Oolite Bulletins

When I`m at it ...

Should players be able to rent escorts at, say, 1% of ship price per ship & five days?

(2 Cobra MkIII escorts rented out for 10 days would then cost 6.000 Cr)

Interested if there is interest for the option ...

Or you can install UPS-courier. For some missions you you get an escort and after completion of the python mission for the 5th time, the escorts become available in the equipment list for hire.

Must be clean for this in the latest release. In the last release they are also able to attack the players target when it is a hostile target. (and not just pirates) In that respect they are a little bit better than the mission escorts that only attack pirates.

6000 C for just two escorts is a little bit much. In that case you better buy two cascade mines. Much more effective.

I've not voted because there isn't a suitable yes option I would choose. I do like the idea of escorts, and Erics system works very well. As far as a time limit is concerned, I would expect the escorts to be with me throughout the journey untill safely docked, but I can envisage an urgent mission where the escorts may peel off after a certain amount of time, and you get a perilous journey if you are running late!

Maybe get offenders much cheaper, but with the concomitant risks?

I voted for the everything rentable option, but that's an exaggeration. While you should be able to hire a large freighter or even a dredger, military ships (especially the high tech ones) should be limited or even impossible to hire (what possessed you to think the US navy would rent you an aircraft carrier? But you can still get a discomissioned minesweeper or even remotely possibly a frigate if you grease some 3rd rate country's officer).

ONOH, you should be able to buy any sort of ship - Galcop has an obvious population-arming policy, and uses these opportunity reserves as a milicia against the Thargs; besides, even if you can't order them straight from the shipyard, I'm sure the navy decommission their flagships every now and then.

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:

besides, even if you can't order them straight from the shipyard, I'm sure the navy decommission their flagships every now and then.

Well if they demob in the First Encounters universe, they should in the Oolite one, too....

Captain Hesperus

I voted a big YES. We had a thread on this awhile back where I tried to gauge people's interest in using such an oxp before I put the work in. If someone does decide to do it eventually, I think you should get what you pay for: big credits gets you a well armed, well piloted escort; medium credits gets you something passable but not nearly as effective; and for a few credits who knows what you get - no good scum mostly that might just turn on you when you're not looking!

For those wanting military escorts I'm including something like it in the Navy update. In addition to the randomly assigned missions, veteran reservists will also have the option to lead a patrol of ships instead. You'll be able to patrol where ever you'd like cleaning out all sorts of badies in various systems or interstellar space for 10 jumps (unless you lose all your wingman before then).

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:

besides, even if you can't order them straight from the shipyard, I'm sure the navy decommission their flagships every now and then.

Well if they demob in the First Encounters universe, they should in the Oolite one, too....

There you have it!
BTW, the battle of Rocky Fields really burnt me out, but after all this time I finally managed to post a new instalment with Emu - Jack was pushing along the HPA3 all by himself, it isn't fair...

For the noobs out there:

If you want some big time space opera fan fic, read the HPA (Huge Plasma Accelerator) saaaaarghas. Packed with action, chases, fistfights and furballs, espionage and politics, romance, philosophy, old scores and large battle fleets grinding each other to glowing space debris, it was written by some of us of the old guard under the FEU (First Encounters Universe) tag of the EBBS.
(Warning: it used to be more active, but nowadays is only used for the FEU, flame fighting and spam. Whatever you do, don't get on the wrong side of the resident grammar nazi. You have been warned.)

The HPA1 is condensed into PDF at the Far Colonies Network, while HPA2 and the ongoing HPA3's PDF'd instalments can be found at FrontierAstro. Don't forget to check out the rest of the fanfic, and the sites themselves - you're sure to be surprised.

P.S.: I'm going to post this shameless ad on the outworld - too.

Just to add, there is a huge wealth of fiction on the Wiki

Can anybody contribute to the wiki? (I know technically this is the point of a wiki but I wanted to check).

When I'm not looking after kids, working a full time job, trying to stop my house falling down, mowing the lawn, trying to keep my car on the road, etc, etc, I'm also a writer (see here: http://www.wordwatchers.net/Showcase.htm Anything by "John Hoggard" Arghh - my secret real-life identity revealed! is mine) I wrote some short stories for oxps I never did and, to be honest, never likely to do and it'd be nice if they got to see the light of day and hopefully enrich the Ooniverse.

Of course, or isn't the very Wiki concept to be a repository of knowledge, culture and information?

I opened a literature thread on Outworld, let's not hijack this one too (much).

I cant remember how I voted, I think yes, everything.

I think its a nice idea to have escorts (not very elite, but I still like it), but I think it should be restricted to sensible escorts -- no dredgers plying their trade as wingmen.

I think the cost should be based upon your legal rating, and maybe the system you are going to. I mean, you would want more money for flying to an anarchy escorting a fugitive loaded down with firearms and narcotics, than a set of textiles to a democracy, right?

@Cmdr J - nice sensible thought process there - I like that idea.