Starting a new game with a weaker ship ?

[dragdasan]

I do not know if this was discussed before (possible yes) so i apologize if i am raising questions that were answered already.

Shouldn't a player start with a weaker ship ? like Cobra Mk1 or other

i guess trying to get a Cobra MkIII would be a goal to reach thus adding to the depth of the game...

Sure, now, at start the Cobra MKIII is underarmed & underpowered but it is a good ship ... a too good ship to start with

[Rxke]

It's all part of the Jameson story, who started out with a MkIII... A very good ship for a Harmless pilot.

And flying a MkI is pretty hard these days, Oolite's AI getting better all the time, more powerful adversaries...

You can always go to your nearest ShipYard, and trade in your MkIII for a cheaper model, and invest the spare change in equipuing it. (I normally do that, downgrade to a Cobra MkII-X, quite a good ship for its price (is an OXP))

[Murgh]

yes, or decide to start off in an Adder with a nice wallet.
that's a challenge too

it's nice to have the options, besides, there are higher ambitions than commanding a CobraMk3

[dragdasan]

so, if there were different characters to choose from not just Jameson the harmless then there would be different ships to start with and different amounts of many too...

there are higher ambitions than commanding a CobraMk3

yes i know

[imipak]

I do not know if this was discussed before (possible yes) so i apologize if i am raising questions that were answered already.

Shouldn't a player start with a weaker ship ? like Cobra Mk1 or other

i guess trying to get a Cobra MkIII would be a goal to reach thus adding to the depth of the game...

Sure, now, at start the Cobra MKIII is underarmed & underpowered but it is a good ship ... a too good ship to start with

I think the standard user should start with a Cobra Mk. III - partly traditional reasons (re: Commander Jameson, but also I think Dark Wheel used a Cobra Mk III as the starting ship)

However, I believe it would be fun for experienced pilots to be able to start with a poorer ship or poorer setup. I hacked some starting files for BBC Elite (original disk version) in which I started with a half-strength pulse laser (lasers were defined by strength, not type, in that version) in a Tech 1 anarchy, with fugitive status. Oh, and no fuel. The only way to escape the initial location was to trawl for pirates, but with the inferior weapon, it was extremely hard to outgun them.

[TGHC]

However, I believe it would be fun for experienced pilots to be able to start with a poorer ship or poorer setup. I hacked some starting files for BBC Elite (original disk version) in which I started with a half-strength pulse laser (lasers were defined by strength, not type, in that version) in a Tech 1 anarchy, with fugitive status. Oh, and no fuel. The only way to escape the initial location was to trawl for pirates, but with the inferior weapon, it was extremely hard to outgun them.

Are you insane Mind you saying that I've tried playing one handed with one eye shut and my shoelaces tied together, so join the club!

[imipak]

Are you insane Mind you saying that I've tried playing one handed with one eye shut and my shoelaces tied together, so join the club!

Yes. BTW, lasers of strength 1 (1/16th the power of a pulse) were so weak that the shields on cargo canisters replenished faster than the lasers could damage them. (And, before you asked, I never knew cargo had shields either, but everything in the BBC Elite replenished. Strange...)

Other twisted things you could do:

With an energy unit of strength 255, you could fly through a spacestation - but you had to hit the front or the back and you couldn't fly too fast. Oddly enough, although it must have caused havoc to the people in the spacestation, they never once sent vipers after me for it.

If you fired two missiles at an enemy ship closely enough, the second missile would not auto-detonate when the enemy exploded. It would stop where the ship had been, but then would just sit there. Doing nothing.

I randomly altered the spaceship files, to see if I could figure out how they worked. I ended up with invisible spacestations that fired at me.

If you docked at exactly the same time as you entered witchspace, you would end up in the spacestation at the destination. Saved having to fly through systems, but I'm willing to bet it caused the spacestation crew severe headaches.

The most insane tactic was to induce a Thargon intercept, then scoop the Thargon drones as they were attacking. Once scooped, they were inert alien items. And by doing it this way, you could scoop as many as you liked, as the mothership would just dispense more.