Oolite Bulletins

This is an idea which is really a simplification of LittleBear's Random Hits OXP, which might add a bit of local colour and interest for those who don't want to go the whole hog of becoming a practising bounty hunter. The aim would be to generate a small scatter of named villains across each galaxy, which the player could encounter/try to avoid/hunt down and kill. These would be badder-than-average pirates, with larger-than-average (a few hundred Cr) bounties on their heads, and a bigger-than-normal posse of henchbeings backing them up.

The purpose of the OXP would be to give a dash of local flavour – each Bad Guy would have a territory a few systems across where they might be found – and to provide players with a series of small achievements to keep them going between Elite rankings ("I'm the guy who took down No-Nose McGraw", etc.).

The Bad Guys would be randomly generated, and would repopulate (slowishly) when the player killed one off. We'd need a stack of random Bad Guy name elements ("No-Nose", "Steelhead", "Cratermaker", "Boneless", etc.) and ship names too perhaps, a bunch of Bad Guy communications, and one (or perhaps more) special Bad Guy AIs: they'd need to be better equipped, tougher and smarter than average, and capable of holding their own against any regular posse of police OR the casual player. They should of course be killable but should put up a fight to remember (and be prepared to flee, if necessary, too – these guys are survivors).

Thoughts? Volunteers to do the actual work?

Disembodied wrote:

generate a small scatter of named villains across each galaxy

Or, specifically just one galaxy which is the criminal arse-end of the Oolite universe (e.g. 6, 7 or 8 as they have few mission OXPs already, and 8 looks ideal).

Disembodied wrote:

The Bad Guys would be randomly generated, and would repopulate (slowishly) when the player killed one off.

Makes sense. As you take out the local Mafia top-man, so another from amongst the pirate population will rise to the top take over.

I would also suggest that returning to that galaxy would see all the bad guys back in place: "Hey, things have got bad again since you last cleaned this place out." Meaning you can play the OXP over and over again by just returning to that galaxy.

Should the number and strength of the henchbeings increase with each kill (as the gangs get more and more paranoid)?

Alternatively - The Ultimate Bounty Hunter: The Lone Ranger in Space
When you enter the galaxy in question, almost every system has one of these bully-boys. As you take them out, they do not get replaced. But, the number of henchbeings slowly increases with each kill. Eventually, they will be too tough and too many for you to take them out, but you'll learn a hell of a lot about fighting, running away, mass-kill techniques, etc.

These bully-boys should not be allowed to jump out of their home system.

In time you could clean up a corner of the galaxy, and, when you've had enough, just jump to the next galaxy, leaving behind a legend.

SandJ wrote:

Alternatively - The Ultimate Bounty Hunter: The Lone Ranger in Space
When you enter the galaxy in question, almost every system has one of these bully-boys. As you take them out, they do not get replaced. But, the number of henchbeings slowly increases with each kill. Eventually, they will be too tough and too many for you to take them out, but you'll learn a hell of a lot about fighting, running away, mass-kill techniques, etc.

These bully-boys should not be allowed to jump out of their home system.

In time you could clean up a corner of the galaxy, and, when you've had enough, just jump to the next galaxy, leaving behind a legend.

Awesome idea! Now we just need somebody capable of doing this...

SandJ wrote:

Alternatively - The Ultimate Bounty Hunter: The Lone Ranger in Space
When you enter the galaxy in question, almost every system has one of these bully-boys. As you take them out, they do not get replaced. But, the number of henchbeings slowly increases with each kill. Eventually, they will be too tough and too many for you to take them out, but you'll learn a hell of a lot about fighting, running away, mass-kill techniques, etc.

These bully-boys should not be allowed to jump out of their home system.

In time you could clean up a corner of the galaxy, and, when you've had enough, just jump to the next galaxy, leaving behind a legend.

That seems to be too player-centric to me ... my own preference would be for a scatter of bad guys that don't care who you are, that you might occasionally meet and run away from, or meet and defeat, depending on circumstance. Some might be really tough, others less so (but still harder than average) – but it's not up to the player to hunt them down or clear them out, and they don't get tougher just because the player does. They'd be part of an environment to which the player has to respond, rather than part of an environment which responds to the player: not missions to complete, merely things which might or might not happen.

Of course, any final decision would rest with whoever actually did the codework, so ...

Disembodied wrote:

....a scatter of bad guys that don't care who you are, that you might occasionally meet and run away from, or meet and defeat, depending on circumstance. Some might be really tough, others less so (but still harder than average) – but it's not up to the player to hunt them down or clear them out, and they don't get tougher just because the player does. They'd be part of an environment to which the player has to respond, rather than part of an environment which responds to the player: not missions to complete, merely things which might or might not happen.

This is pretty much what you get with Apocalypse level of ToughGuys 2.