Escape Pod Locator OXP

Overview

Escape Pod Locator 1.1 (2/8/11)

By another_commander further development by capt murphy - 2011

Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 : Please visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ for more info.

Requires Oolite 1.75.2

Equipment Upgrade to the IFF Scanner and Advanced Space Compass that alerts players to escape pod launches occurring in the same system. Pods are marked on the Advanced Space Compass with an ‘E’ and show up as flashing white/green lollipops when in Scanner Range. Also introduces NPC Search and Rescue ships who actively search for pods.

Description

Standard Issue Escape Pods are fitted with a high powered distress beacon which broadcasts on a restricted channel. Until recently equipment to detect these distress calls were limited to Galcop vessels and licensed private Search and Rescue companies.

The authorities and private companies have proved to be less than effective at ensuring the safety of escape pods and a high proportion continue to fall into Slaver or Thargoid hands. Following intense lobbying by Amnesty Intergalactic, Galcop have agreed to license a civilian version of the equipment that can detect escape pod distress calls in an effort to encourage civilian pilots to rescue more pods.

The Escape Pod Locator is available from planets of tech level 8 or higher for 1250 credits, requires the Advanced Space Compass to be fitted and is restricted to pilots with a clean legal status. Galcop have also fitted fail-safes to avoid the equipment falling into criminal hands and it is automatically disabled if the ship it is fitted to is assigned an Offender or Fugitive legal status. It is re-enabled once the legal status is cleared.

The equipment will detect any standard issue escape-pod on launch, but pilots should be aware that some individuals NPC’s may have modified, disabled or removed their escape pod distress beacon and thus won’t be detected by this equipment.

This OXP also introduces Search and Rescue NPC ships which actively search for pods and scoop them. By default the Moray Medical Boat is used for this role, but if you have the Cobra Clipper SAR OXP installed both models will be used.

Technical

When the equipment is installed and working a beacon entity is spawned for each new escape pod (standard role ‘Escape-capsule’ only) that is launched and tracks the location of the pod. The beacon entity is a tiny, low mass entity that is not displayed on the IFF scanner, should be to too small to be visible to the player and too low in mass to cause damage in the event of a collision. If the beacon itself is inadvertently destroyed it is replaced. The pod itself is given custom scanner colours. If the equipment is damaged or disabled all beacons are removed and the pods revert to standard scanner colours. The equipment can be repaired on the fly by OXP equipment such as Thargoid’s repair bots.

Search and Rescue ships use a custom AI and script. To use other models as OXP ships a shipdata entry needs to include the following as a minimum.

ai_type = "ecl_SAR_AI.plist";

roles = "ecl_SAR_ship_OXP";

pilot = "oolite-trader";

has_fuel_injection = 1;

has_scoop = 1;

script = "ecl_SAR_shipscript.js";

Alternatively feel free to use renamed versions of the AI and shipscript in your OXP.

Change Log

Version 1.0: 28/7/11 – Initial release.

Version 1.1: 2/8/11 – Complete revision of the method used to mark pods on the Advanced Space Compass to avoid conflicts with other OXP’s.

Discussion & Download

Discussion topic can be found on the Oolite BB

Download from the box