Oolite Bulletins

OK - so I've accepted my first target from Random Hits.
And I've spent a week buzzing around the target's planetary system with no joy.

I was beginning to think that I'm just employing rubbish tactics when it hit me...
I've never encountered the type of ship that the target flies (a Gnat).

So - is it my tactics that are at fault or my set-up?

depends on your ship and your upgrades. IIrc the gnat's a pretty quick ship (quicker than the cobby mk3).

There are three routes (usually, unless scripted otherwise) that ships take in Oolite depending on their roll. Wichpsace beacon to planet, planet to star, whichspace beacon to star. But the Random Hits go from Whichpsace Beacon to station. So as soon as you emerge set your ACS for the main station and fly directly towards it. But also remember that the mark has a bounty and may encounter Vipers or other ships that might make it change its route. But once that encounter is over the mark will always resume its route back and forth between Beacon and station.

As the Obese Foilage points out, unless your mark becomes distracted by something shiny, it'll be on the Witchspace-Station route.

One small thing, since I've seen elsewhere that you have been tinkering a bit lately: If you remove an OXP that contains the mark's ship, it will never appear in the system, and you'll get no in-game warning. I ran into that when recently returning from a long sabbatical; I had a hit set up from ages ago, and the ship OXP needed never got installed when I installed 1.80. Took me a few back-and-forth in-system trips to figure out that something was not quite right…

CheeseRedux wrote:

If you remove an OXP that contains the mark's ship, it will never appear in the system, and you'll get no in-game warning.

That's what I've been wondering. Is there any way to check that the relevant ship exists in my set-up?
I've had a dig through the log files and they don't mention specific ships, and the Ship Index only lists Core Oolite ships.

andyGSheffUK wrote:

CheeseRedux wrote:

If you remove an OXP that contains the mark's ship, it will never appear in the system, and you'll get no in-game warning.

That's what I've been wondering. Is there any way to check that the relevant ship exists in my set-up?
I've had a dig through the log files and they don't mention specific ships, and the Ship Index only lists Core Oolite ships.

Just what the Resurgent Coagulated Milk said, looks more like the answer.

To find if it is in your addOns folder you will have to go through your ship oxp's. If I am correct I think the Gnat is one of Griffs ships. Might be a better idea to abandon the hit over trying to find and install the correct ship.

Looking at the Wiki, it seems like  Random Hits used to include the Gnat, but that it was removed in a recent version. If you've had the mission running for a while, that could be the explanation.

Installing the Gnat might solve the problem: https://app.box.com/shared/rpkms25cc9/1 ... 01389665/1
If not, the mission can be abandoned at any convenient Space Bar.

Alternatively, editing the appropriate string in your save file (after making a backup!) allows you to change it into something that is there. For example, using the above snippet as a replacement will turn it into a fat, juicy Anaconda. (Note that it doesn't change the mission text, so it'll still be described as a Gnat. Unless you change those strings too, but that's a bit of overkill just to get the mission done.)

Gnat is still included. The only external ships at the moment are SimonB's favorites. I'm planning on moving Staer9 ships out of the OXP, when they come available from the manager. RH really needs to be chopped down in size.

Yay!!!

Yes - installing the Gnat OXP worked.
I met my target... and a bunch of pirates - and was blown to bits

But at least it works

andyGSheffUK wrote:

Yay!!!

Yes - installing the Gnat OXP worked.
I met my target... and a bunch of pirates - and was blown to bits

But at least it works

Glad you found your target .

One thing needs to be clarified. Gnat is already included in Random Hits OXP. Installing Gnat ship OXP has no direct effect on Random Hits.

I repeat what has been said earlier. The target is always spawned on the Witchpoint - Main Station route. So after jumping in, target the main station and fly directly towards it. You will meet the target unless something has drawn it off the route.

spara wrote:

One thing needs to be clarified. Gnat is already included in Random Hits OXP. Installing Gnat ship OXP has no direct effect on Random Hits.

I've searched for the Gnat ship (griff_gnat) in the unzipped shipdata.plist file in
oolite.oxp.spara.random_hits.oxz_FILES - lots of references to the gnat, but I don't think there's a ship definition - certainly not one that matches the definition in Gnat OXP
oolite.oxp.spara.random_hits_shipset.oxz_FILES - no reference at all

and I don't think it's there, which makes sense because I didn't ever encounter a Gnat before installing the Gnat OXP.

So unless I'm not correctly searching for the ship definition (there's a STRONG chance this is true) I don't understand what happened.
The bit's in the Gnat OXP I was looking for something similar to were these bits:
{
// ++++++ Griff Gnat PLAYER ++++++
"griff_gnat_player" =
etc...
// ++++++ Griff Gnat NPC ++++++
"griff_gnat_npc" =
etc...

I'm not sure what you are looking for, but shipdata.plist in RandomHits clearly defines "random_hits_patrol_gnat" that is used as a base for "random_hits_mark_gnat" that is used for mark definition.

Ships defined in RandomHits are for RandomHits only. The only way to meet them outside missions is using Random Hits Shipset oxp that that gives them low probability core roles. Unless, of course ,you have the ships installed as separate ship oxps.

What version of RH do you have as the Gnat hasn't always been in there. Saying that, it is puzzling that a ship gets chosen and then seems not to be in the oxp.

Of course there is always the possibility of you being a really bad hunter and it may have been a coincidence that you then found it after installing the separate oxp

Fatleaf wrote:

Of course there is always the possibility of you being a really bad unlucky hunter and it may have been a coincidence that you then found it after installing the separate oxp

Fixed that for you.. no way I'm a bad hunter, yet there has been a couple of times it's taken me days of playing to find a particularly elusive mark.

<chuckles>