Difference between revisions of "Defence Rider Drones OXZ"
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Some '''crews''' - and this your reporter had from several horse's mouths - are noticing there can be '''profit''' in it. Some tell they are turning themselves into hunters using SDDs only. Most are styling themselves 'Harvesters' - including two of yours truly's ''old friends'' - yet another burgeoning shibboleth among SDD-packing 'commanders'. | Some '''crews''' - and this your reporter had from several horse's mouths - are noticing there can be '''profit''' in it. Some tell they are turning themselves into hunters using SDDs only. Most are styling themselves 'Harvesters' - including two of yours truly's ''old friends'' - yet another burgeoning shibboleth among SDD-packing 'commanders'. | ||
| − | Galcop Administration are smirking like fat felines. They get a ''free'' Police Force demanding ''no wages'' or great expenditure, merely ongoing production and licensing. Licensing fees, with taxes, swell the Comptroller's coffers and the spacelanes become safer for all (except ''perhaps'' offenders). Win-win, they brightly assure ''us''. | + | Galcop Administration are smirking like fat felines. They get a ''free'' Police Force demanding ''no wages'' or great expenditure, merely ongoing production and licensing. Licensing fees, with taxes and penalties, swell the Comptroller's coffers and the spacelanes become safer for all (except ''perhaps'' offenders). Win-win, they brightly assure ''us''. |
<small>[*Deputy Chief Constable. Would you buy ''that'' for a Lave penny, Tuners? Our 'humble' Grocer has rocketed up in the gal if we can believe our source, and we ''know'' you believe ''us''. Now it's ''we'' who <u>must</u> meet ''them'' again - and you'll be right here with your devoted sleuth when ''that'' happens.]</small> | <small>[*Deputy Chief Constable. Would you buy ''that'' for a Lave penny, Tuners? Our 'humble' Grocer has rocketed up in the gal if we can believe our source, and we ''know'' you believe ''us''. Now it's ''we'' who <u>must</u> meet ''them'' again - and you'll be right here with your devoted sleuth when ''that'' happens.]</small> | ||
Revision as of 11:56, 21 May 2026
Contents
Downsizing
Galcop, in a desperate bid to save on personnel and vehicles (read: its costly Police Viper and Viper Interceptors), has sanctioned the galaxy-wide production and adoption of a smaller, cheaper enforcement platform.
The result, under consultation with several leading minds including, they claim, G.E.T. 'defector' (now Galcop DCC*) Dor Reval, is the Mambita - a fully autonomous reduced-scale defence craft, dubbed Ship Defence Drone (SDD).
For the project, hints a confidential informant, their R&D "took the proven Mamba II design, scaled down its hull to less than half its size and dispensed with the need for an organic pilot, integrating instead advanced robotic AI systems, all of which can be mass-produced." The SDD Mambita's internals are almost wholly taken up by a powerful - for any organic, 'too powerful' is putting it mildly - non-Hyperspace engine. What remains houses a laser mounting of military specification.
Mambita SDD is a fire-and-forget weapon, in effect, and belongs officially to the Mine-class, being too light in mass to lock or hinder any vessel.
Police sources in this and nearby systems say they have begun a gradual phase-out of their manned Viper patrol vehicles, and are introducing cunningly programmed Mambitas to take their place. Remaining Vipers are being modified to carry Mambita SDDs as Rider drones, couched along the mothership's hull, to be released and recalled when occasion demands. If it's happening here and there, Tuners, you can bet your last alien item it's happening everywhere.
Trials have proven an outstanding success, we learn. "The Mambita's speed and acceleration, turn rate, and reaction-time outstrip those of opponent ships, and their diminished electromagnetic and visual profile renders the drones hard to detect and hit". Loss rates are low, far lower than those of manned Vipers in dangerous systems. The SDD's future looks rosy.
'Drop a drone' is becoming a catchphrase not only among the shrinking Galcop Police Corps, but increasingly among non-uniformed crews. And thereby hangs another Tuners' tale...
Civilian SDD
At some stage in this initiative, an un-named Galcop nabob had a brainwave: A de facto space police force might soon become unnecessary. All that would be required was licensing - a stringent, Galcop controlled form of licensing, granted; a licensing of SDD for the use of approved civilian vessels. A trader vessel, for example, sporting its own Rider drone hardpoints and Mambita complement, could effectively carry its own police enforcers along with it.
Plans crystallized quickly for the formation of a new Civilian SDD Authority, whose tasks include screening, approval and licensing of applicants, along with outsourcing of Mambita production for the general market. All reflecting a close and seamless integration of the 'product' not only with individual ship systems, but with the Galcop communications network itself, every aspect of SDD deployment monitored and recorded.
SDD capability requires one thing and one thing only of any applicant: an impeccable Galcop record: Oh yes, Tuners - a life of complete compliance with galactic laws. How many of us could pull that one off? A chosen few have, it seems.
The SDD Authority, thus satisfied, will grant approval and a duly legitimized licence for the carrying of Rider drones. Our hitherto faceless source intriguingly added, "and any other armaments Galcop might later put into use."
Repeated claims are that there is little scope for abuse of the system: "unique codes are issued and hardwired in to every drone allotted; no drone can function without them. Hardpoints are mated with a singular encrypted link; an SDD will not attach itself without such a coupling. Every 'drop' is logged, every retrieval, every kill, every loss."
"The SDD, as a weapon of the ship on which it is mounted, and certainly not accounted a vessel in its own right, but a Mine, carries out its allotted task of targetting offending ships of its own selection or that of its mothership, and on their elimination registers a 'kill' with the onboard and Galcop systems simultaneously." Galcop credits the launching vessel with the kill, awarding the ship its bounty plus 100 credits. Galcop sees the bonus as 'incentive to policing', but charges the licensee 100 credits for a lost drone. Every SDD drop slaps on a ('negligible') tax. Now our amicable whistleblower starts to earn their Onriran dollars...
Some crews - and this your reporter had from several horse's mouths - are noticing there can be profit in it. Some tell they are turning themselves into hunters using SDDs only. Most are styling themselves 'Harvesters' - including two of yours truly's old friends - yet another burgeoning shibboleth among SDD-packing 'commanders'.
Galcop Administration are smirking like fat felines. They get a free Police Force demanding no wages or great expenditure, merely ongoing production and licensing. Licensing fees, with taxes and penalties, swell the Comptroller's coffers and the spacelanes become safer for all (except perhaps offenders). Win-win, they brightly assure us.
[*Deputy Chief Constable. Would you buy that for a Lave penny, Tuners? Our 'humble' Grocer has rocketed up in the gal if we can believe our source, and we know you believe us. Now it's we who must meet them again - and you'll be right here with your devoted sleuth when that happens.]
--Tea Mereso, "you tuned it here first" freelance, Xexedi Enquirer.
[What follows are uncut extracts from ongoing chats - straight from the mouth(s) of our prize Galcop mare (or stallion, or both). True voice obliterated for public consumption. And excuse our few interpolated comments. Tuners, if you can take all this in, you possess minds of a higher order than those of your humble recorder and interviewer...]
Onboard SDD Mechanisms
An automated comm-link is established with all attached SDDs on station launch.
The deployment mechanism is mated with the WEAPONs (online/offline) switch. An organic commander must toggle ship weapons ON to drop an SDD. Toggle OFF, then ON again to deploy another Mambita.
There are various ways and situations in which deployed SDDs are recalled and retrieved:
1) Manually. In flight, from the F5 ship status screen, press [x].
2) On Torus-drive engagement, all deployed drones are automatically recalled and retrieved.
3) On requesting docking clearance, any deployed SDDs are automatically recalled and retrieved.
4) On engagement of the hyperspace motor (witchdrive), all deployed drones are recalled.
An advanced system-scanner, hitherto installed only in Galcop Police Vipers, is integral to SDD, all its data instantaneously transmitted to the mothership's computers. By pressing [f] from the F5 Ship Status screen, a licensee may view and update a list of High Offenders present in the system, pre-sorted by 'nearest first'.
Those ships sporting FE Shipyards' state-of-the-art GETter HUD (v.1.6) will be able to track the closest High Offender's compass direction and hi/lo elevation status in realtime. Once this Offender is despatched (by the pilot or an SDD), new quarry, if present, will automatically be prioritized. Alternatively, the pilot may press F5->[f] again at any time.
An SDD Licensee becomes, in sum, a valued and integral part of the system's Galcop Police Network (SDD-Net). Every Police Mambita will establish a network link with the Licensee's onboard and SDD Rider systems, permitting direct subspace communication of individual Police SDD targets and terminations, for which the SDD Licensee receives a portion of the Galcop bounty (this percentage colloquially known as 'police boon', its amount depending on the number of civilian Licensees in system at the time).
Hostile encounters
Frequently, on encountering a group of Offender ships, deployed SDD Riders will select appropriate targets and initiate their own attack. Whether they do will depend on the gravity of the offences the scanned group has committed or is in the process of committing.
Otherwise, when their mothership fires on an identified Offender, every deployed drone will join in attacking this target. In fact, any ship their mothership fires on will become a target, regardless of legal status. The only class of ship an SDD is prevented from attacking is a vessel of CLASS_POLICE.
When the mothership targets an offending ship, any idle SDD will be vectored to engage it.
When the mothership receives hostile fire, drones will be assigned to attack the attacker.
When the mothership is targetted by a missile, one idle drone (if present) will be assigned to intercept the hostile that launched it. Unengaged riders might also, at discretion, target the missile itself.
When the alert condition changes to RED, any currently unengaged (idle) drones will be assigned the nearest hostile to attack.
An automated proximity alert will be issued by the mothership to all SDD Riders when she approaches within 10 Lk (Lave kilometers) of a Top prioritized target, idle drones then commencing immediate attack on that offender.
General SDD status and other observations
As already observed, the SDD Mambita is officially classed as a Mine. As a Mine it cannot mass-lock other ships.
All SDD Mambitas are identified with role 'police', as they are in every sense Galcop property. Additionally, as mentioned, Galcop Police Corps increasingly assigns SDDs to its own patrols, replacing organic crew and expensive Vipers.
Police SDD uses the following designation template:
Police SDD1234
(the 4-digit code pseudo-randomly generated on entering service.) This number is used as a seed in the encryption chain for mating with identically coded hardpoints. Civilian SDD employs a similar form, but with 'Rider' appended, as in
SDD1234 Rider
A Rider is re-designated on re-deployment, updating its coupling point to sync. This is viewed by Galcop as a necessary addition to security.
On the scanner, a Police SDD can be recognized by its lollipop colours flashing purple and blue. Civilian-licensed SDDs when dropped are distinguished by their red and blue flashing blips.
SDD Charges and Credits
The nominal cost of a Galcop SDD Licence is 1000 credits, renewable every LY (Lave Year).
As mentioned already, each SDD Rider deployment or 'drop' carries a small, but incremental, tax. 'Incremental' is well hidden in the Licence small-print. The things they hate to tell us!
Loss of a drone through destruction incurs a Galcop penalty of 100 credits.
A Rider's elimination of a missile nets the launching vessel a small consideration: 10 credits.
On registration of a kill, each kill by an SDD is credited to the mothership pilot's Elite score (the SDD is a weapon fired by the mothership, just like any other missile or mine.) The mothership pilot's account is credited with the bounty on the destroyed vessel plus Galcop's 'policing incentive' bonus of 100 credits. All accounting occurs in realtime.
(SDD-Net's 'police boon' has been mentioned: Licensees receive a varying percentage of the bounty on any Police SDD 'termination'.)
According to Galcop's accompanying SDD-Net Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH), full cumulative statistics on all aspects of charges and credits (including those for Police SDD) are to be found on the ship system's F5F5 Mission Screen. As an example, they give:
SDD-Network:
SDD Rider Kills: 72
SDD Rider Bounty: 8341 cr
SDD Rider Taxes: 138.50 cr
SDD Drop Tax: 0.75 cr
Police SDD Kills: 3
Police SDD Boons: 58 cr
The writers exhort us to note the inclusion of the 100-credit penalties for loss of any Riders under 'SDD Rider Taxes'.
From this it is not hard to see that, with the aid of SDDs, a reasonable living could be eked out through zealously 'harvesting' Offenders insystem - a practice Galcop is blatantly encouraging with its 'policing incentive'.
SDD capacities by Ship Class
Galcop has confirmed that, on the whole, the following SDD attachment limits have been adhered to for most buyable ships in the current inventory:
Adder: 2 Anaconda: 20 Asp Mk II: 6 Boa: 15 Boa class cruiser: 15 Cobra Mk I: 5 Cobra Mk II: 6 Cobra Mk III: 8 Cobra Mk IV: 10 Constrictor: 10 Fer-de-Lance: 6 Gecko: 2 Krait: 5 Mamba: 3 Moray Medical Boat: 4 Moray Star Boat: 4 Python: 12 Sidewinder: 2 Transporter: 2 Viper: 2 Viper Interceptor: 3 Worm: 2.
A piloted Mambita - yes, a few such craft exist, primarily for test purposes - can 'piggyback' a single SDD, becoming, in effect, a double Mambita. (Sounds like something on the menu of our favourite Laeninian eatery.)
Download
Download Version 1.6 of Defence Rider Drones (zipped OXP):
https://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/3/3b/Defence_Rider_Drones.oxp.zip
Simply unzip to your Oolite AddOns folder.
OR
Download Version 1.6 of Defence Rider Drones (OXZ):
https://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/3/3e/Defence_Rider_Drones.oxz
Place this file in your Oolite AddOns folder.
OR
Get the latest version in-game from the Oolite Expansions Manager.
Recommended OXPs
Highly advisable if you intend to hunt for Offenders is:
The most notable observed effect of this tiny tweak is that ships of class Pirate no longer openly threaten or attack the player's ship. You are essentially transformed into a police vigilante, or proxy copper. Best results with an Asp or Viper!
Galcop's Neutral Particle Beam weapon causes catastrophic internal damage - frying computers, disabling power, knocking out weapons and critical systems - while throwing off little energy as surface heat. A direct hit leaves the target a drifting derelict without triggering fatal explosions of fuel or ordinance.
Flyable and essentially unaltered versions of the Asp Mk II, Constrictor, Fer-de-Lance, Gecko, Krait, Mamba, Sidewinder, Viper, Viper Interceptor, Worm, and Transporter. Those ships originally sans Hyperdrive now have one; those without cargo space remain without. Newly rationalized prices applied.
FE Shipyards' premier trader/vigilante HUD now integrates realtime tracking of this OXP's closest High Offender in-system. Unzip the file to your Oolite AddOns folder.
Versions
Version 1.6
* OPTION: SDD Rider made CLASS_POLICE if masslock is desired. It will assume game-coded Police - coupled with scripted - behaviour. Careful not to hit one!
* High Offenders automatically re-sorted by 'nearest first' in all conceivable cases.
* Covered case of target being a victim of the NPB Neutralizer or in a crippled state.
* Invalid or disabled victims automatically removed from H.O. list.
* Adding a new High Offender to the list (F5F5->[f]) automatically re-sorts it.
* Docking with Station clears the current Top Target from GETter HUD display.
* "Belt'n'Braces" check for SDD-deployment FAILURE. Warning, and Action taken by CSDDA.
Version 1.5
* Nearest Top High Offender automatically re-tracked in GETter HUD v1.6, on acquisition.
* High Offenders list instantly updated on elimination of a Top target (by SDD or Mother).
Version 1.4
* +10 cr for missile elimination (by Police SDD or SDD Rider)
* Incremental 'drop tax' for SDD deployments introduced.
* F5F5 Mission screen 'SDD-Network' shows cumulative SDD Rider & Police SDD statistics.
* SDD Rider & Police SDD gains/losses tracked in-game and via missionVariables.
* Various optimizations and refactorings in all three scripts.
Version 1.3
* SDD Mambita's default forward weapon changed to Military Laser: SDD kills are now quicker and from greater distances.
* Fully implemented Galcop License-granting conditions.
Version 1.2
* SDD Licensees get random percentage of the bounty on Police SDD terminations.
* Police Mambitas report terminations on system-wide SDD Net.
* New Police SDDs establish link with player ship's SDD network.
* Idle drone(s) vectored to attack when Mother targets an Offender.
* SDD Mambita drones now know who spawned them (player or system).
* Fix: tightened condition inside the frame callback for close attacks.
* Code re-arrangement for shipSpawned() events between world- and ship-scripts.
* Tidied and deleted sundry debug log entries.
Version 1.1
* Top High Offender made SDD target on close range approach by Mother.
* Highest offender realtime viewscreen tracking integrated with GETter HUD v.1.6
* Highest bounty Offenders in system updated and listed on keypress [f] from F5 screen.
* Advisory broadcast to SDDs when Mother targets an Offender.
* Subspace (console message) comms from SDDs out of scan-range.
* Galcop prohibition on drone deployment from an offending ship.
* SDD Mambita entry and description added to the Ship Library.
* Equipment text changed.
Requirements
Defence Rider Drones most emphatically does NOT work with Oolite versions prior to 1.92. It has been tested with version 1.90, in which it consistently crashes on Witchspace exit (I have no idea why - although I hear that 1.90 was plagued by instability issues.)
Though by no means a requirement, GETter HUD version 1.6 is the only HUD with which realtime Offender tracking has been integrated.
Quick Facts
| 1 |
| Version | Released | License | Features | Category | Author(s) | Feedback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.6 | 2026-05-19 | CC BY-NC-SA 4 | Enhances Combat | Weapons OXPs | Reval | N/A |
