Greetings, congratulations, and questions

[caracal]

You'll be sharing a saucer of milk soon then

Oh sure. Felines in the wild are renowned for their love of fresh milk. South African dairy farmers are forever having to shoo lions away from their cows' udders.

Hesperus and I are no doubt anomalies in our quest for fountains of fresh blood. We jes' funny dat way!

[Star Gazer]

...South African dairy farmers are forever having to shoo lions away from their cows' udders...

...good grief!!! ...

[Captain Hesperus]

You'll be sharing a saucer of milk soon then

...or the simpler pleasures of regurgitating hairballs into your favourite boots.....

Captain Hesperus

[LittleBear]

@caracal. With your question about weather a jumping random hits ship still exists if you miss the worm-hole, the answer is yes. This is a built in feature of the game, rather than something I've done with Random Hits and so applies to all jumping ships. The Ship choses a system and jumps to it (it'll be somewhere within 7 LY of the starting system). The ship really will be there near the w/s beacon if the player later jumps there (in the same game session - this won't work if you've saved and reloaded). The easiest way to do it is follow the ship though the wormhole. But if you miss it you can systimaticaly check every system within 7 LY of your starting point. You will get a mission failed briefing though if you dock at a Space Bar or Main Station without destroying a jumping ship. So if you re-fueled at rock hermits / the sun etc and checked each system then you would get him in the end. . 'Course its a lot easier to follow him though the wormhole!

On the Worm and Shuttle Escape craft, normally these can't be scooped. The Random Hits victims though can launch a special version which can be scooped. It'll show on the ID computer with "(Target Aboard)" after its name. A captured victim needs to be taken to a Bar or Main Station to complete the mission. These special scoopable worms and shuttles are only launched by random hits victims though so you (shouldn't) see them launched by other ships.

[caracal]

@caracal. With your question about weather a jumping random hits ship still exists if you miss the worm-hole, the answer is yes. ... So if you re-fueled at rock hermits / the sun etc and checked each system then you would get him in the end. . 'Course its a lot easier to follow him though the wormhole!

Oh, of course. Provided you're close enough to get there before it collapses. Happened to me twice so far, probably because (a) I'm in the habit of sniping from afar, partly because (b) I'm a'skeert of Q-bombs. Plus, I sometimes take a level one hit just to relax, and those tend to be smaller ships, with much shorter wormhole persistence times.

One time I had a mark jump three or possibly four times during a chase. (We were in a tightly packed group of systems.) Luckily I got through with him each time. In the end, he Q-bombed me, but I've learned that "from hell's heart" message means turn 180 and hit the injectors, so I escaped it. They're quite pretty as long as they're not eating your engines.

Thanks for the specifics about the mission. I now know I can refuel at a convenience store or factory or someplace and continue the chase, in the unfortunate cases where I miss following him through. Sure could get tedious searching every nearby system, though.

So far I've only failed one hit, because somebody else got him while I was tangling with a bunch of angry Kraits and Mambas farther up the lane. I've learned to be a bit more single-minded when I'm in a mark's system.

On the Worm and Shuttle Escape craft, normally these can't be scooped.

Thanks, that makes sense. They're small, but not that small.

The Random Hits victims though can launch a special version which can be scooped.

Yes, but I learned early on not to do that. Anyway, I love the OXP; it has become a regular part of my oolite experience.