to the idea!
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