Combat is too hard with a keyboard

[vaxon]

Some ship's variations in OXPs like Random Hits have upgraded specs, perhaps there's a Cobra MK III variant somewhere with more pylons

I don't have Random Hits installed. I only have Skilled NPCs, but the description says it affects pilot skills only and doesn't touch the weapons.
As for any other Cobras, I only have Griff and Staer9 ship sets installed.

[Cody]

You keep any parcels you may be carrying...

As I'm still grounded, I have a question for the boffins: say I drop into a system to deliver a valuable parcel, get jumped by an overwhelming force of assassins and have to eject, after some time (hours/days) I arrive at the main station. Does my parcel get delivered and do I get paid?

If the answer is yes, the follow-on question is would the assassins chase down my escape pod to prevent delivery?

[vaxon]

If the answer is yes, the follow-on question is would the assassins chase down my escape pod to prevent delivery?

The assassins may destroy the escape pod in any case. Not sure though if having a valuable parcel increases the chance of being killed.

[phkb]

say I drop into a system to deliver a valuable parcel, get jumped by an overwhelming force of assassins and have to eject, after some time (hours/days) I arrive at the main station. Does my parcel get delivered and do I get paid?

If you still manage to arrive before expiry, yes. If you arrive after, standard expired processes would apply.

would the assassins chase down my escape pod to prevent delivery?

There is logic in the assassins AI to shoot down escape pods, but I don't think that will impact the player. Whenever the player uses an escape pod in normal space, they will always arrive at a station.

[Cody]

If you still manage to arrive before expiry, yes. If you arrive after, standard expired processes would apply.

Thankee! I thought that would be the case.

There is logic in the assassins AI to shoot down escape pods...

Interesting!

[LittleBear]

As best I remember all the random hits ships are standard, but the higher paying ships have a higher chance of having equipment fitted. Oolite is fair in that any weapons OXPs you install are also available to NPCs. If you have Thargoid's mini-missiles installed (which allows you to have 3 micro missiles on each pylon) a Cobra Mk III could have 12 missiles if it is carrying a mini-missile pack on each pylon.

Comming back to Oolite after a 10 year break, it is right that practice makes perfect. However, although I was an Elite commander starting again as a Jamson with a pulse laser I did have to run from every fight. This is realistic, but it's not how most games work. In RL I do HEMA and I have 10 years experience with the long sword. But if all I had to defend myself was a dagger, I'd be killed by a noob with an arming sword or long sword. Skill can only mitigate a disadvantage so far. I'd just have no chance of comming within their guard. Similarly with a pulse laser the range means I have no chance against a pirate with a beam laser. It's not just that his weaoon does more damage, its that I cannot hit him with my feeble range pulse laser before he can kill me with his longer range weapon. Its not imposible, just as a man with a dagger can kill a man with an arming sword. But even if you are a master dagger fighter you are at such a disadvantage you'd 9 times out of 10 be killed by a less skilled opponent with a longer blade.

As a start off I sold my pulse laser and missiles (it feels wrong to go about unarmed, but the pulse just won't save you anyway so you are better off just using it to buy furs / computers). Traded for a bit avoiding the space lanes and with about 2 hours of real time game play I'd got Injectors, docking computer, ECM, large cargo bay and a beam. But I still ran away from most fights until I had a full iron arse. I haven't died in combat yet and now have a fully equipped Boa Friggate, have done the first two thargoid missions and have both a naval energy unit and a naval grid. I'd suggest installing all the equipment and scanner OXPs as this equipment is only available to the player. Tool up fully and you'll usually win. But you do need to use your injectors (fuel pod is your friend here as you'll always have enough fuel for injectors or you could use fuel generator which is nicely balanced as it does allow you to create fuel, but only a little bit and it drains your shield doing it).

[Cholmondely]

Coming back to Oolite after a 10 year break, it is right that practice makes perfect. However, although I was an Elite commander starting again as a Jameson with a pulse laser I did have to run from every fight. This is realistic, but it's not how most games work. In RL I do HEMA and I have 10 years experience with the long sword. But if all I had to defend myself was a dagger, I'd be killed by a noob with an arming sword or long sword. Skill can only mitigate a disadvantage so far. I'd just have no chance of coming within their guard. Similarly with a pulse laser the range means I have no chance against a pirate with a beam laser. It's not just that his weapon does more damage, its that I cannot hit him with my feeble range pulse laser before he can kill me with his longer range weapon. Its not impossible, just as a man with a dagger can kill a man with an arming sword. But even if you are a master dagger fighter you are at such a disadvantage you'd 9 times out of 10 be killed by a less skilled opponent with a longer blade.

As a start off I sold my pulse laser and missiles (it feels wrong to go about unarmed, but the pulse just won't save you anyway so you are better off just using it to buy furs / computers). Traded for a bit avoiding the space lanes and with about 2 hours of real time game play I'd got Injectors, docking computer, ECM, large cargo bay and a beam. But I still ran away from most fights until I had a full iron arse. I haven't died in combat yet and now have a fully equipped Boa Frigate, have done the first two thargoid missions and have both a naval energy unit and a naval grid. I'd suggest installing all the equipment and scanner OXPs as this equipment is only available to the player. Tool up fully and you'll usually win. But you do need to use your injectors (fuel pod is your friend here as you'll always have enough fuel for injectors or you could use fuel generator which is nicely balanced as it does allow you to create fuel, but only a little bit and it drains your shield doing it).

Sorry ... that's all with a keyboard, a keyboard & mouse, a joystick, HOTAS ... or by any chance ... in a real spaceship?

[vaxon]

Quite interesting. I sold my pulse laser right away since it's quite useless. I kept my missiles though. More to protect myself from enemy missiles than to try attack anyone. Almost got killed on my first flight to Tionisla by a Fer-de-lance. Had to maneuver almost all the way to the base. Thankfully, when I got pretty close, the GalCops appeared and did their job. Indeed this game is quite unconventional. It seems that it has a lot of hidden potential. Not sure if I can survive a proper fight event when I get my shield boosters and military lasers installed. I'm trying not to bias the game too much with the OXPs. This is what I use:

• PovRay Planets
• BGS
• Griff and Staer9 ship sets;
• ZygoUgo's asteroids and explosions;
• ZygoUgo's cinematic sky along with Knotty's Realistic Stars;
• Commodity markets by Spara that adds realism by having different sell/buy prices;
• Delightful docking and Audible docking clearance by Spara;
• Skilled NPCs by Cim

The first five are just eye candy.
I've tried HUD selector and Xenon HUD along with the Combat MFD, but I can't use them.
They all look great, but I'm just more accustomed to the default HUD with no MFDs.

[dybal]

As best I remember all the random hits ships are standard, but the higher paying ships have a higher chance of having equipment fitted. Oolite is fair in that any weapons OXPs you install are also available to NPCs. If you have Thargoid's mini-missiles installed (which allows you to have 3 micro missiles on each pylon) a Cobra Mk III could have 12 missiles if it is carrying a mini-missile pack on each pylon.

My bad, the one I was remembering, a fer de Lance, is from Anarchies OXP: is has max_energy=400 and max_flight_speed=350... the standard Fer de Lance has max_energy=150 and max_flight_speed=300

I started a new commander recently, an Adder start (had around 3k kills with the old one). I did sell the laser, missiles and heat shielding at Lave, got Telescope, took a parcel contract to Begeabi (only 2 systems away) for 436 Cr , was accosted by a crowd of assassins all the way from waypoint to main station three systems in a row (took the long way there), evaded the lasers but got killed by missiles... re-started and kept the missile to use as missile defence. Got Fuel Scoops at Reorte (I run HardWay OXP, fuels scoops are mandatory). After I delivered the package (10% bonus) I started trading in-system on precious metals only (an Adder... only 5t of cargo space... and there were 4 assassins waiting for me each time I launched from the main station even after I delivered the package ), got Fuel Injectors, a rangefinder to search for escape pods and a towbar to salvage Sidewinders and Geckos and an Extra Energy Unit. After I had enough for a beam laser, I started fighting some of the single pirates that attacked me (those without an aft laser...). Salvaged in Relaes until I had enough for a Shield Booster (the SLAPU prices are 15% off), jumped to Azaqu and was able to take out the Pirate Cove near the witchpoint... the pirates kept pouring out of the RH, and at one time there were three of them in the fight, one of them a Chimera Gunship.

I use a joystick, with a keyboard I would just run.

[vaxon]

I've started from scratch recently as well. I'm still not sure about the game balance. It sort of close to reality if I may say so, but at the same time it's too much waiting, at least until fuel ejectors and docking computers are bought. Dogfighting could add more excitement but you just can't fight until you buy extra energy unit, military lasers and shield boosters. I've tried to start fighting earlier and it has always ended too bad for me. I could kill some, but inevitably I'd meet some quite skilled bad guy with stronger lasers and missiles, get my injectors or ECM system damaged and eventually get killed with a missile, because that's what they use if you hit them too much. I've never encountered singe pirates. It's always at least 2-3 of them. If you buy more equipment and get better so do they. I feel like I'm missing out. All I do is shuttling between a couple of stations to get more money to buy the equipment. Parcel contracts are not available since "I'm not experienced enough". Cargo delivery contracts need a bigger ship and the amount of money they offer is just ridiculous. I've tried adding more ships/stations to the game, but most them looks like from another game and don't match Griff-style ships. Some OXPs change the game too much. Maybe I'm not using the right ones? It feels that the game itself has a lot of potential, but unfortunately it's still hidden.

[dybal]

I've started from scratch recently as well. I'm still not sure about the game balance. It sort of close to reality if I may say so, but at the same time it's too much waiting, at least until fuel ejectors and docking computers are bought. Dogfighting could add more excitement but you just can't fight until you buy extra energy unit, military lasers and shield boosters. I've tried to start fighting earlier and it has always ended too bad for me. I could kill some, but inevitably I'd meet some quite skilled bad guy with stronger lasers and missiles, get my injectors or ECM system damaged and eventually get killed with a missile, because that's what they use if you hit them too much. I've never encountered singe pirates. It's always at least 2-3 of them. If you buy more equipment and get better so do they. I feel like I'm missing out. All I do is shuttling between a couple of stations to get more money to buy the equipment. Parcel contracts are not available since "I'm not experienced enough". Cargo delivery contracts need a bigger ship and the amount of money they offer is just ridiculous. I've tried adding more ships/stations to the game, but most them looks like from another game and don't match Griff-style ships. Some OXPs change the game too much. Maybe I'm not using the right ones? It feels that the game itself has a lot of potential, but unfortunately it's still hidden.

I'm doing well with the Beam laser (I can't get Military Lasers or IronHide in an Adder, ShipVersion doesn't allow it, but the main difference is range... you just have to get close, and Adder's maneuvarability is great for dogfighting). I had to get the EEU because Adder's max energy is just 85 and its energy recharge rate only 2 (able to supply half the standard shield recharge rate, shields take forever to recharge), with the EEU it goes to 3.6 and I get a good enough shield recharge, enough for single combat, for more than one enemy I needed shield boosters to be able to take some fire while wearing an enemy's shield down.

Missiles without injectors are a problem, most of them are ECM-hardened, dodging them has a low success rate, as do trying to shoot them down at close range (at long range it's easier, but you need injectors to get that distance). I got the injectors mostly for evading missiles, I can evade lasers (in an Adder) by barrel rolling.

I run into plenty of single pirates... most of them are from Space Crowds (and I usually am decanted from Torus by them), but I think there are some from the core game as well... but it's mostly in the main planet - Sun lane.

Most OXP equipments are player only, getting them will not affect the NPCs... even when they get awarded to the NPCs, it's pro-forma, since the OXP code for the equipments are worldScripts and will act on the player ship only. Even core game equipments, like EEU and NEU, don't do anything in a NPC ship (the code that reacts to their installation and updates the energy recharge rate is a worldScript too and doesn't get triggered for NPC ships), their energy recharge rate doesn't change.

That can change if you install some of the OXPs I'm maintaining, but I usually make them configurable so you can disable NPC functionality.

I don't know if your rank affects NPC's skills... I think not, with exception of OXPs made to target elite players, like Green Gecko, but I might be wrong.

In my previous commander I was able to get some parcel contracts in the 3k~5k range after a dozen or so successful deliveries, with around 130 kills. Then I dug into the skill level necessary for a 30k contract, found that I needed 1200 kills even with level 7 parcel reputation, and got back to hunting/salvaging to build up my kill rank.

A good alternative for making money is Salvage (Towbar OXP... even in an Adder I can get from 250 to 1000 Cr for a derelict - Gnat, Sidewinders and Geckos) and Rescue (GalCop Missions OXP for the rangefinder to find escape capsules, many insurances are a joke, but there are plenty of 500 Cr insurances to make it worthwhile) - that's what I'm doing now, and I always look for the Rock Hermits (in the main planet - Sun lane, you can see them silhouetted against the sun) to buy cheap precious metals, and I run Additional Planets OXP and Stations for Additional Planets OXP, so there are more markets in-system with different prices for arbitrage to work, specially with precious once you have some working capital (it gets around Adder's 5t limit)

Believe me, this phase of scrapping up money to kit up is one of the best parts of the game, as is discovering how much you can do with the little you have... even unarmed, I was able to bait pirates into following me to a defended ship/station and then draw their fire on mother or station and get its defenders to take care of them.

Many OXPs change the game so much that it's really another game - Ship Configuration, or HardWay, for example (that's good, once you master one variation and get bored there are others to try ), others create whole new careers the player can chose to follow, like Towbar.

EDIT to complement some things

[another_commander]

Lots of interesting thoughts here. Just a quick comment from my side: you can save yourself a lot of waiting for equipment to become buyable if you use the Easy Start option, which will put you on Tionisla with 1000 Cr, ready to buy injectors. This should increase survival options considerably.

[LittleBear]

I play keyboard only.

[Cholmondely]

... it's too much waiting, at least until fuel ejectors and docking computers are bought.

You've not tried ILS? Ultra-fast docking on the tail of another (read all the accompanying notes) ... and ultra-fast suicide when it all goes pear-shaped!

[Disembodied]

• Skilled NPCs by Cim

I'd consider removing this - at least until you find the un-skilled NPCs too easy. There's nothing wrong with developing your own skills first!