I was bored.
It had nothing to do with Oolite. There were other, very different reasons.
And then it can sometimes be good to write something.
One gets other things to think about.
Soo...
Knick... knack ... knick ... knack... ( finger gymnastic ).
Never easy to fight with the keyboard.
Cosmos is much a question of balance. Therefore - balance is almost everywhere.
One can, of course, find it in Oolite too.
It is like buying a car. If you want to transport a lot of goods, then the car will probably not be very fast.
But if you want a fast car - we are talking about a very fast car now - then you can hardly transport a small toothbrush in it.
This situation seems to occur in Oolite too.
To understand it better I decided to look at the Vanilla ship-set.
Don't know why it is called Vanilla. Maybe it has something to do with ice-cream.
When I was a child there was only Vanilla ice-cream. And I asked myself - why?
Strawberry would maybe not be that bad. Orange and .. wow .. pineapple would just be miraculous.
Maybe those people that made ice-cream had been warned. - If you try some other taste you will be ruined.
But some people have more courage than other people - and they made a try.
They probably very fast became very rich.
And I became very happy as there suddenly were so many sorts of ice-cream.
Maybe the reason why everything that was first is referred to as Vanilla, is because of this.
Vanilla was the first serious taste of ice-cream.
At least for me.
In Oolite the ships follows a very strict rule. If they are fast then - very little cargo.
If they have place for a lot of cargo then - they are slow.
Specially the .. hrrmm .. Vanilla ships - but also most of the oxp-ships.
The Cobra MK III is a rather strange ship as it can actually transport some cargo but it is definitely not depicted as slow. It is a strange sort of exception. I think that it is fully possible to play Oolite a long time with just one ship. The Cobra.
It is maybe not a coincidence why it is the first ship one is offered. You can choose to be a trader or/and a miner, but you can also choose to be a serious fighter. Or both. The ship is offering both options.
I looked at the ships and tried to find the pattern of balance.
Just for fun I decided to use some ... well ... call it Mathematics.
The Anaconda, Asp and the Cobra III seemed to be a good start to look a little closer upon.
Anaconda can handle a lot of cargo but is rather slow, Asp is very fast but cannot handle any cargo at all and Cobra is somewhere in between.
I decided to test a mathematical expression.
Ln ( Cargo + 60 ) + 10 * Velocity <= 8.1
That is: The natural Logarithm of the sum of the Cargo capacity and the constant 60, then added to the Velocity multiplied with the constant 10, should not exceed the number 8.1 .
The natural Logarithm is based on the magical number e ( 2.7182818284590... ), not 10.
It is a Transcendental number. Just like Pi ( 3.1415926535... ).
This is for the Vanilla ships.
If you increase the Cargo you must then decrease the Velocity if the number 8.1 is exceeded.
The same: if you increase the Velocity then you must then decrease the amount of Cargo, to keep the balance.
Let's see some results.
The first number is the Cargo capacity. The second is the Velocity and the third is the result that should not be higher than 8.1 .
The sign -> should be seen as "gives" or "is the result of", "brings", "leads to".
And the result is the "balance"-number that, again, for the Vanilla-ships, should not be higher than 8.1 .
- Adder 2 -- 0.24 -> 6.5
Cobra 1 10 -- 0.26 -> 6.8
Krait 2 -- 0.30 -> 7.1
Gecko 3 -- 0.30 -> 7.1
Moray 7 -- 0.30 -> 7.2
Python 115 -- 0.20 -> 7.2
Fer de Lance 12 -- 0.30 -> 7.3
Mamba 4 -- 0.32 -> 7.4
Boa 125 -- 0.24 -> 7.6
Sidewinder 0 -- 0.37 -> 7.8
Anaconda 750 -- 0.14 -> 8.1
Asp 0 -- 0.40 -> 8.1
Cobra 3 35 -- 0.35 -> 8.1
But - let us have a look at it.
Boa Class Cruiser 175 -- 0.312 -> 8.6
As can be seen: 8.1 is here exceeded.
If we look at some of the oxp-ships then we better start with a number that is higher than 8.1 .
Let us try 9.0 .
Worker 300 -- 0.14 -> 7.3
Kirin 450 -- 0.20 -> 8.2
Naga 250 -- 0.275 -> 8.5
Caduceus 40 -- 0.40 -> 8.6
Python ET 115 -- 0.35 -> 8.7
Boa Clipper 150 -- 0.362 -> 9.0
Vortex 1 bay 30 -- 0.45 -> 9.0
As can be seen - these ships have a higher capacity. Most of them can handle more Cargo but still have a rather impressive speed.
And we may have a look at some of the more extreme oxp-ships.
But then we will have to increase the "balance"-number to at least 9.8 .
Super Cobra 55 -- 0.45 -> 9.2
Tiger 50 -- 0.50 -> 9.7
Vortex 5 bays 150 -- 0.45 -> 9.8
Kestrel 8 -- 0.555 -> 9.8
And finally, the real miracles.
Then we have to increase the number of balance to flipping 12.1
Fer de Lance NG 2 -- 0.60 -> 10.1
Morrigan 100 -- 0.55 -> 10.6
Firefly 35 -- 0.755 -> 12.1
This was just a small test just for fun. So don't take it too seriously.
That was not the intention.
And there are more ships and there are much better formulas too.
When one shall buy a new ship there are many things to look at.
Speed and Cargo-capacity are not all.
There are even more parameters to be added.
We have Energy recharge rate, Energy banks,number of Laser-positions, amount of Pylons, the Size of the ship, Turrets, Camera-views and even the Esthetics.
Is the ship nice to look at? What kind of feeling does it induce?
Does the ship has the chance to possess the state popularly called "Ironass"?
And... what does it cost? Including maintenance.
And there are surely other things too.
Buying a new ship is always an adventure.
Even if it cannot dance the balance.
Yes, of course. Have to start somewhere. And as I also said... I started to study Anaconda, Asp and of course Cobra as they were extremes.
