Escort Contracts OXP

Overview

Escort Contracts test version 0.9 (24/4/11) By Capt Murphy 2011 Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Tested on Oolite versions 1.75.1 and (trunk) 1.75.2.4517

Allow players to enter into short-term escort contracts with NPC lone wolf traders. Fully functional test release.

Description

The Independent Traders and Hauliers Association have reacted to demand from lone wolf NPC Traders and introduced a system to allow them to enter into short-term escort contracts with vetted and rated freelance escort pilots.

Players who wish want to access these contracts must purchase a I.T.H.A Independent Escort License available to players with a Clean legal status at non Anarchy systems with a Tech Level of 3 or above.

Once purchased players whose legal rating is still Clean may be offered short term escort contracts on docking at a systems main station. The chance of being offered contracts is based on the players reputation as an escort. The fees offered are also affected by the players reputation as an escort and government type of the target system. Target systems are always within 1 jump of the starting system. Reputation is increased when a contract is successfully fulfilled and reduced when a contract is failed.

Once agreed the player has 3 game hours to launch from the station or the contract is failed. The NPC trader (or 'mother') will be waiting in the station aegis and will prompt the player to approach as they prepare to jump to the target system. The player can follow them through their wormhole or alternatively jump themselves to the target system (within a time limit). Failure to arrive at the target system ends the contract.

Once in the target system the players task is to escort the mother to the system's main station. Mothers will issue various prompts to players in flight, will request assistance if attacked, and will assist the player if the player is attacked. The contract is fulfilled once the mother has safely docked at the system's main station.

Game Balance and Playability

Escort Contracts have the potential to be long and boring in between fire-fights. As a work-around this OXP gives the mother the ability to 'synchronise jump drives' with the player. The mother has been given scan_class CLASS_ROCK (but with custom scanner colours) so will not mass-lock the player. In flight if there is nothing else to mass-lock the player the mother will prompt the player to approach within 2500m. Within this distance the mother will synchronise jump drives with the player and 'hop' towards the mother's destination, taking the player with it (checking to see if the player is mass-locked just before every 'hop'). 'Hops' are 1 scanner range and occur very 2 seconds so this method should not avoid contact with other ships.

Mothers are also a bit beefier than standard traders, sporting front military lasers, rear beam lasers, ECM's, shield enhancers and fuel injectors as standard.

Known Issues

Mothers should be visible on the Advanced Space Compass as a 'M'. Unfortunately due to a bug in 1.75.1 this does not work after the mother has jumped to the target system. This has been fixed in trunk with version 1.75.2.4517

Change Log

24/4/11 - Test version 0.9 released - fully functional.

The initial release is marked as a test release as I'm not 100% convinced the AI or the game balance are exactly right. All feedback is welcome. I am particularity interested in any 'odd' AI behaviour and comments on whether the contracts are too hard or too easy. Feedback can be left on the OXPs discussion topic at Oolite BB

Download Links

Download version 0.9: box.net