Oolite Bulletins

SDC won't push ships onto a full launch queue. In fact, it will do quite a bit of work to ensure the queue never gets to a full state, including pushing back launches and rescheduling them. But once ships have been launched the station itself is in control, not SDC. So if the station needs to launch police and the launch queue is full, I'm not sure what the core code does, but it's not in my power to change!

This addon is classified as neutral but that's not true. It makes the game a lot easier if used properly. It's the hitchhikers dream. I could go all the way from Tianve to Onrira and back without ever jumping more than 4.6ly when using my own fuel. Thus it becomes theoretically impossible to get stuck in interstellar space, should the thargoids intercept (finally!). At the important points careful route planning is necessary and/or paying ingame time for someone to jump into a useful direction. This collides with the deadlines the contracts have, but by being quick enough otherwise and careful contract planning it is affordable to pay several ingame hours for a suitable trip at some chokepoint.

I'd also add that it's a pirate's dream, too. Just plunk yourself in for a launch right behind a boa, anaconda, or python-- and the OXP even shows you the size of the escort-- and follow it through the wormhole to the next system for an easy hit. It's even quicker than waiting at the station buoy to see if something fat and unwary launches.

I'll change the classification when I get back from holidays

It's still a better solution to "getting stuck in interstellar space" than extra fuel tanks though. Paying several hours for a lift a few times along the route can potentially ruin your contracts. Only happens once or twice during a run normally, the other times there's more luck and you only have to pay an hour or less. Any extra fuel just makes everything dumb easy, as long as your injectors are working.
EDIT
Can you make it dependant on the player's hidden reputations ? For instance, if the player performs piracy, traders are less likely to reveal information such as what escorts belong to them. Or if he does the opposite (bounty hunting/aid against pirates) they are more likely to tell destinations etc ?

I could certainly adjust the percentages based on the current view of the player. Another option is to charge the player for the privilege of launching before or after another ship?

phkb wrote:

I could certainly adjust the percentages based on the current view of the player. Another option is to charge the player for the privilege of launching before or after another ship?

It does make things a lot easier - no more problems with having to make a long jump and then having to work your way in without any fuel for the injectors. I think it might be better to prevent the player from being able to fast-forward to a launch time at all: if they want to hitch-hike on an outbound ship, they can sit and wait out the clock. Plus I think it would be worthwhile cutting back on the number of ships reporting out-of-system destinations generally, and go with Anonymissimus's suggestion and make that reporting based on player reputation: if the player is known for helping out fellow pilots in distress, then it makes sense that some might want to see if the player is willing to tag along: otherwise, best to keep quiet.

I don't think I'd want to remove the ability altogether, but finding a way to restrict its use a bit would be good. Having a clean record would be one thing to try, making it expensive to request a launch before/after slot (maybe 500-1000 cr, which can be reduced by purchasing a special time limited permit) would be another.

I think it's also good to work out what the concept of the destination list is. Is it a list maintained mostly by and for the pilots, or is it a list maintained by and for GalCop? If the former, then the reputation thing comes into play more, as well as a reduction in the number of public announcements in general. If the latter, then the players reputation is almost irrelevant, and it purely up to the pilots to decide what they want shown. Up until now I've been looking at the list in the latter category but maybe it should be in the former. Not sure.

phkb wrote:

I don't think I'd want to remove the ability altogether, but finding a way to restrict its use a bit would be good. Having a clean record would be one thing to try, making it expensive to request a launch before/after slot (maybe 500-1000 cr, which can be reduced by purchasing a special time limited permit) would be another.

I don't think money is a great way of adding these sorts of restrictions: player reputation is a lot harder to earn! At the moment, it really is very easy to browse for a ship going your way, select a launch window, skip all the waiting and then head off: having a full fuel tank after a long jump into an Anarchy can be worth a lot.

Maybe, then, make the ability to request a launch window conditional on being invited to tag along by an NPC ship? A player with a sufficiently high helpful reputation might then earn a few invites from ships looking for a bit of protection. And plays of all kinds of reputation might occasionally earn an invite from someone out for revenge ...

Requesting the slot from the ship... I like this idea! Hmm, I'll have a play around with a few things and report back. Thanks, Disembodied!

I'd like to keep the ability to ensure one cannot be stuck in witchspace. Remember, that can happen on your very first jump from Lave to Zaonce and you don't want to pay for that (credits) jump.

Disembodied wrote:

I think it might be better to prevent the player from being able to fast-forward to a launch time at all: if they want to hitch-hike on an outbound ship, they can sit and wait out the clock.

That is just plain silly and torture. Don't.

It makes a huge difference whether you have to comply with a deadline here (usually I need to, often tight ones, especially when needing long jumps), or whether you're just doing piracy. In the ladder case, perhaps you should just avoid this OXP ? Similar to how you decide not to install or not to use extra fuel tanks. The weird thing about oolite is that everyone constantly rebalances his own game by the decision how many and which addons to install. And modifying some of them or creating own ones.

Anonymissimus wrote:

The weird thing about oolite is that everyone constantly rebalances his own game by the decision how many and which addons to install. And modifying some of them or creating own ones.

That's not weird.. that's part of what makes Oolite so cool..

phkb wrote:

I don't think I'd want to remove the ability altogether, but finding a way to restrict its use a bit would be good. Having a clean record would be one thing to try, making it expensive to request a launch before/after slot (maybe 500-1000 cr, which can be reduced by purchasing a special time limited permit) would be another.

How about a small, hourly docking berth rental fee. The longer you wait for a favourable launch then the more you get stung when you finally go.

ed. btw, this + BroadcastCommsMFD + Random Ship Names really seems to make the Ooniverse more alive and interesting for me. Almost like being online but without the pillocks!

I just payed some 10-20 dock/relaunch cycles, fast-forwarding the time in between, for getting a lift from Usle to either Enonla or Biorle. That should have been several ingame hours. That despite the fact that the chance should have been 20% that some ship jumps there. Most reliable are Anacondas, Boa (Cruiser)s and Pythons with escorts. Lone ships are also worth a launch, but groups with a fighter ship as leader are assassins, they don't jump. They may alternatively be bounty hunters, but seems unlikely. Transporters and Worms cannot jump, Adders rarely do. It can still happen that both thargoids and assassins/pirates intercept (on the other side). Balanced enough for me.
EDIT
Is is playing tricks ? Every other possible destination occurred multiple times, just not what I need.
Uff. About a full ingame day for a lift from Zadies to Esusti.

streb2001 wrote:

btw, this + BroadcastCommsMFD + Random Ship Names really seems to make the Ooniverse more alive and interesting for me. Almost like being online but without the pillocks!

That's great! I'm so glad these OXP's are helping to make your Ooniverse more alive. And the world definitely needs less pillocks.

Anonymissimus wrote:

Is is playing tricks ? Every other possible destination occurred multiple times, just not what I need.

No tricks, just random selections. The OXP is trying to emulate the core populator in setting destinations, so much of the same logic is present.

So here's what I'm planning:
Firstly, if the player has a bounty, you won't be able to see any destinations or request any launch slots before or after ships.
Secondly If the ship is already hiding their destination, they presumably don't want any one following them, so the launch requests won't be available.
Then, I need to work out the matrix of ship roles to player role weights.
-- If the ship role is "shuttle", "trader", "trader-courier", "trader-smuggler", pick a random roleWeight from the player and if it contains "pirate", or "assassin", then a request to launch before/after will be denied.
-- If the ship role is some form of "pirate", pick a random roleWeight from the player and if it contains "hunter" or "assassin" then a request to launch before/after will be denied.
-- If the ship role is some form of "assassin", pick a random roleWeight from the player and if it contains "assassin" then a request to launch before/after will be denied.
-- If the ship role is some form of "hunter", pick a random roleWeight from the player and if it contains "assassin" or "pirate" then a request to launch before/after will be denied.

Thoughts?