Oolite gaming issues

[Cholmondely]

Right. Well if you are suffering from chiplessness/crisplessness and desperately looking for something to do, please sneak a peek at this: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Trading

I checked that document, and hey it is good and useful read.
I only wish "TC" would be defined somewhere - it seems this is a granted for known abbreviation. I so far took it as 'tin can', some standardized container that can easily be loaded and unloaded in every ship. Interestingly then never break - even if a ship explodes they come out as a whole.
The tin can unit seems to be related to volume, as opposed to the weight unit kg. Therefore there is no formula available to calculate kg vs TC...

So far I know how to travel inside a star system. Find the station, go down onto a planet (well I crash but I get there...), go to the sun and scoop some fuel. When it comes to travel to another star I jump through witchspace/hyperspace or use another wormhole. But that pops me from one star system directly into the next star system.

How do I travel interstellar space? How can I travel 3 LYrs into one direction from a given star? How do I find the direction? Would I adjust the ship to point to the right location and then torus there? But while the star system is 3d, the charts to find the next star are 2D. How would I transform coordinates from one to the other?

Travelling inside a star system: Landing

If you have bought the heat shields and docking computers and purchased planetary landing capabilities, you can then land on a planet. I descend gingerly to around 10km (keeping an eye on cabin temperature) and then start to level out to a more gentle angle and start to reduce the speed. I keep on levelling horizontally and keep on slowing down, and eventually the planetary landing authorities contact me with permission to land. And continuing the process (down to under 50 LM when I'm at 1km, and at a slight angle of say 30 degrees) I land.

One wants to have Planetfall, Planet Markets & Planet Market Saver installed (all Dockable OXZs). If you also have Feudal States OXZ installed and land on one of them, there are more options.

Travelling through interstellar space
As for travelling through the mysterious verdant realms of interstellar space, the renowned traveller, Sir Cody (Bart.) of El Viejo, Officer of the Order of the Opulent Ooniverse

is

your man! The renowned author of An Ideal Victim (http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/An_Ideal_Victim), and explorer extraordinaire, I can assure you that what he does not know on the subject is not worth knowing.

[hiran]

Travelling inside a star system: Landing

If you have bought the heat shields and docking computers and purchased planetary landing capabilities, you can then land on a planet. I descend gingerly to around 10km (keeping an eye on cabin temperature) and then start to level out to a more gentle angle and start to reduce the speed. I keep on levelling horizontally and keep on slowing down, and eventually the planetary landing authorities contact me with permission to land. And continuing the process (down to under 50 LM when I'm at 1km, and at a slight angle of say 30 degrees) I land.

So I need first three artefacts:

• heat shields

• docking computer

• panetary landing capabilities

I just checked my savegame and my Imperial Star Destroyer is equipped with all three of them. And I was for sure slowly. Something is still missing.

Travelling through interstellar space
As for travelling through the mysterious verdant realms of interstellar space, the renowned traveller, Sir Cody (Bart.) of El Viejo, Officer of the Order of the Opulent Ooniverse

is

your man! The renowned author of An Ideal Victim (http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/An_Ideal_Victim), and explorer extraordinaire, I can assure you that what he does not know on the subject is not worth knowing.

That story sounds like interstellar space is where you only end up if a jump went wrong.
Or can one force that situation to come up? I'd like to get there and see...
Also that does not tell how to get away from there since you may have burnt all your fuel to open the jump (the fuel is spent in the beginning), so there is nothing left for a return? Interstellar space means not a star system, so there is neither a station nor a star to get some fuel...

[Cody]

Or can one force that situation to come up?

Yes! Full pitch up as the jump countdown hits 1 - that'll drop you into interstellar space at midway, where you'll find Thargoids waiting!
Tip: always make short jumps, so you have some fuel left to escape (though interstellar rescue can help).

[Cholmondely]

Travelling inside a star system: Landing

If you have bought the heat shields and docking computers and purchased planetary landing capabilities, you can then land on a planet. I descend gingerly to around 10km (keeping an eye on cabin temperature) and then start to level out to a more gentle angle and start to reduce the speed. I keep on levelling horizontally and keep on slowing down, and eventually the planetary landing authorities contact me with permission to land. And continuing the process (down to under 50 LM when I'm at 1km, and at a slight angle of say 30 degrees) I land.

So I need first three artefacts:

• heat shields

• docking computer

• panetary landing capabilities

I just checked my savegame and my Imperial Star Destroyer is equipped with all three of them. And I was for sure slowly. Something is still missing.

Might be the size of your ship. Are they capable of landing on planets? Does it have wheels or whatever?

Try something smaller!

[hiran]

Or can one force that situation to come up?

Yes! Full pitch up as the jump countdown hits 1 - that'll drop you into interstellar space at midway, where you'll find Thargoids waiting!
Tip: always make short jumps, so you have some fuel left to escape (though interstellar rescue can help).

Wow, I had an interesting journey.
First, it seems I ended up in the same star system that I was trying to leave - but suddenly there were lots of fights going on. And for the first time I saw an derelict liner.
Then I tried to misjump again and ended up with some thargoid ships showing up. Not sure of their type, I just tried to jump away - properly this time as I was under heavy fire.
The thargoids must have followed me. Again I ended up in nowhere, with more thargoid ships engaging in dogfight. My shields were down to zero, my witchfuel the same. They were dismantling the ship.
Finally I used the fuel generator (which eats my shields which were down anyway) just to get enough fuel to finally jump - this time it was proper.

The imperial star destroyer is thick enough it saved my neck. That no man's land seems dangerous. I am happy to be back so I can tell you about it...

[hiran]

I just checked my savegame and my Imperial Star Destroyer is equipped with all three of them. And I was for sure slowly. Something is still missing.

Might be the size of your ship. Are they capable of landing on planets? Does it have wheels or whatever?

Try something smaller!

I never read anywhere that an Imperial Star Destroyer comes without wheels.
At the same time I never read that a Cobra MK3 would come with landing wheels.

When it comes to that, I cannot tell one ship from the other. But I'd assume that once the planetary landing capability is installed those topics were covered?
Let's see if I can find a smaller ship plus the three necessary equipment...

[Cody]

Wow, I had an interesting journey [ ... ] That no man's land seems dangerous.

<chuckles> Ain't that the truth!

[hiran]

Might be the size of your ship. Are they capable of landing on planets? Does it have wheels or whatever?

Try something smaller!

I never read anywhere that an Imperial Star Destroyer comes without wheels.
At the same time I never read that a Cobra MK3 would come with landing wheels.

When it comes to that, I cannot tell one ship from the other. But I'd assume that once the planetary landing capability is installed those topics were covered?
Let's see if I can find a smaller ship plus the three necessary equipment...

I am now in a Moray Star Boat. Feels a lot more agile.
But some of the nice equipment is gone and I have no clue how or where I had picked that up. Somehow I feared that.
So now I am in need of the Fuel Generator and the Planetary Landing Capabilities...

[hiran]

So far I know how to travel inside a star system. Find the station, go down onto a planet (well I crash but I get there...), go to the sun and scoop some fuel. When it comes to travel to another star I jump through witchspace/hyperspace or use another wormhole. But that pops me from one star system directly into the next star system. How do I travel interstellar space? How can I travel 3 LYrs into one direction from a given star? How do I find the direction? Would I adjust the ship to poin to the right location and then torus there? But while the star system is 3d, the charts to find the next star are 2D. How would I transform coordinates from one to the other?

hiran's issues with the gameplay ... aren't these issues covered in the Friendly Manuals? If I had to write it, I'd analogise that we have several sectors of a galactic disc, which is considerably thicker than a stellar system, but thin enough that the "distance from disc axis" measure is negligible. I'd have to look up numbers, but the Milky Way disc has an approximately 100:1 width:thickness ratio - it's thinner than a vinyl disc, and more comparable to a CD/ DVD disc. OK, that doesn't work so well with the game's actual numbers- the disc of the Milky way is still on the order of 100 light years thick - but it's a mental model. Maybe you could explain it as "sheets" of stars (with habitable systems) separated from each other by the vasty deep, or sheets of molecular cloud ("The Coalsack" of 'Mote in God's Eye', drawn bigger). If it needed an explanation.

Isn't there an OXP that does the "you've got to align your flight path to the direction to your target" feature?

So now I understand that both the galaxy and the stellar space are meant to be 3d but since we talk about a spiral galaxy a 2d map is more than sufficient. But then still I would not know which direction in a stellar system to point the ship to before jumping. Luckily I have some guidance computer that aligns the ship before the countdown finishes.
What if I had not that guidance? How would I align the ship manually? How to know the direction to the next star system?

[Cody]

How would I align the ship manually? How to know the direction to the next star system?

Alignment not required - if you have a target system selected, your hyperdrive will take you there.

[Cholmondely]

How would I align the ship manually? How to know the direction to the next star system?

Alignment not required - if you have a target system selected, your hyperdrive will take you there.

As Cody says, but to expand a little:

1) Vanilla game: no witchspace alignment. At all.

There are two OXPs which introduce alignment:

2) Deep Horizon Advanced Navigation Computer: (oolite.oxp.CmdCheyd.DH_AdvancedNavigationComputer.oxz) aligns your ship for you
3) Manual Witchspace Alignment: makes you do the aligning yourself (by Phkb, as so many things are!)

[hiran]

How would I align the ship manually? How to know the direction to the next star system?

Alignment not required - if you have a target system selected, your hyperdrive will take you there.

As Cody says, but to expand a little:

1) Vanilla game: no witchspace alignment. At all.

There are two OXPs which introduce alignment:

2) Deep Horizon Advanced Navigation Computer: (oolite.oxp.CmdCheyd.DH_AdvancedNavigationComputer.oxz) aligns your ship for you
3) Manual Witchspace Alignment: makes you do the aligning yourself (by Phkb, as so many things are!)

Ok, in most cases I do not have to do anything. Very likely on my setup effect number 2 is active.
But how would I then align the ship in manual witchspace alignment?

[Cholmondely]

2 options.

Without ASC (Advanced Space Compass): the directions flash up on your viewscreen

With ASC (buyable at TL8 for 650₢): directions shown on your ASC


ASC (Advanced Space Compass) is vanilla game Standard Optional Equipment.

Take a look at http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Manual ... _Alignment

[hiran]

2 options.

Without ASC (Advanced Space Compass): the directions flash up on your viewscreen

With ASC (buyable at TL8 for 650₢): directions shown on your ASC


ASC (Advanced Space Compass) is vanilla game Standard Optional Equipment.

Take a look at http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Manual ... _Alignment

Ok, now I got it, thank. you. And I am very grateful to have that ASC available...

BTW, the ASC is more generous than the manual alignment. It can fly through planets or stations.

[Cholmondely]

BTW, the ASC is more generous than the manual alignment. It can fly through planets or stations.

Yes, you can indeed witchspace while pointing at planets etc. I never bothered to check if the documentation mentioned it.

By the way, starting chipping away at your list. That index page you put up is very helpful.