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Commander McLane wrote:

Smivs wrote:

And I'll refrain from any 'fussy Macs!' comments

And in exchange, we'll refrain from any 'sloppy OXP writers!' comments

(Actually I deliberately leave a few little bugs in my OXPs - they are a great way of bumping the thread)

Thanks for the explanation re the Wiki entry, Eric. I suspect I've been slightly mis-understanding what I've been looking at for the last couple of years.

Albee wrote:

v1.4 works fine -- I can now see the 2 items! Thanks for that, Smivs, and thanks to everyone else who contributed.

That's great, Albee. Thanks for persevering with this...you've helped squash a bug

Albee wrote:

Incidentally, Smivs, if and when we do get this working, is there any chance of a discount? 50k sounds awfully expensive when compared with a 70 cred plastic jerrycan!

Albee wrote:

Smivs, I can't help noticing you didn't respond to my pathetic grovelling. No chance at all, eh?

No, sorry. The work involved in fitting all those little tanks is unbelieveable! On a serious note, this OXP started as a concept for a small reserve tank to give the pilot a drop of fuel to play with after a 6.8LY jump. I only added the 3LY Auxiliaries in later after some comments from the testers as to how useful it might be to have a bigger top-up available. Myself and a couple of the testers had some misgivings though, as they are clearly a game-changer. However I didn't want to deprive those who want them, so I decided to include them, but I thought a premium price was appropriate.

Smivs wrote:

No, sorry. The work involved in fitting all those little tanks is unbelieveable! On a serious note, this OXP started as a concept for a small reserve tank to give the pilot a drop of fuel to play with after a 6.8LY jump. I only added the 3LY Auxiliaries in later after some comments from the testers as to how useful it might be to have a bigger top-up available. Myself and a couple of the testers had some misgivings though, as they are clearly a game-changer. However I didn't want to deprive those who want them, so I decided to include them, but I thought a premium price was appropriate.

In the real world, it costs a few thousand dollars to put a large external fuel tank into the back of a full sized pickup truck that costs 30 to 40 thousand dollars. Probably dropping a zero off of your equipment price might be realistic. And the equipment is hardly a game changer as you still have a maximum of a 7ly jump range. Compared to the original Elite which did not have fuel injectors to use up the precious fuel, I'd say that extra fuel storage capacity balances things out quite nicely.

Smivs wrote:

Myself and a couple of the testers had some misgivings though, as they are clearly a game-changer.

Yeah... I've disabled the 3ly auxiliary tank, and reduced the reserve tank to 0.5ly (which I think was the original idea).

Smivs wrote:

Myself and a couple of the testers had some misgivings though, as they are clearly a game-changer.

Hmmm. I can't say that extra fuel is a game changer for me. I presently have 2 of the 3ly Fuel Tanks installed, but don't often use them (I'm flying passively at present, hauling goods and only fighting when I can't run from an attack). Maybe 1 trip in 20 I'll top up with a tank if I'm getting worryingly low, but that's it. I've never yet used both tanks in a single flight, but it's comforting to know the second one is there should I need it. Those who fly aggressively might see things differently, of course.

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Probably dropping a zero off of your equipment price might be realistic.

I agree. Can your Auxiliary Fuel Tank really be worth 10 times as much as a Galactic Hyperdrive, Smivs, or eight times as much as a Military Laser? That's some costly plumbing!

At the end of the day, I guess it's up to an OXP creator to decide how much he wants to charge for an item. Does there need to be some oversight, however, in the interests of consistency and credibility?

Ha!
Well I suppose it's like a Recommended Retail Price that vendors are encouraged to stick to.
It's easy to tweak if you want to make it cheaper. I am not encouraging it, but what you do with your own version is none of my concern
Open the equipment.plist in a text editor. Go to line 53 which looks like this That is the price (Oolite always adds a zero - I think it is to allow tenths of credits or something)
Just change it to whatever price you want, say for 25 000Cr and save. Start the game holding down shift, and you should find the lower price at the next station that sells them.

Smivs wrote:

It's easy to tweak if you want to make it cheaper.

I know, but I didn't want to do that that. I have done it before, when I was playing around with my ubership in the early days (can it really be just 3 weeks ago?) but that was just a bit of fun, using a temporary commander. I don't want to cheat with my 'real' commander -- once I started changing things, I wouldn't know where to stop.

Actually, one of the things I would like to change is the bounty paid on felons. I grabbed some lowlife the other day and was awarded the magnificent sum of 13.6 creds, as I recall. It's actually an insult, isn't it? I don't understand how anyone can earn a living as a bounty hunter, to be honest, especially if they're flying an Asp, say, with no facility for scooping up the debris. Bounties won't even cover the cost of fuel and missiles, surely? Maybe one of you bounty hunter-types out there can enlighten me.

Albee wrote:

Maybe one of you bounty hunter-types out there can enlighten me.

One word answer - Random Hits OXP.

Without that you really are relying on being able to scoop cargo or pods ejected by destroyed pirates to make any sort of a living out of bounty hunting, making you a glorified pirater of pirates.

Albee wrote:

Actually, one of the things I would like to change is the bounty paid on felons. I grabbed some lowlife the other day and was awarded the magnificent sum of 13.6 creds, as I recall. It's actually an insult, isn't it?

Probably you handed over the cryminals at an anarchic station. At higher governments, they will pay a clearly higher bounty.
Problem is only that you can't choose to keep the fellons inthe hold on docking, so you probably need to sunskim to get fuel to get in such a system. Or use an oxp for adding fuel. I remember having seen something like that....

Eric Walch wrote:

Probably you handed over the cryminals at an anarchic station. At higher governments, they will pay a clearly higher bounty.

Ah, right... I didn't know that. Thanks.

Incidentally, Eric, am I correct in thinking I have you and Another_Commander to thank for the Target Reticle? I love that piece of kit!

Capt. Murphy wrote:

Random Hits OXP.

Without that you really are relying on being able to scoop cargo or pods ejected by destroyed pirates to make any sort of a living out of bounty hunting, making you a glorified pirater of pirates.

Whereas with it, you're a glorified-but-well-paid destroyer of hapless individuals whose only crime was to fart in the presence of some diplomat's wife, or whatever..

(yes, I do know some of them have actually committed crimes worthy of vaporisation.. )

Albee wrote:

Actually, one of the things I would like to change is the bounty paid on felons. I grabbed some lowlife the other day and was awarded the magnificent sum of 13.6 creds, as I recall. It's actually an insult, isn't it?

The question is, an insult to whom?

The poor sap himself probably thought of himself as being worthier for GalCop. Well, he was wrong.

Also, bounties come in a range, depending on which offences were committed. The typical escort of a Python pirate is usually in the one-figure range, but his boss is usually worth much more. Then there are some fugitives that go well into the three-figure range.

And as for covering your costs: the 13.6Cr already cover your fuel costs. So you only need to go after the other members of his pack (or the next pack) in order to cover your other costs and make a profit. Hint: your costs decrease dramatically if you don't use missiles (I never use any missile in a fight).

Commander McLane wrote:

The question is, an insult to whom?

To me. Like if I saved someone's life with an act of astonishing bravery (if you knew me you'd understand how unlikely that is ) and he offered me a fiver for my trouble.

Commander McLane wrote:

And as for covering your costs: the 13.6Cr already cover your fuel costs. So you only need to go after the other members of his pack (or the next pack) in order to cover your other costs and make a profit.

Right; taking them down in droves is the answer, then. I still can't see it paying as much as a trip from Onrira to Erlaza with a hold full of computers, to be honest, but certainly it would be a lot more exciting!

Commander McLane wrote:

Hint: your costs decrease dramatically if you don't use missiles (I never use any missile in a fight).

Neither do I, Commander -- don't even carry 'em. When my career as a contract hauler comes to an end, however, and I switch to something cooler but riskier, I might need to rethink that.

Albee wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

And as for covering your costs: the 13.6Cr already cover your fuel costs. So you only need to go after the other members of his pack (or the next pack) in order to cover your other costs and make a profit.

Right; taking them down in droves is the answer, then. I still can't see it paying as much as a trip from Onrira to Erlaza with a hold full of computers, to be honest, but certainly it would be a lot more exciting!

The extended answer is of course to allow the fellow to eject, and then scoop his escape pod after blowing up the hull. You get the usual bounty for killing the ship, but you'll get a handsome extra bounty on the guy himself as soon as you dock next time. As an extra bonus, you can of course scoop and sell his cargo and all leftovers from his ship. If you fill your hold this way you'll easily surpass the profit you can make from shipping computers/furs.

Commander McLane wrote:

The extended answer is of course to allow the fellow to eject, and then scoop his escape pod after blowing up the hull. You get the usual bounty for killing the ship, but you'll get a handsome extra bounty on the guy himself as soon as you dock next time.

I see, yes... bounty hunting clearly has its share of subtleties, just like contract hauling.

Commander McLane wrote:

As an extra bonus, you can of course scoop and sell his cargo and all leftovers from his ship. If you fill your hold this way you'll easily surpass the profit you can make from shipping computers/furs.

I know the Cobra 3 is regarded as a very capable ship in almost any role, but I confess to hankering after an Asp (I like speed, you see ) which would obviously rule out scooping. Not ideal, perhaps, given your observations here about making this particular career pay. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share on the bounty hunter's vessel-of-choice, and how it should be equipped? (I find debates about 'The Best Ship For...?' endlessly fascinating).

Albee wrote:

Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share on the bounty hunter's vessel-of-choice, and how it should be equipped? (I find debates about 'The Best Ship For...?' endlessly fascinating).

The Cobby is a fine ship for almost anything, including bounty hunting.

<disclaimer>Now, before you read on, I should warn you that I'm perhaps not the best guy to discuss best ships with, because I have some strong opinions which are likely very minority positions.</disclaimer>

My personal ship upgrade path went from the Cobby to a SuperCobra first, and then relatively straight to an Imperial Courier which I'm flying to this very day. In my personal Ooniverse the ImpCourier is about as über as it gets. Its sleek profile makes it difficult to hit from the the front and back, which makes up for its size. It sports a very comfortable 100t cargo bay, more than enough to scoop every last canister of every pirate I come across. Eight energy banks mean lots of reserves, and the (relatively, for a combat ship) meagre four missile bays aren't a setback, because I don't use missiles anyway. And of course it can fit every equipment there is.

Another ship that was designed as a logical next step from the Cobby is the Tiger, but I find the Courier's overall performance better.

Note that these are ships from quite old OXPs. I'm not very interested in ship OXPs, and therefore rarely install a new one, rather sticking with the classics I've grown up with since I discovered Oolite in 2006. Also, I tend to find most of the ships that have been released in the last three or so years overpowered and boring. For instance, there is no room in my Ooniverse for player ships with turrets (I do have the Caduceus OXP installed, but for the sole reason of consequently taking out my hatred for turrets on player-flyable ships on every single specimen I come across). I also don't like super fast ships, and very small ones, where the designer screwed up by making an ill-adviced attempt to adjust the ship size to a scale based on the average size of a human, which doesn't work in Oolite. The idea of the player flying anything resembling a capital ship also gets a strong no from me.