Questions from New Pilot.

Pitchblack · Post by **Pitchblack** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:59 am

Hello. I am a new pilot who recently downloaded Oolite while searching for a good space sim. Sadly my first attempts at playing have been a bit rough, at first I could not get the controls to work. I figured them out with some online resources. Second I jumped out of system and I ended up with insane load times. I figured this was from my extensive amount of mods. I confirmed this.

So i was Wondering what is a safe amount of mods for Oolite?

and also: do mods only need the .oxp file?

Are there any mods seen as great/must haves?

Any advice is greatly appreciated as im still figuring alot out.

Thanks for any help.

Edit:Docking Hurts when you dont spin...

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:56 am

Welcome to the Ooniverse Pitchblack

First it might be handy to know which version of oolite you have, then what your machine is, ie. cpu speed, ram, graphics card.
I had more than 30 oxp's running fine at one time. But not all oxp's are suitable for all versions of oolite. The current build is 1.72.2

http://developer.berlios.de/project/sho ... up_id=3577

Yes the addon's only need the .oxp file, it ignores everything else.. I think. Never tried putting anything else in there.
Try having a look here;

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/OXP

Better add that one to your bookmarks, you'll probably be there a lot.

Shipyards and Random hits are amazing. There are also a heap of missions to choose from. You can have plenty of missions on at the same time.

As for docking, well ye it's better to spin but easier to align if you leave it to the last moment. Oh, also easier if you don't slow down too much.
Pretty soon you wont be slowing at all. Even been known to leapfrog slower ships on approach.

Happy flying

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:04 am

Forgot to say, I've been playing space sims since the 80's and never came across a game as versatile as this, never mind the scope of play available.

You will find heaps just by going through the discussions, a lot of people ask similar questions and there are heaps of hints like;
Trumbles are best deep fried. Myself... I like them baked with lots of chillie sauce.

Pitchblack · Post by **Pitchblack** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:09 am

Thanks for the quick Reply, Im running 1.72.2 of Oolite on a old sony computer I got around the time freelancer was released. It has some upgrades but comes in with this:

Radeon X1650 512mb Graphics card
512 mb Ddr Ram
2.8 Ghz Processor (single core)
Sadly My computer has a ton of problems and runs more like it has 1/2 of its current stats

As a side Note im having some trouble enjoying Oolite, I just was expecting a Little bit more. Am I missing something?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:25 am

Err, Ye I would say you are missing heaps, but we all had to start at the bottom.
They say 2Gig ram but mine works fine with 1. 2Ghz cpu, but again mine works fine with 1.2Ghz. The Radeon ATI graphics are a problem, I have similar, but I only seem to miss out on the background stars and nebula. But then I find it easier to spot other ships and cargo at a distance that way.

Here are some starter oxpers I use; Black baron, Clearskies (this helps reduce the memory required), deposed, halsis, local hero, longway, medusaHud, outrider, (need that for Taranis mission) of course taranis. Python cruiser class, RoC, Rock hermit locator, spyhunter, Your add here, and the sets to go with it. Zz oo haul.

That should be plenty for the first galaxy.
Wouldn't be too worried about adding random hits till you have decent gear on your ship.
ECM a must. Military lasers at least on the front
Fuel scoops and larger cargo bay, really a must.

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:30 am

forgot to say;
took me ages to realise that pressing 3 (equipment list in port) a second time brings up ships available and 8 (commodity list) a second time brings up the contracts available.

oh ye, It should only take a few seconds to jump through witchspace (Hyperspace)

Pitchblack · Post by **Pitchblack** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:43 am

I added realistic shipyards and removed the ones i had that it was going to provide. So im left with that, your ad here, sunskimmers, all of the government mod, taranis/outrider, a sound pack, traffic control.... just to name a few. Ive got a bunch more that add to the thargoids/navy and one that interested me called Total Patrol (or something).

Anyway im running without a joystick, is this a problem?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:00 am

No Joystick not a prob, most of the 'Oldies' prefer it that way. Me on the other hand use a logi ATK 3 stick. 11 buttons and 3 Axis, so all inflight controls are done there.

But I recon ship yards is way over taxing your computer. Would probably be better to just add in the oxp's you want and are going to use.

I created an "Oolite Extras" folder. It sits right bellow the prog folder. I still prefer the folder tree to view what's in there. I put all the oxp's I might use in there and it makes it very easy to chop and change what's running in any game.

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:05 am

most of the missions you have loaded don't happen in G1 and there are hundreds of ships in there too. When you jump into a new system tdm (This Damn Machine) calculates what you might meet and what missions are there also for a lot of other stuff. Ergo why it takes you so long to jump.

The list I put up earlier includes all the oxp missions in G1, except the navy stuff. But they don't really pay, and the main thing at the start is to get heaps of dosh to buy the wham bang ships later.

Pitchblack · Post by **Pitchblack** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:12 am

I have a bunch of folders named temp1,2,3 etc..... In there i hold the oxp's. But just incase further in my folders I have copies of the zips. In case i want to switch out I also keep a Addons folder thats named wrong so it wont register.

Ive played a few attempts at a game and I usually only get 1 jump in before I crash into a station. Ill try a joystick sometime and see if it makes a difference.

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:48 am

Save at every station, 2 then quick save.
Docking, ah... see the thread under that very title.

Thought a couple of easy tips might help.
1. As in HHG "Don't Panic"
2. Use the bouy provided when docking
3. Don't try to dock tooo slow, makes it harder.
4. Leave trying to rotate with the station to the last minute, makes getting aligned easier.
5. try not to shoot anything till you have an ECM. most ships carry missiles and they tend to leave huge dent's in your ship, also really hard to shoot them in flight.
6. Check the forum when getting stuck, really is heaps of stuff to help in here.

Reg 2. Fly to the bouy, stop, flip till aligned then make approach, you should see 4 flashing red lights on the back wall. try to get aimed at the middle of them. Takes constant adjusting. About just under quarter speed (maybe 8th) as you get near. As said Too slow makes it harder.

Don't forget to start spinning a couple of hundred meters out, should still see the edges of the station, that gives you time to stop and turn if botched. With keyboard you have to pulse the roll button, from memory it's about once every just under a second, trial and error there.

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 7:33 am

Pitchblack wrote:
Radeon X1650 512mb Graphics card
512 mb Ddr Ram
2.8 Ghz Processor (single core)
Sadly My computer has a ton of problems and runs more like it has 1/2 of its current stats

As a side Note im having some trouble enjoying Oolite, I just was expecting a Little bit more. Am I missing something?

Maybe you should drop YAH and consider to remove RS temporarily if you fly missions where the additional RAM usage (RS adds a hell lot of variety!) would hurt too much.

I'm running oolite on a phenom 9500 (4*2.2) with 4 GiB (3 usable since they delivered Vista 32 instead of 64) and an Asus EAH 4870x2 2GiB graphics card.

When too many things are going on, the CPU is idle as is the GPU. ATI made some stupid mistake in their drivers and even asks all people to report it although they know about it. ATI appears not to have any working OpenGL support at all on the PC! See this thread for an explanation:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview. ... erthread=y

About the fun of the game: There's plenty of missions around, in contrary to the game that inspired this. It's pretty much impossible to do all of them in one trip through all galaxies...I'm elite for some time now and still have quite some mission oxp's waiting. The wiki might help to plan when to install/do those missions:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Missions

Personally, I do like to keep busy by accepting Random Hits or Navy missions when I've nothing better to do or wait for the next part of a bigger mission oxp to unlock (like it was the case with assassins).

Concerning joysticks, I could not imagine to play this game without, but then I had it already before I got this game. It's very important to have enough axis controls, as Oolite introduces yaw control which wasn't present in the original.

Screet

wackyman465 · Post by **wackyman465** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:19 pm

Your computer lags on that setup? My comp has a 2.4 ghz processor w/2 gig ram and never lags. Must be because you run vista...

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:30 pm

wackyman465 wrote:
Your computer lags on that setup? My comp has a 2.4 ghz processor w/2 gig ram and never lags. Must be because you run vista...

No, because I use ATI. It's not my computer lagging! I can run as many other programs as I want, view a movie on the second screen, it doesn't change anything.

The problem is, that my CPU and GPU both are idle! They use minimum frequency, even when cold.

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview. ... erthread=y
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview. ... erthread=y

The ATI/AMD guys don't even attempt to claim that their OpenGL support would not be defunct! The speed I get is like software rendering (even slower). People with very fast computer RAM can make up for a part of that problem, but it's obvious that ATI messed up and the cards cannot use their internal memory for texture buffering. Therefore, the CPU and GPU don't have anything to do aside from waiting for all those textures to be transferred over and over again.

Screet

MKG · Post by **MKG** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:55 pm

Vista is no great problem - I have about 30 OXPs loaded (including YAH and RS) and have 2 Gig RAM, and the only time I see graphics slowdown is when a GalCop fleet takes on a full-blown Thargoid battle fleet. And that's only because I have on-board graphics, so my 2 Gig is greatly reduced in reality.

Mind you, I've never tried running anything else at the same time as Oolite, but then why would I want to?