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Hired Guns OXP
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:50 pm
by Thargoid
Another little OXP which adds the chance to agree contract terms and gain a pair of escort ships for your next journey between main stations.
There are various terms and conditions to the contract, and they are choosy so don't appear every time even if you do fulfil all the requirements.
Requires Oolite v1.75, a rank of at least Average and a clean record. Can sometimes be picked up at the system main station.
-- = = Download Hired Guns = = --
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:29 pm
by Squeek
This is awesome, and will make the game feel more realistic.
Nice.
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:38 pm
by DaddyHoggy
Thargoid - you are a value-added-oxp god and I love you
.
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:57 pm
by Lestradae
L
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:16 am
by overmage
Now we can use those Dredgers without quaking in our pants.
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:21 am
by another_commander
<DeNiro>Yor good... you... you...[points finger] yor VERY good</DeNiro>
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:32 am
by Thargoid
Thank you all. I can't claim 100% credit for it.
As usual the base for the AI is one of Eric's old ones, but I've built on it significantly by linking it up to a JS script (it's now AI of Borg ).
Seems to work fairly well, although if you have a fast ship under injectors or use the Torus they do take a little while to catch you up sometimes (but they always should do). Plus the scanclass dodge isn't perfect, but I didn't want the player to be mass-locked by their own escorts (especially if they didn't have injectors).
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:14 am
by Eric Walch
Thargoid wrote:As usual the base for the AI is one of Eric's old ones, but I've built on it significantly by linking it up to a JS script (it's now AI of Borg:twisted: ).
Player escorts were in UPS since the first release for special missions. Only in later releases they became for hire. But of cause only after the player proofed worthy by doing some jobs.
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:27 am
by goran
another_commander wrote:<DeNiro>Yor good... you... you...[points finger] yor VERY good</DeNiro>
Analyze this.
Installed the OXP but as I'm always in a hurry, on injectors or torus, I don't think I can make use of them escorts.
Nice oxp nevertheless.
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:00 am
by Thargoid
They will catch you up and are quite quick themselves, so you might be surprised. Give it a go and see, they may help you for those occasions you do stop and fight.
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:36 pm
by overmage
IMO, the best use for these escorts is if you've been a fighter but are intending to switch to a heavy trading ship like the Dredger. You want to make millions but your ships moves slower than the U.S. Economy improves and you can't bring your lasers to bear with that pathetic pitch and roll.
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:06 am
by Yodeebe
Really Excellent work your alien-ness! love it!
they do indeed catch up pretty quick.
could this be expanded to have different numbers of escort ship, types of escort ship, and competence for different prices? maybe even your own mini army/pirate band for some mission or other?
cool oxp.
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:35 pm
by pleb87
Yodeebe wrote:Really Excellent work your alien-ness! love it!
they do indeed catch up pretty quick.
could this be expanded to have different numbers of escort ship, types of escort ship, and competence for different prices? maybe even your own mini army/pirate band for some mission or other?
cool oxp.
yeah i was thinking along these lines, you could have the reserve pilots in the Galactic Navy OXP actually follow you into battle!
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 1:15 pm
by Thargoid
Yodeebe wrote:Really Excellent work your alien-ness! love it!
they do indeed catch up pretty quick.
could this be expanded to have different numbers of escort ship, types of escort ship, and competence for different prices? maybe even your own mini army/pirate band for some mission or other?
cool oxp.
It could. I didn't do it as I wanted a hired escorts OXP, not a private army one. It's designed to help in fights, not to do all the fighting for you. I didn't want to make the game too easy
But the expansion for different types of escort ship is something I've agreed to happen elsewhere, and the competence will be part of that (in the current version the Vipers are much more deadly than the Cobras, and they likewise to the Sidewinders).
The code is freely usable by anyone who may wish to do so, so if (for example) Matt wanted to re-use them in an upgrade of Galactic Navy to make an attack wing to go against a target then that would be fine with me. I might even do it myself in the future in some mission context.
As to the number of escorts, it's just defined in the system script (hiredGuns_system.js). If you want to make the game easier, just open it in a text editor and in the this.admin function at the bottom, change the line missionVariables.hiredGuns_count = 2; from 2 to however many escorts you want in the fleet. The code is written to be flexible and cope with however many escorts are set in that line (and if you're being complete, the descritions in equipment.plist will also need adjusting to match).
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:43 pm
by pagroove
Good one Thargoid,
I was to late for testing your OXP but from what I saw it is nice and I like that the escorts don't mass lock so that's good.