Navy congrats

windrider · Post by **windrider** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 2:52 am

I've been on the Constrictor chase for the past few days and had him to a planet where the hints said there was a bad pirate 'out there'. At this point, I saved the game and left it aside (I have two monitors) while I did some other work.

After about 1-1/2 hours sitting idle, the screen for Oolite suddenly flashed a congratulatory message from the Imperial Navy or something and my kills suddenly jumped up from 453 to 709.

What's with this?

windrider · Post by **windrider** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:00 am

And then it was gone...returned to play and got killed. When I hit the space key, I was back at 453 kills.

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:15 am

"The Golden Rule"... I wonder if there's a story behind the name!

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:13 am

Since you left the game running then most likely the constrictor was destroyed by another ship.

A feature of Oolite is that the Ooniverse goes on, even if you're docked. In fact if you have docked and intend to go out again to sort out that bunch of pirates who gave you such a hard time you'd best launch, then pause the game.

Otherwise you may not find them.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:51 am

And the second point is: If the Constrictor gets eliminated you are credited for it, no matter who actually killed him.

So the most likely explanation is that he ran into the wrong guys while you were absent.

So just see it as an act of justice that you finally haven't got anything out of it.

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:30 am

Is the Constrictor mission the one which gets you the cloaking device? If so Windrider has lost out seriously as completing this mission AND scooping up the container is the only way to get it.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:05 am

No, not at all! (Don't know why so many people are mixing those two missions up.) The Constrictor-Hunt is the very first mission you are offered (usually and if you don't miss it). You wouldn't be awarded something so valuable so early in the game. For the cloaking device you have to have made your way up to Galaxy 5!!! So there is a lot of things happening in-between.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:32 am

I've a feeling that on one version of Elite (perhaps the ZX Spectrum) you did get the cloak for killing the Constrictor, but as CM says in Oolite the Cloak is given for a different mission.

Post by **Disembodied** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:27 am

LittleBear wrote:
I've a feeling that on one version of Elite (perhaps the ZX Spectrum) you did get the cloak for killing the Constrictor, but as CM says in Oolite the Cloak is given for a different mission.

No, on the Spectrum you got the Cloaking Device for killing the Invisible Asp, who, I think, attacked along with two visible Asp buddies -- although I may be inflating the original epic Zen-like combat in my head...

windrider · Post by **windrider** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:37 am

I usually leave it at dock when I have to stop to do something else.

Considering what's been said, I guess the best way to pause the game is to either launch and hit pause, or quit the game altogether?

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 7:21 am

windrider wrote:
Considering what's been said, I guess the best way to pause the game is to ~~either~~ launch and hit pause

You got it, commander!

Post by **Eric Walch** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:12 pm

I've been on the Constrictor chase for the past few days and had him to a planet where the hints said there was a bad pirate 'out there'. At this point, I saved the game and left it aside (I have two monitors) while I did some other work.

If you are playing the Constrictor mission you can also read the Constrictor topic HERE. It happened more that other NPC ships killed the Constrictor. But that is live. However there is a solution for this to make sure the player does not get the credits for the kill.

I had a similar problem with the boa mission in my UPS_courier.OXP. This boa has a high bounty on his head. But it is placed at random systems. The first time the mission took place in a corporate state were a lot of police were flying around the coppers killed my victim for me. So I searched for a solution.

My boa is flying under a trader AI with one added command. If it is attacked it sets the attacker as the primary target and that I issue the command:

"scriptActionOnTarget: set: mission_variable FOUND_PLAYER"

Setting a mission_variable this way only works if the target is the player. And that is also what we want. If the boa is attacked by someone else the mission_variable does not change.

On docking the script notices that the boa is killed but also that the player had nothing to do with it. I act on it with the message "you were to late", but you also could add a new boa (or constrictor) in the universe and reset the searching and just fake that the constrictor never died.

But there could also be an other outcome at the constrictor search. During debugging of my boa mission the boa had a beacon for easier finding. One time I couldn't find him the normal way and used the beacon. He was chased by three police vessels but none of them was strong enough to really harm his strong shields. The boa decided to flee, and flee, and flee. I went away for half an hour and when I came back and used the beacon for finding, the police had driven him far beyond the distance planet-sun. Without a beacon you never could find him.
When I looked 15 minutes later he eventually escaped from its hunters and resumed his normal route to the station.

Something similar could happen to the constrictor. With the difference that the constrictor has no homing AI and he will stay put, when he escapes from his hunters. This could be a far away place where the player never will search. The only solution to this problem is repopulating the system by docking and saving the game. After loading the just saved game the constrictor will be in its original starting point in a new populated system.

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:40 pm

or jump out and return to the system to reset.

Instead of the two options you provide for when a mark is killed by NPCs, you could also give another hint instead.
example:

In the station bar you find a local bountyhunter bragging about a scrape with *your mark*.
Upon financing quite a few rounds of 'Quirrium Blasters', she tells you that she all but destroyed the ship, when it hyperspaced away.
Exiting from the witch-funnel, space was filled with many wormhole entrances. *Mark* must have had friends waiting.
She had lost the mark, so she returned to base.

The only system it can possibly get the repairs needed is XX where there is a Fred & Grumann *mark-shiptype* specialist.

or

"Yeah, I got the bastard!"
"There was a huge haul of lucrative merchandise floating around afterwards too."
"Unfortunately the Escapepod....uh...escaped." The hunder adds sheepishly.