Random Hits OXP

Overview & Download Link

Approaching ‘The Bell & Braben’ Pub

The Ooniverse can be a lawless place with all manor of beings on the run for hideous crimes from simple piracy to committing the most unspeakable acts with edible poets. GalCop’s resources are frequently stretched thinly and thus the Galactic Authorities often rely upon private individuals to bring criminals to justice.

In the space lanes of Anarchy Systems throughout the eight Galaxies, professional hunters gather aboard speedy space bars. Over a pint of fabled Riedquatian brown ale and a side-order of fried Laveian tree grubs, Commanders may view the local Bounty Hunters’ Bulletin Boards. Do you have what it takes to capture an unpleasant blue-feathered avian wanted for committing unnatural acts with a long-eared frog? Will your combat skills be good enough to destroy the dastardly fiend who set fire to the Onriraian Pontiff’s priceless artificial leg?

The OXP was coded by LittleBear, featuring ships by Commanders Murgh, Wolfwood, Giles, Ramon, Selezen, 8bitapocalypse, CyberTiger and Dr Nil. The space bar was created by Griff with additional graphics and Shaders for the neon signs by Arexack Heretic. The database of words used in the random generator was written by LittleBear with contributions from Commander Maegil, Disembodied, Dr Nil, Arexack Heretic, Ahruman and Commander McLane. Thanks in particular to Eric Walch, Another Commander, Sevngali and Kaks for a lot of help with debugging Versions 1.1 and 1.0, improvements to the AIs and help with Java Scripting.

You must use Version 1.71 of Oolite or higher to play this OXP. If you install the OXP on a lower version of Oolite, the OXP won’t do anything at all. You do not however need a powerful system to play. If your system cannot support Shaders, then these additional features are automatically turned off. If your system does support Shaders you will see an animated neon sign adorning the space bars you encounter. If not, then the sign is left blank. This pack adds Missions, Ships, Stations and Features.

Download (Random Hits V1.2) Updated to V1.2 on 29th April 2008.

Download Script Patch Patch added on 11th September 2008.

(Please see the Updates Section for instructions on using the Script Patch).

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Difficulty Rating

Docking at The Furry Feline Bar & Grill.

"Easy to Hard". The OXP does not add any new ships to the game generally; all ships only appear when a mission relating to a Character is running. Even a Harmless Jameson can safely install the OXP, as the space bars do not present a threat to Clean Commanders. Indeed, if you are passing a space bar and come under attack by pirates, hunters aboard the Bar are likely to put down their drinks and launch to eliminate the brigands. Remember though that these guys are mercenaries not cops. If you are being harassed by three ‘Offender’ pirates, the hunters may well decide to collect the larger bounty on a passing non-hostile ‘Fugitive’ slave trader before coming to your aid! Approaching a space bar if you yourself have a price on your head, could prove extremely hazardous!

Missions vary in difficulty, depending on the Credits being offered for a successful kill or capture. None of the ships in the OXP are uber; if a Character is flying a Cobra Mk III then his ship is just the standard Cowell & McRath model available in all good shipyards. The equipment fitted to a Character’s ship will vary. A scheming horned solicitor wanted for tax evasion may only have equipped his craft with the most basic equipment. On the other hand a homicidal blood-sucking goat, suspected of industrial espionage against Voltaire Stinger Pulse Drives Limited, will be likely to have blinged her vessel out as a fully equipped iron ass.

Whilst any Commander is welcome to view the Bulletin Boards and offer his services for a mission, the advertisers are looking for a skilled liquidator and will refuse the offer if the applicant has too few kills to his name. You need more kills to be accepted for the difficult missions than the easier missions, so you will find that you can’t bite off more than you can chew. It is advisable though to have a reasonably well equipped ship before taking on any of these missions. An E.C.M. System, Fuel Injectors and a Beam Laser or better should be regarded as the minimum kit necessary for a would-be bounty hunter. If you intend to take any of your victims alive rather than killing them outright, Fuel Scoops will be necessary in order to scoop up the rotter’s escape craft.

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Main Features

Every Bulletin Board entry, mission description, incoming message, communications hail and mission briefing screen is procedurally generated using a similar method to that used to create all the crazy planet descriptions in Oolite. The messages are created using a database of over 30,000 words, generating over one trillion different missions and bulletin board entries. The missions are therefore effectively never-ending, rather like the Bulletin Board in Frontier. Every time you visit a space bar a new set of bulletin board messages are generated. Due to the way Oolite’s ‘dice’ work though, new missions are usually generated when you enter a system from hyperspace. For example if you jump from Lave to Riedquat and dock at the Worlds End Bar, a new set of Bulletin Board entries will be displayed. If you launch, flip over and re-dock, the missions will generally be the same as the ones you have just seen. This is not always the case though and sometimes the missions will change whilst you are browsing the boards. Jumping out and returning later will always cause a new set of missions to be generated.

I have included in the database all the words from Classic Elite (so watch out for killer arts graduates, lesser spotted yaks and so on), but I have also added to the call list a lot of other references to the Elite series of games. Procedurally generated organizations and companies also feature in the OXP and the names of the Characters include the names of most of the regular posters on the Oolite Bulletin Boards. If you are a poster on the real life Oolite Bulletin Boards, you may find a contract on your own life being advertised here!

Characters will use tactics not used by typical pirates. They may have (and use) Q-Mines and aft mounted weapons. Don’t expect them to always fight to the death, they may just run away on injectors or make a hyperspace jump, requiring you to pursue them through the wormhole. You are being paid to terminate the scoundrel not merely his ship, so if your victim manages to abandon ship in an escape pod, you must kill or capture the pod to complete the mission.

Don’t expect to catch a ruffian napping with a Q-Mine, most are smart enough to hit the injectors as soon as one is launched. Although you can complete a mission by using an Energy Bomb, you will be fined for causing collateral damage and you will not earn any titles or improve your reputation as a bounty hunter by resorting to such cowardly tactics!

• A Space Bar with its own individual name is added to every Anarchy System.
• Over one trillion different missions and Bulletin Board advertisements.
• Any given mission will have at least eight different endings.
• A Statute Book of over 20,000 different crimes and misdemeanours.
• Over 10,000 different Companies, Organizations and Powers.
• A cast of over one million different Characters from over 7,000 different species.
• Characters fly over 50 types of space craft.
• Over 5,000 new hails and messages.
• Employers keep in contact with the player by Galactic E-Mail.
• New AIs, using tricks not included in the unexpanded game.
• New and customized escape craft.
• Titles and Ranks to be won.
• Hidden features and easter eggs.

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Update Notes

Version 1.2 is an updated version of the OXP, which is now compatible with Version 1.71 of Oolite onwards. A list of changes is set out in the Readme file. These changes are necessary due to some Command name changes between Versions 1.70 and 1.71 of Oolite. Please note that Version 1.1 of Random Hits will not work properly on Version 1.71 of Oolite, so if you are playing Oolite V1.71 onwards you need to update to Version 1.2 of Random Hits. Version 1.2 of Random Hits requires Oolite 1.71 or higher. It will not work properly on a lower version of Oolite.

Version 1.1 was a big update to the OXP fixing a lot of bugs (set out in full in the Readme file) and adding some new features. The Space Bars are now armed with plasma turrets, prices of some commodities at space bars fluctuate allowing for limited in-system trading, some criminals now have escorts of henchmen, the rank held by NPC bounty hunters is now shown in brackets after the name of their ship, another 5,000 words have been added to the Random Generator and a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes are tided up. The new version also uses Java Script to check who killed or captured the Character. This is a big improvement over the old version as it means you get no loss of frame rate whilst fighting the Marks. The OXP should therefore run well even on low spec systems.

To update, simply install the new version of RandomHits.oxp in your AddOns folder, overwriting the old version. You must however remember to hold down the SHIFT key when you load up Oolite for the first time in order to update Oolite’s cache. If you don’t do this then Oolite will not load up the new version of the Random Hits code and so you won’t get any of the updates!

I’m fairly hopeful that I’ve squashed all the bugs but if you do find a bug could you post it on the Random Hits OXP thread. The readme file gives some instructions on bug reporting. If at all possible could you follow these. Part of the fun of the OXP is that, due to the randomization, I have no more idea than you do what missions you will be offered when you dock at a bar. As there are literally trillions of possible missions running in all eight Galaxies, I need to know who you were after and where you were when you encountered the bug in order to track it down!

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Installing and Playing

To play the OXP, unzip the download file. This will create a folder called "RandomHitsV1_2". Open this folder and you will see a folder named "RandomHits.oxp" and a readme. Move the RandomHits.oxp folder to Oolite's AddOns folder. The first time you load up Oolite after installing the OXP you must hold down the SHIFT key until you see the rotating Cobra Mk III on the start screen.

The vile Captain ‘Aft Guns’ Poteron lives up to his handle.

You are now ready to play, so slip an Ingram hand laser into your shoulder holster and set your course for the nearest Anarchy System. Upon entering the system set your Advanced Space Compass to ‘B’ in order to locate the local space bar. If you do not have an Advanced Space Compass, not to worry, the bars are constructed inside large hollowed out asteroids amongst fair sized clusters. Set your course for the planet and keep your eyes open. Before you get too near the bar, remember to check your Legal Status. Once you come within 25 kilometres, the Bar’s Sentinel Satellites will perform an automatic scan of your legal records. You don’t want to be within striking range of the bar if you are anything less than squeaky clean!

Target the Bar with your Identification Computer and either turn the docking over to the auto-pilot or dock manually. Upon docking, check that your hand weapon is fully charged (these places can be a little rough) and head for the bar area. Try not to give yourself away as a newcomer by ogling the furry feline pole dancers and take care not to spill the pint of the large amour-clad treeoid standing next to you. Order yourself a shot of Geteveian evil brew and log in to the Bulletin Board. You are free to browse through all advertisements before deciding for which (if any) you wish to offer your services. If none take your fancy, log off and remember to pay your bar bill, as a Deathwreaker in the face often offends.

If you offer your services for an assignment you will receive a reply from the poster of the advertisement. Assuming your offer was accepted, the mission details will be stored on your Status Screen (F5 twice) and your destination will be marked on the local Galactic Chart (F6). Once a mission is accepted, the unique transponder code of your victim will be downloaded to your onboard computer, allowing you to identify your mark as shown in the screen-shot.

The missions offered by the OXP are compatible with all other missions in Oolite, so you can, if you wish, play missions from Random Hits at the same time as other missions. For example, if you are trekking across the Galaxy to deliver a package for the U.P.S. Courier Company, feel free to stop by a space bar and see whether you can eliminate a bandit or two on the way. If you accept a mission and leave the Galaxy in which it was offered, the mission will be abandoned. There is no penalty for doing so and you will be able to take a new assignment in the new Galaxy. Good Luck with your career as a bounty hunter and remember, lets be careful out there….

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