Oolite Bulletins

There are many interesting posts in this topic, the best ones imho:
First plan by Gimi
GalNavy ideas by Switeck
Benefits by Smivs
Thargoid hives by Capt. Murphy
Ship types by Gimi
About Behemoths by cim
About ships by Gimi
About missiles by cim
About ships by Switeck
Overview by Smivs
Long summary by Gimi
Essence by Pleb
AI plan by Gimi
Populating ideas by Pleb

So, I've uploaded the next test release OXZ. This now uses the Oolite JavaScript populator to add HIMSN ships and stations into the game, rather than the previous older method that was being used. I have also adjusted the percentages:

Navy HQ System - Zaeredre (G5):

• 100% chance a Navy Headquarters will be near planet with 3 defense squadrons.
• 15% chance a light/heavy patrol will be patrolling lanes.
• 2.5% chance a cruiser will be patrolling lanes.
• 1% chance a recon (Constrictor) ship will be patrolling lanes.

Navy Base Systems - Birera (G3) & Xeer (G1):

• 100% chance a Navy Base will be near planet with 2 defense squadrons.
• 10% chance a light/heavy patrol will be patrolling lanes.
• 2.5% chance a cruiser will be patrolling lanes.
• 1% chance a recon (Constrictor) ship will be patrolling lanes.

Normal System:

• 5% chance a light/heavy patrol will be patrolling lanes.
• 2.5% chance a cruiser will be patrolling lanes.
• 1% chance a recon (Constrictor) ship will be patrolling lanes.

Interstellar Space (Outposts - 4 secret locations):

• 100% chance a Navy Outpost will be in area with 2 defense squadrons.

Interstellar Space (Normal):

• 20% chance of 2 light patrols fighting 4+ thargoid ships.
• 15% chance of 2 heavy patrols fighting 6+ thargoid ships.
• 10% chance of 1 cruiser & escorts fighting 8+ thargoid ships.

I have also modified the AI scripts for HIMSN ships and stations, so that they can mark and record legal offences committed, but will not engage. Also the HIMSN will remember if you attacked them for 60 days (in game) and will consider you hostile no matter what your legal status is. They will still open fire on Fugitives.

Navy Stations will warn the player to leave the vicinity (like the cruisers do anyway) if the player has not yet completed the 'Constrictor Hunt' and 'Thargoid Plans' stock missions. Failure to do so will result in the player being marked as hostile by all HIMSN forces for 60 days. Also the recon (Constrictor) ships will not appear unless the 'Constrictor Hunt' and 'Thargoid Plans' stock missions have been completed.

Download Test OXZ

Hi Pleb.

Just want to air some of my original thoughts on Navy presence, but I'm late to the new party.

My original idea was for the Navy to mainly operate on the witch point - sun route.
So minimal Navy patrols between the witch-point and station.

I also thought that stations in normal space should be on the sun route, about one scanner radius distance from the lane away from the planet.
Standard operation mode for the Navy would be to sun-skim rather than dock for fuel.

Also, in general the Navy don't patrol a normal system. They might be passing through though, but only on extremely rare occasions would you see them near the main station. I imagine that GALCOP wouldn't want HIMSN to interfere within their jurisdiction.

Also, I always imagined that humans were struggling against the Thargoids, so I think the chances of encountering HIMSN ships in interstallar space are a bit high. cim made an OXP a while back that allowed misjumps on galactic jumps. There the chance of encountering HIMSN should be very high though. I would suggest chances being something like this:

Navy HQ System - Zaeredre (G5):

• 100% chance a Navy Headquarters will be on witch-point - sun lane with 3 defense squadrons.
• 10% chance a light/heavy patrol will be patrolling witch-point - sun lane lanes.
• 5% chance a light/heavy patrol will be patrolling any other lanes
• 2.5% chance a cruiser will be patrolling witch-point - sun lane.
• 1% chance a recon (Constrictor) ship will be patrolling lanes.

Navy Base Systems - Birera (G3) & Xeer (G1):

• 100% chance a Navy Base will be on witch-point - sun lane with 2 defense squadrons.
• 5% chance a light/heavy patrol will be patrolling witch-point - sun lane.
• 3% chance a light/heavy patrol will be patrolling any other lane lanes
• 2.5% chance a cruiser will be patrolling witch-point - sun lane lanes.
• 0.5% chance a recon (Constrictor) ship will be patrolling lanes.

Normal System:

• 3% chance a light/heavy patrol will be patrolling witch-point - sun lane.
• 2% chance a cruiser will be patrolling witch-point-sun lane.
• 0.2% chance a recon (Constrictor) ship will be patrolling lanes.

Interstellar Space (Outposts - 4 secret locations):

• 100% chance a Navy Outpost will be in area with 2 defense squadrons.

Interstellar Space (Normal):

• 15% chance of 2 light patrols fighting 4+ thargoid ships.
• 10% chance of 2 heavy patrols fighting 6+ thargoid ships.
• 10% chance of 1 cruiser & escorts fighting 8+ thargoid ships.

Intergalactic Space (Normal):

• 80% chance of 2 light patrols fighting 4+ thargoid ships.
• 70% chance of 2 heavy patrols fighting 6+ thargoid ships.
• 60% chance of 1 cruiser & escorts fighting 8+ thargoid ships.

This is meant as a suggestion open for comments. Bear in mind that I'm not fully up to speed on how the probabilities work in Oolite. (Are they cumulative or exclusive).

In essence I think that encountering the HIMSN in game should be a "Hey! what is that!" moment for the player.

Switeck wrote:

Back to my hacking Galactic Navy OXP ideas...
Eliminate "sector commands"...there is only typically 1 major navy installation in each Galaxy Chart, if that!

Interestingly enough, the "Sector Commands" predate the Galactic Navy OXP.. but they were not bases.. merely Mobile Command Ships heading a fleet Battle Group.

Hi Gimi..
In principle, I agree with your post.. but one point raises a question in my mind..

Gimi wrote:

My original idea was for the Navy to mainly operate on the witch point - sun route.
So minimal Navy patrols between the witch-point and station.

Given that Thargoid incursions into normal space, when they do occur, are always on the WP-Station lane, why would the Navy not patrol there?

Diziet Sma wrote:

Hi Gimi..
In principle, I agree with your post.. but one point raises a question in my mind..

Gimi wrote:

My original idea was for the Navy to mainly operate on the witch point - sun route.
So minimal Navy patrols between the witch-point and station.

Given that Thargoid incursions into normal space, when they do occur, are always on the WP-Station lane, why would the Navy not patrol there?

Mainly because the Navy is not actually patrolling. It's just too small to even attempt to counter all Thargoid incursions and will always seek to concentrate their resources. The patrols you encounter are just Navy ships going to wherever they need to go. I'm ploughing through all my notes and they are truly an evolved mess, but what I have is that you would see the Navy jump into a system, go for the sun (maybe doing some manovers along the way) and sun-skim and then jump out. If the player encounters a Thargoid incursion it would be nice if they found Navy ships in the system next time they visit and in that case patrolling the witch-point - station lane.

Ok.. makes sense now.. thanks!

Gimi wrote:

If the player encounters a Thargoid incursion it would be nice if they found Navy ships in the system next time they visit and in that case patrolling the witch-point - station lane.

That's a good idea..

On another note. Anyone here capable of making textures and logos for HIMSN.
When the discussions took a break I was looking at "Imperial White".
Something like this:


Not sure how that would look "non shaded" though.

Gimi wrote:

When the discussions took a break I was looking at "Imperial White".

If that's what you mean by 'Imperial White', I like it - shiny! I think it would look good unshadered too.

Cody wrote:

Gimi wrote:

When the discussions took a break I was looking at "Imperial White".

If that's what you mean by 'Imperial White', I like it - shiny! I think it would look good unshadered too.

Well, It's white on a metal background made to look a little worn. I did try a lot of different greys and blues (even metallic purple, just for you), but they all ended up looking rather dull or far too flashy. Googled "imperial colours" and Japanese Imperial White came up. So I started to experiment with white. Best I have found so far.

I do wonder about using the term 'Imperial' too much - it implies an empire somewhere. Simply call it the Navy, perhaps?

Cody wrote:

I do wonder about using the term 'Imperial' too much - it implies an empire somewhere. Simply call it the Navy, perhaps?

I'm not too worried about that. It could just as well be that the origin is an empire, maybe after someone managed to unify all factions on a single planet.

I agree. Having dominion over a single planet is still a pretty big empire!

Gimi wrote:

I'm not too worried about that.

You're the jefe - but to me, it has connotations of Achernar, and all that that entails.
Using the British Empire as an example, even at its globe-spanning zenith, the Navy was never called Imperial - simply the RN.

Gimi wrote:

Intergalactic Space (Normal):

• 80% chance of 2 light patrols fighting 4+ thargoid ships.
• 70% chance of 2 heavy patrols fighting 6+ thargoid ships.
• 60% chance of 1 cruiser & escorts fighting 8+ thargoid ships.

In cim's [wiki]Galactic_Misjump_OXP[/wiki] never happen any misjump unless the player pull up the controls at the moment of jump to force a misjump. If you want high chance to see some battle within galactic jumps then must increase this chance first, then your previous odds will happen within this. For example if you set the galactic misjump chance to 50% then all of the mentioned odds are halved from the viewpoint of a single galactic jump.

Another question about the three different case above is that two of them can happen at once? If not then you should stay within 100% with the sum of odds, else you break the current law of mathematics.