Oolite Bulletins

Whilst waiting to dock yesterday, I saw an Anaconda escorted by 6 Cobra Mk 1's.

I thought to myself, that must be one hell of a precious cargo to have that many escorts.

Then I thought about ships being escorted by police ships, maybe due to the occupants of the ship being escorted, being a VIP, royality, ect...

Also, maybe seeing a smaller ship being escorted by a police ship because it is being taken into custody.

I have never seen a police ship as an escort, so I assume that they all just have a 'police' AI role?

Thanks.

I think all Anacondas have six Mk I Cobras as escorts. They are so slow and vulnerable they need all the support they can get.
Edit:- You will find solitary Anacondas from time to time...I assume these have been in a battle and their escorts have made the ultimate sacrifice.

There sort of is a police escort role, as the 'squadrons' you see have a lead ship and 'wingmen', who effectively have an escort function. There are no police escorts for civilian ships in the core game, though.

lave wrote:

Then I thought about ships being escorted by police ships, maybe due to the occupants of the ship being escorted, being a VIP, royality, ect...

That's a very cool idea.

If I was still developing Oolite I'd straightaway add a bit to the system population code, specifying a very rare chance of a trading ship with an especially valuable cargo and police to escort.

There are plenty of OXP-makers out there that may want to utilize this concept for their next project. Then again, maybe I should just learn how to make OXP's...

aegidian wrote:

If I was still developing Oolite I'd straightaway add a bit to the system population code, specifying a very rare chance of a trading ship with an especially valuable cargo and police to escort.

Reminds me of Elite - I usually had police ships safely escort me to the planet when I had a load full of narcotics. It was annoying though, as I was forced to either fight them or sit a very long time before the computer until I finally arrived at the planet. However, that really ensured safety from pirates

Screet

Screet wrote:

Reminds me of Elite - I usually had police ships safely escort me to the planet when I had a load full of narcotics.

That used to happen to me... but I was never sure whether they were police or not. They wanted that cargo delivered, though, whoever they were.

uua90 wrote:

There are plenty of OXP-makers out there that may want to utilize this concept for their next project. Then again, maybe I should just learn how to make OXP's...

Look at Hired Guns oxp. Not quite police, but the higher end use ex-police ships (viper interceptors).

aegidian wrote:

If I was still developing Oolite I'd straightaway add a bit to the system population code, specifying a very rare chance of a trading ship with an especially valuable cargo and police to escort.

'Course it can be easily done with an oxp too...

It'd be a nice juicy prize for a privateer who's capable of splashing a flight of Vipers.

Boas, Pythons, and Anacondas may have reduced numbers of escorts in supposedly "safe" systems. (Democracy or Corp.State)

Police Vipers cannot be assigned (and stick) as escorts. They only work as wingmen to other police ships. This can be worked around by making special escort Vipers that are not police ships.

Commies! OXP has a special "limo" NPC ship which gets a VIP escort.

couple other ideas for this would be for mission OXPs :
- Have the cops escorting a prison ship. high profile psycho pilot inside, gang leader. his gang come to break him out etc, you get the call to help the cops...or the criminal.
- have a "New York's Finest Cabs" like in Usual Suspects ~ bent cops for hire to escort shady loads and the like.

Kaks wrote:

aegidian wrote:

If I was still developing Oolite I'd straightaway add a bit to the system population code, specifying a very rare chance of a trading ship with an especially valuable cargo and police to escort.

'Course it can be easily done with an oxp too...

You better remove the word 'easily' in above statement. It is hardcoded that mothers only accept escorts when they are of equal scanclass. That forbids real police, but since 1.74 we can change the colour of the lolypop. You could use special scripts that give an originally yellow escort ship, a purple lolypop and thereby simulating its a police (or military) ship. Although, when targeting, the description would still show its not a real police.

Ok, I stand corrected:

You can not-so-easily simulate a police escort via oxp!

I'm glad that people like the idea.

@ Killer Wolf .... I like the idea of police ships escorting a prison ship.

Could you temporarily make the "standard" ship being escorted a Police ship (i.e. a Prison or VIP ship)?