Laser color

[Corny]

I saw different laser colors ingame (blue and yellow, for example) and thought it would be related to different laser cannon models at first... but I still have a red laser, no matter which laser cannon I install.
How can I change the color of my ship's laser beam?

[another_commander]

Locate the shipdata.plist entry of the player's version of the ship you want to get its laser color changed, then add

Code: Select all

laser_color = "blueColor";

for a blue ray laser or any other color of your choice instead of blueColor. Remember to press Shift when restarting Oolite for cache flush.

[Cmd. Cheyd]

Longer-winded but more through explanation available where all Oolite Goodness is stored.... The Wiki!

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Shipda ... aser_color

[Screet]

I saw different laser colors ingame (blue and yellow, for example) and thought it would be related to different laser cannon models at first...

I must admit that I would prefer laser colors based on laser models to the current situation...it would be much more logical!

Screet

[JeffBTX]

Screet;

I like that... pulse lasers maybe pulsing yellow (I say that because I hate yellow), beam lasers red, military lasers purple (because I like purple).

Thargoid lasers of course should be the traditional green.

You should post that into the "Suggestions" section, perhaps inviting a vote for what colors mean what, and to start establishing guidelines for OXP laser colors (if thats possible).

[Screet]

You should post that into the "Suggestions" section, perhaps inviting a vote for what colors mean what, and to start establishing guidelines for OXP laser colors (if thats possible).

Unless I dreamt that, I already did suggest that quite a time ago and none did go for it...however, in the past days I've been thinking about modding my own version to do that but somehow never felt up to actually doing it...

Screet

[JeffBTX]

Suggest it again

[Corny]

Damn it The first place I looked for the lasercolor was the shipdata.plist, but it didn't contain the line. The search in the wiki returned the shipdata.plist-entry with the excerpt

Assigns the ship's laser. When true, any firing of laser will deactivate the cloak. (Added in oolite 1.73. False by default)

so I thought "okay, nothing in there, otherwise it'd quote something with the word "color" in it" and now it's exactly there
Thanks!

Remember to press Shift when restarting Oolite for cache flush.

Also on mac? When I open Oolite through the finder, shift slows down the "file opening"-effect, but does it also clear the app cache?

[another_commander]

Yup, Shift clears the game cache on Mac as well.

[Thargoid]

Just to be the awkward alien, personally I'd vote to keep things as they are. For me it's nicer to be able to have some chance of knowing who is firing by having a few different beam colours around.

Most NPC ships seem to be armed with beam lasers (at least the trunk ones), and if they were all the same colour it would be a real pain when you get multiple ships opening up on you to know who was who.

Plus I like the variation, and indeed the distinctiveness that you can give specific ship models different colours. And also to be pedantic, if we were being strictly accurate about it all laser beams should be invisible anyway (not much use for gameplay I know, but you can only see such beams if you stick something in them to scatter them, at which point their power degrades and also there's not much of such stuff in space).

[BlackKnight]

At sometime in the dim and distant past, Thargoid ran into the room and said...

And also to be pedantic, if we were being strictly accurate about it all laser beams should be invisible anyway (not much use for gameplay I know, but you can only see such beams if you stick something in them to scatter them, at which point their power degrades and also there's not much of such stuff in space).

Maybe beams sufficiently powerful to actually do any damage by the time they reach their target find enough stuff to illuminate that they do show up..? If talking gigawatt pulses then the energy required to light up a few molecules of H2 ain't gonna cause a problem (of course, if you're shooting through debris fields or asteroid belts then that's a different story... but thankfull beam attenuation, long-range focussing, micormeteroids and gravitic distortion aren't part of Oolite... yet? )

[JazHaz]

And also to be pedantic, if we were being strictly accurate about it all laser beams should be invisible anyway...

Who says they are lasers? I'm sure by the years that Oolite is set in there won't be something better? Phasers? Deathrays?

[Thargoid]

Who says they are lasers? I'm sure by the years that Oolite is set in there won't be something better? Phasers? Deathrays?

Umm I think the clue is rather in their names

[JazHaz]

....

Laserbait?

[JeffBTX]

Maybe they are MAGIC LASERS!