[MOD] Hijack!

[pref]

With this mod you can pull off a boarding operation without reputation loss, if you target an isolated ship and cripple its radar(s) before initiating boarding.

Conditions:
* No operational radar on the target
* No friendly ships within 20km with a functional radar
* No stations within 30km or the station's radar range (lower value used: same logic as with vanilla distress calls)

If this all checks out, the target's emergency protocols will commence: drone pad will be brought to a working state, and all available drones queued for repair will be equipped, increasing the ship's defence strength.
The crew will also get really mad at you, and wont forget easily - better succeed once started, as a failed attempt might leave you with a ship that will kill any of your assets on sight - and which might belong to an otherwise friendly faction.
Any further actions against it will result in reputation loss - the skunk can only jam the identification and comm signals while boarding is in progress and the radar of the target is defunct.

Selling hijacked ships to a shipyard friendly to the original owner will have some annoying consequences - the shipyard will turn on you for a while, and you will have to pay for the ship as well.
Ships can only be hijacked once.

Anyway, yarr.


Workshop
dropbox


Steps to hijack:
0. You can start boarding just to get the info if hijack could work. A hint will display in-range ship/station and radar count. Cancel the ops.
1. If found a clean target, destroy the radar on the ship. This will drop your rep a little, but this loss is inevitable (and intended).
2. Start boarding. A hint will be displayed, either saying hijack started, or if anything moved in range then you will be notified about that instead (in that case you can still cancel).

If hijack could start, from this point on right until the op is finished attacking the target or its XS/S/M escorts will not hurt your rep.

3. Get rid of the escorts if needed, board the ship.
4. Try to sell the ship to a shipyard that is friendly to the original owner if you dare


Save safe.

Boarding Options is compatible, thanks to camus/Clownmug's help.

Incompatibility:Mods that keep spamming hints will also hide Hijack's messages.
You should still be able to see if hijack started from the target changing to enemy from its normal faction.

[pref]

Im thinking about adding a perma rep loss with the target faction if the operation fails.

[SyberSmoke]

Thought, what about signal jamming. A special illegal software suite that the player can buy at a EXTREME cost. But reduces the range values for a quiet hijacking.

Another option may be tying into the hacking drone...so hacking the ship before hand kills all comms out for a time.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Pref, nice one

[pref]

Thanks sparky!

I hope it wont be too much of a cheat.

Having a much higher initial range, and reducing it via a pricy pirate-gadget isn't a bad idea Syber!
It could provide a reason for a pirate mini plot

[Goliathmk2]

Haven't tested this out yet but,

WHAT IF I have a ship captured out in space somewhere and all the modules
are destroyed, could I sell the ship to the people I got it from? recapture it without
rep loss? and sell it again and again?

If so, I suggest adding in a way for the previous owners to recognize their old
ship. Whenever the captured ship is within 5km of a ship or 7.5km of a
station of the previous owners or if I try selling back to them they'll be like
"dude... WTF?" at which point you'll receive a rep hit.

EDIT: This can be worked around by taking your ship to a different shipyard and
changing the registration or serial code.

What if I bounce selling the ship between two shipyards for different factions?

I suggest a sort of timer put in place after I sell the ship that will prevent
me from capturing the ship without rep loss for that faction, additionally
the faction the player sells the ship to will send ships to escort their new
toy.

But I haven't tried this yet so I could be completely wrong.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Pref, I don't think this is a cheat mod - more that it fixes a feature I think Bernd announced in his boarding video

That said, well-spotted Goliath. Maybe this is a reason why it doesn't seem implemented in vanilla. Something like a timer sounds like a good idea. Whereas stopping the option to board a ship running "Exploring" (AKA move.die) would prevent a pirate player being able to capture NPC CVs built occasionally by shipyards.

[YorrickVander]

Likewise, this mod is less a cheat than an 'it makes sense' addition to the mechanics.

[TSM]

Love the idea of this mod

does it have any issues with more [Mod by Clownmug] Boarding Options (updated on 17.03.2015) ?

[pref]

Thanks guys, i had some doubts, happy you see it that way

@Goliathmk2: That is a valid concern, fixed.

@TSM: it should work, but i did not try it... could you provide feedback if it works or not?


***********

Quick update - if you manage to sell the ship back to a shipyard that is friendly to the original owner, then the shipyard will hate you for 2 hours, and the ship price will be deducted from your account.

[TSM]

@TSM: it should work, but i did not try it... could you provide feedback if it works or not?

Controls for boarding don't seem to appear from your mod, if I try to board a friendly it seems to be using boarding options.

I assume your mod takes out Radar?

[pref]

My mod doesn't add any more options to select, and it wont kill the radar for you - you have to do that yourself. If by controls you mean selectable options during boarding.

It should only display some hints at boarding start, on the right side of the screen, in the middle.
Things like radar count on the target, and in-range station/ship count.
Or if hijack could be started.

[denison10]

Or if hijack could be started.

in what place it is better to do a boarding?

[TSM]

My mod doesn't add any more options to select, and it wont kill the radar for you - you have to do that yourself. If by controls you mean selectable options during boarding.

It should only display some hints at boarding start, on the right side of the screen, in the middle.
Things like radar count on the target, and in-range station/ship count.
Or if hijack could be started.

Ah I see I will re-try and let you know, there is quite a few ships with no support or stations in range

Spoiler

Show

in xenon space few Split and Argon Cap ships.

@pref why don't you do a Video Demo of your mod?

[denison10]

@pref why don't you do a Video Demo of your mod?

YES!!! yes!!!

[pref]

Pref, I don't think this is a cheat mod - more that it fixes a feature I think Bernd announced in his boarding video

That said, well-spotted Goliath. Maybe this is a reason why it doesn't seem implemented in vanilla. Something like a timer sounds like a good idea. Whereas stopping the option to board a ship running "Exploring" (AKA move.die) would prevent a pirate player being able to capture NPC CVs built occasionally by shipyards.

Oh lol.. i stole his idea then - sorry

That sell loop problem is taken care of. Now such an attempt will hurt a bit.

@TSM: i checked boarding options quickly, and see no real conflict possibilities. The only possible problem i see that it clears the hints from the screen quite often - might happen that some of hijack's messages will be removed by boarding options (near) instantly.

If this is the case you should still be able to see if hijack started, because then the ship's faction will show 'enemy', with a smiley face - right after you initiate boarding.
Note that you must retarget the ship to get your target info refreshed on the skunk cockpit.

Let me know if there are issue, i might try to find a fix then. Boarding options is like vanilla, so many people use it

Regarding the video demo, i hoped it would be self explanatory - might be i failed with that. If yes, i can try to find a video editor and record a quick session. Maybe cubase works for that, never tried..

[pref]

@TSM, denison10: I uploaded some screenshots to the workshop page.
Let me know if it clears things up, or a vid is truly needed.

[BlackRain]

With this mod you can pull off a boarding operation without reputation loss, if you target an isolated ship and cripple its radar(s) before initiating boarding.

Conditions:
* No operational radar on the target
* No friendly ships within 20km with a functional radar
* No stations within 30km or the station's radar range (lower value used: same logic as with vanilla distress calls)

If this all checks out, the target's emergency protocols will commence: drone pad will be brought to a working state, and all available drones queued for repair will be equipped, increasing the ship's defence strength.
The crew will also get really mad at you, and wont forget easily - better succeed once started, as a failed attempt might leave you with a ship that will kill any of your assets on sight - and which might belong to an otherwise friendly faction.
Any further actions against it will result in reputation loss - the skunk can only jam the identification and comm signals while boarding is in progress and the radar of the target is defunct.

Selling hijacked ships to a shipyard friendly to the original owner will have some annoying consequences - the shipyard will turn on you for a while, and you will have to pay for the ship as well.
Ships can only be hijacked once.

Anyway, yarr.


Workshop
dropbox

What exactly do you mean by any further actions ? I am trying to use this but have yet to be able to successfully capture a ship without reputation loss.

I should destroy the radar dish first? Then initiate boarding? But then I have to destroy stuff on the ship and attack the ship to get its defenses down. So further action is necessary, or did you mean something else?

[TSM]

@TSM, denison10: I uploaded some screenshots to the workshop page.
Let me know if it clears things up, or a vid is truly needed.

looks good to me

[pref]

What exactly do you mean by any further actions ? I am trying to use this but have yet to be able to successfully capture a ship without reputation loss.

I should destroy the radar dish first? Then initiate boarding? But then I have to destroy stuff on the ship and attack the ship to get its defenses down. So further action is necessary, or did you mean something else?

I have uploaded some screenshots to the workshop hopefully it will be more clear.

Process goes like this anyway:

0. You can start boarding just to get the info if hijack could work. A hint will display in-range ship/station and radar count. Cancel the ops.
1. If found a clean target, destroy the radar on the ship. This will drop your rep a little, but this loss is inevitable (and intended).
2. Start boarding. A hint will be displayed, either saying hijack started, or if anything moved in range then you will be notified about that instead (in that case you can still cancel).

If hijack could start, from this point on right until the op is finished attacking the target or its XS/S/M escorts will not hurt your rep.

3. Get rid of the escorts if needed, board the ship.
4. Try to sell the ship to a shipyard that is friendly to the original owner if you dare


Either you destroyed the radar after starting the op, or there were friendly objects nearby which means you board normally.
That or there was a mod conflict or you foud a bug. If there is anything in log please let me know!