Generation Ships 1.1 OXP

[ffutures]

Annoyingly I misjumped and came out near a generation ship tonight - but it was surrounded by swarms of Thargoids including some Thargon battlecruisers, I had to beat a hasty retreat!

[UK_Eliter]

Marvellous stuff, I think! (Even if a bit annoying.) I think one of my OXPs, in one way or another, would have been responsible for that. Did you notice the generation ship launching thargoids?

[ffutures]

It was ID'd as "hijacked," I guessed it was probably Thargoids that took it but I wasn't able to confirm that.

[UK_Eliter]

It was ID'd as "hijacked," I guessed it was probably Thargoids that took it but I wasn't able to confirm that.

There is a huge bounty on those things. Next time, you might want to try to destroy it. If you are brave/very clever/suicidal!

[ffutures]

Is there some way I should have known that it was a legitimate target?

[UK_Eliter]

Well, ffutures, yes. (1) The hijacked ship should have showed on your scanner in a Thargoid colour. (2) If you have the Bounty Scanner (I think that's what it is called) OXP installed, and you have a working bounty scanner, then it would have showed the fat, sweet bounty. There's also (3) the fact it was actually launching thargoids.

Now admittedly: it is easy to miss 1; 2 may not have applied to you; and you may not have had time to notice 3.

Still, I counsel a spirit of experimentation. For instance, why not try . . to dock with it?

[ffutures]

Well, ffutures, yes. (1) The hijacked ship should have showed on your scanner in a Thargoid colour. (2) If you have the Bounty Scanner (I think that's what it is called) OXP installed, and you have a working bounty scanner, then it would have showed the fat, sweet bounty. There's also (3) the fact it was actually launching thargoids.

Now admittedly: it is easy to miss 1; 2 may not have applied to you; and you may not have had time to notice 3.

Still, I counsel a spirit of experimentation. For instance, why not try . . to dock with it?

Riiiiiight...

[UK_Eliter]

That's the spirit!

Still, those hijacked ships are very rare indeed. I could supply a hack to make them a little more common . .

[ffutures]

That's the spirit!

Still, those hijacked ships are very rare indeed. I could supply a hack to make them a little more common . .

In the couple of months since I added this I've only seen one ship, I really doubt it's worth it - if anything, I'd like to see one without the distraction of Thargoids.

[UK_Eliter]

if anything, I'd like to see one without the distraction of Thargoids.

Well, my InterstellarTweaks OXP makes normal - un-hijacked Generation ships - rarer, as well as adding the very rare hijacked version.

To see my more normal Generation ships, either uninstall InterstellarTweaks, or hack into the InterstellarTweaks file IST_masterScript.js (in the scripts folder of the OXP/OXZ) and change

Code: Select all

this.chanceRemoveGenshipsInAll

to 0 or at least to something lower than its current value of 0.7. (I think that I might slightly reduce that value myself in future releases.)

[phkb]

I've updated this to v1.5, and performed some work on the textures, adding normal maps, and tweaked the spawning logic to be much simpler.

I had to make a choice on the smoothness of the cylinders. Originally, the shipdata has smooth = true; in order to make the cylinders rounder. However, after adding the normal map the light reflections across the surface were kind of weird. So I turned off the smoothness property, which I think still looks OK.



I can revert back to the original if we think this has gone a step too far, though.

@UK_Eliter: This should still operate successfully with your IST OXP.

[UK_Eliter]

phkb,

Judging by the screenshot, you have done a great job!

I'll try to find time to test with 'IST'.

[Cody]

Judging by the screenshot, you have done a great job!

Yeah... there's something almost Egyptian obelisk-like about that texture!

[cbr]

Beautifull!

[Cholmondely]

Wood, no? Our very first wooden spaceship! Fully recyclable and all that...

Now we just need one or two paper ones to add to the mix!
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The big news here is phkb seems to have made generation ships - and not just the hijacked type that I designed - dockable! But, hold on, no market? The inhabitants of a generation ship might lack credits, but I imagine they'd be desperate to barter for supplies! Perhaps - ignoring the point about credits - one should be able to sell them luxuries and alloys and radioactives and food and textiles (and perhaps some other things) and receive monstrous amounts of credits in return!

But, hold on, no market?

I couldn't see the logic of how a Generation ship could have a market in anything - even assuming the might want certain products, they wouldn't have any way to pay you. The likelihood of a ship that old having the current universe "credits" is a bit of a stretch. As you say, bartering might work, but again, that's not what the F8 screen does - it's based on credits. So, really, to maintain some semblance of logic, I'd need to rewrite the F8 market screen to be a bartering system.

Anyway, happy to bat this around some more, maybe in the Gen Ships thread.

The big news here is phkb seems to have made generation ships ... dockable!

Well, yes, but...

Don't. Especially if you like your bank balance. And your clean rating.

I don't see how GalCop et al would know if I docked with one. Just if I shot one.

But the markets: surely people on board would have gold, jewels & platinum. And food of a sort. And liquors. And textiles of a sort. This stuff could possibly all be varieties of luxuries rather than the more mundane versions bought in the orbital stations. Just as, for example, my more mundane liquors might well be luxuries for them.