Oolite Bulletins

New version of Random Hits (1.11) is up.

* Staer9 and Sb-faves shipsets have been cut out from the oxp to reduce size down to ~60 MB. If they are present as standalone oxps they will be used in RH missions.
* Resources pack integrated back to the oxp.
* Fixed escort circulation bug in GalTech escort fighter.

New version of Random Hits Shipset (1.1) is up.

* Reduced probabilities as suggested.
* Cleaned out to only add trader and pirate ships from RH oxp, not from external dependencies. If RSN oxp is present, it's used for naming, otherwise they are not named. Hunters are added from RH oxp + external dependencies and they are named with RH names, Sheriff, Provost and such. Pirate bosses with escorts are added and named with RH names as before.

Please report oddities as always.

Hi all,

I believe I found a bug with version 1.10.4 (still didn't check if it's still present in version 1.11 as I just saw the announcement). This is the issue:

After destroying the ship I was chasing, the pilot managed to eject in a scape pod. I got a bit too close to it so I ended up scooping him onboard! My decision was simple: I selected the newly added 1x ton of slaves and jettisoned it, and I could see that what was ejected was the scape pod of my target. So I destroyed it and docked to a station. But there I was informed that I still had the criminal in my ship and I was asked to if I would kill him using an injection (which, by the way, I did, meaning I killed him twice).

So I believe this scenario of ejecting the scape pod isn't being considered.

Cheers,
Gilberto

gsagostinho wrote:

I believe I found a bug...

Finally got around checking this bug. Version 1.11.1 is up fixing it. Thanks for reporting, much appreciated.

There is two words to describe ones random hits ranking. If i understood this correctly, the second one indicates the real rank, like marshal, Provost, etc. The first one (green, experienced, etc.) is selected randomly. If I may make a suggestion: The random selection is senseless. Try making a selection based on the ranking.
I was an experienced enforcer, two successful kills later I became a unexperienced enforcer. That's crazy. And it happens frequently. There are combinations that simply don't go well together. I wonder If I might become an inexperienced or harmless Great One one day.

Another suggestion: My legal record is CLEAN. I was rewarded approx. 5000Cr for killing a JUDGE... His status was Offender. No need to comment this. I like the feeling to help out killing a Mafia Boss, but helping the Mafia killing a judge... No, honestly!

Post 233420 might be related.

Oh. Thanks. Then I should probably just update my oxz file...

ralph_hh wrote:

Another suggestion: My legal record is CLEAN. I was rewarded approx. 5000Cr for killing a JUDGE... His status was Offender. No need to comment this. I like the feeling to help out killing a Mafia Boss, but helping the Mafia killing a judge... No, honestly!

You mean you find it disturbing that some of the missions are from evil guys? Killing business is killing business. Your job is to finish the job and not ask questions. The victim might be a criminal or he/she/it might just be an innocent one being framed. Who knows? For a professional hunter it does not matter, a job is a job. If liquidating a judge (deviated per chance or more likely framed) feels wrong, don't take the job. Let someone with lower morals do it.

spara wrote:

ralph_hh wrote:

Another suggestion: My legal record is CLEAN. I was rewarded approx. 5000Cr for killing a JUDGE... His status was Offender. No need to comment this. I like the feeling to help out killing a Mafia Boss, but helping the Mafia killing a judge... No, honestly!

You mean you find it disturbing that some of the missions are from evil guys? Killing business is killing business. Your job is to finish the job and not ask questions. The victim might be a criminal or he/she/it might just be an innocent one being framed. Who knows? For a professional hunter it does not matter, a job is a job. If liquidating a judge (deviated per chance or more likely framed) feels wrong, don't take the job. Let someone with lower morals do it.

Well said.
I'll think about it... So far, my moral standard is buried somewhere deep under the surface of the Lave academy for young pilots, I confess that I even blow medical transporters out of space, when the make my trip to the station unnecessarily slow.
No, it's just that the RH guys seem to take a good care of their clean status. You should not come near a RH space bar with a fugitive status. (That's what I read here, I never tried)

ralph_hh wrote:

(That's what I read here, I never tried)

Versuch macht klug (Learning by doing)

gizmo wrote:

ralph_hh wrote:

(That's what I read here, I never tried)

Versuch macht klug (Learning by doing)

Since I am deeply involved in that killing business, I'd like to avoid trouble with those guys. Its not favorable for the annual profit expectations.

I think it feels weird that the mark waits there for eternity for the assassin to come and wipe him/her/it out of the existence, so I have added deadlines to Random Hits missions. Deadlines are a bit vague, given in days. Again it felt weird to give exact times for this sort of thing. I have quickly tested this and it seems to work as intended, but I would much appreciate for someone currently flying these missions to take it for a spin and testing it out. At least it adds a bit tension to make it to the target system in time. If you miss the time frame, you're notified of it via messaging system on entering the target system and on docking the main station/space bar.

* deadlines
* small fixes and interface tweaks
* screenIDs added to mission screens ("random_hits_mission" and "random_hits_map")

Downdload for testing (v.1.12):http://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/e/e ... s_1.12.oxz

Does this make sense? If the mark is a trader who jumps from one system to another, the whole thing does not make sense. One would expect a cross system hunt like in the constrictor mission. Why should the mark wait at the system at all, while it takes you 5...6...7 jumps to get there?
On the other hand, If the mark is a bad guy who is terrifying a system, why shall there be a deadline? And who shall set this? Who will know, how long the guy will stay there?

I like to put in a RH job in between some parcel deliveries, if it fits in the tight schedule. I'd be disappointed, if this would not work anymore because of a deadline.

ralph_hh wrote:

Does this make sense? If the mark is a trader who jumps from one system to another, the whole thing does not make sense. One would expect a cross system hunt like in the constrictor mission. Why should the mark wait at the system at all, while it takes you 5...6...7 jumps to get there?
On the other hand, If the mark is a bad guy who is terrifying a system, why shall there be a deadline? And who shall set this? Who will know, how long the guy will stay there?

I like to put in a RH job in between some parcel deliveries, if it fits in the tight schedule. I'd be disappointed, if this would not work anymore because of a deadline.

Thanks for the feedback. I see deadlines so that for some reason marks plans are known or it's organized so that the mark will be in the target system for a fixed period of time. Makes more sense than the mark to be there indefinitely. The mark waiting forever is a bit too gamey to my taste, but I'm glad to here opinions about this. The deadlines are not that strict, so I don't think they'll mess with other deadlines, but that's what I would like to get feedback from.

Please test the new version out and see how it feels.

I will. Could take some time though.
One more thing just comes to my mind: I had a mission running once and was happy to accept another. To my surprise, this cancelled the first one, with all the negative results. (I guess I was warned, but did not read it properly) Why can's you take on more than one mission at a time?

ralph_hh wrote:

I will. Could take some time though.
One more thing just comes to my mind: I had a mission running once and was happy to accept another. To my surprise, this cancelled the first one, with all the negative results. (I guess I was warned, but did not read it properly) Why can's you take on more than one mission at a time?

This OXP was originally written (not by me!) before js was used for scripting. From what I know from legacy scripts, I would say that it would have been very difficult to write support for simultaneous contracts. Conversion to js (again not by me!) was quite straightforward keeping the original features and adding new ones.It would probably not be a trivial task to add the possibility to take multiple missions. But now that you have brought it up and the idea has infected my thinking organ, I'll take a closer look at it . Don't hold your breath though, might take a while. Meanwhile, keep 'em ideas rolling.