Oolite Bulletins

Hello,

After playing around some with Thargoid's [wiki]Retro Rockets OXP[/wiki] (which doesn't work out of the box for me), I had my own idea for an OXP: the Finite Probability Drive, which will *probably* get you away from danger. Here's what it would do...

• Upon activation, it would randomly move your ship somewhere in the system. If the witchdrive is breakable, it will be broken.
• 1LY of fuel will be used
• Only one use per flight (it depends on the witchdrive engine, which is broken)
• It will do minimal checking, so you may end up in a worse situation
• Overall, the behavior would be similar to that of the displacement missile from [wiki]Armoury OXP[/wiki], but there will be internal differences.
• Some NPC ships will have the finite probability drive
• It will cost 1618cr (the first digits of the golden ratio)

If this OXP were to be i would install it.
Not only because if its name
First of all it would be usefull.
And it would add a nice game mechanic.
What i really like at this idea is that you dont know where you going to land. It would add some variety to the normal runs to the station.


"The Finite Probability Drive passes through every conceivable point in current system almost simultaneously why it's never sure where you'll end up or even what species you'll be when you get there. It's therefore important to dress accordingly."

tsoj wrote:

If this OXP were to be i would install it.
Not only because if its name
First of all it would be usefull.
And it would add a nice game mechanic.
What i really like at this idea is that you dont know where you going to land. It would add some variety to the normal runs to the station.

"The Finite Probability Drive passes through every conceivable point in current system almost simultaneously why it's never sure where you'll end up or even what species you'll be when you get there. It's therefore important to dress accordingly."

It's great to see some positive feedback (though I guess it's actually [wp]negative feedback[/wp], since you are responding to my post)! I like the quote at then end, though I think it could be modified slightly. The idea of the Finite Probability Drive is that it will get you out of danger - probably.

I suggested something like this ages ago, but the idea there was that the ship would usually end up near the Witchspace Point again because that's the "weak spot" to come out of Witch Space in the system. In most systems you'll usually find a few enemies there and en route to the station, so this is very much "out of the frying pan, into the fire."

The disadvantage of doing things the way you suggest, appearing anywhere in the system, is that the odds are high that you will end up well off the normal routes, which means that you are much less likely to be attacked en route to the station. And with Torus drive that doesn't take much time, so using this system will get you out of trouble and give you a good shot at getting to the station easily. It's a BIG advantage, and I don't think I'd want to use it if that was the case.

See the thread here: https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f= ... =emergency

ffutures wrote:

The disadvantage of doing things the way you suggest, appearing anywhere in the system, is that the odds are high that you will end up well off the normal routes, which means that you are much less likely to be attacked en route to the station. And with Torus drive that doesn't take much time, so using this system will get you out of trouble and give you a good shot at getting to the station easily.

Installing the [wiki]DeepSpacePirates[/wiki] OXP could fix that issue. Also, there would be a limit to the distance the player is moved - probably no more than 3-5x scanner range. And it has a chance of not getting you out of scanner range at all.

the ship would usually end up near the Witchspace Point again because that's the "weak spot" to come out of Witch Space in the system.

....

odds are high that you will end up well off the normal routes, which means that you are much less likely to be attacked en route to the station.

In regards to that, would it be possible to create alternate wichspace points? I'm not sure it'd be possible for current game mechanics to jump you into a system that's anywhere but the WP beacon, and anyways that's not quite the point of the OXP. But once you're in system, if you use the Probability Drive, it could potentially wind up teleporting you to an alternate witchspace point. And to clarify, by that I don't mean an entirely new jumping point for the system. Just a beacon/waypoint, with several ships spawned in, to give the appearance of it being an alternate jump point. Here's some ideas, if you're interested.

Police beacon - Obviously the best place to wind up, (unless you were just in a fight with Galcop!) it's a beacon swarming with Galcop or other system vessels. Galcop would need their own beacons in certain systems, due to the large amount of priority traffic. It keeps the lanes uncluttered. (And explains the lack of police in the main trade routes....)

Military beacon - Could either be good or bad. Large and powerful ships probably would disturb some of the more loony people in the galaxy, and invite challenge, so the military likes to keep it low-key and away from the general public. That translates into either they'd not care, or they'd become very hostile if you saw something "top secret."

Pirate beacon - Obviously very bad, unless you yourself are a criminal fleeing justice. Pirates would need their own beacon, due to the random chance of a patrol hanging out around the WP beacon. Could also end up being next to a rock hermit or asteroid field, way out of the main space lanes.

Trader Guild beacon - Large cargo haulers and their respective escorts. Major companies may have secret jump points installed so that they can ferry lucrative deals in and out with realitive ease, and maybe deal in the more shady aspects of marketing. Could be hostile or friendly depending on the player's legal status.

Thargoid beacon - Nobody wants to wind up here. Large bounty if you manage to blow one up, though.

For these to work, it'd need to be well outside the normal scope of the spacelanes. Probably an equal if not greater distance from the planet as the regular WP beacon, and it'd make sense to be farther away to attract less attention.


I think another idea (sorry, slapping on all these suggestions that may be way out of the scope of the OXP) for realism or to make it less game-breaking, is to have a potential for ships (or missiles!) in a certain radius to be teleported with you. Sort of like a wormhole, except it doesn't linger. This also translates into the player ship - If an NCP carries this, and teleports out, then you might be taken with him. But of course the NPCs could purposefully teleport to a beacon or pirate cove or somewhere where they'd have backup, so it'd be very dangerous to wind up getting caught in their drive.


I like this idea though, and I'd be sure to download it if you came out with a release version.

Here are two other ideas:
- Maybe it should be a consumable with a similar price to a Q-mine.
- It could transport other ships in the player's immediate proximity (within 2.5km) with the player.

Cmdr. Aiden Henessy,
Your idea sounds similar to the Stashes OXP.

Is it possible to induce a tumble into the player's ship? And, ideally, turn off player control for a couple of seconds? it could add to the sense of this being a somewhat haphazard event …

Disembodied wrote:

Is it possible to induce a tumble into the player's ship? And, ideally, turn off player control for a couple of seconds? it could add to the sense of this being a somewhat haphazard event …

One could reuse my "shaky drive" code for some... shaking and Bullet drive for the lock down (however there's an alternative possibility of setting to 0 the yaw and roll properties IIRC).

Upon activation, it would randomly move your ship somewhere in the system. If the witchdrive is breakable, it will be broken.
1LY of fuel will be used
Only one use per flight (it depends on the witchdrive engine, which is broken)
It will do minimal checking, so you may end up in a worse situation
Overall, the behavior would be similar to that of the displacement missile from [EliteWiki] Armoury OXP, but there will be internal differences.
Some NPC ships will have the finite probability drive
It will cost 1618cr (the first digits of the golden ratio)

I like this and would buy one as a last resort, the jump ought to be (slightly) bigger than 1LY of fuel will get me.
For 1618cr it should also check for any instant dead hazards

... the jump ought to be (slightly) bigger than 1LY of fuel will get me.

The idea is that you stay in-system. 1LY would send you out of the system. I like the instant death idea.

I think the distance from the Sun and the nearest planet could be the same after jump than before. Sounds logical if the gravity field in the possible exit points must be similar with the current level. This way keep the length of the remaining path to the station, also to fuel scooping.
DeepSpacePirates could be a required package to prevent abuse.

Norby wrote:

I think the distance from the Sun and the nearest planet could be the same after jump than before. Sounds logical if the gravity field in the possible exit points must be similar with the current level

What do you mean by that?

Also, how much fuel should it use? I plan on making sure there is at least 1LY in the tank. Here are a few ideas...

• Consume a random amount of fuel
• Drain 1-3LY randomly
• Drain all of the fuel

I would use the FP drive whenever i would like to get out of immediate danger while not being able to use injectors
which means injector are damaged or LOW on fuel.

cbr wrote:

I would use the FP drive whenever i would like to get out of immediate danger while not being able to use injectors
which means injector are damaged or LOW on fuel.

Maybe it could damage the Witchdrive and Injectors instead of requiring fuel.