Oolite Bulletins

The new version I am working on (currently on hold) will not allow you to dock. As a script actulyy can't the player not allow to dock, it does the next best thing: spit you out.

But in the current release version the answer is: yes, you can dock. Just try it out.

Kaks wrote:

Bad friendly Thargoids, baad!

Oh, he knows me so well

Hehe, Thargoid's abducting commanders!

Instead of booting them, could make the carrier hyperspace jump while you're in it, and then when you leave you suddenly find yourself surrounded by a thargoid fleet... that'll teach ya

That's a nice idea! It seems odd that the thargoids would just let you go again after you dock with them without at least giving you some sort of nasty probing

Commander McLane wrote:

The new version I am working on (currently on hold) will not allow you to dock. As a script actulyy can't the player not allow to dock, it does the next best thing: spit you out.

But in the current release version the answer is: yes, you can dock. Just try it out.

Same applies to pirate "rock hermits"...unless that's solved already, I'd also recommend to change it to the pirates plundering the ship or such - especially since it's possible to shoot their launched pirate crafts, then shoot a bit at the "hermit" and finally dock and trade with it before reducing it to drifting rocks...

Screet

Screet wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

The new version I am working on (currently on hold) will not allow you to dock. As a script actulyy can't the player not allow to dock, it does the next best thing: spit you out.

But in the current release version the answer is: yes, you can dock. Just try it out.

Same applies to pirate "rock hermits"...unless that's solved already, I'd also recommend to change it to the pirates plundering the ship or such -

Example to be found in the Renegade Station from Anarchies. If you dock with it without being a criminal yourself, you will be plundered before being spitted out.

I think with the pirate Hermits you get mugged if you dock (I presume you can trade if you are an offender..?), or am I thinking of the hijacked Navy base? (Could do with an image of various alien ruffains surrounding you, don't think it had one)
Also if you shoot it up to the point its throwing plasma, another behaviour could be that even more ships evacuate and attack you, taking the majority or their treshur (Yaaar!) with them. If you survive and dock, the commodity market could have one or two left over items for no charge (loot!) if you're lucky.

For the Thargoid Carrier I like the idea of being kidnapped and forced to work in chains mining (or refining some kind of Thargoid 'honey'), which could do with a nice image. Lots of time passes on the date counter until it is presumed you escape from the 'hive' you were taken to (in witch-space somewhere random, even the otherside of the chart). You are launched and it immediately begins to spew large amounts of its guard at you. Survive long enough to witch-space to the nearest system!

Not quite, but hey...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jWEqNbDz4Q

That's actually a nice idea for a (secret) mission.
Finding their secret hideouts and stealing the next generation queen's eggs.

Btw. did anyone ever observe a Thargoid vessel using its hyper drive?
A leaving Thargoid vessel should create a wormhole vortex like any other hyper capable ship does. So it should be possible to follow them (e.g. in cloaked mode). That way I can imagine finding an unknown system/galactic sector.
The system/sector could be left by using the same trick after the mission's key goals are achieved.

Sisela Ytheleus wrote:

Btw. did anyone ever observe a Thargoid vessel using its hyper drive?

No.

I've seen them Hyperdrive in, but not out, perhaps they have some sort of Static Wormhole Machine which they use to send thargoids on one-way missions?

You won't see them jump out, because once they've started an attack they will inevitably fight till death. And you won't see them jump out let's say on the way to an attack, because as soon as they see you (or anybody else) they will attack and see first sentence.

Commander McLane might be right, but what will happen if you are using a cloaking device?
If they can't detect your ship they have no reason for attacking you until there are other ships in the vicinity.

Btw. is it possible that Thargoids posses cloaking technology???
I remember having seen an obviously cloaked Thargoid vessel.
It appeared in a flickering way on my scanner and when I came closer it became partially invisible. But it did not withstand my military lasers (he he ...)

Sisela Ytheleus wrote:

Commander McLane might be right, but what will happen if you are using a cloaking device? :?
If they can't detect your ship they have no reason for attacking you until there are other ships in the vicinity.

Thargoids have no particular interest in you particularly.¹ Once a Thargoid marauder enters an enemy system, it will stay there and attack every non-Thargoid it finds until it is destroyed. Thargoids have no concept of “retreat” or, apparently, “maintenance”.

Elsewhere, it has been stated that Thargoids don’t use the same type of jump drive as other ships, but of course Oolite has the special circumstance that our official explanatory backstories are non-canon in our own game, so you can disregard that if you wish. :-)

¹ This is a lie. Like other hostile NPCs, they actually do attack the player in preference to other NPCs, but from a “story” perspective this is just bad luck on your part.

Ahruman wrote:

This is a lie. Like other hostile NPCs, they actually do attack the player in preference to other NPCs, but from a “story” perspective this is just bad luck on your part.

Well, that is only the first one you meet. After you've shot at one, your name is relayed to every Thargoid hive in the eight galaxies as an enemy of the species. To be destroyed on sight..