Oolite Bulletins

New version (1.2). Small changes.

* Market inquirer is now an independent oxp and is removed from this oxp.
* Stations are now placed randomly as Tichy suggested.
* Now inserted buoys tumble.

I tried it and, to my taste, I like it even more. Having the stations placed randomly doesn't make it more difficult or frustrating. Anyway, while in the standard game setting, the path was always fixed (wp - planet), now it's not so easy to predict from which direction the player will approach the extra planet. So, the station could have been on the opposite side, anyway. Even without random placing
I think this is a good improvement, since it add variety, without spoiling anything.

For the traffic, at the moment, I'm using the Deep Space Pirates OXP. So, at least, there's always some guy that tries to kill me.

Glad you're enjoying it too Tichy. It feels a lot better now that the stations are randomly positioned.

Dredgers without "Big Ships" has also turned out to be quite nice as I have a few times found them in the middle of the space while flying to those distant stations. Without "Big Ships" they are quite a rare sight.

And yes, Deep Space Pirates is a must .

That Deep Space Traders is a nice idea. Have to dig into it some time. Probably not very soon though, as it's summer and everything .

You may not need to make Deep Space Traders, as added planets get trader ships (arriving/leaving the planet) added by the system populator just like the main station has regular ship traffic arriving and leaving. You're extremely unlikely to find any ships far from added planets, because even if one immediately leaves the planet when you arrive in-system (or reload from savegame at the main station) the time to get very far from the planet without using injectors or torus drive is immense. They would also be insanely hard to find if they were 20-80% along their travel and not near a planet. It's the same reason why Deep Space Pirates adds ships on demand instead of just adding a bunch randomly when you arrive in-system.

Your added stations can also have trader ship traffic from has_npc_traffic = yes;, once again added at random intervals by the system populator. If you wanted to, you could change the newly-launched ships behavior via scripting. I don't know if your added stations will get any Vipers added by default, though they should come out to defend the station if attacked.

These extra stations have "has_patrol_ship" set to true and "has_npc_traffic" is true by default, so there should be some traffic around the station. System Redux places planets very far, so it might indeed be futile to position any extra ships into deep space.

New version (1.2.1)

* Bugfixed. Tried to occasionally spawn stations inside the planet.

JazHaz wrote:

Not my finest hour. I was playing and checking the system with inquirer and saw that there was an extra planet and no station. But there was a beacon in asc. So there is something wrong with the inquirer . Fixed that and off we go again until after a few jumps a system with an extra planet and no station. Not in inquirer and not in asc. . Yep, a bug in sfep. It seems that I'm not at my best in the middle of the night.

Now these oxps seem to work ok. Let's hope it stays that way.

Thargoid wrote:

I was thinking half-way, as there are currently some half-way on route1 between the witchpoint and the main station. But it's your OXP, so your final choice. I agree though near the extra planets is a bit unnecessary given the stations will be there too.

This quote is from another thread, but it's actually about this oxp, so I'll answer here .

I find this a nice idea. It could be plugin oxp to this oxp or the original Fuel Station oxp could add those stations, if there are extra planets around. Maybe a plugin oxp would be more flexible.

New version (1.3).

* Enabled bgs docking tunnel effect for all extra stations
* Updated docking bay of globe and torus stations to Griff's. Didn't touch the flashers though.
* Added Trade Outpost to the mix.

I'll give it a go!

I'll give it a go!

EDIT: This is a great idea, and works well so far as it goes. Marvellous! However, it strikes me that, with the Deep Space Pirates OXP installed, perhaps price differences ought to be greater. Also, it would be good (for 'immersion') if sometimes there were some traders and police on the routes to the planets. Implementing that would be a headache, though, and might affect performance . .

Got this and I must say... I love it!
In combination with Deep Space addons and my own In System Trader this rocks!

Thanks guys.

Originally I created the oxp to put all those different replacement stations people have created to the game without overriding my primary station set. Currently this oxp contains close to 30 different stations to behold and visit. The bigger stations are a rarer sight than the little ones, as spawning is controlled by TL. Now that I'm thinking about it, I even planned to make a mini-game of collect 'em all . Maybe I should resurrect that idea... .

About traders in deep space. I thought about that too and came to a conclusion that the space is big and there would be so many routes that randomly putting traders out there would make no sense. Maybe spawning some around the player would be an idea, but I'm not sure about that either. Without GalCop protection, they would be too easy to harvest. Maybe, just maybe, there could be some traders with a very high accuracy setting and escorts out there. Something like in the old Armoured Transport Type 1 oxp, perhaps. I have also pondered about some in-system escort missions for the player, but that's just a thought.

And for in-system trading, I strongly suggest using my market inquirer oxp. After buying the equipment, you can compare the prices when you enter the system and then decide where to buy/sell.

spara wrote:

And for in-system trading, I strongly suggest using my market inquirer oxp. After buying the equipment, you can compare the prices when you enter the system and then decide where to buy/sell.

Oh yes, I had a brilliant score recently thanks to that combination of OXPs! I found my way into a pirate den that was selling narcotics, cheap - just 0.4 creds a ton! I loaded up as much as I could and went over to a Rich Industrial Lvl 12 system. Of course, GalCop had started checking docking ships for illegals as well as just leaving ships, thanks to another OXP, so I had to find somewhere else to drop off the good stuff... and much to my joy I noticed a Kiota Research station in desperate need of narcotics! I torus'd over there and unloaded all I had at 95 creds a ton... best profit ever. I don't know whether they needed to study the drugs or if they were just all looking for a good time - I don't judge =).