I agree however that more options for this sort of thing would be good. BTW, your oxp assigning cargo space to core equipment is perhaps the closest thing to anything like this that we currently have... and it's super easy to tweak too

Moderators: winston, another_commander
Well, it is only the first mission, and the reward is fairly small (and the player may well not be that experienced)JD wrote:My impression of Oolite's Constrictor mission was that it was surprisingly easy.
More packs of pirates in the safeish systems which only had light fighters (Sidewinder, Mamba, Krait) and only had pulse lasers would give something a beginner could easily take on.Astrobe wrote:You have to carefully avoid combat at the beginning, in a space shooting game! It is a bit silly when you think about it.
Perhaps there needs to be some levels of boldness and/or idiocy for the Pirates. Some (but not most) will attack whatever the odds, or even if it doesn't make sense.cim wrote:As it is, the combat odds algorithm would mean they never dared attack a Cobra III without overwhelming numeric superiority, though: that probably needs to be tweaked so that you need to be flying something pretty ridiculous before pirates won't attack at 3:1 odds no matter how bad their ships are.
Have to disagree. First off it's not just a shooting game. There are those who enjoy it while stringently avoiding serious combat, even if they're equipped for it.Astrobe wrote:You have to carefully avoid combat at the beginning, in a space shooting game! It is a bit silly when you think about it.
If those equipment slots are used by both built-in & oxp equipment, you'll need a much larger number.spara wrote:After pondering quite a bit with the Ore Processor should it take cargo space or not and finally concluding that it just does not feel right, I came to think something else. Something simple. And here's what I was thinking:
1. Each ship has a unique number of equipment slots. 5? 10? Depends on the ship size.
2. Equipments either occupy a slot or don't. If they do, they are probably something physical like Ore Processor. If they don't, then they are probably software upgrades, like MFDs.
3. There is no limit for equipments that don't occupy a slot.
4. If an equipment occupies a slot, it's physical and it can be damaged.
If pursued, needs serious thinking of course, but in my thoughts many of the equipments do not need any slot at all. They are upgrades to the equipment already in place. Which leads to another idea... there could be equipment slots in equipment too. Currently Ore Processor needs Scoops, so one might think that there is a hardware upgrade slot in scoops. Once that slot is taken, no other hardware upgrade would be possible on that equipment. If I recall right there is or was a scoop upgrade that allowed scooping fuel from space. For example that and Ore Processor might be going to the same slot forcing you to think which to take.Lone_Wolf wrote:If those equipment slots are used by both built-in & oxp equipment, you'll need a much larger number.
Only artificial until a proper handwavium is introduced. For example I much like the pylon thinking with missiles. That's a hard limit that roughly goes up by ship size effectively limiting pylon installable equipment/missiles/mines/etc.Lone_Wolf wrote:It would also impose an artificial limit on what you can install, which would be toughest on users of small ships.
Lone_Wolf wrote:If this was implemented, how much time would pass before people ask for a hyperequipment oxp to get around the limitation ?
Not true, it's possible to make equipment non-damageable and visible. And that is used too. Currently the main reason for me to favour damageable equipment is creating more money holes.Lone_Wolf wrote:currently anything visible in equipment screen can be damaged, but you can add lots of things.
Oops, you're right .spara wrote:Not true, it's possible to make equipment non-damageable and visible. And that is used too. Currently the main reason for me to favour damageable equipment is creating more money holes.Lone_Wolf wrote:currently anything visible in equipment screen can be damaged, but you can add lots of things.
damageProbability
makes it easy to make anything undamagable.I must agree, for me combat is the last thing I am interested in, avoiding it was much more fun. I have noticed over the years a change in the core to be more involved with combat. I gave up trading years ago as there was not enough profit to make it interesting, running passengers and packages I made a steady income and avoiding hostile contact was the most important thing. Sadly that is now not possible.mossfoot wrote:Have to disagree. First off it's not just a shooting game. There are those who enjoy it while stringently avoiding serious combat, even if they're equipped for it.Astrobe wrote:You have to carefully avoid combat at the beginning, in a space shooting game! It is a bit silly when you think about it.
But more importantly, I always felt that the main problem of many Elite-like games was how easy they made combat. Freelancer, as I recall, had me score over fifty kills in the first half hour. The hell? Pirates throwing themselves at me wave after wave in ships made of tissue while I was in a stock unupgraded ship? It is a bit silly when you think about it.
I mean pirates can be bold and even desperate, but that's not the same as going kamakazi. Their goal is to get loot for hookers and grog, and part of that plan involves living past the encounter.
If you want to get into combat faster, you can always use the Fast-Track Start. For me, crawling up from a Broke Adder start feels like I've survived the grim realities of the Ooniverse.
I like the slots idea.spara wrote:After pondering quite a bit with the Ore Processor should it take cargo space or not and finally concluding that it just does not feel right, I came to think something else. Something simple. And here's what I was thinking:
1. Each ship has a unique number of equipment slots. 5? 10? Depends on the ship size.
2. Equipments either occupy a slot or don't. If they do, they are probably something physical like Ore Processor. If they don't, then they are probably software upgrades, like MFDs.
3. There is no limit for equipments that don't occupy a slot.
4. If an equipment occupies a slot, it's physical and it can be damaged.
Large cargo bay - 1 slot? I'd say it was much bigger than that!Zireael wrote:I say shields ought to take 1 slot, boosters 1+1, mil 1+2.
Fuel Scoops 1 slot.
Large Cargo Bay 1 slot.
Targeting stuff doesn't occupy a slot.
What about ECM/missiles?
My problem (flying a Boa Cruiser) is that these days I only seem to be attacked by large groups - I decided some time ago to play the game in "never fire first" gunfighter mode, e.g. if I see an offender/fugitive I don't open fire unless he's attacking me or another clean ship. Which means that I spend a lot of time watching these ships decide that I'm too tough to handle then fly away. When big groups attack I do have to use the "run and fire the rear gun" strategy, because my ship won't survive any other way - at least until I've eliminated some of the attackers. What I really miss is the occasional lone nutter or small group that made head-on dogfighting interesting. But this isn't new with 1.80, it goes back to 1.77 and earlier.Scouseair wrote:I have to agree. I am interested in trading AND combat and feel that the combat balance has been skewed too far in favour of the pirates in 1.80. I would hate to start afresh. The singles run away when you fire in their general direction, if it's a duo the other runs when you kill the first. 4 or more and you're dead within seconds of them starting to fire. And that's in a Python ET special with an iron ass. In 1.77 they increased the bad guys weapon power to match the player but said, "don't worry....we've reduced their accuracy so it'll even out". In 1.80 they upped the accuracy and it's taken out fighting groups altogether. Unless you follow the advice to "run away and use your rear lasers". Surely that's not the way the game is meant to be played. Not every fight. I've had some of my best moments in Oolite taking on groups of 4+, sniping one, maybe two on the way in, maybe get a third with the rear laser after the merge, then into the dogfighting, using shields and lasers tactically and coming out the other side with a surge of euphoria. That playstyle is gone with 1.80. It may not be "realistic"[sic], but it is FUN. We are meant to be the hero, fighting impossible odds, better than anyone else. Remember, we are just one ship, the pirates fight in groups. We have to have the advantage.
Instead of talking about making the game harder by nerfing lasers to stop sniping, or bringing in equipment limits we should be fixing 1.80 so it's playable for everyone again. Not just the veterans. The core game should be a game for everybody and let the OXP/OXZers introduce extra difficulty for those who want it. It's not just veterans play this game. It's the young, elderly and some disabled too.
All this aside, I love this game and am just sad that I, like a few others out there, will stick to 1.77.1 for now.
Exactly. The Pirates have become Pirate-Accountantsffutures wrote:What I really miss is the occasional lone nutter or small group that made head-on dogfighting interesting.