Xeptatl's Sword OXP

Xeptatl's Sword is an Oolite mission OXP which will take you twice round the 'Eight' on an epic quest to avert a full-scale colonisation of GalCop space by the Thargoids.
You will face fearsome foes and make, and lose, some good friends during this mission during which you will be tasked with helping the shadowy Xeptatl Society to thwart the Thargoids' most audacious plan yet.

This website is a help and information resource for the mission. There is information about the Characters you will meet, the organisations involved, and the ships, stations and objects you will encounter. This will help fill out the 'background' to the story. There is also a comprehensive 'help' section and a full Credits list.

General information

Xeptatl's Sword v2.0 requires Oolite v1.77.

Xeptatl's Sword is a mission OXP. It will start when you are in Galaxy Five and have completed several jumps. This delay is to ensure that a player visiting G5 for the first time will have the oportunity to complete one of the 'default' missions before Xeptatl's Sword starts.

The mission has been designed so that it can be carried out with any of the commonly used 'core' ships. The only requirement is that the ship must have at least two pylons, and be able to scoop items.

The mission has also been designed to require only weapons and equipment provided by the 'core' game or this OXP. An experienced Commander will find Military lasers and Standard and ECM-hardened missiles will be sufficient to deal with all the situations you will encounter. Excessive use of OXP weapons is therefore discouraged.
N.B. Using WMDs such as the Q-bomb and some OXP uber-weapons could break this mission so they may be dis-abled during certain stages. Killit OXP is known to break elements of this OXP and MUST NOT be installed while playing Xeptatl's Sword OXP.

*The only piece of OXP equipment needed is the GalDrivePod and GalDrivePod OXP is included in the download. If you already have GalDrivePod OXP installed there is no need to re-install it.
N.B. Some ships, such as the Vortex have 'virtual' missile bays. The GalDrivePod MUST be mounted in the active bay to work.

Mission screen review feature

You can review previous mission screens. Press F6 after docking and you will see a menu of previous mission screens. Click on the screen you wish to review.
F6 is also used for the short-range and Long range charts as usual. To access these, 'Exit' the screen-review function and press F6 again. The charts function will then work normally.

Advice

There will be several occasions throughout this mission where equipment will need to be added to your ship's pylons. You will be informed during the mission when this is necessary, and you will be prompted in advance so you may clear pylons in good time.

As this mission involves multiple galactic Jumps you are advised to replace Galactic Hyperdrives as soon as possible after using them, and it is suggested you always have at least one GalDrivePod on board. These are available from TL12 and above systems.

You will visit several Xeptatl Society stations and installations during this mission. These will be marked with an 'X' on the Space Compass.

Save often! As with all missions it is advisable to save the game frequently and it is also advised that you keep 'old' saves. This will allow you to go back to previous parts of the mission if required. This may be necessary if you get 'lost' on the mission, but is also useful if you simply want to re-visit a previous part of the mission.
The mission could however be broken if the player arrives at a target system where characters/installations etc are spawned on exiting witchspace but then goes to the main station and saves before completing that part of the mission. Upon re-launch the characters etc may no longer be present.
If you are en route to a destination system, save before you get there unless your instructions are to go to the main station. In these cases it is safe (and wise) to make a save there.

A great deal of time and effort has gone into the graphics and visual effects in Xeptatl's Sword and it is very likely that you may wish to repeat certain sections just to 'enjoy the show'.

Compatibility with other OXPs

There are times when features of other OXPs may interfere with Xeptatl's Sword. All known problems have been allowed for, but players may want to report any issues or problems on the Forum thread (see below).

Licence

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

Further help

For more help or information, please refer to the OXP's thread on the Oolite Bulletin Board.