Oolite Bulletins

Has anyone considered before having a big hauler with a ninja little fighter on it, so you can play the game with the best of both ship types? Obviously a massive price tag would be necessary - and it might not even be possible to do, I've no clue.

This one comes round quite often in various guises....

However, the basic problem is - you "the player" are in fact you "the ship" - so it's not possible - much as we'd like, to separate the two.

So others, who have suggested "Hangers full of ships for the super rich" remain equally disappointed...

I have actually found a way around to create a hangar full of ships

The solution: You produce a transferable equipment item which is termed "Ship Pack etc." and which's existence is the condition for a few other ships to be offered at 0 Cr at specific stations (your hangar(s)).

So you have just gotten yourself different ships you can change around when docked at the hangar station(s).

Only problem: You can't change these ships while in-flight, and even when you change at a station, you lose your cargo. (I don't think the cargo could be transfered via even the most clever script, but perhaps that would be possible, too?)

Hm, perhaps the inflight ship change could even be done similar to Frame's "Save Anywhere" strategy ...

Anyone up to the task?

Cheers

L

One possible way to transfer cargo would be to record the amount of each commodity loaded in the ship and then awarding that to the player after he's transferred to his new ship.

Thoughts?

Nemoricus wrote:

One possible way to transfer cargo would be to record the amount of each commodity loaded in the ship

As far as I know this is exactly what is impossible to do via an oxp. I might be mistaken (I actually hope so, because this is a central showstopper for the whole idea) though ...

The awarding part would not be a problem.

I see. Too, bad.

I wonder if the designers will work on a method to implement that functionality, though.

What about making a temporary dock/station, just like in the save anywhere oxp, in which you can only choose ships from the list of 0 cr. ships that you "own"?

Like, a temporary shipyard. Then, you have the ship you were in just sit there.


OOOOH! what about an equipment piece: co-pilot, or crew member. It would last a certain amount of time, in which time it would "break", representing the need to pay the wages.

However, it would give the ship you "undocked from" AI that says it will follow you.


(whoops, I forgot to read the thread... Somebody already mentioned half of my idea)

Some of what you suggest can be done for sure. Simulating wages could be done via a script that checks for the passage of a certain amount of time.

I also know that it's possible to make escorts that you can hire.

The rest, I'm not so sure about.

You know, you may just have stumbled me onto an alternate solution for the really big player ships issue: Give them a fighter that is "onboard" and can be changed in hangar stations that are near the main stations.

That way, you can do your enormous cargo runs/super battles with the big one and after you sold all your cargo (what you do at the main station anyways, usually) you change ship in the hangar station to the smaller one and do the mission for that ...

And the hangar stations need a really big docking port, perhaps do it with the radius command or somesuch!

Food for thoughts indeed

Squeek wrote:

...in which you can only choose ships from the list of 0 cr. ships that you "own"?

There's your next stumbling block. I don't think you can make such limitations.

Is it possible to tell what kind of ship a player's flying? If so, you might be able to do so.

If you make another version of the ship, you could set its price to zero. Unfortunately, this would have the effect of giving you all of the value of your current ship when you exchange. It should be possible to check what equipment your ship has, and remove the credit value of both your ship and equipment.

The availability of the low cost version could then be controlled by setting it to a very high tech level normally, using a script to bring it down if the player is currently not flying that ship. It would require a special station, though, and would only work for ships that have already been coded into the OXP.

How about some kind of "Credit Key" as a token. Rather than trying to set the prices in the shipyard (special (like Lestradae's "Hanger") or system populated) you charge this key up with the value of your additionally purchased ship.

In the oxp you'd "sell" your Credit Key and "repurchase" your other ship with the funds held on the key. The "sale price" of your "traded in" ship is then transferred to a new Credit Key ready to be used to reverse the process.

I think the value of a piece of equipment can be set so the trick will be to determine whether the value of your ship(s) can be dynamically assigned to the value of the Credit Key.

Nemoricus wrote:

One possible way to transfer cargo would be to record the amount of each commodity loaded in the ship and then awarding that to the player after he's transferred to his new ship.

Thoughts?

It would be rather difficult transferring 750 tons from an Anaconda to a Cobra - unless you can a hire u-haul trailer.