Oolite Bulletins

-Introducing docking fee's
-Permit systems (for systems with deadly diseases + some products will sell well here.
-Civil wars based (triggered) by the planet screen

>>So basically an OXP that puts the player in situation based on certain 'trigger' words in the planet descriptions.

Any thoughts on this?

Well, it'd be interesting, but you'd have to worry about those with virtually no cash at all being unable to save. Maybe you could make another permanent station, a "motel" if you would, somewhere nearby, that sells fuel and goods at terrible prices, and generally was out of the way.

I like the idea a lot.

I think Stromboli has a point. However, if you notice after you've been in space for a while and the ol' ship shows a few score lines from when an unfriendly neighbour kept trying to cut his way into your mess hall with his weapons that the station has a deal to shine up your ship. The fee includes docking expenses as well.

So, in a sense the request is filled: but the fees aren't mandatory. However, try to trade in your ship as is! Hah! A friend of mine once said: "A little paint will make it what it ain't." And you need that paint to get the highest dollar value for the trade. You spend a lot to restore the racing stripes, but the ship increases in value more than you pay.

So... you pay docking expenses in a lump sum. It's a different world and a different economy. To be expected.

Docking fee's could also count above a certain balance of the commander or if a ship is very big (certain tonnage) like an Anaconda. I liked the way Frontier elite did this.

And what do you think of the other two ideas. The idea is to give the player more immersion:

For example:

A communist system and has in the description that it is cursed by a dreadful civil war could have the oxp trigger a civil war between the commies. (oppressors) and rebels. and players would also need a permit to enter such a system (ala Van Maanens Star in Frontier Elite). When arived you can choose to help the rebels and get certain bonuses or be a lawful person and head to the station. Police could monitor the traffic....

Check out a particular system in G7 with Assassins installed. That sort of thing goes on....

How about:

If you spend a lot of time in a dodgy system(Anarchic,Feudal or MG)by killing hundreds(?) of pirates, shipping technology to the planet and buying whatever off them the governmental level could rise say from Feudal to Multi-Government? They get a sexy new station and loads more vipers. The shipyard improves and maybe the Tech Level?

The grateful aforementioned government then either gives you some beautiful proto-type vessel or just good old greenbacks.

The reverse could work also. Buy nothing, sell them guns, slaves or dope and kill every Viper you see. The government goes to ratsh*t, the prices get more extreme and you can still find loads of "fellow" pirates to kill and thieve off.

Obviously if you bugger off for a while the system returns to its "natural" state. It sounds daft that ONE commander could make such a difference. Some nutcase in a top of the line SuperCobra throwing E and Q bombs around like confetti????? Yeah, why not!!!!!!

You mean a dynamic universe? That would be cool but I think it's difficult to program. The original idea was just to have an oxp that creates situations out of certain keywords in the F7 screen.

..although it might involve making value judgements about political planetary classes. Is a Dictatorship more "advanced" than a Feudal world? Is a Corporate State better to live in, for the mass of the population, than a Multi-Government world? Many Anarchy planets, for example, might be that way because the inhabitants prefer it. Sure, their local volume is full of pirates, but they don't have the Man (or the Cat, or the Insect, or the Frog, or Humanoid Resources, etc.) breathing down their necks all the time at home... What is "better" for spaceborne traders might not be better for the local population!

Anarchies, Feudal and most Multi-Governments are Poor or Average whatever(Industrial/Agricultural). That means they have nothing. Education, healthcare will be a pile of sh*t for everyone except the "Man".

Lets not get all Mahatma Gandhi about this but humans like to be healthy, educated and most of all have money. Thats why Mr Marx or whoever invented Socialism/Communism? Everything is shared......

There are no Anarchic/Feudal societies on Earth that i have heard of with significant population and Communism is a failure as the population demands the benefits of a market economy as it moves away from the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse which brought it Communism in the first place.

Bottom line is I dont give a rats-ar*e about the welfare of the inhabitants. Its my Bank balance and my Elite rating. Not very Mother Theresa that is it???

Anyway im glad some of you think its a good idea!!!!!

I'll have to have a look at "Ionics"?

Although spacefarers are not directly effected by the politics of the planet, such things should (in my imagination at least ) affect the state of the space lanes and the prices you pay. Putting down slave revolts in a dictatorship system or negotations with trade unions over benefits all effect the price of goods the planet produces. Is a feudal system better or worse than a democarcy for the inhabitants? Serfs have to do a certain number of days on the land / in the factories unpaid for their Lord. Democaries have this pesky thing known as Income Tax, which achieves the same end in a different way. In a Democarcy like the UK on the multi-govenment planet Earth inhabitants work from January to May for The Man! Medieval Serfs had to do far fewer unpaid days for their Lords than modern Earthings!

A lot of the time these things are matters of definition... compare, say, the hereditary, apparently nuclear-capable and nominally Communist dictatorship of North Korea (which styles itself as a Democracy and is plagued by regular bouts of mass starvation), and the equally hereditary, essentially feudal (but immensely wealthy) dictatorship of the House of Saud...

But in Oolite, we're not dealing exclusively with human beings. Onenla, in Galaxy 2, for example, is a Rich Industrial Multi-Government with a tech level of 12. I'm not sure how a player shipping in any technology, even repeatedly, in an Anaconda, could cause them to "rise" to a Dictatorship.

Planets are big. Even the smallest has a population of over a billion. It's not a question of whether or not you care about the wishes of the inhabitants, it's that there are an awful lot of them and only one of you! Except in very specific circumstances, e.g. assisting a pre-existing rebellion or a coup d'etat, I can't see how the player, on his lonesome, could effect such massive social change. I love the idea of a dynamic ooniverse but I think the effects have to be handled more subtly. Maybe there could be a long-range series of missions where the player joins, say, the Interstellar Communist Conspiracy, spreading propaganda, arming the cadres, dealing with the various running dogs of capitalism etc. until the target planet (maybe a Poor Industrial Corporate State, or a Poor Agricultural Feudal) hits a tipping point and a Red Revolution kicks off big style. Or they could be recruited for the Acquisitions Department of some big Corporate State, and help to flood a neighbouring backwater with narcotics before assisting with a Hostile Takeover...

Essentially, I think any OXP that makes changes to planets' governments or economies would have to be specific, not general: there could be opportunities here and there for the player to help influence something that's already going on, but it shouldn't be a generalised effect trailing behind you wherever you go.

I wanted to write an OXP (i.e. I have the imagination but not the skill) where a Corporate State descends rapidly into a Anarchic state due to a hostile take-over bid from a rival corporation - the two Corporations fight it out - the player could chose sides - perhaps even influence the outcome and once the take-over (or rejection of the offer) is complete - Corporate State is re-introduced complete with new logos, slogans and Corporate Mission.

We have all these Corporate States - but who are the Corporations? I live in Newbury - on a planetary scale Vodafone effectively own Newbury and have huge influence on the politics and finances of the whole area - on a Galactic Scale wouldn't it make sense that Voodoofoone might have a Corporate Planetary Headquarters? Might not Oo2 (hmm, one for YAH!) want a piece of that?

In Demolition Man (not a great, but an enjoyable movie) there's the franchise war and only Taco Bell survives (why, I do not know!) In Judge Dredd the only car manufacturer left is oddly Land Rover (you can tell its British origins from this fact alone - in those days Land Rover was a solid British Prestige name that wasn't the play thing of bigger foreign car companies)...

Just, as ever, my 0.02Cr worth

"wouldn't it make sense that Voodoofoone might have a Corporate Planetary Headquarters"

run by Baron Samedi, no doubt

Well all nice ideas,

But my original idea was more simple:

A planet which is cursed by an evil disease affects the player. The planet could be in some sort of Quarantine so that you have special permission to enter the system. Certain things they need fast! medicines for example. In the most simple form this could be a non-dynamic world. so the state of disease is permanent. But in this way you could create a secondary market with specialized commodities. Planet with earthquakes need sensors and computers to predict it etc.

Second thing is indeed a civil war for example. That could be massive and fought out also in space.

My point is that in my original idea it's just a normal OXP. That triggers random missions or a secondary market out of keywords of the f7 screen.

Best example is the permitted Van Maanens Star in FFE/FE2.