Help! I can't find my Random Hit!

[Captain Sumo]

I have accepted a contract in Random Hits to vapourise Swami Ramon in a reliable Tiger Mk 1 at Ladibe. I have duly arrived in the Ladibe system, and headed towards the Space Station, but Swami Ramon is no-where to be seen. At one point, I was ambushed by the usually band of Hired Thugs and Faithful Sidekicks, but Swami wasn't amongst them.

I suspected that this problem was caused by a missing OXP, but when I check my AddOns folder, the Tiger OXP is all correct and present, so now I'm wondering if there's another problem.

Could the fact that there's a Seedy Space Bar in between the Witchspace point and the Space Station possible cause problems?

Any help appreciated! Thanks!

[LittleBear]

The OXP seems to be working OK, as the hiried thugs are escorts of the victim, they wouldn't have be spawned without the victim, so Oolite did add the victim in the Tiger. You don't need any additional OXPs to play Random Hits as it contains all the models and textures for the ships it uses.

Remember however that police ships, other hunters or thargoids may attack at victim before you arrive. If this happens, the mark's AI is set to flee battles if the player is not there (to avoid too many NPC kills), so he can get split off from his escorts if he's in a fast ship like a Tiger. To find Marks fly beteen the N and W becons, they'll be somewhere on route. If you jump out of the system and return everything is reset, so you should be able to find him again on the Witchpoint / Station route.

Its best to hurry along the route though rather than going off and doing other things as once you enter a system where a mark is the system is set up and all ships in system start doing their thing. The game keeps running when you are docked, so if you park up for a while it's quite likley that a cop will have a go at a mark and he'll drift off course a bit.

The presence of a spacebar on route may make it more likley that the mark has to take emergency evasive action though and so dift of course, if he happens to pass the spacebar before you do. The starting position of marks is random and is rerolled on a jump. Easiest way to get him will be just to jump out and then jump back in as his position will then be reset.

[Captain Sumo]

Hi LittleBear,

Thanks for the expert advice (and the excellent OXP). I'll try your suggestion of jumping out and back again. Come to mention it, Soreisbe is only a couple of light years away, and with a convenience store right next to the witch point, so I can stock up on fuel and earn a few thousand on the way. And I'll resist the temptation to take out a few Thargoids by the space bar this time.

I know what to do. Thanks!

[Captain Sumo]

Yep! Jumping away and back again did bring the victim back. Tough little so-and-so she was too! In fact, I got destroyed on my first attempt and had to do it all again. And now I've got a sizeable equipment repair bill once I find a high tech planet!

Cheers!