Oolite Bulletins

I had my first encounter with the Impressive Long Range Cruiser By ACDK. This brought me to the idea of fleets. Borrowing a bit from a Battlestar Galactica like scenario there could be fleets wandering the Ooniverse. They could be rare but when encountered they are impressive. A fleet could consists (for example) of:

1 Long Range Cruiser
2 Super Bulk Haulers
1 Orisis
1 Tanker
1 Behemoth for support
1 Frigate
4 Anaconda's
20 ASP/Viper like craft
30 Cobbie's mk1?

On top of that I was thinking of a future expansion the navy OXP so that you could be assigned to a cetain Behemoth. And go wherever the Behemoth fleet goes.

Just venting some ideas. Don't know if any of this is realistic, fun. But fleets could be a state of them own. Needing certain commodities etc and offering fleet missions.


There could be

exiles (Like BSG)
Merchant fleets
Military fleets/convoy's
Governmental fleets (diplomatic)
Science fleets
Prison convoy's
Tanker convoy;s
Special event fleets (transport to a Zero G match etc)
Pirate fleets
Thargoid fleets (Thargoids on mission to destroy the station)

Just venting some ideas.

Yes this would be nice.

You can see similar fleets on the GalNavy missions, but to encounter them when not on a mission would be cool.

I believe that our Master and Commander himself wrote a little while ago that the escort engine in Oolite could be rewritten in a future release. Maybe this should makes up for even better random encounters.

But scripted fleets (and attacks on it) would be very cool

This brings me on the subject of the Super Bulk Haulers. I've seen them attacked quite a lot. It's fun to rush in to try to save the hauler. I've seen a Hauler shot up to pieces by a large pirate fleet last week.

YES OOLITE RULES (sorry had to say it )

pagroove wrote:

This brings me on the subject of the Super Bulk Haulers. I've seen them attacked quite a lot. It's fun to rush in to try to save the hauler. I've seen a Hauler shot up to pieces by a large pirate fleet last week.

Even more fun attacking one of those toilet brush ships, Lynx bulk haulers I think.

Mission types for a fleet could be (when assigned to the mother ship)

A mother ships could be anything dock able from a Bulk Hauler (trading missions) to a Behemoth (escort duties) to a tigershark (recon and medical, prison and spec op missions)

- Fleet support (escort, Attack, recon)
- Trading, Flying from the mothership to the main station. Buying certain commodities and them flying back
- Medical missions
- Even shipping goods from ships within the same fleet. For example moving food from a lead hauler to a hauler more in the back of the fleet.

Sadly I can't code. But any coder is free to grab some ideas from this.


A typical briefing could be (for a commander stationed at a support Behemoth):

,,Commander, Our fleet is visiting Zaonce tomorrow. We will be in system from ... to .... During this time period we ask you to fly a fleet cap. Any attackers must be destroyed. Intelligence believe there is increase pirate activity in the area. at least 75 % must survive.''

They would need to have some kind of jamming satellites to prevent the use of energy bombs or q-mine .
I think I have encountered something like that around a Black Monk Bank

Chrisfs wrote:

They would need to have some kind of jamming satellites to prevent the use of energy bombs or q-mine.

Once or twice I have dropped a q-mine in the middle of the Thargoids/GalNavy mission battle! Funny!!

Never save after doing that though lol!

JazHaz wrote:

Chrisfs wrote:

They would need to have some kind of jamming satellites to prevent the use of energy bombs or q-mine.

Once or twice I have dropped a q-mine in the middle of the Thargoids/GalNavy mission battle! Funny!!

Never save after doing that though lol!

Ohh, I don't know, the kill bounties on the thargoids should pay for your escape pod to clear your name....

allikat wrote:

JazHaz wrote:

Chrisfs wrote:

They would need to have some kind of jamming satellites to prevent the use of energy bombs or q-mine.

Once or twice I have dropped a q-mine in the middle of the Thargoids/GalNavy mission battle! Funny!!

Never save after doing that though lol!

Ohh, I don't know, the kill bounties on the thargoids should pay for your escape pod to clear your name....

If you have Anarchies.oxp installed, your escape pod won't help you anymore. Of course, there are other solutions, but those are generally more expensive.

Chrisfs wrote:

They would need to have some kind of jamming satellites to prevent the use of energy bombs or q-mine .
I think I have encountered something like that around a Black Monk Bank

You can't prevent the use of the e-bomb that way. Other than giving ships large amounts of energy reserve so they just survive the blast of course.

However q-mines and similar are entirely different and quite do-able.

I think the GalNavy oxp already includes a minesweeper vessel although I don't know how effective it is. I haven't tried Q bombing a Navy fleet, Thargoid fleets are another case entirely of course.

Q-mines are able to destroy fleets of ships. It doesn't matter whether or not they're Galactic Navy or Thargoid or both at once.

Destroying Galactic Navy vessels, even if by accidental friendly fire, counts against your legal status, and you'll become a fugitive. (Been there, done that.)
If you stay out of trouble long enough, you'll eventually heal your legal status and become clean again.

I used to hare into the pirates or Thargons with a cascade missile and sometimes vape the lot (or most) of them cleanly - but other times the whole Navy fleet would dumbly fly into the expanding explosion leaving me all alone, and a fugitive! Now I have the Drones and Nukes OXPs I use Penetrating Torpedoes to trash Pirate bases and some big Thargon ships, and Anti-Thargon Drones to draw enemy fire. Not as devastating but keeps the reputation OK!

Wouldn't enough fast vanguard ships patroling a wide enough perimeter be enough of a defence against any attack?

Certainly they'd need to be piloted by fanatics instead of hired mercenaries (who've never any interest in dying for a cause that isn't theres), but the ooniverse is plenty big for plenty of such factions?

If i remember right the Super Bulk Haulers have 3 normal Bulk Haulers as escorts, but due to a bug in 1.73 Oolite they don't appear (they should work in 1.74, havnt encountered any yet, but i rarely play only develope )