Pirates

[DaddyHoggy]

Yes, I think so too. Just for the heck of it I traded my Mark III for an Adder. I found one that was already loaded with an extra energy pack, Advanced Target Compass (Neither of them are on the Oolite Reference Sheet I have), and a Docking computer (that I don't need, or use, LOL). The old Mark III is only worth 88,000 Galactic Credits, give or take a couple thousand, so I bought the Adder on a temporary basis, and added every other thing I could find on to it. Beam Laser, ECM, and Energy Bomb (whatever that is, I know, go look it up, and I will). I haven't found a cloaking device yet, or energy fuel injectors, but I'm keeping my eyes open. I haven't been destroyed yet since I bought the Adder, and I've been to four different planet systems with it. I've killed three pirates (that beam laser is absolute destructatude), and taken the bounty on them, and made two others change their minds about attacking me further, though I'm still listed as Harmless, LOL!!!

I haven't saved the game yet since buying the Adder, so if I get destroyed, I can reclaim the old Mark III. It does carry a lot bigger load, though I've been buying Space Stations out of gems, gold, and platinum. If I get enough of that put away, I should eventually come onto a System that could be a big payoff.....or not, who knows.

Save any time you want (at a Main Station) just save with a different pilot name - that way you can have an Adder Pilot and a Cobra MkIII pilot, each existing in their own familiar but unique Ooniverse.

By the way, you will discover the first time you get in a fire fight that the Adder is a dreadful combat ship - a slow recharge rate and only two energy bars means that a full volley of your beam laser, a single fire of your ECM and the first time an enemy nicks your shields you'll find your reading the "PRESS SPACE COMMANDER" message as you won't have enough energy remaining to absorb the shot.

[Switeck]

If your old ship needs a maintenance overhaul, doing that before trading it in can make it worth more money. Instead of 88k it might be 120k.

As far as avoiding the direct route to planet from witchpoint beacon... Deep Space Pirates OXP makes going the indirect route potentially more dangerous as you can sometimes encounter a clump of pirates at once. Like 5+ at once, counting escort ships for pirate Pythons. Injecting away from them is the only reasonable option. I guess using an energy bomb would work, but that's a 1-shot weapon that most likely will not come anywhere close to paying for itself against pirates.

[Mauiby de Fug]

Yes, I think so too. Just for the heck of it I traded my Mark III for an Adder.

Wow! You're a braver commander than I, for sure! If you can survive and make a living in that, then I take my non-existant hat off to you, sir!

(If I really want to speed up things these days, I type

Code: Select all

S.mainStation.dockPlayer()

in the JS-console as soon as I entered the system. Of course this is plainly cheating, but to my defense I can say that I'm not actually playing the game but mostly only play testing. And if a test requires me to travel from one system to another and dock with the station I am happy for every shortcut I can take.

I really should get more used to the JS console. I'm fine when it comes to scripting/testing/playing around with oxps, combined with the reference pages, but when it comes to using them as commands in the console, my mind just doesn't co-operate, even though it's essentially the same thing. I just haven't adapting to thinking that way yet...

[mandoman]

Save any time you want (at a Main Station) just save with a different pilot name - that way you can have an Adder Pilot and a Cobra MkIII pilot, each existing in their own familiar but unique Ooniverse.

By the way, you will discover the first time you get in a fire fight that the Adder is a dreadful combat ship - a slow recharge rate and only two energy bars means that a full volley of your beam laser, a single fire of your ECM and the first time an enemy nicks your shields you'll find your reading the "PRESS SPACE COMMANDER" message as you won't have enough energy remaining to absorb the shot.

That's great news about creating multiple pilots. When I read that, it was like "Doh".

Oh, I forgot, I also bought extra heat shields for the Adder, so it can take a bit more punishment.

Capt. Murphy, I totally missed your post, and when I found it I about flipped. You have done some really cool stuff with this game, and great ideas too. Sorry I didn't notice it before now.

[mandoman]

Yes, I think so too. Just for the heck of it I traded my Mark III for an Adder.

Wow! You're a braver commander than I, for sure! If you can survive and make a living in that, then I take my non-existant hat off to you, sir.

LOL. it ain't a done deal yet, but I'm trying.

Hey Switeck, I wanted to overhaul the Mark III, but I could never get enough money together to pull it off. That was before all the cool suggestions. I might be able to do that soon, now.

[Cmdr Wyvern]

If you think the beam laser is a fierce weapon - and in a close dogfight it surely is, no doubts - then wait till you can upgrade to the beastly power and range of the mighty Military laser!

There's some caveats, though. The Mil' heats up very fast, and has a healthy hunger for power.
The Cobra can easily feed it's power demands, but an Adder's weak reactor is going to let you down, struggling to keep up with a mil' laser's draw.

[mandoman]

If you think the beam laser is a fierce weapon - and in a close dogfight it surely is, no doubts - then wait till you can upgrade to the beastly power and range of the mighty Military laser!

There's some caveats, though. The Mil' heats up very fast, and has a healthy hunger for power.
The Cobra can easily feed it's power demands, but an Adder's weak reactor is going to let you down, struggling to keep up with a mil' laser's draw.

Yeah, I would definitely like to upgrade to Military Lasers. Thanks for the heads up about the Adder not being able to handle Military grade lasers. I've been missing my Mark III anyway, so I'll probably just be using that captain from this point on. Might drop in on the Adder now and then.

[Capt. Murphy]

Capt. Murphy, I totally missed your post, and when I found it I about flipped. You have done some really cool stuff with this game, and great ideas too. Sorry I didn't notice it before now.

No worries mate, and just to set the record straight I'm a newbie as far as modding Oolite goes, teaching myself javascript (and doubtless bad scripting habits) as I go along. There are other contributors who have made many more and cooler additions to the game.

[Killer Wolf]

"Oh, I forgot, I also bought extra heat shields for the Adder, so it can take a bit more punishment."
?

i didn't think heat shields added protection, i thought they only came into effect when sunskimming?

[Commander McLane]

"Oh, I forgot, I also bought extra heat shields for the Adder, so it can take a bit more punishment."
?

i didn't think heat shields added protection, i thought they only came into effect when sunskimming?

Yes. They only insulate against heat, not against lasers or any other weapon.

But of course, this means that a ship with heat shields can take more punishment from the sun while skimming. Skimming the bigger suns can be quite challenging (read: deadly) without this extra protection.

[Killer Wolf]

yeah. i thought he meant as in a firefight.
whilst on the topic, wiki's a bit vague on the subject - what diff is there between 1 & 2 for the Shipdata values here?

"heat_insulation
This real number gives the amount of heat insulation of a ship. Default is 1.0 Only for NPC ships. Playes ships can have the equipment EQ_HEAT_SHIELDING with gives the player than a heat_insulation of 2.0 "

does that mean simply NPC = 1 and Player =2, or Player can be up to 2?

[Commander McLane]

Only for NPC ships.

Exactly what it says on the tin. The key only exists for NPCs, it cannot by applied to player ships.

Player ships use the equipment EQ_HEAT_SHIELD instead, which is a player-only equipment. Or to be precise: you can award EQ_HEAT_SHIELD to NPCs as well, but it's a dummy equipment for them. I doesn't do anything, just like heat_insulation doesn't do anything for player ships.

A player ship without EQ_HEAT_SHIELD is equivalent to an NPC with 'heat_insulation' = 1;. A player ship with EQ_HEAT_SHIELD is equivalent to an NPC with 'heat_insulation' = 2;.

NPCs can be given any (positive, I guess) real number for heat_insulation, so they also can have 1.2, 0.5, or 100000. Player ships cannot.

[JensAyton]

NPCs can be given any (positive, I guess) real number for heat_insulation, so they also can have 1.2, 0.5, or 100000. Player ships cannot.

In particular, note that the core “cinders” have heat_insulation = 10000, so they can exist indefinitely in post-nova systems. Regular asteroids have 5, and alloys and barrels have low values.

Also, heat_insulation is automatically adjusted up for sunskimmers. The amount awarded is based on ship speed.

[Kaks]

The wording on the wiki is confusing - I blame a missing full stop.

I'd be probably better to have

"heat_insulation
This real number gives the amount of heat insulation of a ship. Default is 1.0.
This key is used only for NPC ships. Player's ships can have the equipment EQ_HEAT_SHIELDING with gives the player than a heat_insulation of 2.0 "

or even

"heat_insulation - NPC ships only.
This number sets the amount of heat insulation. Default is 1.0.
NB: Player's ships can use the equipment EQ_HEAT_SHIELDING to increase their heat_insulation from 1.0 to 2.0 "

[DaddyHoggy]

Save any time you want (at a Main Station) just save with a different pilot name - that way you can have an Adder Pilot and a Cobra MkIII pilot, each existing in their own familiar but unique Ooniverse.

By the way, you will discover the first time you get in a fire fight that the Adder is a dreadful combat ship - a slow recharge rate and only two energy bars means that a full volley of your beam laser, a single fire of your ECM and the first time an enemy nicks your shields you'll find your reading the "PRESS SPACE COMMANDER" message as you won't have enough energy remaining to absorb the shot.

That's great news about creating multiple pilots. When I read that, it was like "Doh".

Oh, I forgot, I also bought extra heat shields for the Adder, so it can take a bit more punishment.

Capt. Murphy, I totally missed your post, and when I found it I about flipped. You have done some really cool stuff with this game, and great ideas too. Sorry I didn't notice it before now.

Heat Shields good for sunskimming (refuelling via fuelscoop and the sun) but offers no additional protection except that possibly it's one of your least vital pieces of equipment that can be damaged when a pirate starts punching holes in your outer hull.

Extra Energy Unit and Shield Boosters are the only things native to the vanilla game that will increase your protection levels...