Hello!...First post...Wow!...Thankyou and Questions!...

[another_commander]

Any thoughts on the 'laser temperature bar length' ?

This surely is the most important question ever asked of Oolite!

The laser firing circuits cut-off shortly before the laser reaches meltdown temperature. This is why you don't see the bar reaching full length.

[ClymAngus]

Now, I get the trick. Clym, you did the same with my welcomeback !
Sounds that you REALLY want/need to promote your awesome maps.

To quote Hellraiser 3
"No don't do that, put yourself down. If you have a talent you should be proud of that. You should let that, define you. Whatever it is."

Is it just my name at the bottom of the maps? I think not, are they useful? Yes.

Would it were all about me then I would be truly happy.

It isn't, it's all about YOU. Getting YOU to the places where YOU need to be quickly, easily and with some idea of what will meet YOU when YOU pop out that tunnel. As aims go, a fairly noble one.

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Oh and if your floating around soaking up atmosphere don't forget to download the graveyard. It is very peaceful:

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=617

[Makandal]

Now, I get the trick. Clym, you did the same with my welcomeback !
Sounds that you REALLY want/need to promote your awesome maps.

To quote Hellraiser 3
"No don't do that, put yourself down. If you have a talent you should be proud of that. You should let that, define you. Whatever it is."

Is it just my name at the bottom of the maps? I think not, are they useful? Yes.

Would it were all about me then I would be truly happy.

It isn't, it's all about YOU. Getting YOU to the places where YOU need to be quickly, easily and with some idea of what will meet YOU when YOU pop out that tunnel. As aims go, a fairly noble one.

----------------------------------------------

Oh and if your floating around soaking up atmosphere don't forget to download the graveyard. It is very peaceful:

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=617

This is a very sensible set of remarks from a sensible person.
To quote Uncle Ben in Spiderman "With great power comes great responsabilities".

[Capt. Murphy]

Welcome to the Ooniverse Giskard. I've recently rediscovered the joys of Elite/Oolite as-well and am thoroughly hooked again. Haven't had quite the break from Elite that you've had...started on the Acorn Electron many years ago, and have played various versions on and of over the years.

OXP wise for eye candy I can recommend Griff's Normal-mapped Ship Set, along with SimonB's Neolite ships, and PA Groove's stations. BGS also adds a lot of eye candy when docked (useful as well as there is a subtle on-screen key guide), and System Redux and Famous Planets makes the solar systems beautiful.

Fuel System and Gates adds interesting new functionality to the game, whilst Random Hits and Your Add Here are a good way to add new dockable stations to many systems, more eye candy, and short mission opportunities quite early in the game. UPS couriers is also good for this.

All the above seem to work fine with 1.75. Of course there are many more that are good (I've only been playing again for a week or so and I've got 35 OXP's in my add-on folder), and the ability to tweak adds so much to the basic game.

[TGHC]

I've got 35 OXP's in my add-on folder)

That's an interesting one, how many OXP's do you have running in your game! I'll start a new thread!

[Giskard]

Hello again!
Well I have had a pretty good week playing Oolite. I've managed to squeeze some gaming time in almost every night since I posted. It's brilliant fun!

I'm now running the BGS add-on...very nice. I tried quite a few other 'sound' related ones but I'm personally not a fan of the ones with lots of computer 'voice' effects; especially when you're constantly arming missiles and unarming them etc! The BGS one is fairly subtle. I really like the sounds it plays out when you're docked. Nice stuff.

I inadvertently docked with a rock hermit the other night. That was quite a surprise! I'd been a bit naughty dealing in narcotics and managed to get into a few scrapes. I was being shot at and trying to hit 'Shift-C' to dock, but nothing was happening! Then I realised that my docking computer must have been damaged. I was flying all over the place (in one of those panic moments) and suddenly found myself facing some asteroid thingy. So in I flew! Saved my bacon too! And the great thing was, his prices were fantastic! Most seemed to be below (or above) the min/maximums specified in the help pdf. Unfortunately, like a rabbit in his hole, I knew I had to leave again and I noticed you can't save the game whilst docked with a rock hermit! So I flew out, headed straight for the navigation beacon as fast as my little Cobra would take me and then looped round for the station. About 3 vipers were shooting me and all sorts of stuff was breaking...but I just high tailed into the station at full speed and just made it! Ahhh, what a great game!!

Next I do think I want to try an oxp which adds some nice textures etc to the ships. I've heard that the 'Griff' ones are good, so I will have a dig for that.

Tara for now!

[Cody]

I've heard that the 'Griff' ones are good, so I will have a dig for that.

While you're on the  Griff Industries page, try a Griff multi-decal Player Cobra.

[another_commander]

I was being shot at and trying to hit 'Shift-C' to dock, but nothing was happening! Then I realised that my docking computer must have been damaged.

Either your docking computer was damaged, or you "hit" one of the new features in 1.75: When in red alert, auto-pilot does not function. It was a bit of a cheat being able to fast-dock in the middle of a fight, so this capability was disabled.

Happy to know you are enjoying the game.

[Giskard]

Wow, the griff ships are brilliant! Super duper! Hats off to him. That's staying in my AddOn folder.

By the way 'another_commander'; I like the idea that you cannot dock when at Red Alert by the way, that's a nice touch. I'm all for things which make the game a little more 'tricky' and proper. Eg, I have seen an oxp which allows you to save the game anywhere you want...this doesn't seem right to me! Feels wrong to be able to do that. I like the pressure of having to survive to get to a space station.

Regarding the 'multi decal player cobra'... I will look again for that. Didn't see it. I did notice though that if I used any external views, my ship was still the same old texture model...So I will look again!

[Cody]

The multi decal player Cobra is here.

[TGHC]

one of the new features in 1.75: When in red alert, auto-pilot does not function. It was a bit of a cheat being able to fast-dock in the middle of a fight, so this capability was disabled.

I'm not sure I like this feature, in classic elite, when you had been fighting off the nasties, running, playing dead, gradually increasing speed when they were not being aggressive, letting your shields regenerate then fighting them off again when they got angry again, all the time trying to get closer to the Coriolis, it was an adrenalin rush to try and get to the station before you got totally fried, and a huge rush if you managed to do it. It's certainly less of a cheat than using the escape pod when your light years away from the Coriolis. I suppose you could try and hide behind the station and hope the Galcops will come out to save you.

[Cody]

It's certainly less of a cheat than using the escape pod when your light years away from the Coriolis.

But isn't there a penalty for ejecting, in that you lose all cargo, and still keep any combat damage.

[Giskard]

Thanks for the link El Viejo. However, I think I'm being a bit dim...I added the folder, but didn't notice any difference? What does this AddOn do exactly? Is it supposed to affect the view of your own ship when using the external views? Sorry for being a bit stupid!

Also, on another topic...is there anywhere official where you can make a donation to the people who contributed towards this game? I'd happily pay some money for having this amazing remake.

Cheers.

[Commander McLane]

Thanks for the link El Viejo. However, I think I'm being a bit dim...I added the folder, but didn't notice any difference? What does this AddOn do exactly? Is it supposed to affect the view of your own ship when using the external views? Sorry for being a bit stupid!

It adds a new ship which you have to buy first. There should be instructions how to replace the decals of that ship with your own favourites (which I think requires a little hacking in the OXP).

[Cody]

Re the multi-decal Cobra player ship... the instructions for creating and positioning your custom decals are in the OXP readme.
If you don’t know how (or if they make no sense), just ask the forum… but it’s fairly simple in something like GIMP.

You can make it your player ship this way: open your Oolite savefile in a text editor, such as Notepad++ (it’s best not to use Windows’ own Notepad, though Wordpad is fine). Both GIMP and Notepad++ are free and very useful.

Find this section (line #672 in mine)

Code: Select all

<key>ship_clock</key>
    <real>180250878566.8895</real>
    <key>ship_desc</key>
    <string>cobra3-player</string>
    <key>ship_kills</key>
    <integer>6564</integer>
    <key>ship_name</key>
    <string>Rolling Thunder</string>
    <key>ship_trade_in_factor</key>
    <integer>86</integer>
    <key>shipyard_record</key> 

and replace

Code: Select all

<string>cobra3-player</string>

with

Code: Select all

<string>griff_normalmapped_cobra_mkIII_multidecal_player</string

Restart the game with shift held down until the spinning Cobra appears, and that should be that.
(It’s not cheating, in case you’re worried about that… you will still only have a standard Cobra Mk III… it just looks a lot prettier).

I think I’ve got all that right, but someone will soon correct me, if I haven’t.