Tales from the spacelanes...

[Amah]

Why not buying them off then ? It's just that you have to surrender, but from an economical (how little did they want, 3 TC ?) and tactical (you survive for sure) point of view often the wisest choice.

Just because? *g* Actually I never bought me off as early cargo contractor. Space to spare for extra food or textiles was scarce. Later when transporting Gold, Platinum, Gems I was jousting for fun, profit and Elite rating.

One of the things that struck me, Pirates firing 4 missiles don't act economical either. What's 3tc of normal cargo worth (I take out 3 tc precious out of the calculation)?

[ralph_hh]

Had a crazy encounter yesterday.. I was obviously visiting a system with Navy presence, a large number of purple dots on my scanner and the huge Behemouth could be seen from 100 miles away. I was in need of some repairs and I thought, I could try, if the ship dock offers this service. I closed in, aligned myself half heartedly with the slowly moving Behemouth and asked for docking clearance. It was granted. I started to dock, not perfectly aligned, but well, should have been enough with some last moment course corrections.

Suddenly the Behemouth started to make an evasive maneuver, diving deep to avoid a collision and I found myself on top of the ship instead od in it. With some confusion, I managed to crash my Cobra against that mountain size ship. Pressed Space thereafter...

[Anonymissimus]

One of the things that struck me, Pirates firing 4 missiles don't act economical either. What's 3tc of normal cargo worth (I take out 3 tc precious out of the calculation)?

Simply put, Oolite piracy or hunting is just not profitable. 100 cr is more than a precious TC is worth on average (e.g. computers). A few 100 cr is just the costs to repair some cheap piece of equipment.
When I intend to drop cargo, I never take some cheap cargo type with me for that, because it is not worth it. Most of the time, I can keep the cargo so I get the better profit. So the pirates usually get computers or furs. Even in worst case (10-20 TC or so), that's only the cost of repairing something like docking computers (I bought those computers cheaply, of course).

[Fritz]

Why not buying them off then ? It's just that you have to surrender, but from an economical (how little did they want, 3 TC ?) and tactical (you survive for sure) point of view often the wisest choice.

I never gave pirates anything. I don't even know how big or small the chances are that they will leave you alone if you give them what they want. And normally, pirates aren't a problem, and if the Iguana had been any core ship, it wouldn't have been a problem in this case, even without ECM and injectors.

I usually carry about 5 TC food with me, mostly as a "damage attractor", but also as a decoy for situations where pirates and assassins attack together. When I collect the pieces after the battle, I usually have more than I started with, so this doesn't count as "giving something to pirates"...

In this case, 3 TC had been destroyed while fighting the assassins, so I had exactly 2 TC food on board, apart from the contents of my safe. But they had demanded 12 TC (I just looked this up in the log file!)...

The Iguana didn't act "economically" as a pirate when he fired the missiles, he tried to save his life. And it almost worked.

[Paladin Tux]

I thinkkk I need to adjust Furball oxp on my computer. Every second jump, when I reach the station, there are offenders pouring out of the station like soup out of a ninty degree pot.


Hehe. Just them a Cargo Hauler, after spinning around for 5 minutes, crashed into the Xexedi torus. Then my docking clerance was revoked due to an emergancy and a whole bunch of bounty hunters poured out...my new que number was 21.

[Amah]

heh, fur balls really start sometimes when you least need them. I was picking up a fellow RRS Pilot at Ordima and when I started it was Laserfire all around. Only a single Viper in Orbit clashing with an ongoing supply of brawlers and I amongst them trying to get out as quickly as possible to fulfill the sar mission in time.

[Anonymissimus]

I just discovered that assassins attack any escape capsule, rather than just the capsule of their target. I made a python pirate eject and a lone assassin was around who seemed too scared for attacking me. Normally I don't scoop escape capsules as it's not worth to drop cargo to have the space free, but now I had to after beating the assassin.

[Fritz]

I don't use it, but I wonder if assassins would attack the player escape capsule too...

I always drop cargo for escape capsules because they are easy to scoop and the bounty will almost always be higher than the cargo value for most goods. And if you're lucky you get an insurance payment that is worth more than 2 tons of computers. But I never drop slaves, of course!

[Amah]

merely out of humanitarian reasons I am sure


Speaking of it...
[spoiler]
V whfg ghearq n fynire naq uvf onfr gb ngbzf jub pncgherq n Erfphr cvybg. V whfg ybir guvf bkc.
[/spoiler]

Kudos to the authors of Rescue stations oxp cim and spara.

[Cody]

Assassins can't have escape pods themselves - for that reason, they hate all escape pods.

[Fritz]

merely out of humanitarian reasons I am sure

Of course! When I trade with slaves, I always imagine that I'm handing them over to the authorities and get paid a little reward for freeing them. After all, there must be a reason why importing is allowed and exporting not!

[gizmo]

When I trade with slaves, I always imagine that I'm handing them over to the authorities and get paid a little reward for freeing them.

In that case you should install the Illegal Goods Tweak OXP.

[Amah]

Oolite Darwin Award or curiosity killed the cat...

Out testing phkb's ship configuration. "oh look something big and shiny in the distance. Let's see what it is... Ooh a male space jelly, let's see if we can get more clos*boom* press space commander." *sigh*

[Fritz]

No, you can't fly inside!

[Ranthe]

You just can't trust anybody these days!

So Atomic Annie is in G2 up in the Teonan web in the north-east sector, and I witch out from Soorte to Bebege with cargo and one passenger contract. Upon arrival at the Bebege beacon I acquire what appears to be a trio of unofficial escorts – two Cobra Mk III and and Asp – just idly milling about behind me but nevertheless keeping station. All three check out clean, so I greet each of them on comms and let them follow me towards the local station.
Later, while still en route to the station, a pair of ships with Offender ratings come up on the bow. They too seem to be ignoring me, but this time I start to steer clear, feeling reasonable confident that a Huntsman and a Basilisk won't try and tangle with an escorted Anaconda.

That was about the point when my 'escorts' opened fire, demanding a tribute of cargo as they suddenly started pounding Atomic Annie's rear at near point-blank range! Within seconds the aft shields were gone, the fuel tanks punctured, and although I tried to engage they were well within the Anaconda's turning circle so I couldn't get a weapon to bear…

… Press space, Commander.