Oolite Bulletins

Greetings,

I am new to Oolite but not new to Elite, having played it for years on the C64, Amiga and PC but since every version is somewhat different, I have a question regarding pirate encounters.

Do pirates appear randomly or are they "initialized" when you enter a system? Because it seems like when you travel the trade lane back and forth, there are only a couple of encounters and after you finished them, no new ones appear, even in Anarchy systems.

They are indeed initialised when you enter a system. But sometimes (seldomly) new ones jump into the system during gameplay too.

If you think there are not enough pirates around you could install the piratetrap and piratcove addons on Oosat.

Hi, welcome to the boards!
Pirates (and all other ships) are generated when you enter the system. But they don't simply wait for the player before attacking, they'll go for any juicy target. It's a possibility that other pirates are attacking other ships or have been destroyed by police/escorts. There's also the fact that once a pirate has filled his cargo bay, he heads for the station to dump it. If you want more pirates, you could always get the pirate_coves.oxp from Oosat One

Captain Hesperus
"More pirates! This is not a good day to trade!"

And Renegade Pirates, if you're feeling brave!

To answer the question: Yes a limited number of pirates, traders, thargoids, police and everything else is added to the system when you jump in. In Oolite each ship runs its own AI, so the police (in a safe system), may have shot down the pirates before you arrive, or the pirates may have filled their holds with cargo from NPC traders and left the system before you get there.

Putting in Pirate Coves, Pirate Traps & Renegade Pirates will increase the numbers. Installing all the ship OXPs from Oosat1 & Oosat2 will also increase the difficulty (and variety) of the pirates you meet.

That was quick

Thanks for all the answers.

One more question, not regarding pirates: What is the difference between strict gameplay and unrestricted gameplay in the options menu? Can't find an explanation in the manual (or didn't look hard enough).

No addons, no niceties that were introduced that arent in the original Elite. For the purists amongst us.

Restriced play rocks. Cargo cannisters drift in space, and even if you cut the engines, your ship will too. Also, you won't be able to buy some extras, like fuel injectors. NPCs can use them though for some reason.

I thought cannisters drifted in space anyway?