Oolite Bulletins

Criminal Record OXP ver. 0.1
Date: April 12th, 2012
Author: Wildeblood


This OXP introduces GalCrim, the Galactic Criminal Records Database. No longer can criminals exploit the wonder of faster-than-light space travel to literally stay ahead of their criminal records! If you find the idea that you could expunge a criminal record just by hopping about from planet to planet a few times just a bit too easy, if life in the Galactic Co-operative sometimes seems like it's all just some kind of a game, place the Criminal Record OXP into your "AddOns" folder. Oolite will then maintain a permanent record of any legal misadventures you might have. (It won't of course, because this is only version 0.1, not version 1.0)

What this version WILL do:

1. Stop the nonsense of resetting the player's bounty to zero by making a 'galactic' hyperjump. This OXP replaces Oolite's single player bounty with a table of eight bounties, recorded separately for each galactic sector. Players on their first trip around 'the eight' will indeed get a fresh start, and a chance to make a new life as a law-abiding citizen, after jumping to a new sector. But after that, if they return to a sector they fled from with a bounty on their head, it will still be there waiting for them.

2. Allow control over the rate the player's bounty decays, separately for each sector. Oolite reacts to criminal acts by placing a bounty on the player, which then rapidly decays, halving after each witchspace jump. You might think that is too easy, or you might think that is too hard. Open the "Scripts" folder within the OXP, and then the file "galcrim_record.js". Near the top of the file you will see this:-

Code: Select all

=================================================================================
			INITIALIZATION OPTION - GAME STYLE

	1	Game with eight levels of increasing difficulty.
	2	Complacent Old Worlds and zero-tolerance frontier.
	3	Authoritarian Old Worlds and lawless frontier.
		Other values default to Oolite's usual 0.5 decay rate after each jump.

	This sets elements 8-15 of the this.galcrim_chartwide[] array,
	which store individual decay rates for each chart.
=================================================================================

this.gameStyle = 2;

Setting this.gameStyle = 1 results in the player bounty being reduced to just 30% after each witchspace jump in sector 1, but being permanent, and never reducing at all in sector 8. In other words, a game with eight increasing difficulty levels.

Setting this.gameStyle = 2 uses Oolite's normal 50% decay rate in sector 1, then is less forgiving as you move out to the frontier in sector 5, and becomes easier again as you move back.

Setting this.gameStyle = 3 is the opposite, and new players starting out at Lave better quickly learn to behave themselves.

Disembodied wrote:

Might it in fact be possible for players to volunteer for minor punishment

El Viejo wrote:

Voluntary attitude adjustment? Hmm... not too sure about that!

El Viejo wrote:

Disembodied wrote:

Might it in fact be possible for players to volunteer for minor punishment

Voluntary attitude adjustment? Hmm... not too sure about that!

Disembodied wrote:

One thing though: if it gets harder/takes longer to clear a criminal record by simple passage of time, I think there needs to be other ways of becoming Clean again.

...being permanent, and never reducing at all in sector 8...

Wildeblood wrote:

Rumour has it you can just bail out in an escape pod, and your criminal history goes down with your ship.

El Viejo wrote:

Wildeblood wrote:

Rumour has it you can just bail out in an escape pod, and your criminal history goes down with your ship.

This has always been wrong, I reckon. The escape pod should be for emergencies only, not for clearing ones criminal history.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Loopholes are there to be taken advantage of.. isn't that what every politician crook in history has taught us?

Wildeblood wrote:

I didn't mean it would prevent paying of a fine to clear your bounty. Just the opposite: my goal is to make sure players do pay their fines, not just hop around a few times to extinguish them.

Disembodied wrote:

One thing though: if it gets harder/takes longer to clear a criminal record by simple passage of time, I think there needs to be other ways of becoming Clean again.

snork wrote:

Can anyone confirm or deny this ? How strong is that effect, if at all ?

Eric Walch wrote:

Every time you get a "thank you" message from a police for helping him, your bounty is reduced by 20%

Disembodied wrote:

A nicely judged bribe