Oolite Bulletins

I'm working on a mission pack at the moment, and some of the missions involve the player being given specialised equipment or materials that are required to perform the activities of the mission. However, I'm looking at ways of allowing the player to subvert the mission in some way, and I'm considering the option of allowing the player to sell the specialised equipment on the Black Market. The selling part is easy. The repercussions of said sale are somewhat more complex. In most cases the party who gave the player the mission is either GalCop itself, or the primary planetary body, which may affect the response. Here are my thoughts so far:

1. Just fine the player with a bounty and/or cash penalty. It's rather crude, but it is simple. The penalty could be delayed until you're within X LY of the system that gave you the mission.
2. Attack the player via assassins. Again, fairly crude, but not too hard to implement. And again, the assassins might only appear if you're within X LY of the source system.
3. Attack the player via Vipers. A bit more complex, otherwise the same as option 2.
4. Have a "hit team" start following the player around, maybe 2 or 3 systems behind to start with, then gradually getting closer. If the player doubles back they'll meet the team, or if the player take a longer 1-stop jump, allowing the hit team to take the shorter multi-jump route to arrive before the player. Then the showdown begins. This is, naturally, quite a bit more complex.
5. Prevent the player from accessing any missions in that system or possibly even the surrounding systems for a period of 1 year. This could be in conjunction with all the above options.

Which option do you think would be more appropriate in the Oolite game world? What would be more fun?

Option 4 (the complex one) sounds good: it puts the player in roughly the same position as the Constrictor thief. Of course, the player would have to know - or come to realise - that they're being hunted: there would need to be rumours they could pick up on, or scouts out to spot them.

Four!

Excellent, phkb!

There are so many equipment OXP in game, some can be placed on the Black Market (buy or sell).

It will be possible to sell the Thargoid Witchspace Drive and ECM Jammer?
The Thargoid Witchspace Drive would like to sell, it is not necessary. Jammer works or not. While also not necessary.

Black Market selling may a nice addition for some missions.

This proposal gives a new direction in the game.

I had a thought about making dodgy deals, and how to make them more exciting. Instead of having them based in a station, where the player can choose "Yes" or "No" on a mission screen, how about having them take place in deep space, at some rendezvous point? The deal is agreed on the station but the player has to navigate to some far-off location, to meet up with a group of sinister ships. Tweaking the "pirates demand your goods" behaviour a little, the player has to eject the cargo (this could be some fancy tech, or just your average illegal trade goods), which are then scooped up by a waiting Cobra 1 or suchlike, depending on volume. Then there's a pause, before the scooper signals that all is OK, and then another NPC ejects a cargo pod containing the player's payment in gold/platinum/gems.

That's if the deal goes down well, of course! It requires the player to trust the NPCs, and could allow for tense situations, police raids and possible double-crosses.

I had a thought about making dodgy deals, and how to make them more exciting. Instead of having them based in a station, where the player can choose "Yes" or "No" on a mission screen, how about having them take place in deep space, at some rendezvous point? The deal is agreed on the station but the player has to navigate to some far-off location, to meet up with a group of sinister ships. Tweaking the "pirates demand your goods" behaviour a little, the player has to eject the cargo (this could be some fancy tech, or just your average illegal trade goods), which are then scooped up by a waiting Cobra 1 or suchlike, depending on volume. Then there's a pause, before the scooper signals that all is OK, and then another NPC ejects a cargo pod containing the player's payment in gold/platinum/gems.

That's if the deal goes down well, of course! It requires the player to trust the NPCs, and could allow for tense situations, police raids and possible double-crosses.

A very nice idea. Would love to see this implemented in the future.

Disembodied wrote:

I had a thought about making dodgy deals, and how to make them more exciting. Instead of having them based in a station, where the player can choose "Yes" or "No" on a mission screen, how about having them take place in deep space, at some rendezvous point?

Yes please! I can see it as a typical "hostage exchange" in movies. Both ship eject their cargoes, then move to scoop the other one, crossing mid-way. Of course if you see the other guy hitting injectors, that might be a hint that the canister he dropped may well be empty. And the tension once you pass each other... Does he have rear lasers? And that deal a-bit-too-good with a rendezvous point located in the middle of an asteroid field...

Astrobe wrote:

I can see it as a typical "hostage exchange" in movies. Both ship eject their cargoes, then move to scoop the other one, crossing mid-way.

Yes, a simultaneous drop could make things very interesting ... perhaps you could give your cargo just a little sideways drift, so you'll get to scoop your reward before they find out that your promised 10TCs of firearms are actually past-their-sell-by-date Chewi bars. All potentially headache-inducing for whoever is writing the AI, but I'd love to see it happen!

Disembodied wrote:

All potentially headache-inducing for whoever is writing the AI, but I'd love to see it happen!

Yeah, I knew I was day-dreaming a bit there. A would certainly prefer good variety in situations rather over one rigid scenario. Then perhaps such an event could be decomposed into simple ("easy" to program) legs chosen randomly. Something like:

* Rendezvous location
- asteroid field
- deep space
- other side of the planet
- near the sun
- some dockable (ship or rock hermit-like)
* En route
- nothing special
- ships tailing the player
- pirate pack mid way
* At rendezvous
- normal exchange
- welcome committee/ambush
- nobody there (cancelled deal)
- vipers arrive in the middle of the exchange