DeepSpacePirates

Overview

This is just a basic oxp that increases the chance of an encounter with pirates outside the space lanes and in deep space. This is the area were the pirates start their career and do their combat practice. Some of these pirates still have a clean status as they never have been caught in the action by an official copper or never let a victim escape to report the crime.

Minimum version requirement Oolite 1.71

Background of this oxp

The original Elite was written for slow computers that could not cope with too much action. So ships were only added near the player's location. When the player left them behind they were removed from the system. (Player-centred game.)

Oolite was developed for much faster computers. Initially the system is populated. Then the player is put in the middle of it. A lot of action happens in places the player cannot see.

But more ships mean more calculations, so a choice was made to place ships along the routes a player is likely to travel (i.e., the space lanes: from the witch point beacon to the planet, and, to a lesser extent, from the planet to the sun.) Outside the lanes space is normally quite empty. (Ships spotted outside the lanes were probably added by some other OXP.)

DeepSpacePirates.OXP was designed to add ships outside the space lanes--based on the player's location, direction and speed. Random ships can be encountered anywhere in the universe, bringing a realism to the player's experience.

Without this OXP the area outside the space lanes is free of piracy. Players often make a small detour and leave the lanes to avoid lurking pirates within.

This OXP makes travel within the lanes a better option by increasing the player's chance of getting assistance from GalCop (the police) and/or from bounty hunters who are only too willing to make a kill. Leaving the lanes is more like a short-cut through a dark alley: no more guarantees of a risk-free flight.

Encounters

Currently it adds pirates and asteroids. Frequency of adding depends on government type and distance to the spacelane. The chance of adding is much higher just outside the lanes than in deep space.

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Download Link

Deep Space Pirates 0.16 For use with Oolite 1.71
Deep Space Pirates 1.1 For use with Oolite 1.72

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Update Notes

The version posted on the Wiki is the latest version of this OXP.
Version 1.1 More pirates in bad systems. pirates now can have cargo.
Version 1.0 First version for oolite 1.72+
Version 0.16 Last version for Oolite 1.71

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Installing and Playing

To play the OXP, unzip the download file. This will create a folder named "DeepSpacePirates". Open this folder and you will see a folder named "DeepSpacePirates<version>.oxp" and a readme. Move the DeepSpacePirates<version>.oxp folder to AddOns. As with all OXPs, its the folder ending .oxp that you need to put in Oolite's AddOns folder, otherwise Oolite will not read it.