I was playing with one of Eric's AIs (from UPS), had a little time and some inspiration, so please allow me to introduce the latest innovation from the R&D boffins at the Aquarian Shipbuilding Corporation.
To quote their literature:
In the ASC sales brochure, they wrote:
Overview
The latest development from the labs of the Aquarian Shipbuilding Corporation, building on their success with the Drones series of robot fighters. They have now succeeded in directly reprogramming alien Thargon fighters, allowing their useage by any ship.
The control unit mounts on a ships weapons pylon, and is triggered in the usual way. Once it is done the linked reprogrammed Thargon robot fighters deploy and seek out any hostile or alien targets in range and ruthlessly engage them. Once combat has concluded, any remaining fighters return to their mother ship for collection using the fuel scoops.
This upgrade is available from any system of tech level 12 or above, and requires an empty weapons pylon and fuel scoops fitted to the ship. Any Thargons lost or destroyed can be replaced at a similar tech level location.
Warranty
Please note that this item does not allow control over normal Thargons, which will remain hostile to anything non-Thargoid in nature. Whilst every effort has been made in their reprogramming, glitches cannot be entirely ruled out, and the responsibility for any kills made by the fighters remains firmly with the purchaser.
As these ships are robotic in nature, any kills and ensuing bounty they earn is also accredited to their legal owner and their craft.
The equipment can fit on any ship with fuel scoops and a spare pylon, and is available from any good tech level 12+ system.
ADDENDUM - THIS OXP IS NOW PART OF ARMOURY.OXP - DOWNLOAD THAT FROM THE LINK BELOW
- - = = Download Armoury OXP = = - -
PS - I would have liked to have these need and use-up some cargo space too (10-20t), but the equipment.plist key doesn't seem to work properly
Last edited by Thargoid on Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
It's quite an interesting (if slightly confusing) fight My normal way of testing them was to chuck them against a Thargoid mothership or two...
You can't use scooped thargons to replace destroyed or lost ones (at the moment - I'm not sure you can identify the level of particular items of cargo in your hold). But you can buy replacements at tech 12+ planets.
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My normal way of testing them was to chuck them against a Thargoid mothership or two...