Anarchies OXP

Introduction

It's a dangerous Ooniverse out there. Especially if you choose the life of a "privateer", looking for high profits without a special regard to your legal rating. A little trading in guns and drugs, a little racketeering, a little plundering of ships that hadn't been crippled before you arrived at the scene, some unfortunate confrontations with the police; and before soon you find yourself on GalCop's "most wanted"-list, a handsome sum on your head, hunted not only by your fellow pirates, but also by bounty hunters and the police. An uncomfortable position indeed.

If you install this OXP things get worse.

Overview

Install this OXP, and the appearance of Anarchy-systems in Oolite will change. In certain Anarchy-systems you will find Hacker Outposts, Salvage Gangs, Sentinel Stations or Renegade Stations. Depending on your legal status these may be more or less useful to you, and docking with them may be more or less dangerous to you.

Anarchies.oxp also modifies the way how the game deals with your legal status in general. First of all the bounty on your head—which translates into a bad legal status of 'Offender' or 'Fugitive'—will stick to you for a much longer time. If you don't commit more crimes, your status will get cleared after a while, just by jumping from system to system, as it was in the plain game. But once you are 'Fugitive' and the stations don't accept requests from your docking computer anymore, this will take much longer than without this OXP installed. It may take almost forever to get downrated to an 'Offender' rating again. The OXP also shuts the back-door of using your escape pod to become 'Clean' again. With Anarchies.oxp installed, your legal status travels with you even in your escape capsule, and is locked into your new ship's transponder, as soon as you arrive at a station.

But the OXP offers also a variety of new ways of getting rid of an 'Offender'- or 'Fugitive'-status. These ways include the purchase of certain items on certain asteroids; but also bribing a GalCop official in the main station of an Anarchy-system is an option. You can even do something for your legal reputation if you choose to help the cops (but this will not prevent them from attacking you, as long as you still are 'Fugitive' or 'Offender' yourself).

Notable Features

1) In some Anarchies you will find a Hacker Outpost. These are huge inhabited asteroids, usually hidden in an asteroid field far away from the main station and GalCop's zone of influence. If you don't get a clue by one of their henchmen you won't find it. And if the henchman doesn't accept you as a fellow privateer you will have to tease him a little before he will share his information (since v 2.0).

Even if the Hackers prefer Anarchies with a higher tech level, they are still technologically far ahead of that themselves. The Hackers are welcoming to a pilot who is—for whatever reason—in some trouble with GalCop, and they have a solution to offer—for a price. If you want, they can hack into GalCop's central database and clear your whole legal record, provided you have enough money to maintain the quite expensive sub-ether broadband connection they need for their work.

Apart from that you may be able to make some good deals with the Hackers. Living far away from the space lanes they are always in need of all every-day supplies. And they are happy to obtain the raw materials for their home-built computer systems. On the other hand there is not much pastime in the outpost apart from building sophisticated high-end soft- and hardware. So you may stumble over many an occasion in the outpost's market-section.

2) In some Anarchies, and even in non-Anarchy-systems, usually in the medium-range tech level, you can't miss the local Salvage Gang. Again this is a huge, hollowed-out asteroid, which is home to a gang of salvagers. You will find them wherever there is something to salvage, i.e. usually in the middle of the main corridor. Most of their business is legal, or at least not illegal enough to draw too much of GalCop's attention towards them. A clever commander will find many a bargain on the asteroid's market, especially as far as used alloys and machinery are concerned.

A visit to the Salvager's equipment store can perhaps be even more rewarding. Don't bother with the original, first-hand equipment. If they have any, it will be more expensive than in the system's main station. But quite often they manage to recover complete and (almost) unharmed equipment items from stranded shipwrecks. They refurbish and sell these items, and this is where you are in for some real bargains, if you feel the urge to fully equip your ship. The only question is: Can you trust the Salvager's advertising slogans? And what exactly is the One-Gunfight-Guarantee™? But anyway, it's cheap; so you can probably even afford to fix it, if it breaks.

Finally for the not-quite-so-legal part of their business: If GalCop for some odd reason doesn't seem to like you, there will be a special piece of equipment, which you will be able to obtain in the more shady Salvage Gangs in Anarchy-systems; sort of under the counter, so-to-speak. It may or may not be helpful to you; you will find out.

3) In some of the rougher Anarchy-systems, usually at the lower end of the tech level-spectrum, GalCop already feels that it is losing control of the space lanes to the pirates. That's the reason for the installation of a Sentinel Station at the outer end of the corridor, somewhere close to the witchpoint. Seeing a Sentinel Station guard his way has been a relief for many a trader who had underestimated the real danger of making business in Anarchy-systems.

The Sentinel Station offers not only protection to honest pilots, but also a range of services in its equipment-section. Of course you're dealing with the military here, so don't expect shopping to be cheap. But on the other hand, the superior quality of the offered equipment is out of the question. A clever pilot, however, may make some good deals in the station's market.

Oh, and don't even think about attacking a Sentinel Station. If you are in range of its plasma turrets, this will have been your last thought.

4) It should also be mentioned that in some cases GalCop's fears were justified. It has lost control to the pirates, who simply have overrun the military station and turned it into a Renegade Station. Unfortunately for harmless traders there is no way to tell from the distance whether the outlaws already have taken over the station. And once you are in scanner range it may be too late. The Renegades love to attack unsuspecting victims (and suspecting victims as well, for that matter). And even if they are busy attacking somebody else, or you have luckily slipped through their scanner grid, please don't attempt to dock with the Renegade Station. No, really; don't. And if you do, don't say I haven't warned you!

On the other hand, if you feel you are one of them (and I'm not talking about some parking violations; what I mean is, if you are a real criminal), and have righteously earned a good bad reputation; well, in that case you should seriously consider to pay the Renegades a visit. Their station is as close to a safe haven for all sorts of racketeers as it gets. The equipment-department may not be worth a visit—in the fight following the initial attack on the Sentinel Station much of the stock was destroyed, and generally the Renegades are not very well-known for their particularly caring and careful attitude towards things anyway; so the few intact items remaining on the shelves are much sought after among the criminals on the station, and thus equally expensive. And that is, if you want to risk a gunfight with some awful-looking and heavily armed creatures in the first place, in order to even get to the store and bid for one of the rusty missiles. On the other hand, a visit to the Renegade Station's market may feel like pirates' paradise. It is here that you really appreciate why you chose this kind of career anyway.

5) Even some main stations offer new opportunities hitherto unknown to not-so-law-abiding pilots. If you have managed to dock at all, which may require manual abilities, depending on your register of previous convictions, and have passed through the initial controls without being forced to lick the hangar clean—you know what I mean—then it may be worthwhile to hang around in the equipment department, and watch out for dubious GalCop personnel. Rumour has it that especially in stations in Anarchy-systems discipline among GalCop officials has become a little lax, and you might find an officer willing to take a bribe for clearing your legal status. Of course the concience of an official of the Galactic Co-operative of Worlds, invested with a position of responsibility in an environment with a less-than-desirable amount of comfort and safety has its value, and therefore its price. A word of warning, though: It goes without saying that the attempt to bargain in such a delicate matter as bribing someone who has access to GalCop's central database will be at your own risk.

6) On the other hand, GalCop's military arm, the Galactic Navy, is always interested in skilled pilots with combat effectiveness. The ongoing war against the Thargoids means that the Navy sometimes can't be too picky in whom it calls to active reserve duty. Therefore GalCop issues an amnesty order from time to time. Pilots willing to take the offer have to report at a naval Behemoth parked in a system close to a current war zone. The amnesty offer is announced foremost in all kinds of meeting points for commanders who have a legal record to clear, among them Hacker Outposts and Salvage Gangs. GalCop is only considering an amnesty for criminals in exchange for their help if the Navy is really in a tight spot, therefore expect the deadline until the offer expires to be equally tight. If you make it in time and find the Behemoth, you'll be given a naval assignment. You have to fulfill it—and come back in one piece—in order to get your legal record cleared. Just don't get yourself involved in criminal activities again! (NOTE: everything mentioned in this paragraph requires Behemoth.oxp to be installed. If you don't have it, you won't receive any amnesty offers.)

Featured Stations and Ships

1) The Hacker Outpost. Dockable Asteroid. Modeled by Killer Wolf for this OXP. Shader effects by Griff (v 2.0). Killer Wolf expresses his thanks to Charlie, Griff, Selezen, Arexack_Heretic, LittleBear, Dr. Nil, Ahruman and anybody else who has helped building it.

2) The Salvage Gang. Dockable Asteroid. Modeled by Killer Wolf for this OXP. Shader effects by Griff (v 2.0). Credits see above.

3) The Sentinel Station. Dockable Station. Modeled by Aegidian for gwxstations.oxp and taken from that OXP. Only the colour of the plasma bolts was altered.

4) The Renegade Station. Clone of the Sentinel Station, again another colour of the plasma bolts.

5) The Hacker Viper. Pirate ship, Hacker henchman and defense ship of Hacker Outpost and Renegade Station. Modeled by 8bitapocalypse for renegade_viper.oxp and taken from that OXP.

6) The Salvager Phoenix. Defense ship of Salvage Gang and Renegade Station. Modeled by Cmdr Wyvern for phoenix.oxp and taken from that OXP. Salvager logo was added to the original texture.

7) The Salvager Tugger. Tugship of the Salvage Gang. Modeled by murgh for tugs.oxp and taken from that OXP. Salvager logo was added to the original texture.

7b) A couple of tugged ships. A variety of ships from the original set, taken from murgh's tugs.oxp.

8) Three bounty hunters. They will come after the player, as long as he is FUGITIVE. Asp, CobraMkIII and Fer-de-Lance from the original set, hardened and with custom AI.

Minimum Requirements

Anarchies is currently in version 2.6. Anarchies2.6.oxp requires at least Oolite 1.76. I recommend you upgrade to this latest stable release version of Oolite if you haven't yet. The amnesty mission also requires that you have Behemoth.oxp installed.

Download Location

Anarchies2.6.oxp is available for download via box.com.

Installation

Unzip the download file. Then move or copy the file Anarchies2.6.oxp from its download folder to your AddOns folder. Restart Oolite. If you have a previous version installed, please remove it first.