Oolite Bulletins

Okay, your puttering along making your way through the black to the station, when you hear that call...

"Help, we are being attacked!"

Sigh... Ok, here we go again, risking cargo, passengers, ship, and probably life, to go help some poor spacer out of a jam. You twist, turn, over-heat your laser, fire off all your missiles, and lose a couple TCs of computers (and possibly a passenger or two), but you finally manage to fight off the pirates (seldom with any help from the spacer doing the screaming, because he's too busy scooping up everyones lost cargo!)! And what do you get for your trouble? Maybe a thank you..., sometimes a So-and-so Bless you... WTH?! I just saved your cargo/ship/life, and probably a few 100,000 CRs, and that's all I get? A tip of the hat? A nod and a wave? HEY BUDDY! At least you could buy me a beer at the dock, let alone maybe a flippin' reward!?! Geesh!

So anyways, since we still have F9, F10, and F11 to use (?), Maybe we could add a spaceport bar, where the guys we just saved can slip us 50-100 cr or so for saving their lives, and there has GOT to be a javascript out there someplace that covers blackjack and poker and maybe slots that we could play in said bar? I know there is the Hoopty Casino, but there has to be a something better than cups?

Eminently sensible suggestions, all..

Paradox wrote:

So anyways, since we still have F9, F10, and F11 to use (?), Maybe we could add a spaceport bar, where the guys we just saved can slip us 50-100 cr or so for saving their lives, and there has GOT to be a javascript out there someplace that covers blackjack and poker and maybe slots that we could play in said bar? I know there is the Hoopty Casino, but there has to be a something better than cups?

This is something I have been looking to do for ages. We don't need to use F9, F10 or F11. All we need to do is add a new custom category of Station Places to the F4 interfaces screen and add it there. I suggested this way back when the docked F4 screen was being put together but was rejected as not in tune with the core idea of the game as being menu based and these things should be left to the imagination. To some degree I understand this but the way this F4 screen was setup it doesn't stop us from adding this via an OXP.

As to adding proper card games, this could be done but I am not sure that is the main point of a space bar. It is the bar interactions which need fleshing out first.

i don't know how much can be done without changing the core game, but here's some ideas

peeps gossip at the bar. so there might be some tips floating around what cargo is cheap there and can be sold at a good profit elsewhere. other gossip might be bug encounters, as well as tips about where the pirates are making life for a trader hard.

maybe some other idle gossip that doesn't have any direct effect on the game (but may have some indirect effects later) like rumours about changes in government somewhere or other ... for that matters, sports results.

Wyvern Mommy wrote:

i don't know how much can be done without changing the core game, but here's some ideas

peeps gossip at the bar. so there might be some tips floating around what cargo is cheap there and can be sold at a good profit elsewhere. other gossip might be bug encounters, as well as tips about where the pirates are making life for a trader hard.

maybe some other idle gossip that doesn't have any direct effect on the game (but may have some indirect effects later) like rumours about changes in government somewhere or other ... for that matters, sports results.

This definitely the sort of thing that would be needed. I was thinking about an random image of a bar (one of a set) and mission screen options to talk to the barman, or approach someone. Then that can lead to information passing or an offer to join a card game, etc.

I like the idea of an in-station bar a lot, but maybe this could be more simply incorporated into Random Hits seedy space bars?

Hans Olo wrote:

I like the idea of an in-station bar a lot, but maybe this could be more simply incorporated into Random Hits seedy space bars?

I think that most of the people that you encounter and help/rescue, are probably heading for the main station though... It's the reward for answering a distress call that I am really looking for, the gambling options should probably be considered a separate request/oxp.

I really do like the idea of a random chance of a reward from a grateful commander offering you a small reward. 20g Gemstones would be my thinking.
But only if they make it to the station. as if you help them once who is to say when you fly off they don't meet another bunch of miscreants.

"Once docked you go to the station bar for a wee dram and Hesptzar Brent a bug eyed frog from Rear, hops over and thanks you for saving his bacon (quite literately as he was running a food contract) and offers you 20g in Gemstones and buys you another drink"

Well I am think that we could not ruling out anything other people have suggested by designing the bar as a framework that OXPs can use.

First the Space Bar OXP (tm) could be designed to be available anywhere. Main station, Random Hits Seed Space Bar (though likely would require modification of Random Hits to use it), Rock Hermit, Planetside, etc. Another OXP would on docking call a function Space Bar OXP (tm) with details such as name, bar type (Respectable, Normal, Rough, Star Wars Cantina ) to create the bar. Then special bar clients and interactions could be registered with it. This way you could have someone thanking you for saving them or the guy proping up the bar can tell you rumours that another OXP wants spreading, or you can join a game of cards, etc. Default things such as buying drinks and food and settling the bill would be built in. This would also allow for multiple bars in one place.

Paradox wrote:

HEY BUDDY! At least you could buy me a beer at the dock, let alone maybe a flippin' reward!?! Geesh!

Does this need a new interface? A bar would be nice, but I notice that other OXPs after completing them give little rewards upon docking from time to time.

It might be a slight inconsistency if the guy you saved hasn't docked yet. But if could be something like: "Hey Cmdr, my friend Joe Glotz beamed me a message that you saved his bacon in the space lanes a little while back, he said to pass this on to you...."

CmdrLUke wrote:

Paradox wrote:

HEY BUDDY! At least you could buy me a beer at the dock, let alone maybe a flippin' reward!?! Geesh!

Does this need a new interface? A bar would be nice, but I notice that other OXPs after completing them give little rewards upon docking from time to time.

It might be a slight inconsistency if the guy you saved hasn't docked yet. But if could be something like: "Hey Cmdr, my friend Joe Glotz beamed me a message that you saved his bacon in the space lanes a little while back, he said to pass this on to you...."

No it doesn't but just doing an arrival message isn't really worth talking about much, is it? It certainly wouldn't support the card game idea either. But anyway, for you information, I would think it could be worked out if the guy you saved is docked or not and if they docked at the same station as you.

unless they outbound it could be argued that they docked after you, if they didn't do so already.

there's four possible scenarios:
a: they jumped out
B: they got killed subsequently
C: they still in flight in the system
D: they docked somewhere (meaning they still in system, just not visible)


all you really have to look for is if they still in system, or if they docked before you.

PhantorGorth wrote:

I would think it could be worked out if the guy you saved is docked or not and if they docked at the same station as you.

Usually, though, I'd expect that any NPC you helped out on the way in would probably still be out there. The player's the only ship with a Torus drive, after all - we're much faster than any NPC. On occasion I've docked, done my stuff, and launched again, and seen somebody I overhauled on the way in just arriving in the aegis. Unless you're spending a lot of time in the station, having equipment fitted or your ship overhauled, or you saved a pilot at the very edge of the aegis, chances are they won't get the chance to buy you a beer or give you 20g of gems (which is worth quite a lot of cash: it's a considerable fraction of what you get for saving a whole mass of refugees, after all).

There are already lots of ways for the player to make money. Early on in the game, a few hundred credits can have a massive, even distorting, effect, but it rapidly becomes fairly trivial. Probably the best kind of reward would be non-financial in nature: a virtual beer, a word of thanks, a few cheers and some applause to stroke the ego.

Maybe though, given the difficulty in having players and NPCs in the station at the same time, this might be handled via some sort of reputation counter, which might have an effect on other NPCs elsewhere in the game. A player who helps out others might find themselves helped out themselves in future encounters, in other systems. This would probably require the creation, via OXP, of a new class of "active merchant", with a new AI. Generally, they'd act the same as any other merchant - but as a player's "helpfulness" rating rises, so too does the chance that one of these "active merchants" might switch AI and behave more like a police or bounty hunter, as long as the player is in scanner range. With a bit of dialogue it could be made clear that "Hey, you're the pilot that saved my buddy X's tail - consider this a favour returned/debt repaid/etc."

Disembodied wrote:

... this might be handled via some sort of reputation counter, which might have an effect on other NPCs elsewhere in the game. A player who helps out others might find themselves helped out themselves in future encounters, in other systems. This would probably require the creation, via OXP, of a new class of "active merchant", with a new AI. Generally, they'd act the same as any other merchant - but as a player's "helpfulness" rating rises, so too does the chance that one of these "active merchants" might switch AI and behave more like a police or bounty hunter, as long as the player is in scanner range. With a bit of dialogue it could be made clear that "Hey, you're the pilot that saved my buddy X's tail - consider this a favour returned/debt repaid/etc."

I'd vote for that, as I'm always helping poor traders in distress... often to my cost.

I guess my gripe centers around the fact that I have had to use my missiles
(which cost money), quite possibly lost cargo (which costs money), used up fuel (which costs money), to help save some other trader, and for that I might get a thanks on the screen?...