Oolite Bulletins

What about an oxp that generates events in neighboring systems (within 7 ly) I mean the more 'major' events like convoy attacks, war-action or even the unexpected invasion from thargoids or other species. These local area messages would be relayed through the witchspace buoy. (otherwise the galactic news wouldn't be possible). The player who has enough fuel could then decide to jump to the system to take part in the action.

I mean something like the Bioomberg.oxp but then at shorter range and with a instant mission generator (ala random hits or galactic Navy or UPS etc.)

The code would take political, economic and demographic factors into account to create interesting situations that are within 7ly.

For example it is then even (randomly) possible that two commies try to blockade and suppress a democratic system by sending raids into these system. The 'engine' simply calculates a chance that something like that can happen. Two communistic sytems that are near each other (say one jump) would increase the chance that these two states are working together. When there is an 'enemy state' near them (for example commies vs democracy) then the chance would be considerable increased that such an event can happen. The 'generator' would also look into tech level. Because if they haven't the tech then they cannot send raids out of their own system. This is just one possible scenario.

Is this a good idea?

I like it! That would be a further step towards maintaining (an illusion of) a vibrant galaxy and not only a vibrant system.

Even an in-system news when you arrive at the station about how well pirates and police are doing in the system, if it seems "newsworthy"...such as:

Police wipe out a considerable pirate concentration.

Trade ships report extreme difficulty getting by the pirate blockade. The few that do have lost most of their escorts and/or been damaged.

The player played an instrumental role in either eliminating piracy in the system...or is the biggest pirate around!

The presence and/or destruction of any "capital" ships (Behemoths, Thargoids, Frigates, very special ship classes -- like a cloaking ship or Constrictor type) should be noteworthy as well.

The "triggering event" to decide to show the in-system news could be as simple as staying in the system over 30 minutes straight...and tracking how many pirates started in the system and how many are left when the player docks.

It'd give the player the feeling that they are making a difference, for better or worse.

Switeck wrote:

Even an in-system news when you arrive at the station about how well pirates and police are doing in the system, if it seems "newsworthy"...such as:

Police wipe out a considerable pirate concentration.

Trade ships report extreme difficulty getting by the pirate blockade. The few that do have lost most of their escorts and/or been damaged.

The player played an instrumental role in either eliminating piracy in the system...or is the biggest pirate around!

The presence and/or destruction of any "capital" ships (Behemoths, Thargoids, Frigates, very special ship classes -- like a cloaking ship or Constrictor type) should be noteworthy as well.

The "triggering event" to decide to show the in-system news could be as simple as staying in the system over 30 minutes straight...and tracking how many pirates started in the system and how many are left when the player docks.

It'd give the player the feeling that they are making a difference, for better or worse.

You could write a plug-in for Snoopers - this is exactly what its designed to do.

That's exactly what I'll do, once I figure out how...and once I finish some other OXP hacking first.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Switeck wrote:

Even an in-system news when you arrive at the station about how well pirates and police are doing in the system, if it seems "newsworthy"...such as:

Police wipe out a considerable pirate concentration.

Trade ships report extreme difficulty getting by the pirate blockade. The few that do have lost most of their escorts and/or been damaged.

The player played an instrumental role in either eliminating piracy in the system...or is the biggest pirate around!

The presence and/or destruction of any "capital" ships (Behemoths, Thargoids, Frigates, very special ship classes -- like a cloaking ship or Constrictor type) should be noteworthy as well.

The "triggering event" to decide to show the in-system news could be as simple as staying in the system over 30 minutes straight...and tracking how many pirates started in the system and how many are left when the player docks.

It'd give the player the feeling that they are making a difference, for better or worse.

You could write a plug-in for Snoopers - this is exactly what its designed to do.

I think even pagroove's suggestion could be a plug-in for Snoopers. Feels more natural to me than the witchpoint beacon. I would expect news to be spread via the stations. Besides, if you just jumped into a system and used up your fuel for that, I doubt that you would regularly like to jump out right again to some action in a neighbouring system.

This is a great suggestion, and a logical one which addresses where the original Elite fell down (and to some extent FE2 sort of picked up).

There are always a sense that each system was in essence its own game, with no bearing on the "outside world". It would make Oolite instantly more immersive for the player. I have to say that the AI certainly helps with this too, having vipers attack pirates, and of course pirates attack other ships helps give you a sense that it's not just you drifting through space alone (occasionally passing by a "dumb terminal").

This also makes me recall a discussion about ship-to-ship comms. Did anything ever come of that? For example, you could hail a ship with a message like "surrender or die" to which they would respond in various ways including running away, or hurling abuse and launching an attack.

All of these types of things seem the next best case, to massively multi-player online... if you can't have other humans then you'd better make the world as (artificially) alive as possible.

Great suggestion though; +1!

This also makes me recall a discussion about ship-to-ship comms. Did anything ever come of that?

See the commsdemov0.1. discussion in Expansion Packs for that.