HardShips

! No download link yet, this OXP is currently unreleased !

This OXP contains:

1. New Hard Ships based on the player ships with the new Hard Armour.
2. Standard Armour on 6 sides of all ships including NPCs.
3. Defensive Equipments.
4. Drones: Laser Drone and Hard Drone.

Hard Ships

The following ships can be choosed at new game from the start menu: Hard Cobra Mark III, Hard Cobra Mark I, Hard Adder and Hard Moray. If you choose cheaper ship then more will be left from the starting 100.000 credits to buy equipments and goods.

The Cobra III is seems to be pretty cheap, but it is an old ship: if you installed ShipVersion OXP then you will always see the lowest v1.0. All others get many equipments and you can search for a very high version by call another offer again and again.

If you want to try your next ship then the more costly ships allow a test drive for 20 minutes: Hard Anaconda, Hard Asp, Hard Boa, Har-de-Lance and Hard Python.

But what offer the Hard Armour?

It is not a damage holder as the standard melting armours: it is a very hard material which can partially deflect lasers and other attacks before any damage! It has a base value of 10 which deducted from all attacks. The large Hard Anaconda has 15 due to can hold higher mass. If the power of an attack is less than the base value, then no damage at all, as small bullets will never penetrate thick plates. If more, then only the difference deducted from the standard armour of the ship. If no armour left then the deflection effect of the Hard Armour still remain, so all energy damages will be reduced also!

It is different from an additional energy bank because the less damage means faster regeneration, so it is equal with if there are more banks and higher recharge values also, and more standard armour with faster armour repair rates, and larger IronHide armour (if installed), and raise all other bonuses and effects of the equipments, and.., and.., and..

For example if you attack a Hard Anaconda covered by Hard Armour XV with Military Laser then damage 8 points only instead of 23. It need more than 3 times to win because meantime seems to be regenerate 3 times faster than the original ship, so can survive about 4-5 times more. If it is not enough for you, then install ShipVersion OXP and see what endurance can come from a trader if supported with some good equipments which multiplied by the Hard Armour. :)

To count the high mass of the Hard Armour these ships get only half thrust so accelerate (and brake!) much slower, but the maximum speed unchanged due to some physical blah about inertialess drives (or to do not unbalance the game, who knows?).

To visualize the Hard Armour these ships got orange tiled textures from Gimp (Terra pattern, Granite to pirates, Pool Bottom to police). Please use it if you make your own Hard Armoured ships: set hardarmour=10 in script_info, set density=2, halve the thrust, make orange tiled textures and done. A good question is why not reduce the acceleration (named thrust) more on the ships with thicker armour. I can say some technical blah again but better if imagine that the given Hard Armours matched to the ship size: larger armour set on ships with larger mass already. Additional decrease needed only if a ship get (somehow) larger Hard Armour than the default.

The spread of the armour usage inspired the weapon makers to invent Armour Piercing Lasers and Missiles. The best against Hard Armour is the Armour Piercing weapons (coming soon as secondary weapons):

• Hammer Laser is an advanced Mining Laser with double power (technically two tube fire together) which not reduced by Hard Armour and a bit faster (1.5x) recharge. But the range is the original 12.5km only and reduced by Hard Shield until there are enough shield to catch the whole damage.

• Sniper Laser is developed as a twin Military Laser to get Armour Piercing ability and 30km effective range, but usable in pulse mode only and can not pierce shield.

• All type of Railguns in the Railgun OXP has Armour Piercing ability, as all other collision (scrape) type damage also.

Armour sides to all ships

The standard armour of the ships divided into 6 side: Fore, Aft, Port, Starboard, Top, Bottom. There are two "inner" side also: IronHide armour and Core hull.

After taken enough (maxEnergy/2) damage either outer side to destroy it, the next hits from the damaged side counted to Core hull hit. Taking equal amount with maxEnergy of Core hull hit cause internal damage or if it happen in short time then more likely Fuel Leak. The chance of the Leak is higher if the ship is low in energy.

Armour Repair Bots can fix 1 points of armour in every seconds, and works on all side at one time but use up 1t Alloy for each 100 damage points. Buy Alloys before undock otherwise the Bots can fix only as little as 100 points from the Alloy which already in the hand of the Bots. NPCs always start to fly with 1-5t alloys and if damaged (or died) then can leave some alloy, but you also if at least one side of your ship lost all armour (leaked). If you scoop it the Repair Bot can put back some armour.

Core repairs do not use Alloys due to it is hull and not Armour (but need more time to fix the larger amount). The main difference is that hull can not prevent energy loss if get hit but the armour can.

Technically the Core hull is another counter of the energy damage but repaired much slower than the energy recharged. If you get many hit in short time then the energy will be low also when the Core hull run out so it can cause Fuel Leak. But if there was enough pause between hits to recharge many energy (but not enough to repair the hull) then get internal damage. The Fuel Leak will be sealed if repaired the 25% of the hull, then continues until fully repaired, but can be leaked again if run out next time.

The maximum armour of small ships under 30t (Adder, Mamba, Sidewinder and below) is 100 regardless of maxEnergy. The standard armour damages will be fixed in any dock for free.

No Core Armour which can defend from all directions because the sides founded to make more reality. But if you want, install IronHide OXP because the usage of the IronHide Armours is supported and additive. Placed inside of the side armours to get damage after the in-flight repairable part is depleleted only.

To compensate NPCs if IronHide OXP present (which is player-only), the HardShips OXP will award extra armour to NPCs. It will be an one-time armour without in-flight repair as the player version.

NPC ships with larger random entityPersonality value will get more IronHide Armour:

• 30% get as many as the normal IronHide Armour (200 points, if ShipVersions OXP present then v5-v7),
• 20% get Military IronHide Armour (400 points, v8-v9),
• 1% get 1.5x of the Military IronHide Armour (600 points, v10).

To tell the truth, the IronHide support is made to create some really hard enemy. :) For example you can see Vipers with not only the basic 180 energy points but with 490 armour and 384 shield points, which is 6x more.

Defensive Equipments

Additional Armour Equipments

The Front and Aft side can hold an extra layer standard armour which is repairable in dock only (and for a fee), so give an one-time defense only. Other sides can not hold additions, it would be too much extra mass to any ship.

If an Additional Armour Equipment damaged then the defense still remain in this fly but need repair when docked to use again. The repair team can not restore the armour value of a damaged equipment, furthermore wipes the remaining armour value after landing to prevent accidents in dock, but the equipment remain in damaged status to can buy repair. If you do not pay the repair then you will undock without working additional defense.

A surprise can happen due to the game mechanics: a frontal hit can damage the Additional Aft Armour also as any other equipments. But it is rare enough to accept as an unlucky hit which managed to go through the whole ship.

Additional Core Hull Equipment

Doubles the damage amount before start to get internal damage or Fuel Leak. Repaired in-flight automatically as the normal part of the Core hull due to it is not an armour. If the equipment is damaged then repairable in dock only, but the added hull remains as an one-time defense.

You can fix all of the Additional equipments in one step when docked in all system, but you can buy in tech level 5 or above. The showed price is enough to fix a single damaged equipment, if all three damaged then will deduct three times more.

Dummy Equipments

Many metal fragments placed between equipments to take out damage with high odds, but take cargo space also. There are different packages: 1t, 5t, 10t, 50t and 100t with 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 times higher odds to damage before others. You can buy all of them if you have 166t cargo space and use together because the size of the fragments are different and can put the small ones into the remaining spaces of the large ones. But never found these in the buyable ships by default, so you must get it by hand after bought a new ship. (Technically not possible, a bug in Oolite v1.77 cause sometime disappearing eqipments with cargo space reqirement in shipyard.plist.) Fortunately you can buy worthless metals in all systems. :)

Equipment Box

This armoured box can defend all equipments, this will be damaged first, others later only. Does not require cargo space but you can place into the ship a single box only.

Coming soon

Emergency Energy Generator t5
Emergency Shield Generator t12
High-Tech Catalyst t12
Renewable Energy Generator t3

Hard Nose

The front of the ship can hold an additional Hard Armour layer which increase the deflected amount of any damage which hit the front side by 5 points in addition to the base Hard Armour. Other sides can not hold similar addition. Can put on non-HardShips, and can be damaged (base Hard Armour can not).

Very Hard Nose

Doubled Hard Nose can deflect 10 points in any ship, but can buy at tech level 12 planets or above only and a bit costly. Yes it means if you ride a Hard Anaconda with a Very Hard Nose then a Military Laser can not scratch your fore side (the deflected 15 base + 10 nose points is more than the 23 damage of the best laser) but your other sides still vulnerable (you can guess why not exists similar equipments to other sides).

Can not use in addition to the normal Hard Nose, if you buy the better then the normal will be sold and refunded. You can downgrade also if you need money.

Your equipments still can get damaged from a hit which not caused armour damage if no shield by short circuit and shock, and the Armour Piercing weapons still can strike through these very hard front armours.

If you use ShipVersions OXP then you must go around the best NPCs after the shield is out because you can not scratch the front also. The Detectors equipment can help to check the caused damage if installed.

Hard Shield Equipments

Similar with the Hard Armour but hardening the shield by placing more shield emitters denser, but the cost growth also lineal. Every hit reduced with the level of the Hard Shield Equipment. Exists from level 1 to 10, the best sold only at techlevel 14 planets or above and costs 100.000 credits. Can found only in systems where the tech level is 4 level more than the level of the Hard Shield, but all is repairable from tech level 5. Can use only one at a time, if you buy another then the old will be sold and you will get full refund from it. This means also if you need some money then you can downgrade it and get back the difference to buy another important things. It is not additive with the Hard Armour, can not protect the hull of the ship after the shield is depleted.

The (incoming) Shield-Sapper weapons also very affected by Hard Shield: can reduce the 5x depleting ability to 5-HSLevel/3. If you are not mathematician, then here is a table:

HSLevel    0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Depleting  5	4.667	4.333	4	3.667	3.333	3	2.667	2.333	2	1.667

The 1x damage of the Sapper and the range is similar with a dual predecessor Beam Laser: 30 energy points and 15km, need 5x energy per shot and usable in pulse mode only, but it is more effective against shield than the Beam laser in beam mode and not only for 3 seconds due to never overheated. The dual mode means one shot and 150 points (2*5*15) gone from a soft shield. The 256 points of a full Boosted (but not Military) normal shield can be Sapped in 1 second: the first instant hit more than halving it then the next after a second clearing out. A Military shield with Hard Shield 8 (default on v8 NPCs if ShipVersion OXP present) need at least 6 second (if all shot hit), but a Military Laser But against armour and hull or a shield with Anti-Sapper equipment is working as a dual Pulse Laser only.

Anti-Sapper Shield Equipment

Please use the full name in nice talk, do not say the short name as pirates does. Requires Hard Shield 10, and can not reduce the normal hits, but totally negate the Shield-Sapper effect. Cost as much as a mid-class ship itself, and your vehicle will be look as a hedgehog from the exceptionally densely placed emitters. The many parts cause that can be damaged with 10x more probability than other equipments. Can found only in systems with tech level 14 or above but can repair from tech level 5. The repair is cheap due to usually a small piece damaged only in the same time. But if you install the Realistic Damage OXP then can be totally destroyed which maybe cost more to worth, so in in this case buy only after you are earned really much money.

Big Shield Capacitors

Extend the Shield Capacitors (if any) to 4 times of the original size (256). Available at tech level 14 planets (as the capacitors), and need installed ShieldEqualizer+Capacitors OXP. Cost many credits, but you get in one equipment not only the forward but the aft extension also. At least v3.1 needed from the Numeric HUD to show the big values of the capacitors (older show max. 99).

Ship size restrictions

Ships with less than 30t mass can not get any equipments from this OXP due to the small inner space: Adder (11t), Gecko (23t), Mamba (27t), Sidewinder (25t) and Viper (23t). But can get standard and Hard Armour.

Ships under 130t can not get Big Shield Capacitors, Very Hard Nose and Military IronHide Armour: Asp (59t), Cobra I (47t), Constrictor (33t), Fer-de-Lance (51t), Krait (80t), Moray (40t), Viper Interceptor (43t) and the previous small ships.

Large ships can get anything (be wise): Anaconda, Boa, Boa Mk2, Cobra III and Python.

Drones

Fast and agile tiny remote controlled ships, designed to reach as little hull size as possible to minimalize the aimable area. No Life Support so can fight in automatic mode only, but large ships like Cobra III can hold and launch drones if needed. Can not hold Injectors, Shield Boosters or any other extras, and no Hyperdrive so must call back before jump.

The Laser Drone hold a Pulse Laser and 2 energy banks with very slow recharge rate (1) but fast (500). The Hard Drone equipped with Hard Amour, better recharge (2) and a Mini Turret also, but slower and less agile.

There are some hidden feature in this OXP, please do not ask or publish it in the forum if you found one, think on others who want to find it in the game. If you are unsure to something is a bug or feature then ask the author in email (norbylite at gmail) or in private message (Norby).

Technical Informations

Depending on Oolite v1.77.

Instructions

Unzip the file, and then move the folder named ".oxp" in the end to the AddOns directory of your Oolite installation.

Conflicts

• CustomShields OXP included Fuel Leak support also, turn it off if you do not want double chance to leaking.
• Start Choices OXP was the source of the new game screen. To insert new menu items HardShips OXP included all ships from the Start Choices 1.3 and disabled the original script, but if a new Start Choices will arrive then it will not shown until somebody port the changes into the HardShips OXP.

Recommended OXPs

• CustomShields OXP to put sields into NPC ships, Hard Shields is player-only without this.
• Detectors OXP to show important ship data including facing armour value in the target box.
• IronHide OXP to get extra armour, NPCs will get also if HardShips present.
• Numeric HUD v3.1 to show Shield Capacitor values.
• Realistic Damage OXP to fear for your ASS (oh sorry I said).
• ShieldEqualizer+Capacitors OXP if you want to use Big Shield Capacitors.
• ShipVersion OXP to maintain balance with awarded equipments from HardShips OXP to NPCs.

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License version 3.0 If you are re-using any piece of this OXP, please let me know by sending an e-mail to norbylite at gmail.

Thanks to the community for: Feedbacks by Oolite Forum members. Main program by the core programmer team. Programming instructions by all Wiki writers. Recommended OXPs by its authors. Start menu from Start Choices OXP by Mika Spara.

Changelog

2013.06.12. v0.7 - Drones added.
2013.06.09. v0.6 - More equipments added.
2013.05.05. v0.5 - Some equipments added.
2013.04.08. v0.2 - Second test version.
2013.03.31. v0.1 - First test files.

Download HardShips OXP from here after released.

Quick Facts

0-4

Version	Released	License	Features	Category	Author(s)	Feedback
0.72	2013-??-??	CC BY-NC-SA 3	Armours, defensive equipments, Drones.	Mechanics OXPs	Norby	BB-Link