I need advise, I find myself lost in space way too often.

[daifuku]

Hello, after installing oolite many times I finally decided to give ita try. I am a EVE Online player, I am giving Eve a rest for a few months , but instead of installing X2 or X3 I really wanted to try the closest thing to the seminal Elite. I read Status Quo and I am hooked.
I really appreciate the gameplay, it feels open ended, free, and a little wild.

OK after a couple of days learning controls, many milk runs and one kill... I must ask...

I have read and learnt that it is better to avoid the corridor from the whitchspace exit point to the station because of the traffic. So yes, I understand that but many times I have found myself lost trying to find the station. This is specially annoying when the planet mass has caused the jump drive to stop working
.
Is there any easy way to locate where a station is in reference to its planet?

Also I have another question, about engagement.
How do I identify the ships around me? How can I tell what is what?. Last night I attacked and killed my first ship? Why did I do it? Just because it was small. How can I know its threat level, ship model etc????
Thanks a lot.

[Cody]

Hi, and welcome aboard.

Have a look at the Oolite Reference Sheet PDF (found in the main Oolite folder) - that will help with using the Space Compass (and other stuff).

[Norby]

Welcome daifuku!

Injectors will shorten the travel times in masslock, a must have thing imho.
An  advanced compass can help to find the station.
Press r then aim to identify a ship, look after the name in the  ship list.
A  targeting equipment can help more.

There are many possibilities but most of them are out of the "strict play" what you should try at least for a while before you start vary the rules.

[Cody]

<nods> What Norby said - and once you have injectors, you'll see the true value of fuel, and start looking for short jumps instead of long jumps.

[cim]

Welcome to the forums!

I have read and learnt that it is better to avoid the corridor from the whitchspace exit point to the station because of the traffic. So yes, I understand that but many times I have found myself lost trying to find the station. This is specially annoying when the planet mass has caused the jump drive to stop working
.
Is there any easy way to locate where a station is in reference to its planet?

There's a few options.

1) The compass (blue dial in the bottom right of the HUD) will change to point to the station rather than the planet once you get close to the planet. This will happen a bit before you get mass-locked by the planet, so if you watch the compass for suddenly changing direction, you can slow down in time to change course and go around the planet to it.

2) Visually: they're quite big, the stations, and once you know what to look for you can see them at quite some range. Leesti is a good system to practice this in, as the station is almost on a straight line between the planet and sun so reflects a lot of light. Once you've spotted it you can go straight for it.

3) As Norby said, if you buy the optional Advanced Space Compass upgrade, one of the modes on that will lock on to the buoy outside the station from anywhere in the system. (There are usually far better early game upgrades, though)

How do I identify the ships around me? How can I tell what is what?. Last night I attacked and killed my first ship? Why did I do it? Just because it was small. How can I know its threat level, ship model etc????

Visual identification is pretty effective with practice - see the reference sheet already mentioned. In the meantime, if you press 'r' (ident targeting) or 't' (missile targeting) and then centre the ship in your sights, you'll lock on and be told what it is.

If you buy the optional Scanner Targeting Enhancement upgrade, you'll get a box round the ship when you lock on, which will show its ship class and legal status.

As far as threat level goes ... the reference sheet has some specs for the ships, but a lot of the threat depends on what optional extras they have fitted, and you won't find that out unless they use them in a fight.

[Diziet Sma]

G'day, daifuku, and welcome aboard!

[Norby]

if you watch the compass for suddenly changing direction, you can slow down in time to change course and go around the planet to it.

Exactly, due to in this case the shortest (straight) route is not the fastest: you should go on a curve and maintain your altitude meter at the maximum to avoid masslock.

[daifuku]

Thanks for your answers. I really needed some help with those points. The PDF is great and I have printed it and all. The wiki is an excellent source of information, but sometimes you need at least to know you are doing it right.

I have a feeling I am going to stuck with this game for quite a long time. Kinda funny considering I have nearly 400 games in my steam account, and I ended up addicted to a free one

I never played the original Elite, I was a bit too young in the 8bit era and I preferred to pew pew with games like uridium or xevious. There are things I can't find explained I the usual sources. Like...

Can you have more than a ship? For example if I want to have a miner for mining, a heavy hauler, a taxi,etc. My cobra mk3 , with so many different upgrades is beginning to look like a Swiss army knife and I am not sure that is good.

The other day I went to the local sun to recharge my batteries , it took me like 10 minutes or more... Is there any way to speed up the trip to the sun?

Well that is all I can think about.
I would like to know a little about the developers of this game, are there many, is this game still being developed?

[Cody]

You cannot have more than one ship (but you can have multiple save-games).

... is this game still being developed?

Yeah, continuously developed... a new release (1.80) is in the works already.

[another_commander]

I would like to know a little about the developers of this game, are there many, is this game still being developed?

The game is not only still actively developed, but there will be a brand new packed-with-features release very soon. Information about the development status of the game and its developers can be found at our github project page or at external open source project monitoring sites like Ohloh: http://www.ohloh.net/p/oolite.

[Disembodied]

Can you have more than a ship? For example if I want to have a miner for mining, a heavy hauler, a taxi,etc. My cobra mk3 , with so many different upgrades is beginning to look like a Swiss army knife and I am not sure that is good.

Not easily, no ... but lots of people have been thinking about ways to create a "garage" where you can store multiple ships (or maybe store different ships at different locations), and it's one of these things that some bright spark might write an OXP for, at some point. And (like Cody and a_c say), the game's still being developed: new options are still possible!

The other day I went to the local sun to recharge my batteries , it took me like 10 minutes or more... Is there any way to speed up the trip to the sun?

Just to check: you're using your torus jump drive, yes? If so, that is as fast as it gets, I'm afraid. Do you have an OXP installed which might have moved the sun far away?

I would like to know a little about the developers of this game, are there many, is this game still being developed?

All your friendly neighbourhood developers are listed here.

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

Welcome Diafuku,
You got some really good advice but if you are a new pilot the compass really doesn't give all the info that you look for.

I have gotten away from using it as you can get into serious trouble with misinterpretation (like trying to fly through the planet when the compass says that the aegis is in front of you when it is on the Other side of the planet OR it shows that you are headed towards the aegis and you can actually see it but suddenly you are heating up because your trajectory is sending you into the planets atmosphere)

So here is what I do:
upon exiting witchspace, I am aimed in the general direction of the planet. I will then turn to the port about 45 degrees and
hit the J button (assuming no one is around to prevent me). Once I do that, I switch my view to the starboard side and then make a horizontal turn so I can see the planet on my starboard side. Watch the planet closely, you will see a twinkling little light that is staying a constant distance from the planet . that is the aegis and that is where you want to go.
I will then Rotate the planet and the aegis so that the planet is in the lead and when the aegis is in my starboard side gun bracket I will switch back to my front view. execute a starboard until the aegis is in my front gun sight.
This serves 2 purposes, 1. it gets you out of the normal space lane 2. puts you in position to keep up speed while closing on the aegis. As the aegis gets closer, I will veer just to the left of the aegis (prevents me from going into the atmosphere). Assuming that you don't get mass locked, you will keep up speed until the aegis itself will mass lock you.
As you close distance, you will see the docking buoy appear. Head to that, spin and line up the aegis and dock.

This is not perfect and there are lots of things that can go wrong..this keeps life from being dull, but it will work most of the time.

[daifuku]

Welcome Diafuku,
You got some really good advice but if you are a new pilot the compass really doesn't give all the info that you look for.

I have gotten away from using it as you can get into serious trouble with misinterpretation (like trying to fly through the planet when the compass says that the aegis is in front of you when it is on the Other side of the planet OR it shows that you are headed towards the aegis and you can actually see it but suddenly you are heating up because your trajectory is sending you into the planets atmosphere)

So here is what I do:
upon exiting witchspace, I am aimed in the general direction of the planet. I will then turn to the port about 45 degrees and
hit the J button (assuming no one is around to prevent me). Once I do that, I switch my view to the starboard side and then make a horizontal turn so I can see the planet on my starboard side. Watch the planet closely, you will see a twinkling little light that is staying a constant distance from the planet . that is the aegis and that is where you want to go.
I will then Rotate the planet and the aegis so that the planet is in the lead and when the aegis is in my starboard side gun bracket I will switch back to my front view. execute a starboard until the aegis is in my front gun sight.
This serves 2 purposes, 1. it gets you out of the normal space lane 2. puts you in position to keep up speed while closing on the aegis. As the aegis gets closer, I will veer just to the left of the aegis (prevents me from going into the atmosphere). Assuming that you don't get mass locked, you will keep up speed until the aegis itself will mass lock you.
As you close distance, you will see the docking buoy appear. Head to that, spin and line up the aegis and dock.

This is not perfect and there are lots of things that can go wrong..this keeps life from being dull, but it will work most of the time.

Thanks for your explanation. Obviously space travel is more manual than I ever expected xD, My skills will hopefully improve.

By the way It seems that both of my problems were related to instalations of oxps. One of them created a more interesting space backgroud, but making the stations harder to see, then the griff textures also make the stations a bit less shiny in space.
When I switched to strict mode I also noticed that the star is closer to the planet, so It is not that far away in case I want to recharge batteries without dealing with approaching the stations

[Norby]

Can you have more than a ship?

This is a returning request and I think we are not so far from this. We have unfinished parts like Extended Shipyards,  Ship Storage Helper and ideas about boarding and motherships.

Today I thinked a bit more on the solution due to these possibilities are interesting me also. There are challenges here, but I am sure we can have more ships once if players keep asking it.