Anarchies v 2.9.2

by "Commander McLane"

with major contributions by "Killer Wolf", "Arexack_Heretic", "Eric Walch", "spara",  "Norby", "phkb" and "Griff"
and a lot of help and advice by others

an Expansion Pack for Oolite by Giles Williams

based on "Elite" by Ian Bell and David Braben

Introduction

It's a dangerous Ooniverse out there. Especially if you choose the life of a "privateer", looking for high profits without a special regard to your legal rating. A little trading in guns and drugs, a little racketeering, a little plundering of ships that hadn't been crippled before you arrived at the scene, some unfortunate confrontations with the police; and before soon you find yourself on GalCop's "most wanted"-list, a handsome sum on your head, hunted not only by your fellow pirates, but also by bounty hunters and the police. An uncomfortable position indeed.

If you install this OXP things get worse.

Overview

Install this OXP, and the appearance of Anarchy-systems in Oolite will change. In certain Anarchy-systems you will find Hacker Outposts, Salvage Gangs, Sentinel Stations or Renegade Stations. Depending on your legal status these may be more or less useful to you, and docking with them may be more or less dangerous to you.

Anarchies.oxp also modifies the way how the game deals with your legal status in general. First of all the bounty on your head—which translates into a bad legal status of 'Offender' or 'Fugitive'—will stick to you for a much longer time. If you don't commit more crimes, your status will get cleared after a while, just by jumping from system to system, as it was in the plain game. But once you are 'Fugitive' and the stations don't accept requests from your docking computer anymore, this will take much longer than without this OXP installed. It may take almost forever to get downrated to an 'Offender' rating again. The OXP also shuts the back-door of using your escape pod to become 'Clean' again. With Anachies.oxp installed, your legal status travels with you even in your escape capsule, and is locked into your new ship's transponder, as soon as you arrive at a station.

But the OXP offers also a variety of new ways of getting rid of an 'Offender'- or 'Fugitive'-status. These ways include the purchase of certain items on certain asteroids; but also bribing a GalCop official in the main station of an Anarchy-system is an option. You can even do something for your legal reputation if you choose to help the cops (but this will not prevent them from attacking you, as long as you're still 'Fugitive' or 'Offender' yourself).

Notable Features

1) In some Anarchies you will find a Hacker Outpost. These are huge inhabited asteroids, usually hidden in an asteroid field far away from the main station and GalCop's zone of influence. If you don't get a clue by one of their henchmen you won't find it. And if the henchman doesn't accept you as a fellow privateer you will have to tease him a little before he will share his information.

Even if the Hackers prefer Anarchies with a higher tech level, they are still technologically far ahead of that themselves. The Hackers are welcoming to a pilot who is—for whatever reason—in some trouble with GalCop, and they have a solution to offer—for a price. If you want, they can hack into GalCop's central database and clear your whole legal record, provided you have enough money to maintain the quite expensive sub-ether broadband connection they need for their work.

Apart from that you may be able to make some good deals with the Hackers. Living far away from the space lanes they are always in need of all every-day supplies. And they are happy to obtain the raw materials for their home-built computer systems. On the other hand there is not much pastime in the outpost apart from building sophisticated high-end soft- and hardware. So you may stumble over many an occasion in the outpost's market-section.

2) In some Anarchies, and even in non-Anarchy-systems, usually in the medium-range tech level, you can't miss the local Salvage Gang. Again this is a huge, hollowed-out asteroid, which is home to a gang of salvagers. You will find them wherever there is something to salvage, i.e. usually in the middle of the main corridor. Most of their business is legal, or at least not illegal enough to draw too much of GalCop's attention towards them. A clever commander will find many a bargain on the asteroid's market, especially as far as used alloys and machinery are concerned.

A visit to the Salvager's equipment store can perhaps be even more rewarding. Don't bother with the original, first-hand equipment. If they have any, it will be more expensive than in the system's main station. But quite often they manage to recover complete and (almost) unharmed equipment items from stranded shipwrecks. They refurbish and sell these items, and this is where you are in for some real bargains, if you feel the urge to fully equip your ship. The only question is: Can you trust the Salvager's advertising slogans? And what exactly is the One-Gunfight-Guarantee™? But anyway, it's cheap; so you can probably even afford to fix it, if it breaks.

Finally for the not-quite-so-legal part of their business: If GalCop for some odd reason doesn't seem to like you, there will be a special piece of equipment, which you will be able to obtain in the more shady Salvage Gangs in Anarchy-systems; sort of under the counter, so-to-speak. It may or may not be helpful to you; you will find out.

3) In some of the rougher Anarchy-systems, usually at the lower end of the tech level-spectrum, GalCop already feels that it is losing control of the space lanes to the pirates. That's the reason for the installation of a Sentinel Station at the outer end of the corridor, somewhere close to the witchpoint. Seeing a Sentinel Station guard his way has been a relief for many a trader who had underestimated the real danger of making business in Anarchy-systems.

The Sentinel Station offers not only protection to honest pilots, but also a range of services in its equipment-section. Of course you're dealing with the military here, so don't expect shopping to be cheap. But on the other hand, the superior quality of the offered equipment is out of the question. A clever pilot, however, may make some good deals in the station's market.

Oh, and don't even think about attacking a Sentinel Station. If you are in range of its plasma turrets, this will have been your last thought.

4) It should also be mentioned that in some cases GalCop's fears were justified. It has lost control to the pirates, who simply have overrun the military station and turned it into a Renegade Station. Unfortunately for harmless traders there is no way to tell from the distance whether the outlaws already have taken over the station. And once you are in scanner range it may be too late. The Renegades love to attack unsuspecting victims (and suspecting victims as well, for that matter). And even if they are busy attacking somebody else, or you have luckily slipped through their scanner grid, please don't attempt to dock with the Renegade Station. No, really; don't. And if you do, don't say I haven't warned you!

On the other hand, if you feel you are one of them (and I'm not talking about some parking violations; what I mean is, if you are a real criminal), and have righteously earned a good bad reputation; well, in that case you should seriously consider to pay the Renegades a visit. Their station is as close to a safe haven for all sorts of racketeers as it gets. The equipment-department may not be worth a visit—in the fight following the initial attack on the Sentinel Station much of the stock was destroyed, and generally the Renegades are not very well-known for their particularly caring and careful attitude towards things anyway; so the few intact items remaining on the shelves are much sought after among the criminals on the station, and thus equally expensive. And that is, if you want to risk a gunfight with some awful-looking and heavily armed creatures in the first place, in order to even get to the store and bid for one of the rusty missiles. On the other hand, a visit to the Renegade Station's market may feel like pirates' paradise. It is here that you really appreciate why you chose this kind of career anyway.

5) Even some main stations offer new opportunities hitherto unknown to not-so-law-abiding pilots. If you have managed to dock at all, which may require manual abilities, depending on your register of previous convictions, and have passed through the initial controls without being forced to lick the hangar clean—you know what I mean—then it may be worthwhile to hang around in the equipment department, and watch out for dubious GalCop personnel. Rumour has it that especially in stations in Anarchy-systems discipline among GalCop officials has become a little lax, and you might find an officer willing to take a bribe for clearing your legal record. Of course the conscience of an official of the Galactic Co-operative of Worlds, invested with a position of responsibility in an environment with a less-than-desirable amount of comfort and safety has its value, and therefore its price. A word of warning, though: If goes without saying that the attempt to bargain in such a delicate matter as bribing someone who has access to GalCop's central database will be at your own risk.

6) On the other hand, GalCop's military arm, the Galactic Navy, is always interested in skilled pilots with combat effectiveness. The ongoing war against the Thargoids means that the Navy sometimes can't be too picky in whom it calls to active reserve duty. Therefore GalCop issues an amnesty order from time to time. Pilots willing to take the offer have to report at a naval Behemoth parked in a system close to a current war zone. The amnesty offer is announced foremost in all kinds of meeting points for commanders who have a legal record to clear, among them Hacker Outposts and Salvage Gangs. GalCop is only considering an amnesty for criminals in exchange for their help if the Navy is really in a tight spot, therefore expect the deadline until the offer expires to be equally tight. If you make it in time and find the Behemoth, you'll be given a naval assignment. You have to fulfill it—and come back in one piece—in order to get your legal record cleared. Just don't get yourself involved in criminal activities again! (NOTE: everything mentioned in this paragraph requires Behemoth.oxp to be installed. If you don't have it, you won't receive any amnesty offers.)

Featured Stations and Ships

1) The Hacker Outpost. Dockable Asteroid. Modeled by Killer Wolf for this OXP. Shader effects by Griff. Killer Wolf expresses his thanks to Charlie, Griff, Selezen, Arexack_Heretic, LittleBear, Dr. Nil, Ahruman and anybody else who has helped building it.

2) The Salvage Gang. Dockable Asteroid. Modeled by Killer Wolf for this OXP. Shader effects by Griff. Credits see above.

3) The Sentinel Station. Dockable Station. Modeled by Aegidian for gwxstations.oxp and taken from that OXP. Only the colour of the plasma bolts was altered.

4) The Renegade Station. Clone of the Sentinel Station, again another colour of the plasma bolts.

5) The Renegade Viper. Pirate ship, Hacker henchman and defense ship of Hacker Outpost and Renegade Station. Modeled by 8bitapocalypse for renegade_viper.oxp and taken from that OXP.

6) The Salvager Phoenix. Defense ship of Salvage Gang and Renegade Station, and scavenger. Modeled by Cmdr Wyvern for phoenix.oxp and taken from that OXP. Salvager logo was added to the original texture.

7) The Salvager Tugger. Tugship of the Salvage Gang. Modeled by murgh for tugs.oxp and taken from that OXP. Salvager logo was added to the original texture.

7b) A couple of tugged ships. A variety of ships from the original set, taken from murgh's tugs.oxp.

8) Three bounty hunters. They will come after the player, as long as he is 'Fugitive'. Asp, CobraMkIII and Fer-de-Lance from the original set, hardened and with custom AI.

Minimum Requirements

Anarchies2.8.oxp requires at least Oolite 1.76. I recommend you upgrade to the latest version of Oolite if you haven't yet.

The amnesty offer requires Behemoth.oxp to be installed.

Download Location

This OXP is available for download through the Elite Wiki.

Installation

Move or copy the file Anarchies2.8.oxp from this folder to the AddOns folder inside the Oolite main folder. Restart Oolite. If you have any previous version of Anarchies.oxp installed, please remove it first.

Thanks

Last but not least I want to give lots of thanks to all who have contributed so far: Julyy for the original idea, Killer Wolf for a couple of very good suggestions that I could incorporate and for two beautiful asteroid models, Griff for providing some beautiful shader effects for these asteroids, Arexack_Heretic for a lot of very useful and practical advice, LittleBear for pointing me to BlackMonks as an example for some things I was trying to do, Eric Walch for bringing some problems in the script to my attention and providing imaginative suggestions how to solve them, and for not only introducing me to the secrets of ship-scripts, but also providing ready-made scripts for whatever I wanted to do, Disembodied for the amnesty idea, the ship-designers whose work I took the liberty to use in this OXP, Cap'n Hack for still hosting Oosat1 (and for guest-starring in this OXP), Ahruman, another_commander and the others for improving Oolite, Aegidian for this wonderful game, and all the other members of the Oolite BB who contributed to this OXP!

License:

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit the Creative Commons' website or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Fransisco, California, 94105, USA.

Practically this means that you may rip it apart and use whatever seems useful to you, as long as you credit the original author ("Commander McLane"), and share your work under the same license. It would be nice—although by no means necessary—to give me a note (either on the Oolite BB, or via email), if you intend to use parts of it.

History:

version 2.9.2 (December 2016)
- updated all subentities to use new style
- updated equipment.plist to OpenStep format.
- updated shipdata.plist to OpenStep format.
- changed ’background’ properties of mission screens to ’overlay’
- added screen ID to all mission screens.
- updated station market scripts to use new style.
- updated equipment conditions to use a condition script.
- updated shipdata.plist to use a condition script.
- fixed incorrect texture reference in "afl-m-dock" definition.

version 2.9.1 (November 2016)
- ffixed issues with double Behemoths appearing in system
- fixed issues with the amnesty mission not being triggered when docking at the Behemoth
- fixed javascript "undefined" error relating to "bouy-witchspace".

version 2.9 (October 2014)
- cconverted to OXZ format
- contain the facelift by spara
- you can save in the additional stations, except in the Hacker Outpost which is not stationary

version 2.8 (April 2012)
- fixed a problem that made the amnesty mission unfinishable if the game was saved and reloaded while doing it

version 2.7 (March 2012)
- fixed a problem that could limit other OXPs' (or the main game's) freedom to make the cloaking device repairable

version 2.6 (January 2012)
- moved some more previously overlooked methods to their own name space
- fixed problem of vanishing Sentinel Asteroids with Oolite 1.76
- fixed a small bug where removing the second henchman would give an error message
- Sentinel and Renegade Stations are aligned with the planet again
- Sentinel and Renegade Stations now are behaving like they're supposed to for the first time
- Sentinel Stations now have patrol ships to secure the space lane
- Oolite 1.76 required

version 2.5 (March 2011)
- changed all JS-scripts to strict mode
- moved all self-defined methods into their own namespace
- implemented another idea for coming clean: doing a Navy reserve mission and getting amnesty on completion
- for this to fully work Oolite 1.75.1 is now required

version 2.4 (February 2011)
- Salvage Gangs' hails are now sent via ship script instead AI, giving more timing flexibility
- Salvager Tugger is now part of the Salvage Gang's ship group, therefore it will be defended by the Gang
- two of the tugged ship models included in the OXP
- fixed another bug introduced with the shader bugfix in 2.3
- Cloaking Device no longer buyable in Hacker Outpost by accident, but still repairable
- fixed a nasty bug that removed the player's extra energy unit whenever he bought new equipment
- replaced all instances of pseudo random with scrambledPseudoRandomNumber; this will change the distribution of Salvage Gangs across systems, but not the overall number of them
- cleaning-up of AIs and shipdata
- requires now Oolite 1.75

version 2.3 (November 2009)
- fixed the bugs introduced with the shader bugfix in 2.2 (thanks, Griff!)
- JS: replaced all setOrientation and setPosition, as needed in Oolite 1.73
- JS: changed the handling of defense groups according to the requirements of Oolite 1.73
- requires Oolite 1.73

version 2.2 (July 2009)
- fixed a bug with the Salvage Gang's shaders (thanks, another_commander and Griff!)

version 2.1 (January 2009)
- fixed a bug that would let Salvager Tuggers not appear in version 2.0
- fixed a bug with the Sentinel and Renegade Stations that would cause them to behave strangely when attacked

version 2.0 (January 2009)
- revised the Hacker Outpost model, closing the visible gaps around the tunnel exits
- tunnels in both Hacker Outpost and Salvage Gang replaced with models that use shaders (thanks, Griff!)
- docking bays in both Hacker Outpost and Salvage Gang replaced with Griff's models (ditto!)
- tweaked tugger model a little
- henchmen will no longer give the Hacker Outpost's location to everybody
- simplified the Hacker Outpost spawning
- Salvage Gang now aligning with the planet, and asteroid field spawned via ship script
- fixed a bug that would give the bribe offer too often
- fixed a bug that had replaced all Renegade Stations with Sentinel Stations in 1.1
- fixed a bug that would not initialise some processes if a new commander was started
- player's bounty now reduced 10% per jump if fugitive, instead of a 20 or 10 points
- salvaged equipment is now installed on buying, instead of waiting for launch
- equipment failure chance is now triggered through a timer, instead of a bunch of events; and now uses the new EquipmentInfo object
- there is also a chance now that salvaged equipment will work just fine, removing the failure possibility
- some minor tweaks in this readMe
- JS: replaced player.ship.bounty with player.bounty, which wasn't supported in Oolite 1.72
- JS: replaced all 'let' with 'var'
- requires now Oolite 1.72.1

version 1.1 (November 2008)
- the main script is now completely in JavaScript
- Hacker Outposts are now correctly facing the planet, via their new ship-script (thanks, Eric!)
- as a bonus also their Sentinel Asteroids are finally placed correctly and work (thanks, Eric!)
- added some flashers to the asteroid models
- AIs improved
- Hacker Outposts, Salvage Gangs and Renegade Stations have now their correct commodity prices
- requires Oolite 1.72

version 1.0 (February 2008)
- fully functional version
- requires Oolite 1.65

version 0.1 (March 2007)
- teaser with basic functionality