Oolite Bulletins

cim wrote:

My suspicion is that - in so far as it's a bug - it's a main game bug rather than an OXP one.

That was my impression...main game bug.
I have had this happen to me as well (the 'real' me that is ). Target is confirmed Offender or Fugitive, and no shots at/hits on the police vessel from myself, yet the cops turn on you once you've dispatched the bandit.
Ha, but as SandJ says, it adds to the flavour of the game, and knowing how lawless the Ooniverse is, I guess the odd bad cop is inevitable.

I had that too (my shots resulting in distress call), and it probably was a Gecko, if not a Krait, (though only offenders, not fugitives) - but I never saw it as a bug. Rather a very clever and at first times even effective strategy against being shot down.
I was so baffled, I stopped shooting it, checking it's status again and again, and was not really sure what to do.

When this happened a 3rd time or so, I shot them down anyway, but do not think it made me an offender. Then again, I may just not have noticed.

But sth. roughly like that had happened to me in previous version of Oolite. Only it was not the general distress call in the comms, but "Leave us alone! Why are you shooting us ?" or sth. like that.
Also that back then it baffled me so much, I stopped shooting them.

But in my case (and Jack's I think) the 'victim' was issueing the distress call before any attack by me. I was responding to his distress call, not causing it.
They certainly do squeal sometimes, though. I love that

I also like to think that there would be the odd fugitive out there who would be quite happy to pretend to be an innocent trader in broadcasts, both to provide further targets later, to provide more targets for the police and increase their chances of escaping, and maybe even attract a foolish person who would shoot first before identifying the cop as a cop. Nice and immersive!

Smivs wrote:

Target is confirmed Offender or Fugitive, and no shots at/hits on the police vessel from myself, yet the cops turn on you once you've dispatched the bandit.

This happened to me quite often, especially (but not exclusively) if I was fighting in the aegis - to that extend that I don't return fire nor use ECM any more if I'm attacked close to the main station.

EDIT: My theory at one point was that it was destroying the police's missiles to the fugitive with my ECM was what flagged me as an offender.

I've ECM'ed police missiles and not turned offender. Maybe this is a recent change?

Hmm, yes, when I'm hunting fugitives I'll often ECM police misiles (I'm not about to let those donut munching punks in blue steal my bounties), and never had that turn me offender.

Oh dear! I think in at least my case of 'Mystery Offender Syndrome' I might have been to blame

Running 'dirty' again, I pulled out of Biabi with a holdful of Arzaquarian megaweed, bound for the nearby system of Atanon. I had a few tussles on the run in-system, but had no trouble at all in the station aegis and docked freely... some runs are like that. I did a quick turn-around and launched with a full load of furs, headed back to Biabi. I had to endure a few hits from the local cops before I could hyperspace out, but that's all in a days work for a contrabandista.

When I dropped into Biabi, I was confronted by a firefight between traders, bandits and cops. I plunged right on in and splashed a couple of the bandits, then I had to injector on in-system before the cops turned on me – 'We thank you for the assistance... now cop this!' Yeah, right! About halfway in, I came across an Anaconda and Cobra III flying in company... or so it seemed, anyway. I joined them and discovered that the Cobra III was a bandit known as Furball IV, and the Anaconda was an offender/trader. We flew on peacefully for some time, then the Furball IV attacked the Anaconda. I was not impressed, especially as the Anaconda’s pilot panicked and ejected before I could splash the bandit. So there I am... a derelict Anaconda with the fates-know how much booty aboard, an escape pod containing a fellow member of the offender/traders’ club, and me with a full hold... ho-hum!

Of course, I ejected a pod of furs and 'rescued' my brother-in-arms, then headed in-system, where I managed to avoid anymore trouble and docked freely once again... still with an offender tag, though. Imagine my delight when I was rewarded with 500Cr for rescuing whatever his name was. I off-loaded the furs and headed straight back out towards the witchpoint, hoping to find and gut the derelict Anaconda which I thought was in my targetting system memory. Alas, it was not and I couldn’t find it! Not being a pirate, I’ve only ever splashed one Anaconda before, and that was way back, so I was looking forward to it. Is it somewhere out there, I wondered, as I eventually headed slowly back in-system to fill my hold with Arzaquarian megaweed again. It really is a very good market hereabouts!

El Viejo wrote:

I off-loaded the furs and headed straight back out towards the witchpoint, hoping to find and gut the derelict Anaconda which I thought was in my targetting system memory. Alas, it was not and I couldn’t find it!

The target memory system appears to clear itself after a while. Probably also when docking. For cases like this you could consider mounting an [wiki]ETT Homing Beacon[/wiki]. It's fully recyclable.

Thargoid wrote:

Or even a  cargo shepherd.

Of course, although I thought for marking just a hull the additional magnetic properties of this wouldn't be needed.

Smivs doesn't have an OXP that would help here, so he can't plug it

Cargo Shepherd? Homing Beacon? Both pylon-mounted, I expect. I mount hardheads on my four pylons... nothing else!

As an old combateer (Amiga Elite), I was missing the old gal and found Oolite, just two weeks ago. Now 1.8 GB oxp:s later this little tale transpired.

Outside
As an above average trader I barely ventured outside the Old worlds sector in G1. But I wanted to gain ever more profit! Said and done, after some exploring I found the safe industrial haven called Tionisla that had computers for a decent buck. Off to the lush planet of Isinor, poor but should bag me a good price on my computers and I might find some stuff there to bring back for a good trade run.

"Dragon Slayer"
My ship "Dragon Slayer" is kitted out with most of the good stuff I found around like the I-missiles and the military injector drive. Two military lasers is good to have too. One to bite with and one to sting the slime that try too creep up behind. Anyway back to the first run to Isinor. It was a bit boring only splashed a few Sidewinder scums on my way into the system. Docked with the station and got a real good deal on the computers almost 101cr/ton (to bad I only have 35ton space). They also offered some old cases of fine wine at a bargain price so I got that and filled my cargo holds.

The return and back again, more than once
Time to return to Tionisla. Exited the station and changed my radar to the Witch beacon as usual, while I was eyeing those ad-boards. Full trottle and i was on my way waiting to get far enough away from the station. I was just about to enter the coordinates in the jump computer when I saw something strange far away from me. Something big so big that I couldn't get an ID on it. I couldn't contain my curiosity and flew closer to that "thing". I must have mistaken I thought, have to be an asteroid that big. I got closer and closer and started to see a few escort ships, all vipers and escort wings. Still no idea what that big thing was ahead of me. Then it dawned on me, it's a darn Behemoth! Never ever seen that kind of beast before. Beep, beep the jump computer had done it's math, time to jump.

Back to Tionisla and then I devoted some serious time to get some cash and did many runs back. Still invest most of my money towards upgrades so I only have 27k.

Boring runs is boring
I became a bit bored and wanted to travel a bit more in search of profit without getting shot in the process. So I took the scenic route to the Xexedi cluster to find Erehwon but some pirate bastards shot my camera to pieces. Decided that I was going to head for the spaceway down south. Later that week I "heard" a conversation between a lizard and some feline trader in one of the less "seedy" bars at the Riredi station about some poor agri world that you could take advantage of. I was off to the market and got some computers at stock price, I figured that I should at least go even on that trade if the rumors was correct. The planet was Zarece.

Zarece
Exited witchspace and head for the station. Zarece is a strange place to visit, all the natives live in cloud cities with large balloons above the surface of the gas giant.
They were exited when I arrived and I even had a few marriage proposals from the local merchants when I opened up the cargo hold to deliver the computers. The price was right as they said in that ancient game show we saw in historical class in school, 102cr/ton, lovely. I bought as much hard liqueur that I could find and had a look at the astro navigational charts. Hmm, what's that Industrial planet just 2 light years away? Isence I think. It's close but my data is not up to date, (Note to self, get those expensive trade charts from that penny pinching monger Presti on Zaonce.)

Well I feel lucky today so lets fuel the old girl and get going. I talked to the engineer at the docks while I waited for the clearance from the traffic control. He told me that is was some sort of political scam going on in the Isence system. I didn't pay him much attention eager as I was to get going. That was a mistake.

At last, exited the station after waiting in line for hours, those space liners have it easy, good escorts and milk runs to the next stop. Anyhow, it was really busy outside the station and I had to fly a long time on my standard engines, I didn't want to waste any Quridium fuel. At last I got that heart stopping countdown to zero...

In system
Arrived in system, sure of myself. Turned towards the nav beacon and punched the Torus drive. At about half point I saw a few asteroids and a lonely krait. Got the ID fixed on him, offender, this would be easy I thought. Stopped dead still in space and aimed at him for a long time. Squezed the trigger and got several hits before he cried out for help, "He is firíng on me" "Help me!"
HA HA I thought, there is no one here to help you, you little pirate scum.

Lo and behold one of the asteroids started to move, what the hell? That's to big to be a pirate? I aborted the attack and moved away from the asteroid.

I started to run and the "asteroid" started to emit red blobs at me. Oh no! Plasma bolts! I feverishly hit the ID and my heart sank when I read the text: "Pirate Frigate"

I spun and tilted as much as I could and finally I lost them behind me. Without half my ship that was spread behind me.

Nearly loosing ones pride and joy is not something I want to relive again. I jumped back to Zarece and lost most of my money to a smiling tech!


Lesson: Never ever be too sure about your self.



Credits
Thanks to the creators of Oolite, P.A. Groove for the Famous Planets OXP and thanks Presti70 for the maps and inspiration.
Last and not least, thank you all OXP creators, making my travel thru the Oouniverse a ride of a lifetime!


Your humble trader
M00ndancer