Total patrol OXP

Overview

This OXP replaces the AIs of police ships with a new AI that lets them patrol all main routes in a system. It also adds additional police, in order to compensate for the much bigger area that has to be covered by the patrols.

Notable Features

In the unaltered game police (and hunters) only patrol between planet and witchpoint, disregarding the other two main routes in the system, between witchpoint and sun, and between sun and planet. Even police that is added by script on one of these alternative routes, will abandon them in favour of the witchpoint-planet route.

This OXP changes the built-in police behaviour by replacing the default police AI (route1patrolAI) with the new totalPatrolAI, which covers all three main routes, and gives the possibility for police ships to either turn around and fly back, or switch to another route at each of the turning points. They still favour the traditional witchpoint-planet route, however, because it is usually most populated by traders and most prone to pirate attacks. Note that this OXP affects all ships with primary role 'police', including police added by other OXPs.

In another step the OXP adds additional police on the other two routes between witchpoint and sun, and between sun and planet. The additional police also gets totalPatrolAI. Each ship will then travel in either direction on its current route, and possibly switch to another route at the end-point. The number of added police forces depends on the system government; Corporate States get most additional police, Anarchies get none.

All police ships also get a Heat Shield, enabling them to extend their patrols to the sun routes without getting themselves into danger.

The way police are doing their business, hunting down criminals and protecting the innocent, is not affected by this OXP. So, if you are a law-abiding trader, the Ooniverse will become a safer place. However, if you are a brigand and have specialised on sun-skimmers as your victims, your business will become more dangerous.

Requirements

Total_patrol.oxp v 1.4 requires at least Oolite 1.74. It will not run on previous versions of Oolite.

Download Location

Total_patrol 1.4 is available for download via box.net.

Installation

Move or copy the file total_patrol.oxp from its wrapping folder to the AddOns folder. Where this resides, depends on your OS and personal choice. Restart Oolite.