User:SandJ

Commander SandJ

Who?

Yet another commander cruising the spacelanes, earning a Credit here and there, often by mining, and trying to keep a clean status. Kills any and all Fugitives and Offenders on sight. Always responds to please for help. Goes to ridiculous lengths to gather escape pods, frequently stealing them from under the noses of official system rescue ships. Does not normally kill innocents ... except Wasps, of course.

Flies a Belter Python fitted with custom upgrades that give unexpected performance and cargo capacity.

Can be found spending hour after hour converting asteroid fields into processed materials for sale. Do NOT get caught scooping splinters Commander SandJ has produced unless there is a GalCop Viper nearby.

Also, if you call for help and Commander SandJ rescues you at your request, do NOT go scooping the pirate's remaining ship parts and cargo ... you might just find yourself being rammed at VERY high speed.

History

Had made it to Elite status, but had 2,000 kills deducted for cheating. Having confessed publicly, he is now of special status Elite Penitent until he gets up to 8,400 kills. Often flew with wingmen who would pass on their kill counts; no longer does so.

Undertakes the odd Galactic Navy missions and has done a couple of dozen so far. He has perfected a technique of dropping one Quirium Mine to wipe out an entire invasion fleet.

Also carried out 'cleansing' operations picked up at Seedy Space Bars - least said, soonest not shot in the back.

Has an immensely long criminal record:
- Offender status for launching while carrying one tonne of scooped narcotics;
- Offender status for launching while carrying one tonne of scooped firearms;
- Offender status for launching while carrying one tonne of scooped slaves;
- Offender status for launching while carrying one tonne of scooped firearms;
- Offender status for launching while carrying one tonne of scooped slaves;
- Offender status for launching while carrying one tonne of scooped narcotics;
- repeat ad nauseum.

Ships

Cobra Mark III ✓ verdict: lack of cargo space is frustrating
Belter Python ✓ verdict: a fine vessel
Cobra Mk I ✓ verdict: rubbish. A first ship to practice on.
Shady Sugs Cobra Mk III ✓ verdict: a prettified version of a classic.
Adder .
Anaconda .
Asp Mark II .
Boa .
Boa Class Cruiser .
Fer-de-Lance .
Moray Star Boat .
Moray Medical Boat .

OXPs

Keyboard Cobra

Ideas for OXPs

Only one targeted missile per object
Where it is possible to target one of one's missiles at Target A, then switch to the next missile and point it at Target B and so on, I would like the option for it to not be possible to target the same object twice. I do NOT mean, fire a missile at Target A and be prevented from targeting another missile at Target A. I DO mean, target a missile at Target A, do not fire it, and so be prevented from targeting another missile at Target A.

Police IFF Scanner Jammer
Every electronic device results in a counter measure. Will some über-pirates be fitted with IFF jammers? Which prompts the idea for ... scanner jammers! What a nasty piece of kit one of those would be.

A Fuel-Scoop Bung
Looks like a conventional cargopod but, when scooped by anyone other than oneself, suddenly expands enormously, thereby blocking the fuel scoop. The ship scooping it effectively has its cargo scoop removed from its manifest. Think of a HUGE can of TyreWeld, or Polycell Expanding Foam, or Diet Coke and Mentos, or polyurethane foam production. Carried by mining ships to stop cheeky thieving Jameson's from zooming in and pinching their asteroid splinters, and by bounty hunters to stop opportunist toe-rags helping themselves to liberated pirate loot. "Here you go, my pilfering pal. Let's see the smug look wiped off your face when you try to clean out a cubic km of solid expanded foam from your scoops. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haa!"

The Wormhole Bomb
Non-lethal defensive weapon. Intended for use when being pursued. Launched like a mine, it it expelled from the rear of the vessel and opens a much-larger-than-normal, long-lasting wormhole behind the ship. Any vessel flying into this wormhole cloud will find itself dumped somewhere in space, 0.1 light years away from where it was. Uses up all the witch fuel in the ship that fired it. Ships that enter it that are unable to jump back to a system will in time, no doubt, be 'rescued' by bounty hunters / GalCops entering the wormhole cloud to 'rescue' / investigate anyone who passed through.

Uses for the Biosphere
a) a Kew Gardens type greenhouse being constructed for exotica and funded by tourism. It would import Food (for the cafe) and export trinkets and the usual gift shop crap, i.e. Luxuries.
b) Biospheres could also be producing really special, delicate, pristine-conditions floristry items, e.g. luminous orchids, latticework roses, thermochromatic dahlias and the like for top-of-society weddings. To grow these luxury items they just need biomass: cheap food for composting would be sufficient. They also make use of gilding and exotic stones for decoration. Import Food, Gold, Platinum and Gems; export Luxuries.
c) Production of specialist medicines based on ravenous antibiotic fungi (e.g. polydentilepenicillin), genetically-modified antiviral bacteria and hyper-virulent pathogenical antiparisitical viruses cannot be done planet-side - it is far too dangerous. Instead they are produced in the space labs ("biospheres") where there is minimal risk of contamination or inadvertent release. These space labs import biomass ("Food"), body parts ("Slaves"), exotic species ("Furs") and export exotic medicines ("Luxuries").
d) Whenever legislation regarding biological weapons was produced, it always only applied to a geographical area; production in free space remains legal. Viruses used to wipe out basic alien life prior to terraforming, anti-Thargoid fungi, star-jelly dispersal parasites and the like are manufactured in these vast, space-bound "biospheres". They import Food and Liquor/Wines for the staff, Alien Items for testing, Minerals for processing, and export weapons ("Firearms").
e) Trumble breeders! Imports: Food & Liquor/Wines (or all the things Trumbles eat). Exports: Furs. And a free Trumble, whether you want it or not.
f) Brothels. Comfortable, secure, mating opportunities with a variety of species in a zero-G environment would, I am sure, be popular. Import: Liquor + Food, export: Luxuries.
g) Butterfly (& similar critter) farms. Import food, export luxuries and alien items.
h) Specialist hospitals. Decontamination units and isolation wards. Import: Food, Textiles, Narcotics. Export: nothing.
i) Quarantine establishments. Import: Food. Export: Furs (hey, not everything survives).
j) Posh hotels. Accommodation, entertainment and retail opportunities. Import: Food, Textiles, Narcotics, Slaves. Export (all expensive): Liquor/Wines, Luxuries, Furs, Gold, Platinum, Gems.
k) Planetary Governor / President / Chairperson / Great Leader's Head Office. Import: Food, Liquor/Wines, Luxuries, Computers, Firearms. Export: nothing.
l) Woodland Friends toy manufactorium. Import: Food, Textiles, Slaves, Machinery, Alloys, Minerals. Export: Luxuries.
m) Santa's grotto. Import: Food, Textiles, Slaves, Alloys, Minerals. Export: Liquor/Wines, Luxuries, Computers, Furs (reindeer don't live forever), Gold, Gems.
n) Space Elevator Counterweight Shop Link. Import & export: identical to the standard system prices, but at 'unlimited' quantities (i.e. 64 tonnes of everything so you can buy 63 tonnes, or sell 64 tonnes of anything. Or Kgs or gs as appropriate.)

Lifeboat ships
Not escape pods, lifeboat ships. Unarmed, loads of defence shields, loads of flashers, bright orange, launched from big ships when they are under attack? Fitted with the same beacons as escape pods. Attract GalCop escorts?

Science experiments / probes
We fill the oceans and skies and the ground with science experiment equipment. We have just started (this past 50 years) putting them in space too. Wouldn't there be space telescopes, sun-monitors, asteroid trackers and all manner of other crap valuable equipment in space? Appearing as white blobs on the radar as asteroids do, but normally no larger than splinters (maybe some as big as boulders), these bits of gear would be anywhere in a system doing who-knows-what. Scooping one might sometimes give 1 tonne of computers. They might be tubes, boxes, X-shaped thingies, long strips of solar panel. Ramming one would barely register on the front shield.

No peace for cop-killers
I was thinking about the Fugitive --> Offender --> Clean status evaporating as one jumps, and I think cop-killers would be an exception. If you shoot and destroy a GalCop vessel, every GalCop in the galaxy will be after you. It'll be personal, and unrelated to one's official Fugitive status.

So, an idea for a No Peace for Cop-Killers OXP: The idea for this OXP is that it should be a right royal pain in the bum to kill a cop. There is no benefit for the Commander to this OXP, it makes the galaxy a tougher place to be a bad guy. Being the Cop-Killer will be worse than being a Fugitive - it is not for newbies! It would be tough and relentless and miserable yet could be exhilarating and exciting, if it works!

How it works: + If you destroy a GalCop Police vessel, your are your ship is tagged as a Cop-Killer. + Once tagged as a Cop-Killer, every cop in the system will home in on you and attack. + This includes the GalCop defence ships in the space station which will all launch and join in. + When you jump systems, you leave the GalCop ships behind, but the Cop-Killer tag comes with you, and the cops in the new system start to home in on you. + Every so often (e.g. one to five minutes) an off-duty GalCop vessel will jump into the system at the witchpoint from an adjoining system and join in. + Your bounty and legal status still degrade back to clean just as they do now. Eventually you could be a Clean Cop-Killer! + Your legal status is irrelevant; GalCops will hunt down and destroy the Cop-Killer regardless.

When does it end? (It should feel like 'never') - Trading one's ship removes the Cop-Killer tag ("He got away"). - Leaving the Galaxy removes the Cop-Killer tag ("We lost him"). - Using one's escape pod removes the Cop-Killer tag ("Someone got him").

Secondary effects: (As few as possible) = Impact on bounty hunters: none, they react just as they do now to bounties. = Impact in Anarchies: nothing special, any Police vessels present come for you just like anywhere else. = Impact on pirates: none. They neither know nor care about your tag. = Impact on Navy ships: none. They don't care and don't get involved. = Impact on NPCs: none. We see GalCops attacking pirates who may or may not be Cop-Killers, we have no way of knowing as it's private GalCop business. = Destruction of other system vessels or installations: none. You only become a Cop-Killer by destroying a GalCop Police vessel.

Restriction:

• If the GalCops use injectors to get to you, this would create an unsurvivable scenario. Without GalCop using injectors, you could avoid them indefinitely and dock at stations normally by leaving the cops behind. You'd be on the run, one step ahead of the law, all the time.

Incomplete thoughts:

1. Are there any other end conditions (besides death!)?
2. Can you buy an end-condition? For example, when you dock at a high tech-level Anarchy, a screen pops up: "Someone in the docking bay whispers 'Psst. Cop-Killer. Need help? 100,000 credits / 25% of your bank balance / 100 Kgs of Platinum & 100 Kgs of Gold might buy you a friend with access to the GalCop computer records. Interested?' Yes/No?"
3. What about Commies.OXP security vessels? Should they join in the GalCop hunt? Does it matter either way?
4. How do the cops find you? Do they patrol sun/system/jump point then report your position when you are spotted, or just home in on you directly? (I think they should home in on you straight away.)
5. When you out-run the GalCops and dock at a space station, what happens when you launch? Will the cops be waiting, or patrolling normally or docked and ready to launch?

Secret Megaweed Farm
A secret megaweed farm where traders can buy plenty of cheap narcotics from a cloaked yet dockable MegaWeed solar-orbit space station. It buys "organic material", i.e. food. You will need a Megaweed Space Station Tracker to find it, much like the Hermit Rock Locator. The space station will be made of glass-like material rendering it visible as a wire frame.

Alloys-to-Firearm Machine
Like the Missile Machine, this will slowly turn your alloys into firearms a tonne at a time, at the cost of a continuous trickle of energy. (Upside: it makes you money. Downside: energy banks and shields will recharge more slowly.)

Automatic Contraband Seller
Every time you dock at a main station, this OXP will automatically sell all your contraband to protect your legal status.

Gentlemen of Fortune
A pirate version of Hired Guns. Build up a good enough bounty on your own head and other independent space dogs will volunteer to join you. Combined bounty / booty sharing between you (they scoop cargo too and the spoils are shared as credits, somehow) ensures more 'volunteers'; a fall-off in liberated booty results in one of the other vying for the position of Cap'n, the 'fleet' splits and turns on you. And Heavens help you if you fall from Fugitive to Offender - the mutinous dogs will all attack you at once.

Black Holes
Random wormholes start appearing within systems, that eat everything. Ships are sucked in and re-appear on the other side in interstellar space. When you next dock there is a call for pilots with experience of the phenomenon - i.e. who have been through it and survived - to go to [some planet] to give evidence. There you get given the job of going to [another planet] for a conference where you personally are told to go to [third planet] to meet someone, where you can volunteer to take a specially modified Q-Bomb back to [original planet], where you are to set it off to destroy the anomaly causing the black holes. Sadly, when you get to [original planet], you find the Thargoid war fleet that created the 'anomaly' and discover the truth that it is a Thargoid weapon, and, having detonated the modified Q-Bomb you return to [third planet] to report it, where you are told your counter-Thargoid-special-weapon activities have only just begun...

Lazy Pilot
When activated in the station's aegis, the LazyPilot device will safely fly away from the space station and activate the ship's hyperspace. Just choose your target system when in the space station, launch and immediately activate the device. Control will be returned to you as you emerge from hyperspace in the target system. When activated outside a station's aegis, the LazyPilot device will fly the ship away from the space lanes and make its way to the space station as fast as it can, avoiding other ships and using injectors when necessary and jump drive whenever possible. With a "Can't evade, reverting to manual" alert, of course.

Flaky Ships
NPCs should shed alloys from time to time when being hit. I can think of a very contrived way. Add a new missile AlloyMissile. Available to NPCs but not the player. If I understand Armoury.oxp's influence correctly, adding a new weapon means some NPCs randomly are fitted with it. NPCs tend to fire a missile when they have taken damage; this specific missile could, when fired, also generate 1 tonne of alloys in the vicinity of the rear of the NPC. It would /seem/ as if the NPC has had something fall off and the pilot has fired their missile in desperation / vengeance.

The Never-Ending Furball
There is a particular type of table-top wargame: the "meat grinder". When a unit is destroyed, it is replaced back on the table edge as a new unit. (Score is kept of who wipes out most units to determine the winner.) An OXP equivalent may be to have a ship from one faction / a random pirate a random Thargoid hyperspace into a fixed point in the space lane and a ship from another faction / a random GalCop / a random Navy ship hyperspace in at a fixed point 30 km away. Every time one is killed, it is replaced. Start out with between 2 to 5 of each to begin with, and just let it keep running all the time the pilot is in the system. A never-ending furball. (A downside may be the amount of cargo and alloys floating about will eventually slow the game right down.)

DIY Repairs
An item you buy in the form of a repair kit. When used, it gives an x% chance of repairing one of the damaged items, but with a y% chance of destroying a working item. Every time you use it successfully, x% rises slightly. For the minute or so it takes to use it, your ship is in 'tumble' mode and cannot be piloted at all, because you are not in the cabin. You will NOT be wanting to use this in a battle.

Things I have 'Enhanced'

I have increased the magnetism of my Cargo Shepherd so that it sucks in almost everything except asteroids, piloted ships and space stations, and does so for many km around. They come whizzing n and stop 1km from the Cargo Shepherd.

Hired Guns, supposedly two wingmen, gets interesting' when there are thirty-two of them. They don't half crash a lot! And when they hit anything by accident, they invariably start shooting the hell out of me!

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Transclusion

*** Immediately before the transclusion of Fair Cobra III ***

This OXP upgrades the speed, energy and energy recharge rate of the NPC Cobra Mk IIIs so that they are the same as a player Cobra III - a token upgrade for pirate and hunter Cobras; a larger upgrade for trader Cobras. This makes them a little tougher than they are without this OXP, but not by much.

Background

A number of people have remarked on the superior speed of the player's cobra compared to that of the NPC's.

If you are traveling to the station and get mass-locked by a Mk3 going the same way as you, then you cannot overtake it without injectors, if both ships have the same maximum speed. You either get stuck with it or you have to do a lateral manoeuver to avoid it. Both options can be frustrating. As far as I can recall, that was the original reason for the speed difference. another_commander (2017)

Download

Fair Cobra III 1.0.oxz v1.0.
Fair Cobra III 1.0.zip is the latest version. Install to your AddOns folder in the usual way.

Links

• Cheating (this is an anti-cheating OXP)
• Jane's Galactic Shipset - does the opposite, reducing player's cobra speed to that 0.28 lm!

Quick facts

1-{{{2}}}

Version	Released	License	Features	Category	Author(s)	Feedback
1.0	2012-06-30	Public Domain	NPC Ships	Ships OXPs	cim	BB-Link

Gameplay and Balance Indicator

Slightly tougher NPCs.

*** Immediately after the transclusion of Fair Cobra III ***

Timestamp and signature

Timestamp: SandJ 23:22, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

My signature with a timestamp: --SandJ 23:22, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Timestamp: SandJ

My signature with a timestamp: --SandJ

Testing the Wiki search

Here is a test to see if a Wiki search for box.com with cn in the name can be found in a hyperlink. Conclusion: even the wiki's advanced search does not return text strings in hyperlinks.

Testing the Wiki for flakiness

Yep, it sure is flaky. 17th June 2012 at 19:31. yes, I can edit this page, just not the OXP List. 21st June 2012 at 14:53.