Oolite Bulletins

Or what about cim's idea of implementing intergalactic space for the Thargoid/Navy warfare and entering it when jumping between galaxies and pulling the stick up? It sounds like less of a deviation than a ninth galaxy to me.

El Viejo wrote:

cim wrote:

El Viejo wrote:

which doesn't exist in-game.

I can't help feeling that full pitch on galactic hyperspace entry should let you reach it, though

Ah, now that is a very interesting thought indeed!

That it is.. but it would be a guaranteed one-way trip, unless you can later dock with a carrier or something.. or use Samuel Franklin's DIY galdrive-inna-box kit..

Kaks wrote:

there are some - as yet unconfirmed - rumours about plans to introduce new OXP galaxies in a distant, distant future version of Oolite.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Samuel Franklin

A man after my own heart, is Franklin!

Smivs wrote:

Also, GN often focusses on Pirates, and there is no justification for this within the game - that's what the GalCop Police are for.

To begin with, I like the idea of this OXP very much, and would be much more inclined to use it than GN.. that having been said, however..

Historically, pirates (particularly the larger groups and more "annoying" ones, were a Navy matter.. Whilst GalCop should certainly deal with the run-of-the-mill pirates, it may be that a particularly troublesome pirate gang (maybe with some Blackbeard type character in charge) just might require Naval attention to deal with.. a mission might involve becoming a spy for the Navy, infiltrating the gang and helping to set them up for a takedown..

Just a thought..

Diziet Sma wrote:

galdrive-inna-box kit

We now have those in Smivs'  GalDrivePods - where Oofic leads, OXPs follow!

Guess I missed that one.. cool!

Diziet Sma wrote:

Smivs wrote:

Also, GN often focusses on Pirates, and there is no justification for this within the game - that's what the GalCop Police are for.

To begin with, I like the idea of this OXP very much, and would be much more inclined to use it than GN.. that having been said, however..

Historically, pirates (particularly the larger groups and more "annoying" ones, were a Navy matter.. Whilst GalCop should certainly deal with the run-of-the-mill pirates, it may be that a particularly troublesome pirate gang (maybe with some Blackbeard type character in charge) just might require Naval attention to deal with.. a mission might involve becoming a spy for the Navy, infiltrating the gang and helping to set them up for a takedown..

Just a thought..

That is a good scenario for a mission, but I would prefer if a mission like that was set up with GalCop as the responsible party that assembles a fleet of "reserves" to take out the pirates. I would argue that the Navy should only be involved if an entire region starts to destabilise. Setting up an embargo, or breaking through an embargo set up by some mad dictator might be scenarios here. By and large, the Navy fights Thargoids somewhere in deep space.

HIMSN does have a cameo appearance in Xeptatl's Sword, where the cruiser Thunder Child is active against a certain Thargoid mega-ship. I did design a Crest for her consisting of a crown, crossed anchors and wings.



Just thought it was a bit more stylish than a star or something. Anyway, it's there and available.

Ahh, the heroic Thunder Child - nice crest, Smivs (it'd look cool in purple).

HIMSN light cruiser?



(It's a Boa2 with wings and a bridge attached - just done as a proof-of-concept at this stage)

maik wrote:

Or what about cim's idea of implementing intergalactic space for the Thargoid/Navy warfare and entering it when jumping between galaxies and pulling the stick up? It sounds like less of a deviation than a ninth galaxy to me.

Sound like a good idea. The plans that Cim earlier mentioned seemed reasonable. In that way you can still see the big battles but only in intergalactic space.

EDIT:

But I made quite a nice Behemoth texture for ADCK's behemoth and once in a while I want to meet a Behemoth. I agree that you now maybe meet them in the 'wrong' place and that is indeed around the plants. The 'right' place seems in battle in witch space.

EDIT2

Earlier this year I suggested a sort of OXP that you could become 'stationed' at a Behemoth. Would this be fun? In this way the Behemoth becomes a sort of Battlestar Galactica and you must do anything to prevent its destruction.

maik wrote:

Or what about cim's idea of implementing intergalactic space for the Thargoid/Navy warfare and entering it when jumping between galaxies and pulling the stick up? It sounds like less of a deviation than a ninth galaxy to me.

Handwavium: the Milky Way is fairly flat hence the 8 galaxies are 2D. The Thargoids often approach from 'above' or 'below' the galactic plane, so Navy battles with the Thargoids can occur anywhere, and be further away than the 2D map would make them appear.

pagroove wrote:

Earlier this year I suggested a sort of OXP that you could become 'stationed' at a Behemoth. Would this be fun? In this way the Behemoth becomes a sort of Battlestar Galactica and you must do anything to prevent its destruction.

Since the player's ship used a lot of fuel to get to the battle (2 LYs from the system, + another 4 LYs 'upwards'), the player cannot jump back to a friendly system. The player must dock with a vessel. Volunteering to join means defending the dockable ship, if one wants to return.

El Viejo wrote:

cim wrote:

El Viejo wrote:

which doesn't exist in-game.

I can't help feeling that full pitch on galactic hyperspace entry should let you reach it, though

Ah, now that is a very interesting thought indeed!

Turns out it's quite straightforward to fake with 1.76 scripting... Galactic Misjump OXP

<dons his space armour and prepares Rolling Thunder for launch>

A lot of the discussion here on Navy size seems to be centred on the assumption that the Thargoid menace is a massive force, needing a massive Navy (albeit out in Intergalactic space) to fight/contain it.

That doesn't necessarily need to be the case and can still fit with canon (and avoids the thorny issue of trying to protect all 2048 planets from a large, very mobile enemy), and then fits better with a smaller navy.

I came with the bones of a backstory with regards to Thargoid culture/biology for a mission OXP that is unlikely to see the light of day (the OXPs mechanics has got too many similarities to another author's as yet unreleased work, which in fact inspired then idea, but not the backstory). I envisage Thargoid culture and biology as somewhat fractious and not all Thargoid's are bad.

Imagine this. Thargoid's have a hive mind. Breeding Queens produce many many hundreds of young males, and each individual Queen controls her hive. Queens and young males have naturally warlike and aggressive tendencies as each Queen wants to carve out a territory, and often fight each other in Intergalactic Space. However males if they manage to live long enough can reach a state of 'enlightenment', in which case they are no longer controlled by Queens and can exert telepathic control over their hive, including the local Queen. These 'Elders' are peaceful and civilised. So the Thargoid homeworlds are a place with a fundamentally civilised core controlled by the Elders, with a surrounding area with more aggressive hives under Queen control.

The major change occurred when one particular Queen managed to genetically alter her offspring so they don't have 'fear glands'. The resulting males never live along enough to reach Elder status, and this particular Queen's aim is to start a new Thargoid 'empire' well away from the influence of the peaceful Elders - in Galcop space. She may also want to destroy/take over the 'Elder' controlled core and perhaps Galcop space offers a way to facilitate that (maybe Raxxla is a portal to the peaceful Thargoid core, and maybe the Dark Wheel are an alliance of Elite combateers and Thargoid 'Elders' whose main role is to prevent this dangerous hive accessing Raxxla, and on the side provide snippets of intelligence to Galcop and the Navy).

So the navy in Intergalactic Space are fighting a small portion of the Thargoid population centred on one or two home locations, quite far away from the peaceful core. They have no chance of destroying the hive, the Queen breeds new troops too quickly, but they have managed to prevent a major offensive so far, and it's just small groups of Thargoids that break through the naval cordons and then enter galactic/interstellar space. We are yet to see what happens when the Queen produces a daughter and sends her on her way to start a new hive.......