BigShips OXP

Manages the addition (and the behaviour) of big ships to solar systems. For example, this OXP will prevent a massive ship trying to enter the much smaller launch tunnel of an orbital station!

Overview

A small (5kb) OXP. Whilst it does not add any ships of its own to Oolite, it creates the new role of "bigTrader" which other designers of large trader ships may wish to make use of. A populator script is included to add ships of such a role to the game, plus an AI is offered which can be used to control those ships and prevent them trying to dock with or launch from the main station.

OXPs using bigTrader role

ADCK's Bulk Haulers
Andromeda
Aquatics: Man O' War, HammerHead, Hawksbill
Baakili Far Trader
BuoyRepair: Guanako
Condor
Constitution Class Heavy Cruiser
Deep Space Dredgers
Liners: Aurora, Emerald, Tigershark, Saga
Orisis
Star Destroyer
Woma Fuel Transport (big variant)

Requirements

This OXP requires version 1.80 of Oolite.

Download

• Downloadable through the in-game Expansions Manager or here: BigShips_1.4.oxz
• BigShips_1.4.oxz from Box.com.

Previous Version

• Big Ships v1.02 can be downloaded from Box.net by clicking on the link.

Version History

• 1.0.0 - Original release.
• 1.0.1 - Added docking acceptance function to AI, for big traders with docking ports.
• 1.0.2 - Amended script to stop spawning in systems going or gone nova.
• 1.3 - Switched to using new populator routines. Added role-categories.plist file to replace pirate-victim-roles.plist.

Added Library Config option to control the maximum number of traders spawned.

• 1.4 - Fixed issue with not saving the max number of traders setting.

Dark Side note on populations

• It is envisioned that makers of large trading ship OXPs should use this OXP too. Our aim is to prevent too many system populator scripts adding new and large ships to the space lanes, and so making them unbalanced and overcrowded. By using the new "bigTrader" role in place of "trader", any such ship will be selected from the available pool by the common populator in this OXP, and so avoid duplication.

• BigShips defines the vanilla game Anaconda as a "BigShip". So, if you are waiting for your OXP big ship to be spawned - and it isn't, then this OXP might merely be adding more anacondas to your game instead of spawning the BigShip you are after! Switeck's explanation

Links

• BB Thread (2007-12)
• Big Ships OXP (2010) - what happens with Big Ships docking at Big Stations? (eg: Superhubs)
• Thargoid's OXP page.

Related OXPs

• External Docking System OXP - takes BigShips too large to dock with regular stations. Nuit Space Station OXP has been modified to allow External Docking.