Ship Repurchase

Overview

This OXP aims to make the experience of using an escape pod a bit more interesting and realistic. The first change is that the player will be auto-ejected from their ship just before it is destroyed, in almost all cases¹, even if they don't have an escape pod. If the player has not fitted an escape pod, they will eject from their ship in a life-support suit only, which provides a means of keeping the pilot in stasis until they can be recovered. If an escape pod is fitted, it will auto-eject the player when it is clear the ship can no longer support life. Players can also choose when they eject if they have an escape pod, rather than waiting for the auto-eject process to kick in. Also, any parcels or passengers currently on board, and any gold, platinum or gem-stones will not fit into the life-support suit, and so will be lost with the rest of the cargo and ship. If an escape pod is fitted, these items will be preserved.

Once the player has been recovered, they then need to decide what to do about replacing their ship. They will be given (at most) three options:

1. to replace their previous ship plus all the equipment on it;
2. to just replace their existing ship, leaving out any equipment; or
3. choosing a lower cost ship as a replacement.

For options (1) and (2) there is a cost involved: 10% of the original cost. If, however, you have purchased an escape pod, there is an insurance component to the purchase that reduces the amount to be only 5% of the original cost. A more expensive escape pod option, named "Escape Pod Plus", will reduce the amount further, to 2.5% of the original cost.

Option (3) is always free. Potentially two ships will be offered, depending on the base value of your current ship. The following table outlines the ships that will be offered (Offer 1 ships are generally trader-type ships, while Offer 2 ships are generally hunter-type ships):

Current ship Base Value	Offer 1	Offer 2
650001+	Anaconda	Fer-de-Lance
495001-650000	Boa Class Cruiser	Fer-de-Lance
485001-495000	Boa	Fer-de-Lance
450001-485000	Boa	Asp Mark II
375001-450000	Python	Asp Mark II
200001-375000	Python	Cobra Mark III
150001-200000	Cobra Mark III
145001-150000	Moray Medical Boat	Moray Star Boat
125001-145000	Moray Star Boat
100001-125000	Cobra Mark I
0-100000	Adder

If a full ship plus equipment replacement is chosen, the ship will arrive in a fully working condition. That is, any equipment that was damaged at the time of destruction will be in a working order on the replacement², and the ship will not be in need of an overhaul.

If the player has insufficient funds to purchase either the full replacement, or the stock replacement ship, they will be forced to accept the lower value ship as their free ship to continue their galactic journey.

Note that, if you have passengers on board, choosing option (2) or (3) will result in those passengers being abandoned at the station and the contracts terminated.

¹ Note: If your ship is caught in a cascade explosion, the auto-eject process cannot eject you to a safe distance, meaning any life-suit or escape pod will also be destroyed.
² Note: The one exception to this rule is the cloaking device, which, because of the nature of the device and how it came to be in your posession, constitutes a real problem for insurance repair coverage. However, if you are rescued at a station that has a suitably high tech level, the device will be repaired.

Frequent Ejecting Penalty

In order to curb misuse (for instance, ejecting from a badly damaged ship to avoid repair bills), players who eject frequently will suffer a repurchase penalty. The calculation is (1 + ((monthly_eject_count - 1) x 2) / 10) x original_percentage. So, ejecting 2 times in a month will increase the percentage to 12%. Ejecting 3 times in a month will increase the percentages to 14%. If you were to eject 16 times in a month, that would change the 10% of original cost of the ship to be 40%.

As a player progresses through the game, the length of time used for picking up ejecting events in the calculation will increase. Players with less than 32 kills will stay at the 30 day mark. After 32 kills, the period increases to 60 days (2 months). At 64 kills, the period is 90 days (3 months); at 128 kills, the period is 4 months; at 512 kills the period is 6 months; at 2560 kills, the period is 9 months; and at 6400+ kills, the period is 1 year.

Insurance

Due to the high number of total-loss payments insurance providers have been forced to make over the last decade, no-cost replacement insurance is no longer a complimentary part of an escape pod purchase. Instead, as noted above, any escape pod purchase will instead reduce the cost of any repurchase event.

However, many clients still find even the reduced costs difficult to bear. So insurance providers have introduced "Ship Repurchase Insurance", which covers the holder of the policy for a maximum of 30 days from date of purchase, and will reduce the cost of any ship plus equipment replacement to just 1000cr. A ship-only replacement will cost just 500cr. This insurance can be purchased at any GalCop-aligned station in all systems. The insurance is a once-only policy - if the policy is invoked, the terms state that the policy is then terminated.

New Jamesons

Insurance providers understand that new pilots need more protection than experienced ones. To help new pilots on their way, these payments will only be required for pilots who have attained an Elite rank of "Poor". If a "Harmless" or "Mostly Harmless" pilot ejects, the cost of a full replacement ship will be greatly reduced: 200cr for a full ship and equipment replacement, 100cr for a ship-only replacement.

Interstellar space

Ejecting in interstellar space is generally fatal - there is usually no one close enough to your location to render assistance, and the limited fuel on the escape pod is insufficient to enable a return to normal space.

Occasionally, though, there are rescue options even in interstellar space. If one of these options is close by (like a naval station or carrier), there is a chance a rescue will take place. However, insurance operators cannot provide replacement ships in this situation. Instead, the player will be given a used ship and will have to make their way back to normal space in this. When they dock at a GalCop station they will at that time be presented with options for ship replacement.

History

The standard escape pod in the core game operates in a strange way. While the description indicates there is some sort of insurance policy involved in purchasing the pod, if you eject with a ship full of damaged equipment, you will be given a replacement ship with the same damaged equipment in it. This reflects what happened in the 8-bit versions of Elite, and was likely a result of limited resources to do anything more complex.

Required OXP's

This OXP uses the Ship Storage Helper OXP to store and recover the players ship.

Compatibility

This OXP should be fully compatible with the Auto-Eject OXP by Commander McLane. The "Auto-Eject" equipment will eject the player ahead of the auto-eject function of this pack, and the repurchasing process will apply in both situations.

It should also be fully compatible with the Interstellar Tweaks OXP by UK Eliter. When ejecting in interstellar space, the recovery options of this OXP will ceed control to Interstellar Tweaks, allowing it to choose the destination. The repurchasing process will apply after recovery.

Download

Download ShipRepurchase.oxz v0.6.2 (downloaded 107 times).

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Rocket image from http://simpleicon.com/rocket.html
Shield image from https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/175318/shield_icon#size=512

Version History

0.6.2

• Preventing recovery from a Generation ship.

0.6.1

• Increased required version level for Ship Storage Helper.

0.6

• Adjusted the method for determining when the ship is about to die, to allow for other OXP's to potentially change the player ship energy before ejecting the player.
• Changed insurance premium coverage period to 60 days.
• If insurance lapses while in transit, it will still be valid at next dock if the player needs to use it.
• Reduced cost of Escape Pod Plus to 3000 credits, and set techlevel requirement to same as for a normal escape pod.
• If the Escape Pod Plus is installed, rescue time will be reduced to less than 12 hours. Also, 50% of cargo will be recovered.
• Cost of Repurchase Insurance reduced to 2500 credits.
• Removed the frequent ejection penalty calculation (although it could be returned based on feedback).
• Raised minimum Oolite version to 1.89 (now utilising equipment-overrides.plist file and new escape pod rescue time property).

0.5

• Better handling of multiple damage events taking place at the same time.

0.4

• Better integration with Ship Configuration OXP armour settings.
• Better integration with Battle Damage OXP.
• Code refactoring.

0.3

• Added integration with Email System, so contract termination emails are sent if the player loses parcel or passenger contracts due to using the life-support suit when ejecting.

0.2

• Now considering player score when determining how far back to include ejecting events in the frequent ejecting penalty calculation.
• Free ship offer can be one of 2 types: a trader ship, or a hunter/assassin ship.
• Fixed issue where equipment items that can be multiple were not all being repaired after an eject event.
• Enforced consistency with Cobra Mark III and Mark I base prices.
• Fixed issue where interstellar space mode was being activated incorrectly.

0.1

• Initial version.

Quick Facts

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Version	Released	License	Features	Category	Author(s)	Feedback
0.6.2	2022-07-06	CC BY-NC-SA 4.0	Escape Pods, Insurance	Mechanics OXPs	phkb	Oolite BB

Gameplay and Balance indicator