Random Assassination Contracts

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 12:21 pm

As the OXP takes place in G7, money will proberbly not be much of a problem to the player. This hit requires 1,300+ kills to trigger. Flying an Imperial Courier, if I fill my 100 ton cargo hold I can replace a q-bomb with the profits from the trade run.

Use of Q-bombs in this OXP will be considered cheating!!

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 9:26 pm

Update:

- 8 new missions.
- 9 new NCP ships.
- 1 new weapon.
- 17 hand-coded mission briefing screens (including 3 iNEWS broadcasts)
- 14 hand-coded mission descriptions.
- 24 new Ship Communications Hails.
- 9 new Planet Descriptions.
- 11 new Images.

Have 6 day jury trial on monday, so no futher OXPing until next weekend!

Half way there now. I reckon another 2 weeks or so to finish the OXP and then another weeks playtesting before I upload. I've been playtesting every stage as I go along (and my save-file is filled with commanders like Assassins-stage1d etc), but would want to playtest the whole thing again in one go before uploading. OXP (uncompressed) is currently 3.6 megs, so I think the whole thing will be about 8 megs!

Engaging a pirate fleet, in search of the Pirate Admaral's flagship : "The Black Pig"...

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:35 am

LittleBear wrote:
As the OXP takes place in G7, money will proberbly not be much of a problem to the player.

Good point

Use of Q-bombs in this OXP will be considered cheating!!

I still disagree with this though. I understand why you consider it cheating and most people would agree with you, however, the whole point of Elite is that it's totally open gaming. In Elite you're allowed to do what you like and whilst I see your side of the arguement, as soon as you take away someones choice to use a Q-Bomb, the game stops being Elite!

I'll just get off my high horse now, it's a bit steep.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:27 am

I like the Q-bomb in the game generally, (although it wasn't in "proper" BBC Elite!) but I would like to be able to make ships q-bomb resistent. A military ship like a Behemoth surley would have some type of device to protect its fuel from being detonated by a q-bomb burst.

I don't think the q-bomb should be removed, but there should be some ship that it is not able to kill.

ovvldc · Post by **ovvldc** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 1:04 pm

Maybe it is time for a new legal category: War Criminal. Which makes even normal criminals like pirates not like you.

Given that Q-bomb use is so banned, a rating for people using big weapons of mass destruction (energy bombs aren't that bad) makes some sense.

I still do not know what exactly is the effect of the existing legal ratings.

best wishes,
Oscar

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:57 pm

Finished victim6. Now scripting Mission 10 (victim7).

Your old friends the Quandixeian Mafia are having a few problems with their neighbours, the Esreatesian Triads. The Triads keep hopping over the boader, knocking out the Mafia's drug transport ships and making off with the merchandise. The Don would be very gratefull if somebody could put a stop to this.

My script adds 3 "Mafia Narcotics Transport : Annaconda" (using traderAI) with "Wiseguy Escort : Sidewinder" Escorts (using EscortAI) to a particular place in the system, along with Wiseguy patrol ships with the scan_class of police (The Mafia run this system not GalCop!) In the victinity is also added "Guild Target : Boss Enio Yankisona - 100,000C", with his various Triad friends and escorts (all using PirateAI). The result is the nasty triads are going for your client's drug transport ships, when you arrive.

All of this is working ok, but I would like to make the Narcotics Transport Annacodas only carry Narcotoics as their cargo. Is there a way in shipdata to specify that the cargo for these ships is only narcotics?

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:10 pm

yes. as from 1.63.

<key>cargo_carried</key>
<string>Narcotics</string>

is supposed to make the ship cargo one type only.
I haven't got it to work though.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:27 pm

Cheers. Worked fine!

Finished victim7 and the following mission. Be a week or so before I can script any more, as back at work tomorrow.

Now working:-

- 11 new missions.
- 1 new weapon.
- 14 new NCP ships.
- 23 hand-coded mission briefing screens (including 5 iNEWS broadcasts)
- 18 hand-coded mission descriptions.
- 26 new Ship Communications Hails.
- 17 new Planet Descriptions.
- 12 new Images.

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 7:19 pm

with <hasWitchdrive> /false
ships could (should) be invulnerable to Q-cascade and only suffer normal energydamage as from an energybomb.

Maybe ships with drives could deactivate their drives when at condition RED, reactivating them only when fleeing.

That said, carriers will always have drives
and huge ships should be protected from cascade effect, because their drives and fuel are heavilly shielded. (if only by their bulk).

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:44 pm

Is the witchdrive variable implemented. If so, I'll add it to some of the ships!

I've played about with the fuel integer, and a value of 5 seems to make the ships stand and fight, but hit the injectors if you launch a q-mine. I would prefer to make 'em q-mine proof (not all of the ships but the real hard ones with 100,00C bounties)!

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:03 pm

I'm not sure.
Hope so though.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 12:23 pm

The last mission in the OXP, comprises 3 sub-missions all of which involve doing hits for the Rebels who are fighting an opposive Dictator.

I have used the setspecificplanetinfo command so that the description of the planet changes as the Rebels make progress against the Dictator.

When the rebels finally win out, I would like to change the planet from a dictatorship to a democarcy.

I have seen from the Wiki that you can get Oolite to return a value representing the govenment of the current system, using : systemGovernment_number.

Is it possible to set the value in the same sort of way as planetdescription can be set. If so how do I express the command?

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:09 pm

By coincidence, I have just been experimenting with the planetinfo.plist

You need to copy a planetinfo.plist, then delete everything.
change the first entry to your local planet.

first number is (galaxymap#-1), the second the number of your planet (check out the planet-lists in the wiki for its number).

Code: Select all

<plist header>
<dict>
 <key>'#g' '#p'</key>
 <dict>
  <key>government</key>
  <integer>#</integer> 
  <!-- where # is govt.type from Anarchy 0 to 7 Corporatestate. -->
 </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:11 pm

By coincidence, I have just been experimenting with the planetinfo.plist

You need to copy a planetinfo.plist, then delete everything.
change the first entry to your local planet.

first number is (galaxymap#-1), the second the number of your planet (check out the planet-lists in the wiki for its number).

Code: Select all

<plist header>
<dict>
 <key>'#g' '#p'</key>
 <dict>
  <key>government</key>
  <integer>0</integer> 
  <!-- where # is govt.type from Anarchy 0 to 7 Corporatestate. -->
  <key>description</key>
  <string>(paste normal planetdescription). The planet is currently undergoing social reform. Sponsored by [%P]ic AstroNews!</string>
 </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:18 pm

Thanks I'll have a look at this. Will this allow me specify that the planet only becomes a democary when the mission_assissins variable is at a certain level. To change the planets I have been using at the very start of the OXP script:-

setSpecificPlanetInfo: 6=13=description=The Eszausveian government is infamous as one of the most brutal dictatorships in the Galaxy. Although the People's Popular Front bravely resists the oppressive regime of Governor Tarkin, thus far they have made little progress in restoring freedom to the planet.

So this is the state of the planet (and the 20 odd others I've altered!) at the start of the OXP.

As missions affecting the planet in question are completed, the script uses the same code to change the description again.