Oolite Bulletins

Yep. You start as a "harmless Outsider" and completing hits (and how you complete them) earns you ranks and titles. NPC hunters added by the OXP also have ranks. When you have a mission active the F5 F5 screen shows the mission details. At other times it shows your current rank. The ranks held by NPC hunters are randomly assaigned (like most things in the OXP), but with the odds weighted in favour of piolts of good ships like Couriers and SuperCobras having higher ranks than weaker ships like Morays or Adder Mk IIs. Higher ranked piolts are also more likley have decent equipment fitted.

how does random hits decide what ship the target is in? Does it check if you have that ship installed?

My last two hits were in a Wolf Mk2 and in Imperial Courier. I didn't think I had these installed and couldn't find either of them at the system they were meant to be.

The second time I was shooting a mamba when I suddenly got the message that the target had ejected. And there they were, right in front of the mamba! I even think I saw the lasers from the Imp Courier even though it wasn't there!?

So it seems like the imp courier existed but can't be rendered so I've got very little chance of killing it.

As it happened the mamba scooped the target before i could shoot it. I killed the mamba but it was too late then...

You don't need to install any other OXPs as the models and textures for all ships marks could be flying are included in Random Hits. If the mark is flying an Imperial Courier, the OXP adds the mark in this ship. You won't meet ICs in the Ooniverse generally without the Imperial Courier OXP installed and the mark will be the only guy in your Ooniverse who flys this ship. (Apart from Space Bar defence ships who can fly any one of 40 different ships).

The OXP has three "pools" of ships ranked as easy medium and hard. An easy mark (low level of credits paid) will fly a ship randomly chosen from the easy pool and so on. Hunters aboard the Bars may also fly ships from the pools. Behaviour of the ship is however determined by the piolt assined.

I playtested without any other OXPs installed and the Mark IC was added. You've just got to find him. Higher paying marks can be harder to find.

hmmm... i wonder why i couldn't find them then... Might they have been cloaked?

Possible (but unlikley). A mark can be fitted with any equipment (random chance for each item). Weedy marks like Adders have low chances for each item and tough marks like ICs have higher chances. But its possible for an IC to appear with no equipment and an adder to appear with a full iron ass.

Marks with henchmen can be tricky to find. The henchmen will attack you on sight, but the mark may simply hit the injectors whilst you are distracted.

i'll take another mission and keep my eyes open in case i was just not looking hard enough last time...

Hint: Flying towards the N beacon rather than the planet can often make it easier that your paths will cross. Marks are aways in the space lanes, but the can be flying paralle to your course more than 25km from a direct line from the w/s to planet. If one is 26km to your right for example, you'll sail past on J jump!

i've often wondered about that. I've always sort of assumed that the lane goes towards the planet then sort of bends towards the station as you get closer.

Thanks for the tip

Hoopy wrote:

i've often wondered about that. I've always sort of assumed that the lane goes towards the planet then sort of bends towards the station as you get closer.

Thanks for the tip

The planet is in the origin of the co-ordinate system. When adding ships in the space lanes it will be around the line witchpointBeacon-planet. After adding most trader-ships will go for the general direction planet and not station. Only when closer that 3 planetary radii they change course to the station.

The marks in random hits go to the station direction from start. (only some, others take a different course, so don't count on then that they will arrive at the station.)

right. so i WAS right. except for when i was wrong

Its also a question of the angle your ship takes against the angle the marks ship takes. Although you always emerge near to the W/P when you make a jump, exactley where you ship appears is random within a sphere of a certain size. Although you and the mark may both plot a course for the station, you could be on courses that don't intersect within 25kms, so you never see each other. You may therefore need to retrace your steps on arriving at the station to have another go at intercepting him.

Also a mark can of course be attacked by an NPC. In the dogfight and using his injectors he can move out of the spacelane. Once he's fled or destroyed his NPC foe, he'll return to course (just as you would), but if his firefight took him a few kms out he's now on an approach the would not bring him with 25kms of your course.

Today I crashed into a bar because hyperspeed is not locked when you reach it (like when you are near a rock hermit).
Is this a feature or a bug?

Its a Big ROCK! So won't mass-lock you. So remember to come out of J jump speed a whilst still a few clicks away. Rocks not mass-locking you is just part of Oolite, so I guess its a feature.

LittleBear wrote:

Its a Big ROCK! So won't mass-lock you. So remember to come out of J jump speed a whilst still a few clicks away. Rocks not mass-locking you is just part of Oolite, so I guess its a feature.

You call that just BIG. This is HUGE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ark wrote:

Today I crashed into a bar because hyperspeed is not locked when you reach it (like when you are near a rock hermit).
Is this a feature or a bug?

And you are mistaken here. A rock hermit does not lock you as well. (It's also only a rock.) Neither do Salvage Gangs or Hacker Outposts, by the way. Also only rocks.