Oolite Bulletins

Hi all,

there was a thread in the unread posts that I am reading to make sure I am fully versed with with has been going on in the game which discussed misjumps and it was mentioned, and as I recall from the original Elite, that Thargoid have the ability to pluck a jumping ship and hike it over to 'their' side to pummel it. Which is all fair enough as they would assemble a small squadron to blast the enemy that they 'invited'.
However, if you create a deliberate misjump, shouldn't that change things?

I can see that the Thargoids would have patrols flying through their space to guard against incursions by the Navy and others but as space is bleedingly big, the guards can't be everywhere at once. So they would probably install something like listening posts to listen out for the telltale signs of a misjump ot invasion which are linked to one of a number of guard stations where a fleet of ships is just waiting to investigate when the snoopers tell them there is something to investigate.

So shouldn't there be a good possibility that when you force the misjump, that there won't be a welcoming party when you arrive, but that within a certain amount of time the guards (a larger group than the 'normal' patrols) will arrive? Of course, if you are unlucky, then your misjump will land you in the middle of one of their patrols just like now.

And if there are automated listening posts, can't there be a gizmo that can actually track these listening posts to use as a makeshift beacon system?

Would this be doable?

Often, only one or two warships will be lurking at midway - but one by one, more keep coming, and coming, and coming!

Hmmmm, can I just say that even with only two Thargoids the numbers simply don't add up?

If there are 2 Thargoids in say a 50 km radius (twice the scanner range), how many would there be in the whole interspatial area? Must be millions, if not billions. And if they have a million of raiders then why don't they just use them to invade our space and wipe out all life going from system to system? I've been in several Thargoid fleet battles with GN with previous commanders but even there their numbers were big but nothing like the numbers suggested above.

Unless they are only playing with us, of course. Would be a definitely alien mindset, which is why I can't fathom that. Or perhaps the raiders are their attempt to remove some overpopulation? Hmmmm.

Anyway, I've always found it weird that they have enough ships to deal with any misjump, whether they arrange it or not.

They're everywhere!

Elite Manual wrote:

This highly technologically advanced insectoid race is also at war with 17 other space-going life forms.

So shouldn't there be a good possibility that when you force the misjump, that there won't be a welcoming party when you arrive, but that within a certain amount of time the guards (a larger group than the 'normal' patrols) will arrive?

My Interstellar Tweaks expansion pack (available via the in-game manager) makes that scenario, whereby initially one is alone in the interstellar black, and then later some Thargoids arrive, happen. Well, occasionally - and without reference to whether or not the misjump was deliberate). I might consider making it a more frequent occurrence, perhaps especially - if I can work out how - when the misjump was deliberate.