[Solved]AI ships, activating hyperspace close to planets, anyone?

[commander_STyx2909]

I have experienced twice (2 different games from a save) a merchant ship activating hyperjump very close to the planet, definitely a violation of regulations.
Anyone experienced this? May be caused by an OXP.

[Cody]

Anyone experienced this?

Aye, you see it sometimes.

[cbr]

A feature and an opportunity!

[commander_STyx2909]

In fact, I never figured out, until I reported this; Witchspace jump is possible while Thorus activation is impossible because of Mass Lock.
This is kinda weird.
But that's ok if it fits everyone else.

[ffutures]

It has to be possible otherwise refuelling in stars wouldn't work properly. Getting from a depth where refuelling works out to somewhere the torus drive works takes a VERY long time or uses most or all of your fuel, which defeats the object of the exercise. I haven't tried it deliberately, but I think the ship would probably overheat first if you tried to get out without burning fuel.

[Cholmondely]

I understand that the Strangers World suite of OXPs is supposed to tidy this up a bit. But I've not really looked out to see if it really does.

Seems a bit illogical. A relatively small station mass can completely abort hyperjump, but the huge mass of the planet has no effect (OK, I know, planets don't have any mass in Oolite).

The Gravity Well module changes game mechanics by simulating a gravity field distortion in the proximity of celestial bodies. Attempt to hyperjump below a safe altitude can cause fuel leakage, cargo/equipment damage and/or a misjump. The probability of malfunction increases as a function of diving into the gravity well (less altitude – greater chance of misjump).

The upper boundary of this gravity well influence (gravity well horizon) in the case of a planet is equal to its mass-lock radius (H = R). In the case of a moon's gravity well, this horizon is H = R too, but due to the hardcoded minimal mass-lock radius for moons, the 25600 m gravity well horizon will be inside the mass-lock radius.

For safe departure from the main station, climb above the station and then activate hyperjump. For safe departure from a planet's spaceport climb to leave the planet's mass-lock zone.

Source: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Hard_Way (Section 1.2: Gravity Well)

[hiran]

It has to be possible otherwise refuelling in stars wouldn't work properly. Getting from a depth where refuelling works out to somewhere the torus drive works takes a VERY long time or uses most or all of your fuel, which defeats the object of the exercise. I haven't tried it deliberately, but I think the ship would probably overheat first if you tried to get out without burning fuel.

I was wondering about that too. You need to almost touch the star for scooping fuel. And that although scooping solar wind also seems to work.
Now what if scooping solar wind would be in relation to the direction the ship flies and the distance to the star? Several attempts of getting closed, or staying at a comfortable distance could then also lead to better fuel levels. From there to torus would then be a lot more doable, and we could discuss whether jumping besides such huge masses like stars, moons or planets would be ok.

But then also remember that other ships, especially the GalCops have huge masses. You would no longer be able to jump from them either.

[Cholmondely]

It has to be possible otherwise refuelling in stars wouldn't work properly. Getting from a depth where refuelling works out to somewhere the torus drive works takes a VERY long time or uses most or all of your fuel, which defeats the object of the exercise. I haven't tried it deliberately, but I think the ship would probably overheat first if you tried to get out without burning fuel.

I was wondering about that too. You need to almost touch the star for scooping fuel. And that although scooping solar wind also seems to work.
Now what if scooping solar wind would be in relation to the direction the ship flies and the distance to the star? Several attempts of getting closed, or staying at a comfortable distance could then also lead to better fuel levels. From there to torus would then be a lot more doable, and we could discuss whether jumping besides such huge masses like stars, moons or planets would be ok.

But then also remember that other ships, especially the GalCops have huge masses. You would no longer be able to jump from them either.

Scooping fuel is from the Vanilla game. Scooping Solar wind is either from Fuel Collection (no change, constant rate of scooping) or Strangers World (much more sophisticated - hence need for special MFD - sadly the UsefulMFDs has an inaccurate Solar Wind gauge). Strangers World does indeed give you variation according to distance from the star (not direction, though). And, all of a sudden, the star colour starts to become very, very relevant.

If I go to Ensoreus, running Strangers World, I have no fuel in case of an ambush. So I stop off in Bemeara (poor markets under SWEconomics - no fur or medicine on sale) and can recharge my tanks quickly if I can get close enough to the star. Once recharged, I whizz off to Ensoreus, and have spare fuel for avoiding unwelcome visitors.

I do find that the ways in which Diplomancy, Weapon Laws and Strangers World reconfigure the game priorities add a lot to my enjoyment (and game realism). I only wish Smugglers was compatible with it all! Hopefully some day I'll be able to tweak them all.

Have you found any OXPs that tweak the game in a way that you really like?

[hiran]

Have you found any OXPs that tweak the game in a way that you really like?

For such a change to be noticeable I would have to know about the vanilla game, then later add an OXP and find out a preference.
I started off with ~140 OXPs and they seem like 'the game'. The price was I already went through incompatibility (Imperial Star Destroyer vs ILS) and therefore started looking at OXPs in general - less at how each of them behaves in gameplay.

So no, I have not found preferred ones yet.

[Cholmondely]

Have you found any OXPs that tweak the game in a way that you really like?

For such a change to be noticeable I would have to know about the vanilla game, then later add an OXP and find out a preference.
I started off with ~140 OXPs and they seem like 'the game'. The price was I already went through incompatibility (Imperial Star Destroyer vs ILS) and therefore started looking at OXPs in general - less at how each of them behaves in gameplay.

So no, I have not found preferred ones yet.

Good. That means you are in a position to let us know how well the documentation works from that aspect. I'm sure it is written for people like me who started with the Vanilla game and slowly, little by little, added to it - understanding what we were doing at each point.

How useful is it all? Where does it fall down or fail to help?

[Cholmondely]

I understand that the Strangers World suite of OXPs is supposed to tidy this up a bit. But I've not really looked out to see if it really does.

Seems a bit illogical. A relatively small station mass can completely abort hyperjump, but the huge mass of the planet has no effect (OK, I know, planets don't have any mass in Oolite).

The Gravity Well module changes game mechanics by simulating a gravity field distortion in the proximity of celestial bodies. Attempt to hyperjump below a safe altitude can cause fuel leakage, cargo/equipment damage and/or a misjump. The probability of malfunction increases as a function of diving into the gravity well (less altitude – greater chance of misjump).

The upper boundary of this gravity well influence (gravity well horizon) in the case of a planet is equal to its mass-lock radius (H = R). In the case of a moon's gravity well, this horizon is H = R too, but due to the hardcoded minimal mass-lock radius for moons, the 25600 m gravity well horizon will be inside the mass-lock radius.

For safe departure from the main station, climb above the station and then activate hyperjump. For safe departure from a planet's spaceport climb to leave the planet's mass-lock zone.

Source: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Hard_Way (Section 1.2: Gravity Well)

I've now looked, and seen a convoy of a dozen or so leave Cetiisqu through a wormhole which they opened some 20km above the planet surface - maybe halfway down the gravity well. Oh dear!

I don't know, maybe they were all dancing around waving the Notorious Knucklebones of Negation around in the air as they were doing so to invoke the blessings of St Giles?