Elite-B

For the enhanced C64 hack referred to as Elite B on Ian Bell's website, see Elite 128

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ELITE - B Paul Brink 31st December 2018

An extended version of Angus Duggan's Elite-A which in turn is based upon Elite for the BBC Micro by David Braben and Ian Bell (C) Acornsoft 1984.

Thargoid curses, Rockbars and missile tactics inspired by Oolite and its OXP contributors.

Some new ships and constructions introduced along with a new legal system, equipment, changes in combat tactics, and many other changes described further below.

Tested in Emulator MacBeebEm Ver 3.3a on Mac OS X 10.5.8 and 10.6, and MacBeebEm Ver 4.0a on Mac OS X 10.11.6 with the emulator configured for the BBC Computer 32K Model B.

Tested for Acorn DFS Native 8271 Controller and 1770, but DFS version should be greater than 0.9.

To play ELITE-B ensure DFS not ADFS. Use *DISC command if needed. Then load disc. Its catalogue is given by typing the two characters *. To run the game type *ELITEB To read this text file type *TYPE T.README

The following overview is not complete, with more weight given to differences between Elite-B, BBC Disk, and Elite-A. The Delta-14B control of Elite-A has been removed.

Your Ship

Like the BBC Disk Classic original the player starts in a minimally equipped Cobra Mk-3, but similar to Elite-A, the player can opt to trade-in to buy a new ship. The cash required is the difference in price between the two ships.

Starting at Lave, the only other ships on offer for sale are cheaper than your Cobra Mk-3 thus its possible to use the surplus cash to equip your new ship.

The price of a ship is predominately determined by its shield strength, followed by its cargo space, speed, and hyperspace range. Ship specifications are discussed later under 'Ships for Purchase'.

The new Commander has the dilemma of struggling to trade and raise cash to fill the large cargo space of the Cobra Mk-3, and buy urgently needed equipment; or buy a smaller, more vulnerable, ship with fewer trading opportunities.

When a ship is offered for sale the Station Dockyards will strip it of armaments and equipment occupying cargo hull space, in addition to draining any fuel and deactivating the shields.

Before exchanging your ship you are advised to sell your lasers, missiles, any energy units and galactic drives, and expect a refund of half their original value.

Standardized equipment such as I.F.F., E.C.M., docking computers, shield unit, fuel scoop and escape pod will be automatically transferred to your new ship. In addition you are strongly advised to pay the requested maintenance fee for your new ship to (partially) recharge the main shield generators.

Your Status page will indicate the shield life-time for your ship as a percentage and will slowly degrade due to combat and travel. Once below 10%, Dockyards will start to offer a maintenance fee under the 'Equip Ship' options, with the cost determined by the level of service restoration available at that Station. If the shields are fully depleted your ship is very vulnerable during its journey to the next Space Station.

The standardized E.C.M. system allows a maximum of 100 charges (for large freighters) and is also indicated as a percentage on your Status page. A replenishment can be purchased before the system is depleted.

You are always being watched. As you slip your berth, information on your purchased cargo and strength of armaments is of value to pirates.

In Flight

The space compass of Elite-B (the gimbal to the top right of the main radar scanner) has additional enhancements and keyboard controls.

When in range of a Space Station (denoted by the yellow S symbol on the lower console) the compass will indicate a thick yellow bar towards the Space Station if the Space Station is in front of you, and a thin yellow bar if its behind you.

In deep space, the compass will usually lock onto the destination planet with a similar green bar but will automatically relock onto any new objects coming into sensor range, with a yellow bar.

The 'P' key will lock the compass back to the planet. The 'L' key will lock onto the Sun, also with a green bar. The compass will change lock onto any launched missile, with a red bar. All the targets in range can be cycled through using the 'K' key.

Both the long range and short range charts indicate the star size for each system that is a member of the Galactic Cooperative. The Sun-to-planet distance is determined by the size, type, of star, with habitable planets further away from bright stars.

Careful thermal management of the cabin temperature is required for fast ships. They are able to fly close enough to Dwarf stars to perform 'sun-skimming', but are prone to overheating and destruction if fuel scooping is performed at high speed or the star is too large. Large, slow, freighters can fuel scoop at larger stars but giant stars are usually too difficult to approach closely, even at very low speed.

Small (pirate) ships are likely to explode near stars. Similarly, Thargoid vessels are unable to release Thargon craft near stars. Thus loitering at a star can offer solace to the Commander.

A hyperspace system will target your arrival near the star if the star is large, resulting in a long (and dangerous) travel distance to the target planet. A small star with the gravitational perturbation of a large target planet radius minimizes the required travel distance upon arrival from Witchspace.

If some fuel remains in the hyperspace drive it is possible to re-hype back to the arrival point in the system. This is useful to evade bounty hunters and pirates, although the journey back to the target planet has to be re-attempted.

The hyperspace countdown time is dependent on distance to be travelled and is quite short when the target system is the present system. During the countdown the cabin temperature will increase as the drive is energized, this can be fatal if sun-skimming at high speed has recently been performed.

In-system small jumps can be performed with the 'J' key, although these jumps require that there are no large mass-energy concentrations nearby. This includes planets, suns, space constructions and ships.

Space debris, escape capsules and asteroids can be warped in the surrounding space-time fabric and travel with you. If these are the only items in sensor range the Status page will indicate condition 'green'.

A large 'C' will also displayed to the upper left of the radar scanner. Under these 'Clear' conditions a jump can be performed successfully if the ship is not too close to a planet or the sun. These conditions are also highly favourable for performing asteroid mining as any hostile ships must be quite far away.

Unresponsive thargon craft prevent the operation of the in-system jump, and can also be re-activated for combat by the arrival of a Thargoid mother ship. Local news (key 'J' while docked, but not when viewing 'The Guide') will report most nearby Thargoid incursions.

The radar scanner depicts the player's ship in the center, with nearby items indicated by coloured blocks with tails projecting down (or up) to the plane of the player.

The default scanner indicates space debris or dockable space stations in green (or blue), missiles in red, and all other craft in yellow (or magenta).

The purchase of an I.F.F. (Identify Friend or Foe) system depicts additional colour information on the tails, with red/yellow indicating pirates, green/yellow indicating police or bounty hunters, and red/green are Thargoid ships.

Once you are close enough to a planet (the altimeter starts to drop) an 'S' symbol will appear on the console and the compass will lock in the direction of a Space Station that you can dock at. Your ship is now in the Space Station safety zone, any pirates attacking you will break off their pursuit.

If the compass lock is lost, the 'S' symbol disappears, fly parallel to the planet keeping your altitude constant rather than fly into the planet. Another orbiting Space Station will come into range.

Do not attempt to enter the planet's atmosphere.

If a hyperspace jump is attempted too close to the planet surface a mis-jump will occur and you will be trapped in Witchspace, either by Thargoids or other agents.

It is possible to use an escape pod if you are trapped in Witchspace, or try to find a system still in range of your remaining hyperspace fuel on the short range chart.

Docking

The Space Station's docking slit will always face towards the planet. Be careful of other traffic, both docking and leaving. Abort any automated docking with key 'N' if required.

A manual docking requires good alignment to the slit, approach the slit as straight-on as possible, match rotation and slow down substantially just before docking. If your speed is low enough the docking should succeed.

Docking computers can be purchased to automate the entire arrival process but are expensive. Alternatively the Commander can pay a docking fee (once in Space Station range) and guidance commands will be sent to automatically dock the ship. If the Commander does not have the 30.0 Cr for the docking fee, the docking will proceed with a minor offence levied to your legal status. A minor offence will not attract the attention of the police or bounty hunters.

Legal System

Shooting at the Space Station, police, shuttles, are not minor offences.

Destroying transports, rock hermits, escape pods, docking ships, are not minor offences.

When first entering the Space Station safety zone, the Commander's legal status is assessed and an attempt is made to deduct in full any fines owed. For example, overzealous use of laser fire against a destroyed pirate ship could destroy a released escape pod which is a 414 Cr GalCop fine. If the Commander has sufficient cash their legal status is updated to 'Clean' and any pursuing police or bounty hunters will break off their pursuit.

When docked the Commander can enquire with key 'U' the cost of paying fines levied. They need to be paid in full otherwise the present legal status will remain.

The Commander's legal status, like cash or rating, cannot be erased by any action such as buying a new ship, using an escape pod, or travelling great distances.

The operators of Gal Cop stations turn a blind eye to the trading of illegal goods (firearms, slaves, narcotics and furs), but police ships are authorized to scan ships remotely for such cargo and revise the legal status of the Commander accordingly.

Once a fugitive status equivalent to destroying a few station-protected ships has been reached, all Gal Cop stations will launch police to attack you and any docking attempt will be fatal. With no access to trading, the main option available in this situation is to earn sufficient credits by engaging in bounty hunting until sufficient bounties are awarded.

As a Commander's legal status degrades, pirates will start to keep their distance and encountering bounty hunters will become more frequent. Politically unstable systems will become more attractive for the Commander's survival.

Trading

The main-market trading is profitable between planets with complementary economies. The most profitable trade routes are between Rich Industrial and Poor Agricultural systems. Although such systems can exist in proximity to each other, their most direct Witchspace trade lanes are fraught with danger. A Witchspace transit initiated near the local Sun, or a combination including sufficient speed, laser overheating, and hyper-space travel distance can evade such an ambush.

The maximum carrier limits outside the main cargo hold for gold and platinum are 250 kg each, but cannot be stored in the escape pod. Whereas gemstones can, with a maximum limit of 250 g.

One type of cargo can be dumped, radioactives. If purchased at a station then dumped near a sun a redemption fee is awarded which can be modestly profitable. Thus if the market opportunities are unattractive radioactives become an interesting cargo. Once dumped, the cargo hold now has space for cargo-scooping opportunities, such as asteroid mining.

Special Cargo

The special cargo contract system of Elite-A is retained but with some adjustments so that offers are dependent upon your recent delivery reputation and the political stability of the requested destination.

The Special Cargo page will list the offers on the highest Register (A-Z) that your reputation gives you access to. Destinations that are Anarchy systems are denoted with an '!' after the system name.

If your legal reputation is tarnished then additional offers of dubious legality will be listed with a '*' after the system name.

Once the general 10% tariff is surrendered by the player, the item is subject to inspection and additional penalties being levied on your legal status prior to their loading on your ship.

The degrading value of the carried contract is updated upon each intervening docking and displayed on the Inventory page along with its destination.

Sun-hopping along a route with low-mass stars is the fastest way to reach the destination and maximize the reward once delivered.

Use of a Galactic Hyperdrive will void the contract, but the special cargo can accompany the Commander in an escape pod or to a new ship.

Similar to Elite-A, if the listed market prices or special cargos on offer are not satisfactory, then the player can pay 50.0 Cr for an extended-stay docking fee, after which the prices and offers will update.

Equipment for purchase

The equipment prices depend on your type of ship. Different ships allow different number of missiles, laser mounts, fuel range, and available cargo hold space for large equipment items. The actual power of lasers depends on the type of ship too.

Missiles - Available from technology level 1.

• A missiles can destroy small ships outright or inflict major damage on large ships. See list of hit damage under = Elite B Craft =
• Tactics for dealing with an incoming missile include shooting it shortly after launch, use your electronic counter measures (E.C.M.), fire one of your missiles at it or at a target ship with its own E.C.M., use your escape pod, or hyperspace.
• Another tactic is to hold your ship stationary and hope that the missile enters a circular orbit around you.
• Selecting the red bar for the missile on your space compass (by hitting the 'K' key multiple times) will allow you to track its orbit and time an attempt to fire your laser at it.

I.F.F. (Identify Friend or Foe) System - Available from technology level 2.

• An Identification Friend or Foe (I.F.F.) upgrade will display different objects in different colours on the radar scanner.

Scanner Colour Codes

Green	Debris/Station
Yellow	Ship
* Green-Yellow	Police Ship
* Yellow-Green	Bounty Hunter
* Yellow-Red	Unknown
* Red-Yellow	Pirate
* Red-Green	Thargoid mother ship
* Green-Red	Thargon craft
Red	Missile

- * I.F.F. upgrade

• Depending on ship purchased, the green colour could be blue, the yellow colour could be magenta.

E.C.M. (Electronic Counter Measures) System - Available from technology level 2.

• When activated, an Electronic Counter Measures (E.C.M.) system will destroy all missiles in the vicinity.
• Standard systems for a large freighter have a maximum charge of 100. An E.C.M. system can be replaced before it is fully depleted.

Pulse Laser - Available from technology level 3

• Pulse lasers fire intermittent laser beams. If used to destroy an asteroid, a small number of mineable splinters may survive.

Beam Laser - Available from technology level 4

• Beam Lasers fire continuous laser strands but overheat more rapidly than Pulse Lasers. If the selected laser mount view is already occupied then that laser should be sold before-hand.

Fuel Scoops - Available from technology level 5

• Fuel Scoops enable a ship to obtain free hyperspace fuel by 'sun-skimming' - flying close to the sun. Small, fast, ships are limited to sun-skimming from Dwarf stars and may require reduced speed to prevent over-heating.
• Fuel Scoops can also be used (with care) to pick up space debris, such as cargo barrels or asteroid splinters.
• Cargo barrels containing precious metals or gemstones cannot be scooped successfully unless there is room in the main cargo hold for the associated 1 tonne of alloys.
• The contents of barrels are unknown until scooped and inspected on board. However if local news (key 'J' when docked) indicates a major raid occurred it is likely that the same cargo type will be liberated from pirates encountered in that same system.

Escape Pod - Available from technology level 6

• When ejected, even from Witchspace, an escape pod will head towards the nearest space station.
• The standard insurance policy will replace your ship up to the policy replacement limit of a fully armed Cobra Mk3.
• Most equipment will be replaced, but any energy units and Galactic drives are excluded. Similarly any bulk cargo and precious metals will not be replaced.
• Your cash, rating, legal status (and special cargo and gem-stones that accompanied you in the escape pod) will be preserved.

Mining laser - Available from technology level 6

• Mining Lasers are highly powered, slow firing, pulse lasers which are tuned to fragment asteroids into many splinters.
• They can also be used to destroy other targets but are very slow firing.
• Splinters scooped in politically unstable systems may contain large precious-metal nuggets.

Shield Unit - Available from technology level 7

• Recently permitted, a Shield Unit gives added protection to the cargo hold.
• A side-effect is that Police ships are unable to scan for contraband, which includes furs.
• Interference lines with the main shields are visible during major sustained bombardment of the player's ship.
• As one of the last resorts, the cargo shield can be deliberately collapsed by hitting the 'TAB' key. The imploding energy is diverted to the main front and aft shields.
• During this process all cargo in the main hold is vapourized, except Alien Items and Minerals. Gemstones, gold, platinum and special cargo are not affected.

Energy Unit - Available from technology level 8

• An extra Energy Unit will double the recharging rate of a ship's energy banks.
• The large equipment usually occupies two tonnes of cargo space and is not covered by most insurance policies.
• Pirate groups may have scanner technology to assess the energy recharge rate of an adversary and plan their attacks accordingly.

Docking Computers - Available from technology level 9

• Docking Computers allow an automated way of docking without paying a fee each time for docking guidance from the space station.

• Outside the Space Station safety zone Docking computers can also act as an auto-pilot, with the current selection on the space compass serving as the destination target.
• Thus the auto-pilot is easily distracted and will point the ship, travelling at high speed, to each new target that comes into sensor range.
• This default behaviour is a useful tactic for encountering pirate groups, buying extra time to put down your cup of tea.

• During a very heavy attack the auto-pilot will automatically disengage.
• If no ships are in the vicinity and the compass target is the planet or the sun, then the auto-pilot will automatically perform an in-system jump similar to the 'J' key.
• Press key 'P' to return the compass, and auto-pilot, back to the planet. Occasionally the auto-pilot will perform this automatically.
• Although such systems are quite sophisticated they are not fool-proof and the Commander is advised to monitor the auto-pilot and docking progress, hitting key 'N' to abort and take manual control.

Galactic Hyperspace - Available from technology level 10

• Galactic Hyperspace drives are used for very long-range jumps, exploiting the local Witchspace configuration to connect systems on adjacent charts.
• The arrival planet is uniquely determined by the departure planet. For example Oresrati in Galactic Chart 8 from Rainza in Galactic Chart 7.
• Consult the charts available in 'The Guide' (accessible with key '?' when docked) where the short range charts can be scrolled and other Galactic Charts can be found with the 'F' key followed by the Chart number.
• A Galactic Hyperspace drive can only be activated once outside the space station safety zone. The destination chart is 'forward' or 'backwards' depending on whether you are flying towards or away from the local sun.
• The Galactic Hyperspace countdown time is dependent on the size of the cargo hold, larger ships requiring additional navigation computation and drive activation time.
• Multiple drives can be purchased if you have enough cargo space for the fuel. Each drive requires 5 tonnes and allows one long-range jump.

Military laser - Available from technology level 11

• Military Lasers use high energy lasers firing continuously to produce devastating effects, but are prone to overheating.
• Improved thermal management allows more effective use of multiple laser mounts, but the excess heat can drive up the cabin temperature.

Ships for purchase

All ships listed for purchase are hyperspace-capable for trading. They are ordered by cost with cheaper ones tending to have weaker hulls, smaller cargo holds, lower speeds.

The resilience of a ship's shields to incoming laser fire is given by the Shield class in the following table. Similarly the laser weaponry available for purchase fall into power classes, where a minus sign indicates a recharge time is required.

Ship	Shield	Pulse	Beam	Military	Mining	Mounts
Adder	1	-6	6	9	-12	2
Cobra Mk1	2	-7	7	10	-12	4
Salamander	3	-8	7	11	-12	1
Moray	2	-6	6	10	-14	1
Ophidian	3	-7	8	14	-12	1
Jararaca	4	-8	7	11	-14	4
Chameleon	5	-8	7	11	-14	2
Ghavial	4	-8	8	12	-28	4
Cobra Mk3	5	-9	7	12	-28	4
Iguana	6	-8	8	14	-28	2
FerdeLance	6	-9	9	14	-28	4
Monitor	8	-12	9	14	-30	4
Python	9	-12	9	13	-30	4
Boa	8	-10	7	12	-30	2
Asp Mk2	7	-9	10	16	-14	1
Anaconda	10	-13	8	14	-30	4

In Elite-A, the shield classes extended over a slightly largely range which resulted in a player's Cobra Mk3 being immune to Worm craft, and a player's Anaconda being immune to Cobra Mk3 fire. Whereas in BBC disk Classic, the player's Cobra Mk3 is susceptible to Worm craft and can destroy an Anaconda with laser fire.

In Elite-B, the narrower range of shield classes retains consistency with BBC disk Classic. A Cobra Mk3's shield is still weakly vulnerable to laser fire from an Adder ship. Larger freighters are essentially immune to an Adder but still susceptible to a pirate Cobra Mk3.

The effect of missiles in Elite-A (and BBC disk Classic) hitting the player were very similar, taking just over 2 missiles to destroy your ship, whatever its type. Whereas destroying an Adder would take just over one player's missile, with Elite-A's missiles slightly weaker than BBC disk Classic.

In Elite-B there is improved symmetry with a player's Adder destroyed in just over 1 missile hit, whereas a player's Anaconda can take over 6 missile hits.

Further information on the ships available for purchase is included in the following descriptions of all craft encountered.

Elite B Craft

Information on all ships and space constructions can be found in 'The Guide' (key '?' when docked). The menu items can be selected by the indicated numeric value, and are also mapped to letters of the alphabet (A=1 etc.).

All craft with hyperspace capability have a hull rating of 'H' or above and are strong enough to withstand at least one missile hit, if the shield hit is fully charged.

The missile strength in Elite B is inbetween that of Elite-A and BBC disk Classic. In the table below, both an estimate of the number of survivable missile hits is listed, along with the maximum number of missiles that craft can carry.

Craft	Hits Est.	Missiles (Max)	Speed (LM)	Cargo (TC)	Range (LY)
Adder	1.1	2	0.24	8	4.5
Anaconda	6	8	0.14	250	10.0
Asp Mk	2.6	1	0.40	6	12.5
Boa	3.1	6	0.24	130	9.0
Bushmaster	1.1	1	0.33	8	0.5
Carrier	7	? Vipers	0.12	?	11.0
Cougar	2.6	4	0.35	8	6.5
Chameleon	2.0	2	0.29	16	6.5
Cobra Mk1	1.3	3	0.26	17	5.0
Cobra Mk3	2.2	4	0.30	37	7.0
Cougar	2.6	4	0.35	8	6.5
Cruiser	5	7	0.26	150	9.0
Escape pod	0.5	-	0.08	-	-
Fer-de-Lance	2.4	2	0.30	9	8.5
Gecko	0.9	2	0.30	10	-
Ghavial	1.8	5	0.26	28	5.0
Habu	1.5	-	0.36	-	-
Iguana	2.3	2	0.34	12	7.5
Jararaca	1.7	3	0.28	22	5.5
Krait	1.3	-	0.30	10	-
Mamba	1.3	2	0.32	10	-
Monitor	3.3	8	0.16	75	11.0
Moray	1.5	6	0.25	14	4.0
Ophidian	1.6	3	0.28	11	6.0
Python	3.3	7	0.20	100	8.0
Rinkhals	2.1	4	0.27	30	2.5
Salamander	1.6	1	0.31	5	8.5
Shuttle	0.5	-	0.08	60	-
Sidewinder	0.9	1	0.37	-	-
Thargoid	3.6	6 Thargon	0.39	?	?
Thargon	0.3	0	0.30	-	-
Transporter	0.5	0	0.10	10	-
Urutu	6	7	0.20	?	?
Viper Mk1	1.5	1	0.32	-	-
Viper Mk2	1.5	2	0.34	-	-
Viper Mk3	1.5	4	0.36	-	-
Worm	0.8	-	0.23	-	-

Combat

If you do not possess an E.C.M. system it is difficult to engage in combat as nearly all ships carry missiles and will start to launch them if under attack. See - Equipment Missiles - for discussion on missile tactics, for example using an in-system hyperspace jump (if any fuel remains) can evade missiles.

Your missile cost is comparable to the pirate bounties awarded, and most pirates will take more than one missile to destroy.

One effective attack tactic is to lock a missile onto a target (key 'T'), soften it up a bit with laser fire (key 'A'), during which your missile will acquire a lock. Once the oncoming ship leaves your laser sights as it flies past you, launch your missile (key 'M').

Destruction of pirates will increase your combat rating and usually a bounty will be awarded. Destruction of innocent ships will usually result in no bounty awarded and most likely a fine imposed, which could be several hundred credits. Your combat rating can also be improved by destroying any space debris you encounter, and recall that using a pulse laser to destroy an Asteroid may generate some scoopable splinters.

If your legal status is Clean you only need to worry about pirate attacks occurring outside of the Space Station safety zone. If your legal status is mild Offender or above then you need to worry both about pirates and bounty hunters, including the police. If you kill police or bounty hunters your legal status will continue to degrade so you should consider using an in-system hyperspace jump to evade them.

As you enter the safety zone of a Space Station, an attempt will automatically be made to deduct all outstanding fines from your legal status. If you are unable to pay them in full then police and bounty hunters will continue their pursuit of you within the safety zone.

The more politically stable a system is the more likely you will encounter bounty hunters and police rather than pirates.

If you do encounter pirates at stable systems, like Corporate States, bear in mind that they are likely to be very well armed (to explain their sustained presence) and your better tactic may be to flee.

The most unstable systems (Anarchies) barely have a functioning police force and bounty hunters are rare. At the lowest technology worlds Kraits, rather than Vipers, serve as Police ships. They will announce their presence in hope that you will not misidentify them as pirates. Anarchies with a higher technology level have some bounty hunters to aid the passage of innocent traders.

If you legal status is degrading towards Fugitive you will encounter fewer pirate groups but attract the attention of more bounty hunters.

The ability to quickly change legal status (kill space-station protected ships and later repay the fines) may aid in traversing low-technology Anarchy systems, although the fines will probably offset any trading profit.

Factors affecting the size of pirate groups are your ship type, the armaments, the energy recharge rate, and the amount of cargo (including gold and platinum) that you have purchased.

Loitering at a star can offer solace to the (fugitive) Commander, allowing shields to regenerate and only large freighters will be in the vicinity.

Game Settings

The game can be frozen at any time using either the '~' or 'COPY' keys. Once frozen, the frozen-game key options are available to toggle some game characteristics, see key list earlier.

For true space-flight simulation, the 'Caps-Lock' key toggles whether any damping of the flight controls is present. The default settings allow some modest damping with a quick input in opposite direction to cancel out previous drift. This auto-recentering is toggled with key 'A'. The level of damping is toggled by frozen game key 'X' between light and extreme.

The frozen game key 'X' also toggles several other features which are off by default: Missile auto-targeted, but not fired; Docking computer (if present) automatically activated if entering S-range; modest time acceleration if screen not a space view.

The game can be resumed by using the 'DELETE' key.

Space Constructions

You can only dock successfully at GalCop stations, which are in 'S' zones near a planet. They will appear in green (or blue) on your scanner, like debris.

In low-technology systems you may encounter space bars of dubious legality. At other systems you may encounter alternative 'free-trade' stations, or even space factories and farms. You do not have permission to dock at these locations, even if government operated, and it would be best not to interfere.

Some bounty hunters have retired, or other individuals have secluded themselves as rock hermits with the permission of the host system. They do not engage in trading, they warn you to stay away. Their hollowed-out asteroids have no mining value and their destruction carries a significant fine.

Links

• https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16899
• https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:DrBeeb