Convoys

Freighters can fly in large groups, fugitive convoy leaders worth high bounties.

Overview

Freighters can fly in large groups occasionally. Small ships also make larger formations sometimes to defend themselves, as well as pirates, hunters and police, especially in bad governments. Leaders of convoys are usually well armed ships but local authorities pay very high bounties for the most wanted fugitive leaders.

This OXP as well as organising convoys, structures them too. So for a convoy of Pythons, for example, one will now find Python Leaders, Python Team Leaders, Python Pirate Bosses - very high bounty & Python Pirate Leaders - high bounty (depending on whteher the convoy is trading or piratical).

The variant version (Convoy leaders without bounty labels) is just the same, but the bounty levels are not indicated in the title of the ship. The bounties are otherwise unchanged.

Debate

The basic OXP announces the high bounties on pirate/Thargoid leaders. Is this reasonable?

(The "High Bounty" label) seems a bit strange. I can't imagine any pilot would be willing to wander the space lanes with a massive target painted on their back, saying, "Hey, come and kill me! I'm worth buckets of cash!"

Still, that's just me. Maybe there are some pilots like that. Phkb, 2017

On the other hand Oolite replicates a high technology civilisation assailed by pirates and Thargoids where the ships are identifiable by computer. Traders need to know this information to steer well clear of trouble, police & bounty hunters need it to know about targets. Why would it not be programmed into the ship computer in some way?

Due to this debate, the second version of this was introduced where the High Bounty ships are not labelled as such: Your choice!

Requirements

• Oolite v.1.79 or newer
• Escort Formations by Cim

Supplements

• Freighter Convoys also by Norby is a smaller ambience-level variant of this OXP, which affects ambience but not mechanics/behaviour

Alternatives

As mentioned above, Convoys & Convoy leaders without bounty labels are two variants of the same idea.

License

• CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
• Author: Norby

Links

• BB Thread (2017)
• Escort Formations - similar and compatible: add both for more complexity
• Freighter Convoys - ambience rather than mechanics (no major changes to AI)

Gameplay and Balance Indicator for Convoys

Seemingly the convoys of pirates should balance out the convoys of freighters & police

Gameplay and Balance Indicator for Convoy leaders without bounty labels

Note that the alternative version, Convoy leaders without bounty labels, is considerably nastier as the tougher ships are not marked out as such.