Oolite Bulletins

It almost looks romantic when you see the space around you chock full with abandoned Thargoid fighter bots glistening in the faint light of the distant sun after a Galactic Navy reservist sortie.

However, by picking them down like ripe grapes you increase your kill count way too easily for my taste. I've done this a few times now and it starts to feel like cheating. Wouldn't it make sense, once they stop moving and turn white on radar, to turn them into simple cargo (since you can scoop them and sell them as alien items anyways) that does not increase your kill count when shot?

maik wrote:

It almost looks romantic when you see the space around you chock full with abandoned Thargoid fighter bots glistening in the faint light of the distant sun after a Galactic Navy reservist sortie.

However, by picking them down like ripe grapes you increase your kill count way too easily for my taste. I've done this a few times now and it starts to feel like cheating. Wouldn't it make sense, once they stop moving and turn white on radar, to turn them into simple cargo (since you can scoop them and sell them as alien items anyways) that does not increase your kill count when shot?

That's not a bad idea. Having said that, shooting them is not very profitable. You'll get a small bounty for each one, but the Navy pay around 80 Credits each for them at the SecCom station.
I always empty the hold of my Boa Clipper (150T capacity) before a Navy sortie, and fill it up with dead fighters afterwards for a nice profit of around 12,000 Credits.

That makes sense if you need more money... but I don't at the moment

edit: ... and I'm way too attached to my Cobra Mk3

maik wrote:

That makes sense if you need more money... but I don't at the moment

You can never have too much money Here's an interesting thought for those out there looking to make some fast Bucks. Buy an Anaconda, then hang back a bit at the battle zone, maybe hitting a few Thargoids from long range with your lasers. When it's all over, go and collect the fighters and if you can fill your hold, make 60,000 Credits. 10 sorties would pay for the ship!

maik wrote:

edit: ... and I'm way too attached to my Cobra Mk3

Fair point.
As far as kill-rate goes, you are absolutely right. I remember a thread a while ago discussing that asteroids used to count as kills as well, now thankfully removed. Perhaps the same should be done for 'dead' Thargons as well.

Asteroids used to give a kill because original Elite they gave a kill - as you say, it makes sense to have had it, and thus removed in Oolite.

Although my pacifist pilot wouldn't mind building up his ranking only by cleaning up the spacelanes by removing potentially dangerous navigational hazards...

Greedy he is... credits and the kill he wants...

maik wrote:

Greedy he is... credits and the kill he wants...

It's just that I'm going to have to start another pilot (or suddenly turn psychotic) if I'm going to play any of the native missions - or even Asteroid Storm because they're all based on Kills.

Now I know this is the point of the game - but it's been entertaining trying to build up as many credits as possible without actually killing anybody!

Smivs wrote:

maik wrote:

It almost looks romantic when you see the space around you chock full with abandoned Thargoid fighter bots glistening in the faint light of the distant sun after a Galactic Navy reservist sortie.

However, by picking them down like ripe grapes you increase your kill count way too easily for my taste. I've done this a few times now and it starts to feel like cheating. Wouldn't it make sense, once they stop moving and turn white on radar, to turn them into simple cargo (since you can scoop them and sell them as alien items anyways) that does not increase your kill count when shot?

That's not a bad idea. Having said that, shooting them is not very profitable. You'll get a small bounty for each one, but the Navy pay around 80 Credits each for them at the SecCom station.

There is however no such thing in vanilla Oolite (or if you dislike and therefore haven't installed Galactic Navy.oxp), and the best price you can get for scooped Thargons is about 65 credits, with the lowest being around 20. This makes the 50 credits bounty pretty attractive to me, and I never have bothered with scooping Thargons.

Sounds to me that maybe Thargons should have a lower bounty then.. with perhaps the Thargoid having a higher one to compensate (perhaps it can even go up every time it launches a Thargon?).

I agree that Thargon shooting is a problem if you're wishing to avoid the kill number triggers for native and OXP missions. Seems a little cheesy that often shooting the Thargons is more profitable AND gives you a kill than scooping them and selling them, which is far more inconvenient!

HERETIC that I am, when engaging in OXP missions that add stations, I experimentally edit the commodities market plist to insanely elevate slightly alter the price for Thatgons. This is not cheating because I can't get the prices to vary very much, and because I'm not usually scooping anything during a mission, anyway - unless it's a Thargoid based mission in which case I don't alter anything. But the occasional, random Thargon during a mission related to something else is a nice surprise if they fetch novel prices at an OXP station
This doesn't really affect the bank-balance much..
well, it probably does, technically, I've never really noticed, M'lud.. ..

Enough dead Thargons fetch a 114.0 bounty, not 50.0 bounty, to make it worth shooting them, in my experience. In a random Thargoid battle, I will usually scoop what I can and shoot the rest. If the Galactic Navy has been involved, there are very often cargo containers of firearms floating around, which usually return a higher value even than Thargons at SecCom stations, so I eject and shoot Thargons to make room for them (but rescoop the Thargons if it's a lesser cargo container).

If I'm feeling honest I edit down my kill count afterwards by roughly how many I think I've shot. However, I don't particularly think it's cheating not to, and I'm sure my main account has received some padding this way.

Unlike being rewarded kills for shooting asteroids/cargo containers/metal fragments (which Oolite no longer registers), you are conducting a "kill", albeit of something that no longer poses a thread. But hell, Moray Medical Boats barely pose a threat, but when you've just got a penlight as a forward laser...

FeelGone wrote:

Moray Medical Boats barely pose a threat

Sure, but at least they move in contrast to sitting duck dead Thragons...

I would think that since they are a drone/bot, the reason for the bounty is to make sure the Thargons (possibly in some as yet unseen sort of ship) don't recover them and re-use them. So it is disabling/destroying enemy equipment to prevent it being used that the cr and "kill" are for. Since a "kill" is given for removing obstacles (asteroids), it seems reasonable enough and consistent with even the Elite game's logic.

It may be too limiting to think of the score as one progresses to Elite status as *only* being for straightforward kills. Clearing pathways of asteroids (presumably to remove them as an obstacle/hazard) has always been work that was also apparently respected, so why not helping the Navy by mopping up after battles?

Think of it this way.. If a commander actually shot enough asteroids and Thargon drones so make it to "competent", well then they certainly would be pretty competent at using the laser at least.

Edit: They do still pose at least a potential threat. Since the recovered battle drones can be reprogrammed and used by the player, then logically the Thargons can reactivate them even easier. Now, if you want more risk involved in sitting around scrapping them, maybe if a Thargon patrol comes by and catches you at it, those inert drones suddenly could stop being inert. For every drone you kill in the resulting fight, they just activate another one so long as the supply lasts.

Wellll, I guess it sums up to being a matter of taste... To me, shooting an immobile target and getting kill credit for it just seems too simple. Kind of like allowing school children to pass a written exam without grading their spelling