Pirate Mother Ship OXP?

[Killer Instinct]

Have an idea, don't know wether this has been tabled before. I've been thinking along the lines of the Bethemoth and Thargoid carrier. Be good to have a pirate ship of the like that could pop up (whichspace in) randomly even in cooporate state systems - launch a number of small attack vessles to catch out the fur/computer traders. Even if the system is well policed (some are just over the top) it would add another dimension. Feel free to shout me down.

[Captain Hesperus]

Something a bit like:

This maybe?
It's a screen snatch from a B5 website. Lost the URL, unfortunately.

Captain Hesperus

[Vajo]

Is this an oxp for Oolite? Looks great!!

[Cmdr. Maegil]

Something a bit like:

This maybe?
It's a screen snatch from a B5 website. Lost the URL, unfortunately.

Captain Hesperus

I don't think so. Pirates mostly use stolen ships, the (long-living, sucessful) odd ones managing to upgrade to iron assed renegade ships. To give them a dedicated carrier would mean having huge investiments and a major shipyard with R&D capabilities working for them. Even if someone as resistant to autority as pirates could unite to carry out such a project, It wouldn't be long before the cops took it out.

More likely, I think they would use captured dredgers or even souped up Hoopys.

[TGHC]

IIRC there is something like this in assassins OXP, drones I think that spin round on their axis, mean little blighters too.

[Frame]

I would have found it very peculiar if some sort of organisation, would´nt have build a ship to carry out Strikes at very Well defended Targets

however, The scope of the ship compared to the general Scope of other ships like the Behemoth and other large ships would however seem that this ship would be impossible to build due to its sheer size and construction costs. it would have to be a stripped down ship fufilling only a single role.. which offcourse is a surprise attack, hit and run style.. Get in fast... get what you want, and get out...

A pirate Capital ship would be pure nonsense since most pirate ships in elite are prefectly able to jump out on their own.. they dont need a carrier...

The stripped down pirate Carrier version, would´nt offer any additional advances other than saving witchspace fuel for the carried fighters...

Expanding its role however so that it becomes a sort of pirate safe habour allowing Pirate-Players to dock and trade stuff would be neat, but i do forsee a problem with pirates attacking the player making it impossible for him to dock without running some sort of gauntlett...

That Babylon 5 picture however is a pirate mothership that has fighters which are those attached delta wings you see... to the docking ring, rather than docking in the main docking bay... a perfect example of the stripped down pirate mother ship... fufilling the function to deliver fighters who in b5 cant themself make "hyperspace" jumps...

A bit of info on it... drawn out perfectly from my memory followes here...

it was used to capture a special and Valueble relic that was important to a race and espacially its ambassadors carrer on the babylon 5 station..

The pirates where however double crossed, since after they themself double crossed their informatant and co-conspiriator to just sell the relic for sheer Cash, their ship was attacked and destroyed by a sinister old race called the shadows, which delivred back the relic to the ambassedor in order to win his confidence and use him in a plot to plunge the whole galaxy into a war at which Earth was on the "evil" side....

Cheers Frame...

[Cmdr. Maegil]

As I said before, I've considered making a Spartan capital ship.
For this, a militarized version of the Dredger strikes me as a reasonable choice.

There are two main reasons to use a modified version of an existing ship:
1) M.O.: the Spartans are a guerrilla force, so they use the ships they apreend from the enemy (slavers and pirates); this would exclude things as the Behemoth regardless of how much I'd like to use it as it is a pure military ship.
2) if common criminals can set up "chop shops", temporary shipyards for repair and retrofitting would be perfectly within the ability of a military organization. Major drydocks, however, would be much easier to track down and harder to relocate or even evacuate if attacked.

[Killer Instinct]

Well the galaxies are littered with shady organisations and somewhat well equipped forces too in some OXP's. What about a space Mafia type organisation with large funds. Galcop isn't all encompassing infact there are huge holes in space where they rarely patrol....

[Cmdr. Maegil]

The police considers the mafias as something that can't really be exterminated, so action is only taken when they REALLY overstep into notoriety. A project like this would likely put the cops into a flurry of activity.
After all it isn't a simple Krait factory we're talking about, this is a carrier.

But; if you're really going to do it, well, at least I've stated my opinion.

[DeepSpace]

I remember that ship. B5 episode. Because the Rangers were so effective in clamping down on Piracy, a group of pirates pooled their ill gotten gains together and built/bought a large ship they called "The Hub" I think (I could be completely wrong). Which meant they had a small fleet at their disposal and could jump in and take on most ships. Cool idea I liked it. Would be great in Oolite. Sort of place to buy Slaves and Narcotics at cheaper prices and then off to sell for big profits elsewhere. If you survived long enough to dock with it that is Maybe you can't dock with it unless you have illegal goods in your cargo bay (as identification that you're a bad'un) ha ha

[DeepSpace]

Plus you'd have to make sure you had a Hyperspace destination ready to jump to when you leave, because someone is bound to try and nick the stuff off you when you leave
Also a good idea is to have no Fuel on sale as all the pirates use Fuel Scoops for their fuel needs. This would add an extra dimension and tactics to travelling to these places..

[Captain Hesperus]

Is there not, in fact a high Tech Level Anarchy out there?
<shuffles through the Wiki>
There's a lot of TL 8 and 9 Anarchies, some of them have to be Industrials and it's likely that they are able to produce ships. Why couldn't some money-hungry shipbuilder start production of a 'mobile baseship' for the most established (and richest) pirate bands. You could imagine the talk in the dockside bars:

"I hear there's a new pirate ship roamin' the space lanes!"
"Aye, the 'Black Curse'. I ain't see 'er mesself, but I's heard she carries the whole o' the Black Skull Corsairs. They attacked Beribeli station just last month and only left when a Behemoth turned up."
"It's gettin' so's a trader can't go about his business no more without threat."
"Aye."

Captain Hesperus

[drdenim]

"I hear there's a new pirate ship roamin' the space lanes!"
"Aye, the 'Black Curse'. I ain't see 'er mesself, but I's heard she carries the whole o' the Black Skull Corsairs. They attacked Beribeli station just last month and only left when a Behemoth turned up."
"It's gettin' so's a trader can't go about his business no more without threat."
"Aye."

Captain Hesperus

...now if only we could manage to mod Monkey Island, connect it with Oolite, and have some strange bar conversations as a result...

[Frame]

Is there not, in fact a high Tech Level Anarchy out there?
<shuffles through the Wiki>
There's a lot of TL 8 and 9 Anarchies, some of them have to be Industrials and it's likely that they are able to produce ships. Why couldn't some money-hungry shipbuilder start production of a 'mobile baseship' for the most established (and richest) pirate bands. You could imagine the talk in the dockside bars:

"I hear there's a new pirate ship roamin' the space lanes!"
"Aye, the 'Black Curse'. I ain't see 'er mesself, but I's heard she carries the whole o' the Black Skull Corsairs. They attacked Beribeli station just last month and only left when a Behemoth turned up."
"It's gettin' so's a trader can't go about his business no more without threat."
"Aye."

Captain Hesperus

uhmm and its orginally Commander Jack Sparrow´s ship, say then we would need a Squid ship tooo.... allthough that makes me think of "Vorlorns" from B5, dont know if its spelled correct, at least that is what it sounded like when i watched it in German television.

And some undead alien

[Cmdr. Maegil]

@Ahruman: would it be possible to add a bar screen to one of the docked pages, possibly after the stockmarket and contracts, where the player could get tips about neighbouring prices, random gossip, bar fights (and later hospital bills) and shady oxp mission contacts?