The Feudal States

[Ramirez]

If you open up your savegame in a text editor, do a search for 'feudal_score' and you can see how many you have. If it's already above 40 then there could be a problem (always a possibility when it comes to one of my OXPs!)

Rest assured you have 5 more ranks of nobility ahead of you!

[CommRLock78]

If you open up your savegame in a text editor, do a search for 'feudal_score' and you can see how many you have. If it's already above 40 then there could be a problem (always a possibility when it comes to one of my OXPs!)

Wow, I'm not even close (just a bit over half way there). Which OXP of yours are you having a problem with? (This way I can keep an eye out for problems and even better, maybe even help to smash a bug or two).

Rest assured you have 5 more ranks of nobility ahead of you!

Sweet! I'm a real fan of your flavor oxps - an integral part of Oolite, in my opinion, thanks for your excellent work man! (Excellent and beautiful I might add, all those crests must have taken some time and are really quite sharp, hell, even the pdf file is superb ).

[Ramirez]

Wow, thanks v much. No there aren't any other known problems with the OXPs (other than a minor pending patch to the FuelTank.oxp) but I'm conscious that my testing isn't always as thorough as it should be!

You'll get a wider variety of missions (each with a bigger success score) as your rank increases. On reflection the amount of points needed for each promotion might be a bit excessive, but then different people play the game at different rates

Yes those crests did take quite some time to do, especially as I was trying to tap into the planet descriptions for interesting references (killer goats, wolf cutlets, etc!). Was great fun to work on though.

[CommRLock78]

Wow, thanks v much. No there aren't any other known problems with the OXPs (other than a minor pending patch to the FuelTank.oxp) but I'm conscious that my testing isn't always as thorough as it should be!

You'll get a wider variety of missions (each with a bigger success score) as your rank increases. On reflection the amount of points needed for each promotion might be a bit excessive, but then different people play the game at different rates

Yes those crests did take quite some time to do, especially as I was trying to tap into the planet descriptions for interesting references (killer goats, wolf cutlets, etc!). Was great fun to work on though.

You're welcome - and again, thank you, mang .

Fuel Tank.oxp eh? It has been almost 10 months since I discovered Oolite (and download ~95% of the oxps I have). I failed to realize / remember that this important oxp is yours as well (it truly saves me bundles of time when I'm on my way across an "octant" [TM "Fatleaf"]) - so yet another debt of gratitude is owed - thanks . (So far as I know, I haven't had any issues with my fuel tanks - perhaps I'm a lucky one )

[DeathKnyte]

Hiya,

Looks inticing, this oxp.
I've been meaning to try it, but wanted more experience with combat before attempting it.
I think I'm decent at fighting now, so will soon give it a whirl.

Question:
Feudal States Readme guide.
Section 4: Promotions
Knighthoods and Peerages
"Peers are created by letters patent issued by the Royal Court, with the exact titles and ranks differing depending on a pilot’s adopted
house."

How can I tell which house would be one of (let's say) French peerage, as opposed to the other 6?
I can quite readily tell which are Japanese, and pretty certain as to which are Russian, but the discriminating differences in the coat of arms between the remaining ones are difficult for me to figure.
Is there a post or chart with which systems have the different national houses?

[Ramirez]

Hi DeathKnyte. The info linking the different cultures to each of the systems is buried within the scripts of the OXP (specifically the feudal-ranks.js script) and not revealded elsewhere, but I've pulled together a small csv with the data you're interested in:

Feudal States Systems and Cultures (csv)

[JazHaz]

I recently took part in a Royal Tournament, completing one or two rounds, but due to time restrictions on a cargo contract, I had to leave early without completing it. Its been a few weeks (game time) but I still have a "Next Event" notification F5 Manifest screen. Does this disappear when the Tournament finishes or do I have to go back to it?

One problem, is the next event, The Chase. I bought a new ship since leaving the tournament, my Serpent, and I think its going to be very difficult to catch the drones in that event.

[Ramirez]

You can save in between tournament events, and I haven't added a timeout so it will still be there if you return to the system - that does of course mean remembering where the tournament was being held!

You might have difficulty in The Chase as it's all about handling and being a good shot. Just save the game before you start and see how you get on.

[DeathKnyte]

Thank you much, for that list of nationality identification.



I have since done a couple missions for the Royal Court, and haven't encountered any problems, other than some of them are quite far flung from origin to destination, and eventual return. This will take a considerable amount of time to ascend in the peerage titles.


As for the jousting...

I have done 24 of these, all at 10:1 odds.

My ship is a stock Fer-de-Lance with; Beam Lasers, Shield Boosters, Scanner Targeting Enhancement, Witchdrive Fuel Injectors, and Extra Energy Unit, as combat enhancing equipment. No special combat enhancing oxp is installed (no HUD's, uber weapons, etc).

I'm not certain as to how I'm supposed to joust with utmost chivalry (which I assume is the idea behind this), so I close to 5 km and then let them take the first shot at me. After that, I figure I can do my best to force them to yield.

Against the Jager, I'm 11 and 0, The Korvette, 8 and 0. And the Zerstorer, 0 and 5 (!).

I was very much concerned (at the begining) because the Jager and Korvette are twice as maneuverable as my ship, but from the results I can handle them rather handily.

The Zestorer, on the other hand, I can not come to a suitable tactic on taking them out. They shoot double beams, and I could swear that they sometimes shoot two of these double beams. After they hit me 6 times, my shields are down, one more hit after that destroys my ship (not even the Auto Eject Module, has a chance to kick in).

I have read cim's post, and either the Cobra Mk III makes all the difference in the world (compared to a Fer-de-Lance), or that he must be quite the accomplished pilot. Even if I engage injectors, I can not get behind them to enter a circling maneuver and stay out of their firing arc...

[DeathKnyte]

...
That's a lot of money too bearing in mind I haven't left the system to earn it and was in no real danger (provided I launched a flare). Otherwise at 100,000k per joust I can go from space bum to shopping for a new ship and all the wizz wazz to give me an iron ass inside of an hour. And, if I take damage in a joust that costs more than the winnings - whose fault is that? Mine for going into the kitchen.

I think you need to have made a certain number of kills ( average rating ?) before you can participate in a challenge.
Good luck in reaching that with a non-iron ass in an hour.

Note :
if i am wrong, it does feel logical to have such a limit.
After all the nobles come offer those challenges in the spirit of chivalry.
Beating an ill-equipped ship/ unexperienced pilot is not a challenge and doesn't seem very chivalrous.

With my experience, outlined in the above post, I thought so too.
However...

I started a brand new game, made a bee line for Aronar, and started jousting.
I had nothing on my ship, just the forward pulse laser.
The best odds that were offered to me - and I did like 12 challenges in all - was 0.55:1 (!).
I played the same as before, located them near the buoy, approached till they started shooting me, and then tried to beat them in dueling combat style of play.
Then I accepted a challenge against a Zestorer and got promptly obliterated in 4 shots (again, I dunno how cim manages it).
I couldn't continue, because I also have the Penalize Death - Ironman version oxp, so that commander is gone.

So, perhaps it is necessary for you to have a minimum amount of kills, equipment, or some combination of both.
Sounds somewhat contradictory to what the readme says, though.

Quote from the Readme that comes with the Feudal States oxp:

Code: Select all

For each pair of challengers, the resident bookmakers will
calculate odds on you to win, based on the relative capabilities
both the ships and the pilots’ relative combat ratings.

[Ramirez]

At least the risk/reward element seems to be working, if only for the top-level opponents. I summarised the odds system in a previous post:

Odds are currently calculated based on the player ship's max speed, thrust, energy and missile capacity in comparison to the challenger. Odds are capped at 10:1 in player's favour; meanwhile anything less than 0.2:1 means that the player is a clear favourite and so the challenger will refuse to play - this is meant to prevent easy wins.

Arguably the minimum odds should be raised so they have to be greater than evens (1:1) in order to take part.

I'll have to dig out my spreadsheet that shows the origins of the odds calculations, but if I recall correctly they're based on the challenge faced by the average player in a normal spec Cobra MkIII, but also tested against some other sample ships either side of the Cobra in terms of capability. As ever the difficulty is that a player can have a combat rating of anything between 0-6000. Even though I try to 'flatten' that range it still creates a large variation; the same tends to apply with the ship specs.

I didn't force a minimum entry level simply so that all players could have a go - if they want to risk their money against a better opponent that's their choice. I could apply a minimum, either based on score or again based on the odds, so that if the odds go above a certain level your opponent is the clear favourite and so it's considered too dangerous for you to take part.

I still haven't found the perfect solution so will happily revisit based on people's experience.

[CommRLock78]

Ramirez: About tournaments - I've tried couple of times, even after making these changes to my caduceus, namely deleting the lines having to do with turrets from:

Code: Select all

         <string>cenginea -4.5 -0.5 -60.5 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>cengineb 4.5 -0.5 -60.7 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>cmount 0.0 -2.6 26.0 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>cmount 0.0 -2.6 13.0 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>cmount 0.0 -2.6 0.0 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>caduceusturret 8.0 -2.7 26.0 1 0 -1 0</string>
         <string>caduceusturret 8.0 -2.7 13.0 1 0 -1 0</string>
         <string>caduceusturret 8.0 -2.7 0.0 1 0 -1 0</string>
         <string>caduceusturret -8.0 -2.7 26.0 1 0 1 0</string>
         <string>caduceusturret -8.0 -2.7 13.0 1 0 1 0</string>
         <string>caduceusturret -8.0 -2.7 0.0 1 0 1 0</string>
         <string>zeroturret -0.198 -7.8 -32.0 1 -1 0 0</string>
         <string>zeroturret 0.0 1.4 -14.8 1 1 0 0</string>

to:

Code: Select all

        <string>cenginea -4.5 -0.5 -60.5 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>cengineb 4.5 -0.5 -60.7 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>cmount 0.0 -2.6 26.0 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>cmount 0.0 -2.6 13.0 1 0 0 0</string>
         <string>cmount 0.0 -2.6 0.0 1 0 0 0</string>

as well as removing all other weapons but the forward laser, and the ship is still not acceptable for competing in a Tournament. Although, while I mention the above change, I should add that the ship still seems to be armed with plasma canons - the other day I noticed them firing at an enemy ship . I don't want to give up my ship in order to compete.

[Commander McLane]

Two questions:

(1) have you removed the turrets from the correct shipdata-entry (i.e. the "-player" version)?

(2) have you—after removing the turrets—started the game whilst pressing "SHIFT"?

[CommRLock78]

Two questions:

(1) have you removed the turrets from the correct shipdata-entry (i.e. the "-player" version)?

(2) have you—after removing the turrets—started the game whilst pressing "SHIFT"?

(1) I followed Thargoid's instructions to the tee - and quite easily as the line numbers corresponded exactly as he described
(2) You betcha.

[DeathKnyte]

Okay, I got another guy at a Hunting Lodge with just the starting Cobra Mk. III.
Did like 16 duels.
I took some pictures too, to show my points above.

As soon as my buddy, Commander McLane, tells me how to get the forum to accept my pictures, I'll post them.



Edit: Griff explained to me how. So I'll work on this next when I get up tomorrow.