Zzzz Realistic Shipyards

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Revision as of 11:34, 8 March 2008 by Lestradae (talk | contribs)

This is a complete overhaul of Oolite's shipyards system.

  • Consistent Ship Prices & Tech Levels for ALL ships available in Oolite (strict and OXPs)
  • Diverse alternate beginnings for Jamesons due to better ship availability
  • Game Balance & Strategic Elements concerning ships enhanced
  • Creative solution to the Uber-ship problem

Download Realistic Shipyards here (52 kB)

Improvements on game mechanics & overall atmosphere:

  • Game Mechanics - Consistent Ship Prices & Tech Levels: The prices that ships have and the Tech Levels as of which they are available are now completely consistent within the game, irrelevant of whether they are from strict mode or any OXP available today. The more a ship can do the more expensive it is and the higher the Tech Level nescessary to have a chance of it appearing in the shipyard.
  • Atmosphere - Consistent Ship Prices & Tech Levels: What Tech Level a world has can now directly be experienced in its shipyard as well, not only in the equipment dock. The kind of ships that appear at a given Tech Level have a certain feel to them of being in the same league - the reason being, that they actually are.
  • Game Mechanics - Alternate Beginnings: Newbies to Oolite were often complaining about the too-difficult starting conditions. The question was, how-to make the game more easy to access at the beginning without implementing "get-rich-fast" schemes. This OXP probably solves that problem. With many ships cheaper than the Cobra MkIII available from the Lave shipyard onwards, which are characterised by specific strengths but also major weaknesses compared to the Jameson`s Cobra, the beginner`s path becomes much clearer. New, interesting options become available from the very start of the game without tipping the game balance or the implementation of get-rich schemes!
  • Atmosphere - Alternate Beginnings: The game`s beginning is much more complex. Any Jameson can now sell the Cobra MkIII for a transporter which has 100 tons of Cargo Space but no Lasers and no missiles and start trading in earnest; or buy a ship with 0.4 LS and do UPS-Courier runs; or buy a Fighter Ship with good shields and the like and do some beginner`s random hits mission. But this comes at the price of exclusion of any other career path - until the very first trading/courier/fighter scheme enables the beginner to re-buy a ship with more options - or just more of the same.
  • Game Mechanics - Game Balance & Strategic Elements: I have spent a lot of time thinking about game mechanics, balance and suggestions from members on the Oolite Boards before creating the prices & TL formulae and this OXP. Ships now become a real, plannable strategic element of the game, instead of insanely over- or underpriced flavour stuff alone. As the Realistic Shipyards` prices and availabilities have directly to do with the ship's quality - and also their individual combinations of strengths & weaknesses - with the help of the included ship stats FOR ALL THE SHIPS currently available IN ANY OXP (!) you can strategically plan your ascent to Elite veteran with an eye on your Credits and tastes alike.
  • Atmosphere - Game Balance & Strategic Elements: Think about it - what kind of person do you want to play in Oolite? A pirate? A trader? A law enforcement officer? Space Navy? A courier? A bit of everything or any given combination of the above? Now those are real choices that affect the game. What kind of money can you spend? What might, depending on the aforementioned choices, become your next ship? And the ship after that? And where will you have to go to acquire that kind of ship? All this will now not only happen in your head, but in the game.
  • Game Mechanics - Uber Ship problem: There are no more Uber ship problems, as there are no more Uber ships. That doesn`t mean that I`ve changed anything about their stats (I haven`t). But now with the Realistic Shipyards OXP, Uber ships simply become the High-End ships of the Ooniverse, fitting into the overall game mechanics without breaking the game or getting boring. They are available only in systems with the highest Tech Levels and have prices that can reach far beyond the 1 Million Credit range - but that`s only realistic.
  • Atmosphere - Uber Ship problem: No more guilty conscience if you fly the better-at-everything Super Cobra, the mighty (original) Imperial Courier or even the interstellar-capable ultrafast Morrigan Beyonder Vessel. Because if you own one of those ships with this OXP in, you`ve fought and traded and did missions long and hard to acquire that much money, and perhaps searched for those vessels a long time in shipyards of the highest supertechnology that the Ooniverse has to offer: You`ve earned it! :)


Overview

It all started when I was unnerved at the absurd ship pricing in Oolite. Why should you pay so much money for an Asp MkII if it`s really such a let-down from the Jameson`s Cobra MkIII? And aren`t the ultra-fast Benulobiweed ships, the Imperial Courier Battleship and the better-in-all-and-everything SuperCobra Uber ships, to be shunned by the honest player?

I thought not. What was missing for me was a method of accurate pricing, that actually had some kind of relation to any ship`s performance. So I devised a method to derive a more realistic ship pricing from the ship stats. How large is its Cargo Bay? How fast is it? Can every piece of equipment be fitted in? And, most importantly, is it a ship that unites loads of different bonuses (SuperCobra) or maluses (Adder) at once?

I believe this OXP solves the problem of Uber ships and strange prices alike. Now, if you like to own an Asp MkII just for fun, you don`t have to pay twice the price of a Cobra MkIII to do it. If you want to fly the SuperCobra but it felt like cheating, not any more. Because now you`ll have to earn it - by paying 1.6 million Credits ...

In the early and middle stages of the game, you will know that if you buy a ship with more of something, you pay more. And the other way around. Oolite now realistically trades off cargo space against speed against handling and so on - giving you as the player transparent choices of what you are going for. You can work yourself up a continuous ladder of better and better ships.

I think that the Realistic Shipyards OXP can even open up new Vistas of gameplay for Deadly & Elite veteran Commanders. Seen everything? Won against anything? Well, now you might buy and fight some Dreadnought Carrier with 1000 tons of Cargo, 10 Energy Banks & Missile Slots that can fly at 0.75 LS! You will just have to earn an unprecedented 60 million Credits first. So the game will still have to offer the Elite veteran in his Iron Ass SuperCobra something to strive (and trade!) for.

This is my first OXP, and the first time in the last twenty years that I tried my hand at something remotely resembling programming, so bear with me. If you find any bugs or performance issues that are not already listed here, feel free to PM me and I`ll see what I can do about it.


How-To switch from your game without Realistic Shipyards to one with this OXP in (without cheating):

The Prices and Availablities of ships in the Realistic Shipyards OXP are often massively different from their original ones. If you are starting a completely new game with Commander Jameson anyways, ignore the following text. But if you no longer own your original Cobra MkIII and don`t want to cheat or loose a fortune when changing from Oolite without to Oolite with the Realistic Shipyards OXP in, I suggest you act as follows:

1. Transfer your most recent saved game to a version of Oolite without the "loose 25% when buying/selling ships" - thing, if possible.

2. Buy a standard Cobra MkIII in this version.

3. Change back to your original Oolite version with the Realistic Shipyards OXP on.

4. Think about your new options and with which kind of ship you want to continue your game.

5. Buy the new ship with the Realistic Shipyards OXP on.

6. Enjoy the game including the new shipyards options.

You don`t have to follow the above routine to play Zzzz Realistic Shipyards OXP. You can just put the OXP into your AddOns folder and start playing. But, if you don`t, you might effectively cheat or loose a fortune by doing that. It`s your decision; you have been warned :)


Known Performance Issues

  • Do not rename this OXP! The Zzzz - Beginning is nescessary so that the Ship Pricing OXP`s revised prices and Tech Level limits overwrite all other ship price and TL stats, so the Z`s have to stay on or the OXP will not work properly.
  • If you find any bugs or performance issues that are not already listed here, feel free to PM me and I`ll see what I can do about it!
  • In Oolite 1.70, it is irrelevant for the function of the Realistic Shipyards OXP if you have all ship OXPs in existence installed or the Realistic Shipyards is the only OXP in your AddOns folder or anything inbetween. Note that it is currently unknown if this OXP can work with versions of Oolite below 1.70. Feedback is appreciated!
  • I will be very grateful if other OXP`ers notify me if they create new OXP`s with shipyard.plists in or change existing one`s. I will attempt to upgrade the Realistic Shipyards OXP so that it covers everything shipwise currently available. Just PM me with the stats of your new/revised ship and I will include the additional information.
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