Deep Space Dredger

ship name::Deep Space Dredger
Size (W×H×L)	690m×ship height::180m×ship length::880m
Cargo capacity	ship cargo capacity::500 TC
Cargo bay extension	ship cargo extension::N/A
Maximum speed	ship speed::0.10 LM
Manoeuvrability	Roll: 0.1 Pitch: 0.1
Energy banks	ship energy banks::31
Energy recharge rate	Excellent (ship energy recharge::20.0)
Gun mounts	2 ball turrets
Missile slots	ship missile slots::0
Shield boosters available	ship supports shield booster::No
Military shields available	ship supports mil shields::No
Hyperspace capable	ship can hyperspace::No
OXP or standard	{{#set:ship is standard=OXP}}OXP
Available to player	ship is player flyable::No
Base price	ship base price::N/A

Author: Sabre

Overview

Space Dredgers operate mainly in deep space, scooping up wreckage, hydrogen and space dust for later processing. Space Dredgers are occasionally encountered in the border of the space lanes. Commanders choosing to dock with a Dredger can take advantage of its well equipped shipyard or the chance to trade. Attacking a Dredger is unwise, as it is well defended by a squadron of Sabre fighters. The Dredger is not available to the player, although second hand Sabre fighters are occasionally available on the open market.

How to dock

Docking problems are similar to the ones encountered with the Behemoth: you are trying to dock with a non-stationary object. Don't forget that the Dredger will occasionally execute a 180 degrees somersault to avoid collisions, during which docking seems quite impossible. For docking force it to a halt with the docking computer. After this you can cancel the automatic docking and do it manually.
Starting with Oolite 1.74 most carriers will react on a docking request by pressing shift-L.

Salvaging

With version 2.0 the dredgers have stepped into the salvage business. In level 9 and higher systems, special salvage missiles are offered to a clean player (185₢). These "missiles" are actually drones. When fired at a derelict ship, a salvage drone will try to penetrate the outer hull and connect to the main computer. In 90% of cases, an abandoned ship is still sufficiently intact to be controlled; the drone will then try to contact a nearby dredger. When a dredger is found, the drone will instruct the auto-pilot to fly to the dredger and dock with it. Pay-out is based on the ship's mass and cargo. Small ships are probably not worth salvaging but big ships give a high pay-out. Just be aware that the drone can only handle ships that fit through the docking slid of a dredger. It can't control a really big ship, but an anaconda is salvageable. (Dredger Droid Missiles are only used by NPCs).

The derelict may find pirates on his way that try to destroy the ship to obtain its cargo. A ship flying on autopilot can't defend itself, so it is up to the salvager to protect the derelict's voyage. When the derelict ship docks save with a dredger an amount of money is transferred to the salvager, based on the ship's mass and the cargo load.

This oxp interfaces with the Towbar oxp to create a new in-game career opportunity: salvage operator

Download

• DeepSpaceDredger.oxz 2.4.10 (downloaded 4996 times).

Old versions:

• Download Deep Space Dredger 2.4.6 OXP (size 19.8 MB, for Oolite 1.73+. It needs a computer with shaders capability)
• Download Deep Space Dredger 2.3.1 OXP (size 11.1 MB, for Oolite 1.73+. Has much more detailed texture than v 2.2.7)
• Download Deep Space Dredger 2.2.8 OXP (size 2.1 MB, for Oolite 1.72+)
• Download Deep Space Dredger 1.2 OXP (for Oolite 1.65+)

Version requirement

• Deep Space Dredger 1.2 needs minimum Oolite 1.65. For additions in deep space it needs Oolite 1.71+
• Version 2.0 or higher has three additional dredger models and some extra functions.

Tweaks

• Tweak to allow fast docking by Docking Computer. One needs to do this for each of the four variants of the dredger. See code here. By niteowl (2020)
• How to tweak OXZ's

History

• Version 2.4.10 Fixed semicolon problems in Mac by hoqllnq.
• Version 2.4.9 Subentity definitions converted to the new format by phkb.
• Version 2.4.8 A fix in dredgersDockingAI reported by Welle242.
• Version 2.4.7 SuperDredger get market_capacity = 255 to match to Superhub. Market definitions converted to js for Oolite 1.82 by spara. OXZ version packaged by Norby.
• Version 2.4.6 Introduced frame-callback for the dredger doors for a smoother movement than with timers when used with 1.75.1+.
• Version 2.4.5 Raised minimum Oolite to 1.74
• Version 2.4.4 Added custom escort positions that will start working with Oolite 1.75 upwards.
• version 2.4.3: Fixed a casing bug in the JS system that will generate bugs after Oolite 1.74.2 (Also fixed this bug in the smaller packages v 2.2.8 and v 2.3.1)
• version 2.4.0: All ships have now have normal maps (By Captain Berf). Normal maps simulate a surface relief on textures. You need a computer with shader capability or you will see no difference with v 2.3
• version 2.3.0: All ships have new textures (By Captain Berf). The two biggest ships now also have bigger docking bays. Raised minimum Oolite version to 1.73.
• version 2.2.7: Bugfix of 2.2.7.
• version 2.2.6: Added more variation in the chosen derelicts. (Contains a serious bug, please update immediately)
• version 2.2.5: In previous versions the "special" price-list for commodities was never used.
• Version 2.2.4 Fixed the commodity definition for gold/platinum/gems. Was always defined in Tons. (This bug can leads to crashing while docking at a dredger since 1.73)
• Version 2.2.3 Raised maximum salvageble weight from 500 000 to 1 000 000 (Hamadryad = 985 000). Made it work for Oolite 1.74.
• Version 2.2.2 Recognises now bigShips.oxp. When present, that oxp will control part of the ship additions in the spacelane.
• Version 2.2 Added Oolite 1.72 compatibility.
• Version 2.0 Added 3 new Dredger ships from the hand of Sabre with new scripting by Eric Walch and Little Bear.
• Version 1.2 Bug fix in the docking routine.
• Version 1.1 Addition by Eric Walch: Added a JavaScript for Oolite 1.71+ that generates encounters with these Dredgers in deep space. For debugging purposes there is always one added in the first system after a restart. When flying far enough in deep space there is a guaranteed encounter in that system.
• Version 1.0 Original by Sabre

Forum

See the Deep Space Dredger topic (2006-date).