Oolite Bulletins

House Rools


Introduction

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I used to play table-top RPGs . The group I played with used a large variety of different rules systems. We often created rules ourselves to cover situations not defined by the official books, or modified rules to suit our needs. These types of rules are known in RPG lingo as "House Rules" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_rule).

Oolite as we all know is an open-ended game. It has been referred to as a sandbox game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_game) as well. There is no way to “win”. You can complete missions and contracts, but the player usually establishes his or her own goals, in part governed by certain rules of conduct. Thus the challenge or obstacle one must overcome is largely player-defined.

House Rools

Over the past couple of weeks I have been playing Oolite and I have arrived at a comfortable spot within the game as far as my ship and credits are concerned. During this time, I tried out several aspects of the game and left others for future exploration. I also changed some of the OXPs I used, and even modified the details of some of those addons.

With some knowledge and experience under my belt, I feel like starting anew with some different variations of the game. It occurred to me that most Oolite players must inevitably go through this process at one point or another, which lead me to a few ideas.

The “rules of play” that I have set up for myself will have a large impact on the gaming experience that I have. I choose to include or exclude certain types of activities, the ships I can use; establishing my “Role-Play” so to speak. In essence I use these “house rules” so that I can tailor my Oolite experience to match my tastes.

I am fairly certain that everyone does this so I figured that most people would like to see what conditions other Jamesons are out there plying the space lanes under. I am sure that there are variations of play that I have not yet imagined, and I know that there are OXPs(or combinations of OXPs) in existence which can be used in ways I have not considered.

Template

So my idea, so to speak, is that we can make a new type of post or stickied post on the board here called “House Rools” where Commanders can detail an interesting way of playing the game. This post would have a title which would give the reader an idea of the nature of the rules and could include all the details of the House Rools as follows:

Background/Concept: A general description of the idea behind your House Rools. This can include fiction or flavour text at your discretion.

Area: A specific area the player must get to or perhaps is limited to.

Ship/Equipment: What tools the player has available or possibly must seek to attain.

Trade/Contracts: The type of economic activities a player is permitted to engage in.

Reputation/Rating: Any ratings can be defined here; Combat Rating, legal status, or rank with various organizations within the game.

OXPs/Modifications: Which OXPs are necessary to fully enjoy the House Rools, along with optional addon suggestions, or suggested modifications.

Special: Any special rules not defined in previous areas.

Difficulty: A rating from 1 to 5, 5 being highest; a time to completion(short, medium, long-term) and a suggested skill-level of the Commander(New, Experienced, Veteran).


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Example 1
Here is an example of the House Rools I have set up for my next game:


House Rools : The Smuggler

Background/Concept: Born on Poor Industrial world in an Anarchy system, you have had to fend for yourself your entire life. These circumstances have unfortunately lead you to a life of crime as you seek to escape the poverty and chaos of your home. You have a vision of rescuing your family and retiring in style in a peaceful democratic system, but that is going to take a lot of “dishonest” work.

Area: As a Smuggler you are not limited to any specific area or galaxy, but you will find yourself more attracted to lawless systems where you can ply your trade.

Ship/Equipment: Start in a Cobra MK I . Use standard Oolilte ships only(retextures permitted). Ships like the Python and Boa make good smuggler ships. You can use equipment OXPs to your taste, but should avoid anything which drastically alters your power, so: no new weapons, no cargo compressors, etc.

Trade/Contracts: As a notorious smuggler, you seek trade *ONLY* in the following goods: Liquor/Wines, Narcotics, Firearms, Slaves, Gold, Platinum, and Gems. Any scooped materials can be sold normally. You can accept contracts to transport these types of goods for Crime-Lords, but your independent nature prevents you from working for/with anyone else.

Reputation/Rating: You hate authority, maintain offender status at least.

OXPs: Illegal Goods is highly suggested. Make sure to enable the variable detection rate detailed in the wiki post! Random Hits, Free Trade Zones, and Your Ad Here are also highly suggested to give you more places to trade. For experienced commanders, OXPs like: Pirate Coves, Pirate Ambushes, Total Patrol, and Sun Skimmers; will add traffic to the space lanes and more obstacles to overcome.

Special: The “victory condition” is to obtain 1 Million Credits and retire as a successful smuggler.

Difficulty: 2-4. This is a long term sort of challenge which can be undertaken by New and Experienced Jamesons alike. Veterans can increase difficulty by adding more OXPs as suggested above.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Example 2
Here is another example of something I had thought of:


House Rools : Flawless Victory

Background/Concept: This one is simple: do you want to sweat when you exit the station? Do you want a reason to buy an escape pod? Attempt a Flawless Victory!

Area: The goal of this challenge is to reach Galaxy 8.

Special: The only rule of this challenge is simple: If you die for any reason you must start a new game! *NO* reload of save games on death! You can save your challenge if you must stop midway, but you must be flawless to be successful!

Difficulty: 3-5 This is a challenge for experienced Jamesons! This a short term challenge-or is it? Change your starting conditions and OXPs for added difficulty. How will you obtain a Flawless Victory?!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Conclusion

I hope everyone likes this idea. I welcome all of your comments and suggestions. I think House Rools will encourage people to contribute to the forums, will promote discussion of game play, and can potentially be a source of inspiration for future OXPs. I am curious to see how everyone else is playing!

Cheers,

MAWL

Read your proposal and I do not think that I fit in any of your templates to discuss:
I am an opportunistic person... I trade, I bounty hunt,I hunt down Thargoids relentlessly, I do a little smuggling, sometimes, I wiff out a lone ship ,especially those pesky MK1 cobbies as long as there are no galcops around. So on your proposals, I nod my head and continue on my way.

good hunting.

Thank-You for the criticism Yah-Ta-Hey

I agree with you on the two points that I can derive from your post.

- I neglected to say that these House Rools are entirely optional and are in no way intended to dictate how you should play the game. They are rules variations which may or may not allow you to derive additional value or frustrations from Oolite.

- There is an inherent question which is asked by my post: How do you like to play? You have taken the time to answer that question. My post merely suggests that for those who are interested in sharing their personal or theoretical rules or challenges, to maybe do so in a way that might allow more players to appreciate them, perhaps like this:

House Rools : Freestyle Oolite (Yah-Ta-Hey Variant)

Background/Concept: Do you have what it takes to be a brash pilot who flies by the seat of his/her pants? In Freestyle Oolite you are ungoverned by morals or limitations: you do what you want, when you want. You have no rules to follow, your fate is your own. Play smart and you will get far, make a mistake and it's "Press Space Commander". These are the personal Rools of Yah-Ta-Hey.

Ship/Equipment: A well-armed ship is suggested.

OXPs/Modifications: Player Discretion.

Special: From Commander Yah-Ta-Hey "I am an opportunistic person... I trade, I bounty hunt, I hunt down Thargoids relentlessly, I do a little smuggling, sometimes, I wiff out a lone ship, especially those pesky MK1 cobbies as long as there are no galcops around."

Difficulty: 4-5, Experienced Commanders, long-term play.

Another career for your consideration: Mercenary.

Involves a well armed, iron-assed ship, and taking combat contracts from the likes of seedy bars, the Navy, and UPS. Can be a bounty hunter as well, with pirates and Thargoids you're not hired to eliminate being targets of opportunity.

Commander Smivs


Background/Concept: See the link in my sig. for my background. I am a principled spacefarer. I will never attack an innocent ship, and happily go to the aid of those in need, and will help out the police where I can.

Area: Explorer/Trader with a bit of casual opportunistic bounty hunting on the side. I do not do paid 'Hits'.

Ship/Equipment: The Bilbo Maru is an Iron-ass Boa Clipper, with mil lasers and normally 4-5 hardheads on the pylons.

Trade/Contracts: I'll pick up whatever's cheap where-ever I dock, and sell whatever gives a good profit. I do a fair bit of trade with rock hermits.

Reputation/Rating: Deadly with over 4000 kills-all legitimate.

OXPs/Modifications: Very few, as I play a 'pure' game. The Ooniverse I inhabit is pretty with System Redux, Smivs'Shipset and Accessories adding the eye-candy. I don't 'cheat' and have no need for fancy weapons or kit. The only OXP equipment I use is the occasional GalDrivePod if I want to go 'off the beaten track'. Life is hard out there along the lanes, and to ensure this I normally play with ToughGuys Armageddon. I like the challenge, and am normally able to deal with anything I come across. I generally dis-approve of ships with turrets and multiple lasers, so such things do not appear in my Ooniverse.

Special: No special rules...I make lots of money trading and 'pacifying' any offenders who cross my path and I do it with a clean conscience.

Difficulty: Running Armageddon and not avoiding trouble makes my game 'difficult', I suppose, but surely that's the whole point. It's not supposed to be easy, and the satisfaction of taking-out 15 Iron-assed pirates with just lasers and maybe the odd hardhead is hard to beat.

Appendix: My official kill-count has not changed much for a long time, as I spend much of my time on OXP development now. If you counted kills made during development and testing, I would have achieved 'Elite' status a long time ago, but making OXPs is fun, and there's no hurry

Background/Concept: A Jack of all trades, trader, bounty hunter, occasional assassin and navy reservist. A free spirit, happy so long as there are enough credits in the bank to keep the ship in space and always on the lookout for a new challenge.

Area: Working through the galaxies systematically, looking to complete all standard and OXP missions before moving on to the next.

Ship/Equipment: Uber ships are a big no-no for me, I don't like to fly anything that much stronger than the core set.

Trade/Contracts: High margin goods, including illegal goods where I can trade them without the law getting involved.

Reputation/Rating: I try to stay clean but it's a hard world out there and sometimes things just happen.

OXPs/Modifications: I have a wide range of OXPs, but in line with the no uber ships rule I also avoid those that include overly powerful missiles or mines

Special: Unless already on a mission with a target system to get to, I will hang around outside the station and wait for a wormhole to take me wherever it takes me...

Difficulty: A rating from 1 to 5, 5 being highest; 2
time to completion: long-term
suggested skill-level of the Commander: any

Setting limits & storylines is something I do quite a bit of in side games.
like you just robbed a bank of £1m, but you have to get from A to B in an adder mk2 with pulse lazers & a fugitive rating, and have £1m at the end of the run - then you can keep it!
or you just escaped from captivity in a robbed ubership with no money & fugitive rating - shoot all galcop on route to 'X' & survive.
the 'resistance commander' oxp has all sorts of exiting possibilities for this type of mini game too.

might be good to have some rules though, so you can compare with others.

1st person to get 1m without any oxps (judged by the game clock)
or person to get most money by [insert game time here] might be interesting, except everyone would cheat!

Having done a fairly regular career path: Cobby III -> Llama (yeah, I lost money but ooooh! catamaran ) -> Boa Cruiser (work those cargo contracts) -> uberships (mixture of Morrigan and Caducei) I'd found ripping through the space lanes like syrup of figs through a short grandmother to be losing its lustre. Unfortunately most of my ideas for altering the gameplay to make money earning trickier and give value to a wider range of ships were beyond the abilities of OXPs (ship swapping, anyone?) let alone my coding skills. But this thread sparked a brainwave a while back that I'm trying out now. The first stage in making things tougher was replacing that Cobra III with a ship 3 times the price...

House Rools : The Regulator

Background/Concept: No point getting spaceside to be selling vegetables - may as well be stacking the shelves in Tescoo. So all those Jamesons can kiss my Asp. It's about the guns. It's about the jewels. It's about being the last mutha standing when the dust clears. We're doing this g style.

Ship/Equipment: So there you are in Lave station. 100 credits, no missiles and a pulse laser fitted to a lovely Asp Mk II. It is faster, smaller and tougher than the Cobra III - what a cheat
So just load up with food and... erm. Yep. One big restriction - you can only pilot ships with zero tons of hold capacity. Vanilla Oolite pretty much gives you the best of the bunch in this department - although you better think carefully about what to put on that missile pylon...

OXPs/Modifications:

• Your Ad Here! should not be used - the cheap bling they sell (RatnOors franchises, possibly) makes a "regular" trading career too easy
• HOopy Casino on the other hand adds a nicely unreliable trading chances, and fits really well with the flava of the variant
• Rock Hermit Locator is pretty much essential, as those mining hermits will be your friends...
• ...but some of them should turn out to be Pirate Coves instead
• Escort Contracts, Random Hits and UPS Courier will add money making mission possibilities to help replace some of that trade income.
• Ship-wise, Executive Spaceways and BoyRacers offer some alternative zero capacity vessels. Or you could take the masochist route and whip up a player-flyable Sidewinder...

Special: No trading down of ships. Money is meant to be hard to come by, so no point giving yourself an Asp just for the resale value...
The Feudal States is a good OXP for this non-ubership variant, but the bets in hunting lodge challenges should be restricted to 100 credits to keep the financial toughness of the variant intact. The quick 'n' dirty way to implement this is to delete lines 104->107 from missiontext.plist (in The_Feudal_States_v1.12.oxp/Config) although it does leave some of the phrasing looking a little odd.

Difficulty: 4 (at a guess). Suddenly shuffling platinum from main station to casino in order to net 900 credits seems like a golden opportunity rather than a meaningless chore. No escape pods, no salvage... a quality bounty hunting run will be just that rather than an excuse for legally sanctioned piracy. Should keep the money situation interesting And I'm still not sure if scoopy missions (e.g. Cloak) will work.

Edit: Tweak for Feudal States added.

Makara wrote:

HOopy Casino on the other hand adds a nicely unreliable trading chances, and fits really well with the flava of the variant

In HoOpy casinos you can also make money by betting. You just have to stop at the right time.

In the original legacy version this was specially true as the random generator was system specific. Some systems had a strong tendency for a certain hoop. In the current version with JS random numbers, this part of not being real random was scripted in. Sometimes the effect will be stronger than other times. However, like a real casino, the casino keeps track if the player is in a winning mood. If yes, it just shuffles the deck again and another hoop gets a slightly bigger chance.

Your "House rules" Do Not apply to my hoose!
Why inflict us in the Oonverse with yours

Alex wrote:

Your "House rules" Do Not apply to my hoose!
Why inflict us in the Oonverse with yours

Erm... it's called "sharing". These are the rules that the posters are using in their own house, and they are being shared in case someone else thinks they are a good idea.
No-one is saying this is how you should be playing...

Makara wrote:

House Rools : The Regulator

Very nice idea, and for me a valuable one, since I never thought that direction myself, when thinking about tweaking the game to have more difficult starting conditions.
thanks!

You could build yourself an oxp to add "another" player-Asp2*, that is basically the same as the usual one, only the price (-> resale value) would be low enough to make sure no trading down is possible. (nevermind the Adder).

(*with a chance=0 to be offered in shipmarket, but a start-savegame supplying you with the "worth-less" version of the Asp2.)

---------------

Oh, and btw. YAH can very easily be modified to have all the nice ads, but no constores.

Nice to know the idea tickled someone's fancy

snork wrote:

You could build yourself an oxp to add "another" player-Asp2*, that is basically the same as the usual one, only the price (-> resale value) would be low enough to make sure no trading down is possible. (nevermind the Adder).

(*with a chance=0 to be offered in shipmarket, but a start-savegame supplying you with the "worth-less" version of the Asp2.)

Interesting thought, but I suspect this would reduce the maintenance cost for the vessel as well. If this variant works out as financially tough as I am hoping then that routine 4k payment should remain a headache until the ship is maxed out (although I plan to lose some cash by switching to the Special at some point ). Self-discipline is probably the way to go on this one seeing as the shipyards are flooded with cheap ships with better trading possibilities...

snork wrote:

Oh, and btw. YAH can very easily be modified to have all the nice ads, but no constores.

Good to know. I'd already had to remove that one as part of my great graphics purge (poor old ageing computer) but I do miss the wit & wisdom of the ads. I guess it would also be possible to edit the commodities.plist in YAH (maybe to mirror the main stations but with reduced quantities) so you could keep the constores as eyecandy / dockables.

I'll probably have to change the recommended OXP list for this variant once I have a better idea of which ones make or break it. I suspect the self-repair system I've fitted may have made things a bit too easy...

House Rools : The Gentleman

Background/Concept: Feudalism is the only way to go. Chivalry. Honour. Gentlemanly behaviour. (See parchment code at bottom). One should profess a religion. The Church of Giles the Creator espouses gentlemanly behaviour and is naturally a favourite, but others exist such as the Church of the Holy Witchspace Guard.

Area: One must, of course, make one's way to one's chosen system to offer one's services to the Royal House.

Behaviour, naturally depends on the political composition of the system one is in.
*In Feudal states, and industrial (Imperial) dictatorships, it is vitally necessary to uphold the sanctity of the political regime by disposing of vile and obnoxious pirates, buccaneers and freebooters.
*In Communist and Corporate states it is best to assist them legally (or to avoid them) as they are probably freedom-fighters against the evil regime.
*Regarding other states it is best to judge matters carefully. Does the Democracy have a House of Lords? Is the Head of State a Monarch (even if merely constitutional)? Is the Multi-government mostly dominated by rightful aristocratic elements? What proportion of the states in the Confederacy are Feudal? All these crucial matters - and more - must dictate one's policy to putative "pirates" in such systems.

Ship/Equipment: Missiles should only be used as an emergency ECM against other missiles - these are too similar to distance weapons such as bows and arrows for any gentleman to use with equanimity. Bombs are, needless-to-say, infra-dig. And one eventually wishes to be flying a gentleman's ship such as the Fer-de-Lance.

Trade/Contracts: Trade is, of course, vulgar, and to be avoided at all costs (unless one is from Tibecea, where such pursuits remain open to those of blue blood). One cannot, of course, sell illegal goods. By judicious use of LitF (see modifications, below) it is possible to disburse oneself of such ill-gotten gains by donations to the church, a museum, or other such.

Reputation/Rating: One should, naturally, burnish one's reputation in combat as well as remain legal. One should not attack until attacked. One should (legally) buy slaves for liberation wherever found. Dishonest/scurrilous/law-breaking activity is to be roundly condemned and avoided at all costs. Should such a blot appear on the family eschutcheon, it is best to consult the family cleric as to how atonement is to be made. This might involve seeking slaves to liberate from bondage, the conferrance of copious charity (possible through LitF), or regular attendance at religious services each docking (possible through LitF v.0.06 which introduces eg the Church of St Giles).

OXPs/Modifications:

• Feudal States is essential, obviously! (and for a modification of the modification: the bets in hunting lodge challenges should be restricted to 100 credits to keep the financial toughness of the variant intact. The quick 'n' dirty way to implement this is to delete lines 104->107 from missiontext.plist (in The_Feudal_States_v1.12.oxp/Config) although it does leave some of the phrasing looking a little odd. But as a gentleman, your honour can be trusted here anyway, no?)
  It is not that Feudal States are perfect - but that they contain the right codes of ethics to allow for moral improvement. Thus one can work more successfully for the desired utopia and expect a better chance of arrival.
• Home System allows you to invest in your feudal state of choice
• Diplomancy allows your state to go to war with others - and you can tweak
• Rexebe Citizen OXP to allow yourself to become a subject of the rightful ruler (and thus openly become an enemy of one's enemy systems if one is flying the flag, disdaining the pusillanimous anonymity favoured by the lily-livered).
• Illegal Goods Tweak OXP allows liberation of slaves bought at rock hermits and other non-GalCop stations

Optional:

• Weapon Laws adds in extra challenge to outfitting your ship
• LitF (Life in the Frontier) allows attendance at temples, giving of charity, etc. See the newer versions (eg. v.0.06) linked on the wiki page.
• Refugee Adder provides extra opportunities for chivalric behaviour (one might wish to reduce the density of these ships just a tad).
• Smugglers - The Galactic Underworld provides extra opportunities for avoiding illegal behaviour
• Hotrods OXP provides some McNasties who can be marmalized with impunity.
• Broadcast Comms - Digebiti Variations enables condign communications with commanders of one's choice - and can be tweaked to fit with one's personal preferences.
  
  Special: You must fly your flag (chosen through the Diplomacy section on the F4 ship-station interface screen).
  The Feudal States
  
  Difficulty: 4 (?). The tendency of the unmaintained Diplomancy to bounce between war and alliance can have devastating consequences on your legality if caught in a hostile system while the switch happens! Weapon Laws, Refugee Adders & Smugglers also makes things considerably tougher.
  
  
  
  Also relevant: Do any of you play by an "honor code"? (2022)