Oolite Bulletins

I was just playing a round of Oolite and I picked myself up very generous 8800 CR bounty-head through a space bar in the Bivea system, cool right? Well on my way to the target's system, another space bar I had stopped at was attacked by Thargoids, no problem there, however, after helping to destroy all the enemies, I decided to pick up some robot fighters to make a little extra money. Well as I doing my search for alien items I found a satellite- now, I should have scanned it to get an ID, and yes, I should have even looked more closely at my HUD, however, this satellite was not a Thargoid satellite in the end, it was a Galcop satellite. I only figured this out after I had started shooting the piss out of it, which of course made me an instant criminal, so I not only lost a good 25 minutes, but also a chucky bounty-head and numerous kills.

So my point to this thread is PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, change the textures of two brands of satellites. Really, there is no reason why Thargoid satellites and Galcop satellites should look exactly the same, indeed, they should be very different - not only to distinguish the two easily, but because the satellites are made by two different species, with different technologies.

To be clear about what I'm running, since I might not have an OXP installed that would take care of my problem. I am running oolite 1.76, 64-bit on linux, with the following OXPs

accessoriesV2.0.oxp
adcks_eagles_v1.1.oxp
Anarchies2.6.oxp
Armoury 1.09.oxp
Assassins.oxp
AsteroidStorm 4.02.oxp
Basic-debug.oxp
behemoth 2.6.oxp
BGS-A1.4.oxp
BigShips 1.02.oxp
BountyScannerv2.0.oxp
ClippersV1.2.oxp
Condor v1.1.oxp
Deep Horizons - Gas Giant Skimming.oxp
Deep Horizons - Systems.oxp
DeepspaceHud.oxp
DeepspaceShip.oxp
Dictators v1.5.oxp
Diso.oxp
Escape_Capsule_Locator_1.4_2011-12-18.oxp
Escort_Contracts_1.5.1_2012-02-05.oxp
Executive Spaceways v2.4.oxp
Factions-1.10.oxp
Famous_Planets_v2.5.oxp
FarstarMurderer1.1.oxp
Flight Log 1.03.oxp
FTZ v0.15.oxp
Fuel Station 1.34.oxp
Fuel Tank v2.2.oxp
Galactic_Navy 5.4.3.oxp
hOopyCasino1.2.oxp
Illegal_goods_tweak_1.6_2012.02.05.oxp
ixianfreighter.oxp
Lave Academy 1.31.oxp
Lave.oxp
MildAudio.oxp
neocaduceus.oxp
Ore_processor 1.58.oxp
pagroove_Aurorav1.1.oxp
PlanetFall 1.41.oxp
PlanetFall Link - Black Monks 1.0.oxp
PlanetFall Link - hOopy Casino 1.0.oxp
PlanetFall Mission - Oo-Haul 1.11.oxp
RandomHits1.4.12oxp.oxp
Shady_blackmonks.oxp
terrapin.oxp
thargoid_wars 4.5.4.oxp
The_Feudal_States_v1.13.oxp
Tianve1.3.oxp
tiger.oxp
UrutaMK3
urutu_IV.oxp
velocity.oxp
vendetta.oxp
wormhole_restoration.oxp
xarik.oxp

To anyone that can help out in either:
A) identifying the OXP that would change these textures (if not one of the above)
B) identifying what OXP the current textures are in (if it is in the list above)
or
C) just simply creating a new thargoid spy satellite OXP
I would be very grateful.

I'm not aware off the top of my head of any oxp with GalCop satellites, and your oxp list isn't helping me, as I recognise or have played with most of them. Where did you shoot this satellite down? I vaguely recall there being various satellite type of things outside the Seedy space bars (minesweepers, I think), so it might have been one of those you hit?

Thargoid satellites, are from thargoid_wars 4.5.4.oxp. Never seen or heard of Galcop satellites before.

As the other guys pointed out, there is no such thing as a GalCop satellite.

Seedy Space Bars are protected against the use of cascading weapons by a network of minesweepers that are installed around the bar, and they are scanning their vicinity for offenders by a network of Sentinel Satellites. (It's all in the manual.) Attacking one of these minesweepers or satellites is as bad an idea as attacking the bar itself. (And just to clarify this as well: neither the Seedy Space Bars nor any of their equipment have anything to do with GalCop whatsoever.)

It is each pilot's responsibility to check what he's attacking before attacking it. "Shoot first, ask questions later" is not always a viable strategy.

I think than Murch created the satelites. Those in thargoid wars have an thargoid texture (red/green). Little Beer used those satelites for assaissains and random hits. But, his versions are black/yellow striped with a 'bees' texture. Only the rotating disk is identical.

Well, I concede, I don't think it was a Galcop satellite, rather, a sentinel satellite. But it was exactly at a seedy space bar, thought I don't recall the system...

@Commander McLane: "Shoot first, ask questions later" is not always a viable strategy. - You are completely right, but as I mentioned, this satellite looked exactly like a thargoid satellite. I did think it was a little odd to see one near the bar, instead of the witchpoint, but again, there was absolutely no difference between the two - which is why I had opted to shoot first and ask questions later.

@Eric - interesting what you're saying about the subtle differences, I will have to look more closely at them. So it seems that the two kinds of satellites are coming from Thargoid wars, random hits, assassains.

Thank you all for your help, it is much appreciated. It really sucked losing the 8800 CR bounty, since that's about as high as it seems the bounties are in random hits - but it sure is a great OXP! I think in the meantime I will definitely practice more caution while I'm helping to defend seedy space bars

I don't have Thargoid Wars.oxp installed, and so I have no idea what a Thargoid Satellite looks like or does, and if it is even possible to encounter one around a Seedy Space Bar. I guess, however, that different types of satellites would have different names.

CommRLock78, have you equipped your ship with a [wiki]Scanner Targeting Enhancement[/wiki]? That would help you to identify your target not only optically by its looks, but also by its name.

Also, have a look at your [wiki]IFF System[/wiki] (the short range scanner that is part of your HUD). The Thargoid Satellite is probably represented by a red-green-blinking dot, while the Space Bar's sentinels and minesweepers are represented by white dots.

All of this helps to distinguish between different types of entities, which helps in not accidentally shooting the wrong entity.

I do indeed have the Scanner Enhancement and the IFF System. Other than the fact the two satellites look nearly identical, this is really a case of "Look more closely before you shoot". I definitely screwed up by not scanning the thing - I've just gotten used to lasering anything that smells of the Thargoids, without hesitation.

Most likely, it doesn't seem that a thargoid satellite would appear near a space bar, since they are two different OXPs.

So, although I made a poor choice in firing at something I hadn't first identified, I still think the two satellites should look more radically different.

As far as what you were saying, Eric, I searched the OXP folders for Assassins, Random Hits, and Thargoid Wars, and I was able to find the disk parts of the satellites just fine, however, I'm not sure what the sentinel body textures are. I would bet thargoid_wars_sat_panel1.png & thargoid_wars_sat_panel2.png are the two body textures for the thargoid satellite (there aren't that many texture files in Thargoid wars). The only yellow and black textures I could find in Assassins or Random Hits appear as though they are not the same shape as the thargoid_wars_sat_panel*.png's. (their name is beatletex.png, in both OXPs).

CommRLock78 wrote:

Most likely, it doesn't seem that a thargoid satellite would appear near a space bar, since they are two different OXPs.

So, although I made a poor choice in firing at something I hadn't first identified, I still think the two satellites should look more radically different.

Actually, if it's a spy satellite...