Salvaging ships

[Lestradae]

I'm not going to do it - my skills aren't up to that - but perhaps someone wants to?

As far as I know now all java script options are in place to make salvaging ships that have been left by their pilots and flying them yourself possible?

1) Define the NPC ship as a station or carrier with a docking radius, so players can effectively dock with them.

2) Put a player version of the ship into the "station"'s shipyard at docking and block all unfitting screens in there.

3) If the player wants, they can "Buy" that ship for 0 Cr.

4) Player is now in a player version of the ship to be salvaged.

5) Transfering equipment from one ship to the next is possible via JS as far as I know? So do that ... Cargo Bay contents I think can also be transfered ...

6) "Launch" from the pseudo-station with the new ship

7) Game removes the NPC ship the player just docked with and if really devious, perhaps displays an NPC version of the players' old ship (the one they left behind)

With a few additional tweaks perhaps that might even lead to owning multiple ships becoming possible.

I would like these options, perhaps someone wants to make them a reality.

[Killer Wolf]

re point 5, is this logical? given all equipment is fitted as specialist shipyards, i'm not sure it's right that you transfer everything from one ship to another in the middle of space. given that (as far as i can see) the only reason you'd do this is to upgrade to a better ship, the offset should be is you lose all your cargo and fittings, and inherit what's on the new ship ~ some of which may be damaged, depending on what fight it's been through. you coulda of course eject your cargo first and scoop it up on "launch", assuming the new ship has a working scoop.

point 7, multiple ships, is a no no, gamewise and codewise.

[Lestradae]

re point 5, is this logical? given all equipment is fitted as specialist shipyards ... the offset should be is you lose all your cargo and fittings, and inherit what's on the new ship ~ some of which may be damaged, depending on what fight it's been through. you coulda of course eject your cargo first and scoop it up on "launch", assuming the new ship has a working scoop.

The way you put it perhaps it's not logical - you change to another ship, and have to take what you get. Makes more sense, you're right.

point 7, multiple ships, is a no no, gamewise and codewise.

Weeell ... if you represent a second or third or Nth ship with a mission variable that leads to this ship being available under certain definable conditions (such as being docked at the station you last left it) for 0Cr at the shipyard, and mission variables say MV3.A to Z for which equipment you had which you get re-awarded at that point.

That would be doable code-wise, wouldn't it? So you could buy a "ship pack", de facto, ingame.

[Killer Wolf]

i dunno, TBH, i'm sure there was a thread about multishipping and owning "garages" of them, and beyond the "the player IS the ship" tenet, i believe there was some issue w/ the save game code. i guess one of the coder bods can clear that up.

[Poro]

I was thinking about this idea, independently, today. If I learn to make an OXP: this is how I was going to implement it.
(Bear in mind, in my ignorance of OXP scripting I assumed that it would be as simple as declaring what new ship/equipment/cargo the player has, and then just switching the positions of the two ships. As such I assumed that a modified escape pod would do the job, once you are close enough to a derelict)

1) Since taking over another ship is much easier than making the money to buy one, the act of modifying an escape pod to dock and claim another ship is highly illegal. GalCop insist on this otherwise everyone and their pet dog would be jumping on expensive traders.

2) Being highly technical only the most high-tech systems have the expertise to do it, and since it is an illegal act it costs at least 100,000 credits. (This would mean that even a low-end player ship would still have to make a lot of money to do this, rather than spend little time playing, and then leap into a Boa)

3) You are, naturally, stuck with the equipment and cargo of your new ship. In addition it will almost certainly need a hefty maintenance overhaul. In fact, this should be scripted in.

4) You are now a fugitive. Well done. The time it takes to drop your status back to clean is lengthened. (Probably in line with the Anarchies.OXP)

5) If you ever take over a ship that has more than one forward pointing laser, you will always be a fugitive (until you switch ships again). This will be set every time you jump into a system, or kill a bounty. Get used to living in Anarchy systems.

6) As well as needing an escape pod to do the actual transfer (whether in-game or just as in-Ooniverse explanation) pylon equipment may be needed.

7) There would also be a recommendation within the OXP that Dredgers and ettHomingBeacon OXPs be downloaded. This would allow the old ship to deploy the beacon, then you perform the transfer, then you head to a station/shop where you can get a salvage missile, as well as repairing/tooling up. You can then come back to your beacon and salvage your old ship.


Even with all these limitations, this will still unbalance the game: but it would certainly add flavour - piracy would become more interesting!

[Cmdr James]

I like the idea of tractor beams, and remember well a previous discussion on them. Here is some of the discussion https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=4844

My position stays the same, that I think dedicated tug ships make sense, but that fitting a tractor bean to any old ship seems odd. I dont want to se adders tugging along dredgers, behemoths and anacondas.

One possible way to fix this would be to reduce top speed by a function of the difference in masses of the ships, so an adder would be ble to tug something large very very slowly, but an anaconda could pull an adder without noticing. This still leaves the problem that performance ships (think ferrari, lambo, etc) could fit a t-bar and happily pull something heavy.

To me its more about ship purpose and specialisation, heavy industrial ships, Hamadryad, Dredger and so on make sense to fit for mining, for towing, for factory equipment, but things like fer de lance, adders, asps and the like have no business playing that game.

[Poro]

Yes, I seem to remember something in the description of the Hognose about it being structurally strengthened for towing.