Oolite Bulletins

Ok I have just been reading a post regarding legal status and smuggling contraband and thought that an OXP in which you would have a chance of launching from a station while carrying illegal goods without the authorities detecting what you are carrying could be a good idea.

It wouldn’t want to be guaranteed but maybe allows launches with undetected illegal goods with a success rate of maybe 80% (Or for anyone who is clever enough to script something maybe a reduced chance of success as the Tech level of systems increase).

I would also think that any illegal goods couldn’t be purchased at a station then hidden as there would be a record of which goods had been purchased for each ship.

Where I see this becoming useful would be for instances when you scoop illegal goods, land on a stations for fuel or whatever but the sale price of the illegal goods you are carrying is low so you then have the choice to take the risk of launching and selling elsewhere.

Think along the lines of the smuggling compartments under the floor of the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars - A New Hope.

Unfortunately this is something that I wouldn’t know where to start as I am very limited with regard to my scripting abilities (My area of knowledge relates more to modelling, texturing etc).

If however there is anyone reading this who thinks that it is a good idea and has the ability I would certainly like to see it as an OXP.

New Cargoes does have a little bit of smuggling in it (you can get permits to carry illegal goods, though the price is not usually worth it; you can get forged permits to carry illegal goods considerably more cheaply)

You could add that sort of smuggling to it by using the permit interface to add one-off invisible permits with a detection chance, when launching from a station. Would only work for specific rather than generic illegal cargoes, though.

A modification of HyperCargo without the energy drain and holding only a quarter of the main hold, which is then reduced by the size of the 'hidden compartments'; the smaller hidden cargospace is easier to miss by station authorities.

Does this get any ideas rolling?

The most simple implementation would be to compare the player's bounty before and after launching, and reset it to the "before"-value with a certain probability. I don't think this would conflict with any other OXP. Also, it would only require very few lines of code.

If this is modified by tech and gov level, I'd start carrying narcotics!

Commander McLane wrote:

The most simple implementation would be to compare the player's bounty before and after launching, and reset it to the "before"-value with a certain probability. I don't think this would conflict with any other OXP. Also, it would only require very few lines of code.

That's what I thought as soon as I read the OP.

Test this one, based on my Priority Launch OXP.

https://www.box.com/s/ohkbbfql8v1yuu7gcmd5

Wildeblood wrote:

Test this one, based on my Priority Launch OXP.

LIKE! Downloaded.

Hmm. shipLauchedFromStation? That "lauching" will do it every time. Sorry to the two people who already downloaded. It's fixed now.

Thargoid wrote:

There was another OXP that Cim and I worked with to get Hypercargo and New Cargoes fully cargo mutually compatible which may also come into play. I forget offhand which one that was though, as it's been a while.

Illegal Goods Tweak.

Wildeblood wrote:

Hmm. shipLauchedFromStation? That "lauching" will do it every time.

Heh, reminds me of a frustrating half hour I once spent because my shipWillLunchFromStation. Although clearly well fed, it didn't work!
<Notices post count and thinks he talks too much>

Smivs wrote:

<Notices post count and thinks he talks too much>

Congrats to #5000!

Commander McLane wrote:

The most simple implementation would be to compare the player's bounty before and after launching, and reset it to the "before"-value with a certain probability. I don't think this would conflict with any other OXP.

This is something that ThargoidWars.oxp already did in the old legacy code. But it certainly runs a big risk of conflicting if more do similar things. ThargoidWars.oxp keeps your legal status the same if you are forced to launch to help the station fighting thargoids. For this it reads the status on launch and sets it back after launch. If another oxp does exactly the same, they are just duplicating things, but, if that other oxp does something different, you are likely to run in conflicts, depending on the order that the oxps execute their eventhandler.