Oolite Bulletins

I am really new to the space lanes (about a 100 kills, 100 cred and some fuel scoops to my name) - so dont want to be an impetuous young pup ...

I have loaded up a few oxp's already and enjoy all the extra features my old zx speccie never had.

To BUY a space station ('home docking port') - could 'some clever fella' not write an oxp to hybrid the type of activity seen for deep space dredger, black monks, etc - set with a high probability of it actually appearing:
> any planet Tech level greater than 1
> station set with docking features of dredger and black monk monastery (since i have loaded both of these - i dont think i have completed a run without seeing one of the 2)
> station rewards you with creds whenever you dock (makes it worthwhile in 'investing' the original ½m creds)
> station is hard ass (indestructible) as all others are
> station has AI which means that it will shoot at anyone that comes near it that isnt you (and nice if you can activate de-activate the feature when you have 'brigands' hot on your tail)
> you equip your ship with a feature similar to the rock hermit locator - so you can always find your wee home docking port - buying the home docking port device as a piece of equipment could be the element that spawns the generation of the station.

> of course - having awesome energy bomb features that you can activate as soon as you have docked will be a given once you clever fellas can get this off the drawing board )


I am no expert here - but from some of the code I have admired - some of you guys certainly are
Cheers

Faffer wrote:

NPC mercenaries or wingmen for hire would be pretty cool, but would probably make the game too easy.

Maybe not, I have been thinking of adding this feature to my ups-courier.oxp. At the moment you only get an escort for one mission.

I thought about adding the option to hire the team also for a 10 days period. (for a very high fee). One big drawback is that you always must fly slow as the escort has no "J" key. And even with fuel-injection alone it takes ages to travel. So practical is it not. Therefor I put the major part of nastys in my OXP with player escort near the witchpoint.

Disembodied wrote:

How about script-generated begging letters, triggered after you hit X hundred thousand credits, offering you the chance to donate money to some good cause or other? You could end up as a patron of the "Save the Escercian Badger" campaign, or "The Bide-a-Wee Twilight Retirement Home for Old Commanders in Reduced Circumstances", or you could pledge to support "Stamp Out Squeak", or "The Campaign to Re-Inflate the President", etc.

Edit: if these were relatively rare, and rewarded you with medals, they could provide at least a Muttley-esque sense of achievement too.

Hey, that's a great idea! I really like it!

It's so RealLife™ as well. I mean, don't we all at a certain point get flooded with mailings of this kind?

I like the idea of being awarded medals and that kind, too. So you get something for your money.

Jason Whitelock wrote:

To BUY a space station ('home docking port') - could 'some clever fella' not write an oxp to hybrid the type of activity seen for deep space dredger, black monks, etc - set with a high probability of it actually appearing:
> any planet Tech level greater than 1
> station set with docking features of dredger and black monk monastery (since i have loaded both of these - i dont think i have completed a run without seeing one of the 2)
> station rewards you with creds whenever you dock (makes it worthwhile in 'investing' the original ½m creds)
> station is hard ass (indestructible) as all others are
> station has AI which means that it will shoot at anyone that comes near it that isnt you (and nice if you can activate de-activate the feature when you have 'brigands' hot on your tail)
> you equip your ship with a feature similar to the rock hermit locator - so you can always find your wee home docking port - buying the home docking port device as a piece of equipment could be the element that spawns the generation of the station.

> of course - having awesome energy bomb features that you can activate as soon as you have docked will be a given once you clever fellas can get this off the drawing board )

Some of this is not possible, and most likely never will be. The rest of it IMO just doesn't fit as you are drawing it here.

What do you mean by "docking features of dredger and black monk monastery"? If it's simply the ability to dock, then there are a lot of other objects around that you can dock with, too.

Appearing "any planet Tech level greater than 1"? Certainly not. If we are talking about a private station, it's going to appear at one certain system. And even for this 1/2 million credits would be waaaaaay too cheap! There are ships out there, more expensive than that! So for a station we surely would talk of a magnitude more. 5 to 10 million credits seems more appropriate. And: this is one station, not a station in every system.

Rewarding with credits? Hey, we are discussing ways of spending wasting money here, not earning it.

Indestructible: Only the game-generated main stations are indestructible. All OXP-created objects can be destructed (although it may take so much effort that it would be practically impossible).

Station shooting at anybody else: Why should you want to do this? (I certainly wouldn't want to be your neighbour, if this somehow reflects your RealLife™ behaviour. ) And activating/deactivating such a feature while you are flying is not scriptable. Also if you are thinking of employing an impressive defence-force on your station, that would cost you a lot of money extra on a per week basis, instead of earning you money.

A locator would certainly come in handy. But again, we are talking about one single station in one single system, not stations everywhere. And you surely could find your way to your home in your home-system of choice.

Really "awesome energy bomb features", when activated on the station, would blow it to pieces as well, as nothing is indestructible. You wouldn't want to do that, would you? But perhaps I don't get your point here. If the station is so hidden somewhere in a system that you need a locator to find it, it's highly unlikely that it will attract much enmity. So you wouldn't need a super weapon on the station. Or are you thinking of the station as a place to buy a super weapon for your ship? That would of course make the whole thing more expensive by another magnitude, because you would need to hire the best scientists of the galaxy and fund them, in order to develop something purely for your private pleasure, that GalCop and the Galactic Navy don't have. So IMO that would raise the station's price-tag to at least some 20 or 30 million credits, with running costs of a couple of hundreds of thousands per week. Too expensive even for my liking.

Generally: For the game a station is a station is a station. This means that, once you have docked with it, it will be like on any other station. And as it would be a scripted station, you would not be able to save/load your commander from there. Otherwise the same screens from F2 to F8, no lounge, no chill-off location, nothing special. The only thing we could do is to give the commodities special prices (within a certain and quite narrow range; but again the whole idea is not about earning money) and make some yet-to-imagine pieces of equipment available only there. That's about it. So the most part of the thrill would be just having this station and knowing "it's mine!".

Jason Whitelock wrote:

To BUY a space station ('home docking port') - could 'some clever fella' not write an oxp to hybrid the type of activity seen for deep space dredger, black monks, etc - set with a high probability of it actually appearing:
> any planet Tech level greater than 1
> station set with docking features of dredger and black monk monastery (since i have loaded both of these - i dont think i have completed a run without seeing one of the 2)
> station rewards you with creds whenever you dock (makes it worthwhile in 'investing' the original ½m creds)
> station is hard ass (indestructible) as all others are
> station has AI which means that it will shoot at anyone that comes near it that isnt you (and nice if you can activate de-activate the feature when you have 'brigands' hot on your tail)
> you equip your ship with a feature similar to the rock hermit locator - so you can always find your wee home docking port - buying the home docking port device as a piece of equipment could be the element that spawns the generation of the station.

I think that you're onto something here.

A large dockable mothership, that follows you into any system you visit and remains stationary - eg at the witchpoint. But it should be way more expensive. Perhaps 50 megacredits and maybe have some kind of upkeep (salaries for it's crew, so that they don't desert you). It's doable. It could show up on your equipment list, and it could have a beacon. I don't think that it should shoot at anyone or be completely indestructable or award you credits though. Perhaps it could be made to always fire it's turrets at Thargoids and - depending on your legal status - on pirates (if clean) or police (if fugitive) and of course on anyone who attacks it or you. Perhaps it's possible with java script to make it so that it shares your legal status at any time as well.

I agree with Commaner McLaine. Jason has a good idea but how about having your funding your own rock hermit for those with less free cash?

Dr. Nil wrote:

A large dockable mothership, that follows you into any system you visit and remains stationary - eg at the witchpoint. But it should be way more expensive. Perhaps 50 megacredits and maybe have some kind of upkeep (salaries for it's crew, so that they don't desert you). It's doable. It could show up on your equipment list, and it could have a beacon. I don't think that it should shoot at anyone or be completely indestructable or award you credits though. Perhaps it could be made to always fire it's turrets at Thargoids and - depending on your legal status - on pirates (if clean) or police (if fugitive) and of course on anyone who attacks it or you. Perhaps it's possible with java script to make it so that it shares your legal status at any time as well.

Hmmm, a mothership of your own? First thing that springs into mind: If it's not a station, but a ship that follows you everywhere you go, why wouldn't you fly this ship in the first place? Why continue in your small bugger?

Makes no sense for me.

@A_H: Of course it could be a rock hermit instead of a station. No problem with that. (Although they are soooo frangible. Delicate. So most of the time you would come home and wonder where that dust cloud comes from and where your rock hermit has gone to.)

Commander McLane wrote:

Makes no sense for me.

That's what's great about Oolite and OXPs: No one forces you to install an OXP and no one forces you to buy whatever is offered by an OXP.

[soapbox]I prefer the Oolite BB to be a place where ideas are welcomed and encouraged rather than a place where most ideas from new members are shot down with comments about that they are impossible to implement and generally unusable - as a few but very active members seem to prefer (even though they don't always have any idea about what is possible and mistake what they themselves want with what everybody else wants). EOD on that subject from me. [/soapbox]

Dr. Nil wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

Makes no sense for me.

That's what's great about Oolite and OXPs: No one forces you to install an OXP and no one forces you to buy whatever is offered by an OXP.

[soapbox]

Well, if you feel like it, go ahead and do it.

What I find great about the Oolite BB is that you get feedback on your ideas. Sometimes positive, sometimes not-so-positive. I find this a good way to balance ideas. After all I myself am looking for new ideas of ways for spending money (and that's what this topic is about). So already at an earlier point I welcomed the general idea of custom stations.

But this is a brainstorming here. And as with all brainstorming, a lot of the specific ideas are not feasable at second view, or have to be adjusted and balanced out. And here I find myself in the same line with you, as both of us e.g. feel that 0.5 million credits for a private station/mothership would be to cheap, and that there should be running costs. Thus both of us said (wrote) so.

Actually I was not so worried about implementation, but about balance. And this in an issue that concerns all of us again and again.

So, go on, if you like, with a private_station.oxp. But I somehow feel that you as well disagree with getting a station in every TL 2+ system plus a super weapon for a mere 500000. And that was my main point, not shooting down ideas.

Commander McLane wrote:

Generally: For the game a station is a station is a station. This means that, once you have docked with it, it will be like on any other station. And as it would be a scripted station, you would not be able to save/load your commander from there.

If you want to aim higher, you could arrange to buy out an existing main station, perhaps one in suitably low-tech anarchy or feudal system (why not make yourself lord of the manor?) That way you get to use the features that are only available in 'proper' space stations. It would be easy to alter the system info to state that 'This station is owned and run by Commander X'.

You could, in theory, take over a whole system and be given lightly-scripted options to invest more money in defence and security, or have to take on pirates and thargoids. The ultimate aim would be to have GalCop recognise your system as a Corporate State. Wherever you go throughout 'your' system you can be hailed by the locals and enjoy legal immunity.

Sounds a bit like a Civ-Oolite!

That sounds like the most workable implementation of owning a station we've had yet.

You pay some huge amount (1,000,000) and buy an anarchy station. Perhaps Fuedal stations would cost more all the way up to a corporate state station at maybe 100,000,000.

When you dock you get told that you need to pay some upkeep:
1,000 - just salaraies etc ie nothing much has happened in the last 10 days (10x100Cr a day)
250,000 - a viper got destroyed last week. We need a new one
50,000 - the docking bay doors need some maintenance
etc.

In return the station is named after you (and the planet description mentions you) and you get a place to call home. So, it's a complete waste of money, as requested

PS Is something nasty happening? First time I tried to post this I got an error message that there were too many concurrent connections at once...

Interesting idea, with lots of (add-on) possibilities.

There would have to be a good reason why you are allowed to own a coriolis though. (The stations are all owned by galCoop, not the local government(s))

maybe...
after succesfully completing all millitary missions, you could be offered a 'letter of marque' to clean a certain system of pirates and it's corrupt or irrelevant government.

In order to be successful, you will need henchmen,
so visit old friends and previous bussiness partners, try to get them interested in your venture. Hire some desperate commanders in spacebars, before they turn to crime to pay the fuel-bill.

go to the system and soundly defeat the locals.
(don't use contraterrene devices or QC-weapons, you'll want minimum collateral damage)

After you destroy the local fleet, dock to hostile stations and take these over with cargoholds full of troops.
(maybe escort a fleet of shuttles and transports to these stations)
After stations, for a certain time period, you will be annexing the system.
Shuttles etc will be launching from the station and landing on the planet below.

after this many of the expansion ideas can be added to your 'Ramirez republic'.

Costs may vary in terms of conquest time/wages/losses/collateral damage depending on the number of resources gathered before starting the invasion. If you do not collect enough support, the battle may drag on with lots of damage and lawsuits for malfeasance and mismanagement as a result. Or the assault may simply fail, should you try to take over a system with your personal charm alone.

==
Alternatively, maybe you could just buy a failed corporate world, overrun by crime, from a corrupt or bankrupt corporate official.
Leaving you to clean up the system without conquest, but with bankrolling the police and hiring mercenaries to make safe the spacelanes..

Hoopy wrote:

50,000 - the docking bay doors need some maintenance
etc.

I had nothing to do with it! There's a lot of rusty Pythons that hit those docking bay doors!

Captain Hesperus

Arexack_Heretic wrote:

Alternatively, maybe you could just buy a failed corporate world, overrun by crime, from a corrupt or bankrupt corporate official.
Leaving you to clean up the system without conquest, but with bankrolling the police and hiring mercenaries to make safe the spacelanes..

Or -- and I think this should be a percentage chance -- you hand over an enormous sum of money to, say, a plausible feline who claims to represent the government of a failed corporate world, but when you turn up to institute your new regime, nobody's ever heard of the cat and everybody tells you your Title Deed is a fake... You leave the coriolis station, mocking laughter ringing in your ears, poorer but wiser. And possibly filled with a burning lust for revenge.

Disembodied wrote:

Or -- and I think this should be a percentage chance -- you hand over an enormous sum of money to, say, a plausible feline who claims to represent the government of a failed corporate world, but when you turn up to institute your new regime, nobody's ever heard of the cat and everybody tells you your Title Deed is a fake... You leave the coriolis station, mocking laughter ringing in your ears, poorer but wiser. And possibly filled with a burning lust for revenge.

Why do I see the bounty on my head suddenly sky-rocketing.....

Captain Hesperus

It's because you have lost your blue star and decide to trade in your sniperrifle for an automtic one. :p