Difference between revisions of "Furball OXP"

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You know how it is ... you're sitting at the bar enjoying an icy cold         lethal lager when the lobstoid next to you spills his mug of fuming         nitric acid in your lap. You jump back, and knock over the blue frog         who's been standing behind you chatting up a lady frog. Before you         can sneeze, fist and paws and claws are flying, the brawl spills out         into the docking bays, and people are threatening to launch and settle         it with lasers. Then the cops show up and suddenly most of the         merrymakers realize they should really be somewhere else, so the         festivities move out the docking bay to the front of the station.
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You know how it is ... you're sitting at the bar enjoying an icy cold lethal lager when the lobstoid next to you spills his mug of fuming nitric acid in your lap. You jump back, and knock over the blue frog who's been standing behind you chatting up a lady frog. Before you can sneeze, fist and paws and claws are flying, the brawl spills out into the docking bays, and people are threatening to launch and settle it with lasers. Then the cops show up and suddenly most of the merrymakers realize they should really be somewhere else, so the festivities move out the docking bay to the front of the station.
  
That is the Furball OXP in a nutshell:         A barroom         brawl that's gotten out of hand. A batch of furious fugitives         fleeing from a batch of pissed off police, all on the station's         doorstep. You might be ignored, or you might get caught up in it, or         you could put your knife between your teeth and dive right in.
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That is the Furball OXP in a nutshell: A barroom brawl that's gotten out of hand. A batch of furious fugitives fleeing from a batch of pissed off police, all on the station's doorstep. You might be ignored, or you might get caught up in it, or you could put your knife between your teeth and dive right in.
  
Furballs can happen any time you launch from a station, or any  time        you enter the main station's aegis.  There are two things you  can        configure about the OXP, currently only by editing        the script.js file in the OXP's Config directory.        The configurable values are right near the top and are clearly  marked.        Once OXPConfig        version 2 comes along and allows configuration of numbers, both  values        will be adjustable from within the game.
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[ASIDE] Well, that is the original synopsis by Caracal, who is no longer maintaining this OXP.  As the unelected "custodian" of its proud legacy I hope that I am sticking to the original brief despite the implementation changing beyond all recognition.
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==Configuration==
  
You can control how often a furball erupts by setting          the furballProbability in the  script.  In the          distributed OXP it comes set to 0.05, meaning 5%; you'll see a          furball about once in every twenty launches or dockings.  Setting it          to zero turns off furballs entirely, and setting it to 1 means  you          get one every time you launch and every time you enter the aegis.
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There is preliminary support for OXPConfig, but the main script is meant to be easy to alter using your favourite non-Notepad editor and that is currently the recommended approach.  
You can set the number of ships by changing          the furballSizeFactor: each  increment of this          doubles the number of ships, half of which are cops and the  other          half fugitives.  The OXP comes with the size factor set to 2,          meaning 4 ships total: two fugitives and two cops.  Be careful  when          setting this number; a 4 means you wind up with 16 ships out  in          front of the station, in addition to the ones that would  normally be          there.  How high you set it should be governed by your combat          ability and the computing power of your system.
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{{OXPLevel|2}}
This OXP requires at least Oolite 1.74. In fact, it was the new launchShip method that appeared in 1.74 that led me to write it in the first place. I wanted to see if a semi-interesting OXP could be created with only a single short script. I couldn't quite do it, since the standard pirate AI isn't really set up for this situation; had to write my own to get them to move after launching. It's still a pretty short script, though. Whether it's semi-interesting I'll leave for your judgment!
 
  
{{OXPLevel|2}}
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Furball is not suited for ''total'' beginners, but it can  be a good way for new commanders to start getting live fire combat experience.  The bad guys in a furball will shoot at you, especially if you shoot at them, but
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 +
* They also shoot at each other, and the cops, and any other nearby ships. It's a brawl, remember?
 +
* They don't show up all at once, but must launch one at a time from the station. This limits their ability to gang up on you.
 +
* They're not a coherent group, just some random angry ships, so if you attack one, the rest won't instantly turn on you.
 +
* There might (eventually) be an equal number of cops joining the fray, which helps distract some of the brawlers.
 +
 
 +
The brawl has the added complication of occurring directly in front of whatever station you just launched from or approached, so you must aim and manoeuvre carefully!
 +
 
 +
==Version History & Download==
 +
* [Versions 1.0 onwards] by m4r35n357
 +
* [https://www.box.com/s/56qtknyy6kjm9i0lnqmo Version 1.8]
 +
* [https://www.box.com/s/b451a7eb5351074f4ccb Version 1.7]
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* [https://www.box.com/s/f6995bfd7781eb122b6e Version 1.6]
 +
* [http://www.niestu.com/oolite/Furball Older version 1.0a1] by Caracal
 +
 
 +
Version 1.8
 +
- Changed activation conditions, should be much rarer at higher TL systems
 +
- Brawlers now have escape pods, and will bail out if they can ;)
 +
- Accuracy set to 5, not yet sure how much effect this has on the way I use the AI
 +
 
 +
Version 1.7
 +
- Supporting version 1.6+ of Cabal_Common_Library, no other changes
 +
 
 +
Version 1.6
 +
- From latest trunk onwards (v1.77), will replace large ships (eg. Rogue Frigate) that fail to launch
 +
- Experimental OXPConfig support, YMMV ;)
  
2
+
Version 1.5
 +
- slighlty reduce frequency of ubers
 +
- 50-50 chance of either cloaking device or military jammer for each uber
  
Furball is not suited for ''total'' beginners, but it can  be a        good way for new commanders to start getting live fire combat        experience. The bad guys in a furball will shoot at  you,        especially if you shoot at them, but
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Version 1.4
 +
- tweak activation conditions
 +
- slash bounties
  
* They also shoot at each other, and the cops, and any other  nearby          ships. It's a brawl, remember?
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Version 1.3
 +
- no user-visible changes, some higher-tech brawlers
  
* They don't show up all at once, but must launch one at a time  from          the station.  This limits their ability to gang up on you.
+
Version 1.2
 +
- Switch off debug (oops!)
  
* They're not a coherent group, just some random angry ships, so  if          you attack one, the rest won't instantly turn on you.
+
Version 1.1
 +
- use js filtered entities to select targets instead of storing an array
  
* There will (eventually) be an equal number of cops joining the fray,           which helps distract some of the brawlers.
+
Version 1.0
 +
- modded world script
 +
Make appearance of brawl depend on system government
 +
(Disabled by default) brawls now possible at some other station types
 +
- modded AI
 +
Don't involve the police directly, they already know what to do
 +
Tuned probability of attacking innocent bystanders
 +
- added a ship script
 +
Bring any escorts in/out of intercept AI in line with mother ship
 +
Each ship keeps track of the other brawlers, no AI scanning
  
The brawl has the added complication of occurring directly in front of        whatever station you just launched from or approached, so you  must aim        and maneuver carefully. Also, during testing I noticed that  some of        the cops will occasionally just suddenly turn on you  and        start firing. I didn't plan that, and as far as I know nothing  in the        OXP causes it to happen, but it does seem to fit in with the  general        chaos of the event.
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Discuss this OXP and report bugs on the BB in the [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10023 Furball thread].
  
The OXP can be downloaded via Caracal's website [http://www.niestu.com/oolite/Furball/ here].  I        have tested it with 1.74.1 on Linux.  Please report any bugs or  issues        to Caracal on [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8285 the Oolite  Forums]!
 
 
==Licensing==
 
==Licensing==
  
Furball OXP by Caracal is licensed under a [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].  
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Furball OXP by m4r35n357/Caracal is licensed under a [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].  
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{{Mechanics-OXP}}
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{{Required OXP|Cabal Common Library}}
  
[[Category:Oolite]]
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[[Category:OXPConfig-compatible OXPs]]
[[Category:Oolite_expansion_packs]]
 

Revision as of 18:21, 24 January 2016

You know how it is ... you're sitting at the bar enjoying an icy cold lethal lager when the lobstoid next to you spills his mug of fuming nitric acid in your lap. You jump back, and knock over the blue frog who's been standing behind you chatting up a lady frog. Before you can sneeze, fist and paws and claws are flying, the brawl spills out into the docking bays, and people are threatening to launch and settle it with lasers. Then the cops show up and suddenly most of the merrymakers realize they should really be somewhere else, so the festivities move out the docking bay to the front of the station.

That is the Furball OXP in a nutshell: A barroom brawl that's gotten out of hand. A batch of furious fugitives fleeing from a batch of pissed off police, all on the station's doorstep. You might be ignored, or you might get caught up in it, or you could put your knife between your teeth and dive right in.

[ASIDE] Well, that is the original synopsis by Caracal, who is no longer maintaining this OXP. As the unelected "custodian" of its proud legacy I hope that I am sticking to the original brief despite the implementation changing beyond all recognition.

Configuration

There is preliminary support for OXPConfig, but the main script is meant to be easy to alter using your favourite non-Notepad editor and that is currently the recommended approach.

Levelindicator2.png
2-{{{2}}}

Furball is not suited for total beginners, but it can be a good way for new commanders to start getting live fire combat experience. The bad guys in a furball will shoot at you, especially if you shoot at them, but

  • They also shoot at each other, and the cops, and any other nearby ships. It's a brawl, remember?
  • They don't show up all at once, but must launch one at a time from the station. This limits their ability to gang up on you.
  • They're not a coherent group, just some random angry ships, so if you attack one, the rest won't instantly turn on you.
  • There might (eventually) be an equal number of cops joining the fray, which helps distract some of the brawlers.

The brawl has the added complication of occurring directly in front of whatever station you just launched from or approached, so you must aim and manoeuvre carefully!

Version History & Download

Version 1.8 - Changed activation conditions, should be much rarer at higher TL systems - Brawlers now have escape pods, and will bail out if they can ;) - Accuracy set to 5, not yet sure how much effect this has on the way I use the AI

Version 1.7 - Supporting version 1.6+ of Cabal_Common_Library, no other changes

Version 1.6 - From latest trunk onwards (v1.77), will replace large ships (eg. Rogue Frigate) that fail to launch - Experimental OXPConfig support, YMMV ;)

Version 1.5 - slighlty reduce frequency of ubers - 50-50 chance of either cloaking device or military jammer for each uber

Version 1.4 - tweak activation conditions - slash bounties

Version 1.3 - no user-visible changes, some higher-tech brawlers

Version 1.2 - Switch off debug (oops!)

Version 1.1 - use js filtered entities to select targets instead of storing an array

Version 1.0 - modded world script Make appearance of brawl depend on system government (Disabled by default) brawls now possible at some other station types - modded AI Don't involve the police directly, they already know what to do Tuned probability of attacking innocent bystanders - added a ship script Bring any escorts in/out of intercept AI in line with mother ship Each ship keeps track of the other brawlers, no AI scanning

Discuss this OXP and report bugs on the BB in the Furball thread.

Licensing

Furball OXP by m4r35n357/Caracal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.