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** Urgent GalCop Broadcast to all pilots **

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 6:40 pm
by Killer Wolf
This is a Priority 'A' GalCop General News Bulletin for the attention of ALL pilots. Recent reports have been sent to GalCop from various areas regarding sighting of an unknown type of craft. What was thought to be a one-off encounter has subsequently proven to be widespread contacts of an alien craft.
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The origins of these craft are unknown. Their exact purpose is unknown. Whether they are a ship, a robotic drone, or a new type of cybernetic lifeform is unknown. As GalCop began investigating reports, various Viper squadrons attempted contact w/ the wasps, however no broadcast has yet been answered.
Two types of wasp have been identified. The common wasp has swept wings and are armed w/ a weapon comparabel to a Beam Laser.
A larger craft w/ spread wings and a Military Laser grade weapon has been designated as a "queen wasp" : examples are reported to have been seen cruising w/ common wasps flying escort.
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Even more alarming, GalCop's investigations have discovered that these vessels operate from their own space station. These structures are comparable in size to a standard Coriolis station, and have been discovered between the Witchspace beacon and the sun. It is unclear how these stations were constructed w/out the knowledge of GalCop, and they exhibit uncommon build features, comprising of both mechanical and what looks like organic components.
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Several of these stations have been logged, and pilots can use their Advanced Space Compass to find them ~ the key letter "K" is used to designate a Nest. Nests are invariably situated near to the sun, and this is possibly due to the craft being mainly solar powered : they exhibit no usual exhaust trails, and their wing structures appear to comprise of solar cells that feed power into the craft.

Although somewhat menacing in appearance, the wasps appear to have been fairly docile so far. Outright attacks are as yet unconfirmed, however when attacked these craft will defend themselves viciously. Fast and extremely agile, they work as a team and are a threat to all but the best pilots – they are especially dangerous when defending their Nest against attack.

Whatever these craft are, they appear both intelligent and fully conversant w/ GalCop technology. It should be noted that several pilots have docked at Nests and found full trading facilities available, w/ premium prices being paid for food. GalCop advises that pilots dock w/ these structures at their own risk. In a related incident, a recent report has just been filed w/ GalCop concerning a roaming queen wasp and her escorts that docked at Ensoreus : although somewhat disconcerting to the station staff and traders, the wasps came and left w/out incident.

GalCop is still urgently investigating this phenomena. An anonymous e-mail indicating that Isis Interstellar had a secretive project involving robotic militray drones has been vehemently denied by the company. In the meantime, GalCop instructs that these craft are NOT to be engaged, except in self-defence : aside from their placid nature at present, GalCop will not tolerate actions that could potentially spark a full scale conflict w/ these craft, or their creators.

further information can be found at : http://www.purgatori.net/wasps.htm


thanks to Ahruman and Eric Walch for the pseudorandom stuff, and a very special sincere thanks goes to Thargoid for some awesome AI routines :-)

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:03 pm
by Cmdr Wyvern
Now this is interesting.

I've spent a lot of time along the Rift, and have encountered many strange Outlander designs, including insectoids. While insectoid craft are unusual, they certainly never look like their builders.

From what I've heard from human friends, these Wasp craft are modelled after a stinging insect on their far-flung motherworld. These are ships of an independant human colony we've not encountered till now, perhaps?

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:43 pm
by Smivs
These look absolutely beautiful. :)

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:56 pm
by Commander McLane
Neat! (Although I'm not sure I will install it.)

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:24 pm
by Kaks
:D

How long till we start seeing whales, or camels, or indeed ferrets? We can only wonder! :D

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 12:21 am
by RustiSwordz
Purple wombats in tutu's! :D

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 5:58 am
by Thargoid
Kaks wrote:
:D

How long till we start seeing whales, or camels, or indeed ferrets? We can only wonder! :D
Can be done ;) Also you forgot the bowl of Petunias...

So we now have wasps and serpents, and if I release them (and they're not the source of the CTDs I seem to be intermittently suffering) we can have butterflies as well (complete with flapping wings).

Galactic Zoo.oxp time indeed ;)

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 6:18 am
by Killer Wolf
the flappywing butterflies sound lush. if you do a moth variant you could give them a sunskim AI and it'd look like they're heading towards the light like moths do :-)

Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:03 pm
by Eric Walch
I like the "Jam" part. I immediately bought some jars to taste. :lol:

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:56 am
by Chrisfs
Very cool, yet scary at the same time.

Since they are insects, my first thought was 'new thargoid ships'.

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:38 pm
by tonyhippy
Encountered my first nest in witchspace the other day, but they were mostly fighting the thargoids so I thought best not annoy them. Along with the Thargoids and the Navy witchspace was very busy that time!When I'd had enough of a pounding (and I was only in an Eagle mark II) I was able to hitch a lift back to normal space in the nest.

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:05 pm
by Cmdr Wyvern
Chrisfs wrote:
Since they are insects, my first thought was 'new thargoid ships'.
The ships look like insects, in particular Earth insects. That gives me enough pause to think the crews may not be insectoids at all.

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:32 am
by Killer Wolf
tonyhippy wrote:
Encountered my first nest in witchspace the other day, but they were mostly fighting the thargoids so I thought best not annoy them. Along with the Thargoids and the Navy witchspace was very busy that time!When I'd had enough of a pounding (and I was only in an Eagle mark II) I was able to hitch a lift back to normal space in the nest.
??
they were never intended to be in WS, though i guess the script's "thisshipwillexitfromhyperspace" thingy will trigger that.
no idea how you're getting a station to hyperspace tho :-/

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:33 am
by Killer Wolf
Cmdr Wyvern wrote:
Chrisfs wrote:
Since they are insects, my first thought was 'new thargoid ships'.
The ships look like insects, in particular Earth insects. That gives me enough pause to think the crews may not be insectoids at all.
who says they have crews!

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:21 am
by Eric Walch
Killer Wolf wrote:
they were never intended to be in WS, though i guess the script's "thisshipwillexitfromhyperspace" thingy will trigger that. :-/
Look at the wiki. You must do an explicit check for not being in "InterstellarSpace" before adding the ship.
I think this is the oldest bug that is around and most oxp-ers have made this bug in the past. (The test used to be system.ID >-1 in the legacy time)