Thargoids versus fugitive pirates?

[Commander McLane]

Small drawback: Thargoids—as well as pirates—always attack the player first. They only resort to attacking NPCs if you're not around.

So your homing device would only draw unwanted attention to yourself.

[Cmdr James]

I just dont think the idea makes any sense. When its absolutely all going seriously wrong, who would call in an aggressive alien attack fleet into the mix?

I guess you might call them to attack a nearby station, and hope the attackers break off to defend the station...

This sounds to me more like a tool to get more kills.

[Kaks]

On the other hand it could be a mysterious 'doombringer' device, left over by a lost civilisation & invested with some religious significance... the scrolls say it needs to be activated in deep space, and a scientist just created an adaptor for a standard pylon...

Dare you use the doombringer device? Is it what caused its civilisation to disappear from the Ooniverse? Or will it bring doom to your enemies, like a few texts seem to inidicate? Only one way to find out!

[Switeck]

A more distant goal of modifying Oolite to handle multi-side attacks and quickly changing targeting goals for ai is...Multiplayer!

2 players in separate Cobra Mk.III's both acting as "just another trader or bounty hunter" might require the game engine to split hairs over which is the better target when Thargoids or pirates attack.

[JazHaz]

A more distant goal of modifying Oolite to handle multi-side attacks and quickly changing targeting goals for ai is...Multiplayer!

Its not going to happen. See here.

[Switeck]

I read that about multiplayer being virtually impossible, especially with no one able (timewise + ability + willingness) to code it.

But even if it multiplayer has no chance of ever coming to the Oolite universe (just finding another player would be near-impossible thus rendering it near-pointless), the issue of multi-side fights that I brought up in this thread may still exist.

[Cmdr James]

Side fights already take place, just never with a second player.

[Commander Learner]

I read that about multiplayer being virtually impossible, especially with no one able (timewise + ability + willingness) to code it.

But even if it multiplayer has no chance of ever coming to the Oolite universe (just finding another player would be near-impossible thus rendering it near-pointless), the issue of multi-side fights that I brought up in this thread may still exist.

I recall something called Elite Multiplayer (Although I doubt it still exists) where players start at Lave at can join hosted games via LAN. The graphics were simple enough and I played it with a friend.

[Switeck]

I have now seen offender status pirates getting shot up by a lone Thargoid ship while I was also killing them. They attacked me first and I wanted to hog all the bounty. They weren't likely to kill the Thargoid, so me killing them means I got credit for everybody. It wasn't much of a furball though, initially 5 pirates versus me...then the Thargoid showed up, but by then only 3 pirates are left and I put them between me and the Thargoid. I was tail-gunning them while my front laser cooled down.

[snork]

I just dont think the idea makes any sense. When its absolutely all going seriously wrong, who would call in an aggressive alien attack fleet into the mix?

This might attract more female players though.

I was told they tend to like mayhem and havoc.

[BlackKnight]

I was thinking that if you activated it you would automatically change status to offender, because guiding enemy ships to human space would be illegal, potentially treasonous.

I would have thought that deliberately inviting a species bent on completely wiping out all other (intelligent?) lifeforms round for a visit would get you 'Fugitive' status at least - if GalCop didn't come up with a whole new description for you ("Goodlife"?)

It could be something you might pick up after you destroy a Thargoid warship, a one use rescue beacon that alerts nearby Thargoid ships to a fellow ship in distress. The beacon would mask your own FOF as a Thargoid upon activation, so the Thargoid ships wouldn't immediately attack you. If you sold it though, it would be an Alien Item.

Any idea what would happen if it became known you had such a thing - even a one-time-only device? You'd become the target for every 'good' world government who wanted to protect their planet, every 'bad' government who'd want to drop a small Thargoid invasion on their enemies/rivals, and every crook who saw the opportunity to sell it to the highest bidder.
Not to mention GalCop, GalNavy and every other pilot who ever had an encounter with them, Anarchists who just want a laugh, scientists who want to examine it, Player-type characters who "just wanted to see what would happen" and so on...

And it's probable the Thargoids would want it back too - just in case you decided to use it to loure them into a fight they could not win...

[Gnudoll]

I just dont think the idea makes any sense. When its absolutely all going seriously wrong, who would call in an aggressive alien attack fleet into the mix?

This might attract more female players though.

I was told they tend to like mayhem and havoc.

Oh *really* ? . . .

[drew]

why are y'all so grumpy? what did humans ever do to you?!

Wait and see...

Cheers,

Drew.