Oolite Bulletins

Only formerly clean visitors will be "marked for attention" by your script, putting a bounty of 5 Cr on their head.

Not very nice to punish a innocent trader with illegal points. Better give him a warning first. I noticed that your station has his own AI script. You could replace the current IDLE state with next two states. Both are altered copies of your current IDLE state. The first just waits till it sees the player and than gives a warning and jumps to the second state. The jump is made to make sure the welcome message is only given once.

IDLE = {
ATTACKED = (setTargetToPrimaryAggressor, increaseAlertLevel, launchPirateShip, "setStateTo: DEFENSE_MODE");
ENTER = ();
EXIT = ();
"TARGET_FOUND" = ("commsMessage: You are welcome any time. But by %I law we must warn you that docking is seen as an illegal action!", "setStateTo: WARNED_PLAYER");
"INCOMING_MISSILE" = (fireECM, increaseAlertLevel);
UPDATE = (decreaseAlertLevel, "scanForNearestShipWithRole: player");
};
WARNED_PLAYER = {
ATTACKED = (setTargetToPrimaryAggressor, increaseAlertLevel, launchPirateShip, "setStateTo: DEFENSE_MODE");
ENTER = ();
EXIT = ();
"INCOMING_MISSILE" = (fireECM, increaseAlertLevel);
UPDATE = (decreaseAlertLevel);
};

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

uumm... Considering that Lady Tiomat bears no distinguishing marks on her hull, just the standard factory paint, how can you tell her from any stock Dragon?

I'm a feline.
We have a tendency to scent-mark things we may feel will be important at a later date.
Your landing gear was the most easily accessable place to.......mark.

Captain Hesperus

Ahh, I see. I've forgotten about that.
Well, do knock on the hatch. She'll inform you if I'm aboard or not. But drop thoughts of grand theft starship out of your mind, she can defend herself from forced entry with some antipersonnel defenses I've installed.

Meanwhile, I noticed the pirate ships loitering about the FTZ don't release cargo when destroyed.

Eric Walch wrote:

Only formerly clean visitors will be "marked for attention" by your script, putting a bounty of 5 Cr on their head.

Not very nice to punish a innocent trader with illegal points. Better give him a warning first. I noticed that your station has his own AI script. You could replace the current IDLE state with next two states. Both are altered copies of your current IDLE state. The first just waits till it sees the player and than gives a warning and jumps to the second state. The jump is made to make sure the welcome message is only given once.

IDLE = {
ATTACKED = (setTargetToPrimaryAggressor, increaseAlertLevel, launchPirateShip, "setStateTo: DEFENSE_MODE");
ENTER = ();
EXIT = ();
"TARGET_FOUND" = ("commsMessage: You are welcome any time. But by %I law we must warn you that docking is seen as an illegal action!", "setStateTo: WARNED_PLAYER");
"INCOMING_MISSILE" = (fireECM, increaseAlertLevel);
UPDATE = (decreaseAlertLevel, "scanForNearestShipWithRole: player");
};
WARNED_PLAYER = {
ATTACKED = (setTargetToPrimaryAggressor, increaseAlertLevel, launchPirateShip, "setStateTo: DEFENSE_MODE");
ENTER = ();
EXIT = ();
"INCOMING_MISSILE" = (fireECM, increaseAlertLevel);
UPDATE = (decreaseAlertLevel);
};

Thanks for the script. It's always interesting to see what can be done! I'll think about it, although to be honest I do feel that anyone even entering an FTZ should be given something to worry about. The FTZs themselves prefer to maintain the fiction that they're all legal and above board, whereas in reality they owe their existence to ongoing disputes between the various self-interested nations of multi-government worlds and the centralising tendencies of GalCop. GalCop tolerate FTZs, barely: they're not so tolerant about those who choose to avail themselves of the opportunities offered there. And the "Offender" tag wears off after a couple of jumps, assuming no other (visible) transgressions are made.

It's true that it is unfair to put a black mark on a Clean trader, just for docking, whether or not any purchase is made: but then it's unfair for GalCop to brand an otherwise Clean trader who's scooped a couple of tons of Narcotics from the wreckage of some clown who's collided with a Torus station, and who sees another accident happening just as he's docking, and who then immediately launches again in a purely philanthropic attempt to clear the resulting debris from the main lane, without first having divested himself of the aforesaid Narcotics... to pick a purely hypothetical example. They're a suspicious bunch, GalCop, and seem to prefer lasers to reasonable, plausible excuses about honest mistakes.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

I noticed the pirate ships loitering about the FTZ don't release cargo when destroyed.

Hmm... you're right. I had to make a special "ftzpirate" role, and clone pirates using like-ship, because just adding ships with the role "pirate" in the area tended to produce people who acted like pirates (i.e. they attacked you) but who often registered as "Clean" on the targeting enhancement -- something which I think also happened in the Sunskimmers OXP? Although I admit I did like this effect, and added a couple of such "Clean" brigands to the mix anyway: you can't trust anyone round an FTZ.

I'll have a look at the special "ftzpirate"-role ships, and make sure at least some of them are carrying some loot. Maybe an occasional convoy, carrying a new batch of goodies in to the station?

Commander McLane wrote:

In order to make the whole thing work you need one more change: When you leave the Free Trade Zone the marker has to be reset, so that on your next visit you can be fined again. You can do this by adding a "reset: local_freetradezone_marked", in front of the "checkForShips: " in the first STATUS_LAUNCHING-condition, then you don't need another condition-clause. But of course also that would be possible.

BTW: Yesterday I forgot that you also could want to fine the player only once per FTZ, so even when you launch and redock you wouldn't be fined again. You can achieve this by putting the "reset: local_freetradezone_marked" in the first STATUS_EXITING_WITCHSPACE-condition instead of the STATUS_LAUNCHING. Then you will only be fined again if you enter a FTZ in another system.

Commander McLane wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

In order to make the whole thing work you need one more change: When you leave the Free Trade Zone the marker has to be reset, so that on your next visit you can be fined again. You can do this by adding a "reset: local_freetradezone_marked", in front of the "checkForShips: " in the first STATUS_LAUNCHING-condition, then you don't need another condition-clause. But of course also that would be possible.

BTW: Yesterday I forgot that you also could want to fine the player only once per FTZ, so even when you launch and redock you wouldn't be fined again. You can achieve this by putting the "reset: local_freetradezone_marked" in the first STATUS_EXITING_WITCHSPACE-condition instead of the STATUS_LAUNCHING. Then you will only be fined again if you enter a FTZ in another system.

OK, thanks... I'll revise as suggested.

Edit: Done that, much more satisfying! I'll have a go at making a few more FTZ customer types, including some with cargo (maybe even an occasional GalCop raid?) and reissue the OXP shortly.

New version v0.13 available here. The pirates around the FTZ can now carry cargo, and there is the occasional chance of a GalCop raid on the surrounding space...

Edit: link updated after original went bad...

Disembodied wrote:

It's true that it is unfair to put a black mark on a Clean trader, just for docking, whether or not any purchase is made: but then it's unfair for GalCop to brand an otherwise Clean trader who's scooped a couple of tons of Narcotics from the wreckage of some clown who's collided with a Torus station, and who sees another accident happening just as he's docking, and who then immediately launches again in a purely philanthropic attempt to clear the resulting debris from the main lane, without first having divested himself of the aforesaid Narcotics... to pick a purely hypothetical example. They're a suspicious bunch, GalCop, and seem to prefer lasers to reasonable, plausible excuses about honest mistakes.

Good job you're not running the police IRL, otherwise you'd have people arrested simply for walking through a market containing a stall selling counterfeit goods!

Helvellyn wrote:

Good job you're not running the police IRL, otherwise you'd have people arrested simply for walking through a market containing a stall selling counterfeit goods!

It's all part and parcel of GalCop's attempt to stamp out these dens of iniquity. As the unofficial GalCop motto says, you can't make an omelette without lasering some innocents...

Downloadlink please!!!!!!

julyy wrote:

Downloadlink please!!!!!!

Yeah the links don't work for me either.

Sorry, folks... the upload went AWOL but I don't know why! I've put it back up again here. I'd put it on the Wiki but I'm not sure of the procedure...

Disembodied wrote:

Sorry, folks... the upload went AWOL but I don't know why! I've put it back up again here. I'd put it on the Wiki but I'm not sure of the procedure...

Got it now. Thanks.

I noticed something quite surprising. Maybe it's true of all rock hermits, but they don't mass lock you out of jump drive. It is, I assure you, quite possible to be approaching a FTZ at jump speeds and crash right into it, Giving you a space bar moment. luckily, I saved not too far back. Though my passenger in his berth is going to be having an awfully strong feeling of deja vu for the next few planets.

Technically speaking, it's just another asteroid, albeit hollow.. asteroids don't mass-lock ships.