Stations of No Return

[Redspear]

This might be an old idea, I don't know but I can't recall hearing it.

What if every time you launched from a station you weren't coming back? Not by player choice but by game refusal.
i.e. no returning to the station, the system itself would not be off limits.

• Pros
  • Milk run? What milk run? Get out of your comfort zone and explore properly
  • There's a decaying ooniverse for you as those safe(r) options start to run out real fast
  • Galactic hyperdrive becomes especially significant
  • Fuel scooping might actually be important

• Cons
  • Tough, real tough on a beginner
  • Contracts potentially ruined

• Pros or Cons
  • Harder to find a profitable trade route
  • Equipment repairs could become especially difficult
  • Risk of being stranded

In game reason
Whatever you like. I can think of a few already but more important is to establish any merits from a gameplay perspective I think.

Exceptions
Launched early and forgot something? No problem. As long as you haven't left the system yet, you can dock and launch as often as you like.
Fantastic contract on offer but you've already been to the destination? No problem, exception granted but you may have trouble docking at other stations along the way.
Stranded in space? Make fuel scoops damage resistant and then they become an important early to mid game purchase.

Running out of stations?
Galactic jump wipes the slate clean in the system you've just left but then you likely won't be back there for a while. Maybe each time you return a new government type is in lockdown; first return corporates, second democracies and so on.

It's the germ of an idea and whilst the coding would I expect be very easy for some I'd have to learn a new trick or two.

But first does it interest anyone or suggest relevant ideas? Might it breathe new life into the/a game or is it fundamentally flawed in a way that might become obvious when it's been thought about a bit longer?

[Wildeblood]

What if every time you launched from a station you weren't coming back? Not by player choice but by game refusal.
i.e. no returning to the station, the system itself would not be off limits.

Typo, yah?

Typhoid Mary OXP

Everywhere you go, plague breaks out just after you leave. You feel lucky you haven't caught plague yet, yourself, but it sure is messing with your trading when every system you visit goes into 90 days of quarantine just after you leave. And, it sure is a weird co-incidence plague seems to be following you around. Oh, well.

Oh. No, I see now. You did mean to write "not". (I thought you meant "now"). Oh, well, in that case I cant help. Sorry.

[Cholmondely]

But why? Would there be a believable reason for this? Or just an exercise in head-spinning Handwavium?


Pros
Milk run? What milk run? Get out of your comfort zone and explore properly - does not everybody do this eventually?
There's a decaying ooniverse for you as those safe(r) options start to run out real fast - add in Doomnoverse with settings of 0.9!
Galactic hyperdrive becomes especially significant - not for quite some time, methinks
Fuel scooping might actually be important - Diplomancy does this for me in a more believeable manner

Cons
Tough, real tough on a beginner
Contracts potentially ruined

Pros or Cons
Harder to find a profitable trade route
Equipment repairs could become especially difficult - again, more believeable (and now an adventure) with PF2
Risk of being stranded


But the point of learning more of the Dark Arts outweighs the above, I'd have thought.

[Redspear]

And, it sure is a weird co-incidence plague seems to be following you around. Oh, well.

But why? Would there be a believable reason for this? Or just an exercise in head-spinning Handwavium?

Well, you know, YMMV but apart from Wildeblood's example above another might be...

Systems are going into lockdown, the pirates are getting too much and they're using the stations to rearm! The little scamps!
So yeah, you can dock just the once 'trader', if you are indeed who you say you are, but then pick up a contract or fill your boots and don't come back.
Trade will still be needed of course so it goes to prioritise the important or lucrative stuff i.e. contract runs.
Eight galactic jumps later and it's a case of, 'Who are you again? You do look kinda familiar but OK, just this once...'

I don't think that's too convoluted is it?

[phkb]

I'd add that it would be incompatible with a bunch of OXP's that need you to revisit places (like a lot of mission OXP's). GalCop Missions, which is trying to create things for you to do in and around the local system, is out for sure. Things like Home System would be pointless, and it could complicate the Diplomacy OXP.

Given the number of potential conflicts, I'd recommend building it as a scenario, with a limited number of OXP's allowed in, to keep your debug list reasonably manageable.

[Redspear]

I'd add that it would be incompatible with a bunch of OXP's that need you to revisit places

Yes, that's true but then as the oxp list grows ever longer and ever more varied (both of which are cool) the goal of cross-compatibility becomes ever more restrictive as each new oxp inadvertently makes assumptions about those that might follow it.

Given the number of potential conflicts, I'd recommend building it as a scenario

That's also a fair point, as my suggestion is fairly radical, but I've never really gotten my head around scenarios.

In any case, my ideas list expands much faster than my productivity.

[Cholmondely]

Given the number of potential conflicts, I'd recommend building it as a scenario

That's also a fair point, as my suggestion is fairly radical, but I've never really gotten my head around scenarios.

I'm not convinced that it is that difficult.

The "Start options" oxps are really scenario oxps with new Jamesons attached.

All you have to do is stipulate which OXPs are allowed (all the others being summarily excluded) and then Bob is (probably) your uncle! SOTL does this (and cim explains here how to include OXPs in SOTL). Admittedly the SOTL scenarios (which are the only ones to exclude other OXPs) are highly complex, but cim's explanation is probably enough to work it out.



Reference: Scenarios.plist

[Redspear]

The "Start options" oxps are really scenario oxps with new Jamesons attached.

That's one way of looking at it.

I think that galaxy 1 isn't particularly well suited to this idea and suspect that none of the others are likely to be either.
It's got something to it but... going to leave this one to stew for a bit longer I think.

[Cholmondely]

The "Start options" oxps are really scenario oxps with new Jamesons attached.

That's one way of looking at it.

I think that galaxy 1 isn't particularly well suited to this idea and suspect that none of the others are likely to be either.
It's got something to it but... going to leave this one to stew for a bit longer I think.

I don't know about the original idea of every station in the Galaxy refusing a second attempt at docking. But the idea that stations can do this and make it meaningful is a very good one.

Diplomancy oxp does this for non-Visa holders. But the fine is a mere percentage of the money one has (thus insignificant if one only has 2₢ at the time) - and there are no other legal implications).

I know of no other OXPs which also do it. Perhaps one or two of the missions?


What about all Commies refusing docking if one is persona non grata in one Commie State? They are presumably the most unified of the various sub-groups of systems. Or linking it in with Bounty System oxp in some way?

[Wildeblood]

I think that galaxy 1 isn't particularly well suited to this idea and suspect that none of the others are likely to be either.

This looks like an opportunity to promote my new in-game system info editor, World Builder OXP. Don't like that galaxy? Fix it!

[Redspear]

What about all Commies refusing docking if one is persona non grata in one Commie State? They are presumably the most unified of the various sub-groups of systems. Or linking it in with Bounty System oxp in some way?

Well, I have a what (the idea itself), and in gameplay terms at least, I think the why actually comes before the how because that keeps it useful.
So the why as I see it is essentially to break up milk-runs in order to encourage the player to explore.

There's all sorts that could be added because it might be cool/realistic/make sense but there should also be a gameplay reason for me.

Your commies idea actually has some of this I think in that it promotes a wider sense of consequence but then that's a different goal.

This looks like an opportunity to promote my new in-game system info editor, World Builder OXP. Don't like that galaxy? Fix it!

As if I'd tinker with something that had been untouched for years