Oolite Bulletins

Commander Slickov here. As a new pilot, I just thought I'd give everyone an idea how I'm doing out here.

Starting from Lave, I made my way east along G1, fascinated in checking out the Iron Stars region. Turned out be a little more dangerous than I expected, for I ended up with no cargo and only 30 credits in my wallet, limping a heavily damaged Cobbie 3 to the nearest station orbiting some godforsaken commie rock.

Decided to do the sensible thing and traded in the Cobbie 3 for a Cobbie 1. Used the extra cash to drop in a beam laser, an escape pod, an extra energy unit and some fuel injectors. Had my first three successful kills in this new ship since then, and I'm a little more confident in my combat abilities in this region.

Currently, I'm running a triangular trade circuit between Aona (an industrial system that has outlawed imported machinery, for which I have a permit to bring in at an absurdly high profit margin), north to Biramabi (agricultural commie system) with some computers, before shipping some food into industrial Biarge to the east and then taking machinery back down south to Aona. I plan to build up a total asset value of about 150 thou credits (incl. Cobbie 1 trade-in) before getting a new crate. Currently, I'm debating buying a Heavy Metal freighter (space truckers for the win) or sizing down to a fighter and getting into the bounty hunting game. Dilemmas, dilemmas...

Don't forget to check out the parcels contracts on F4 - no hold space needed, but beware which ones you choose.

*sigh* I' still wonder what was really shown on those mud hockey videos...

Cody wrote:

Don't forget to check out the parcels contracts on F4 - no hold space needed, but beware which ones you choose.

Yeah, I've been checking those, but there have been very few so far that don't require me to jump halfway across the sector, and I'm not done irritating the Iron Stars region just yet.

cdr_slickov wrote:

Yeah, I've been checking those, but there have been very few so far that don't require me to jump halfway across the sector, and I'm not done irritating the Iron Stars region just yet.

Cool! Once you've built some rep, parcel contracts can become very lucrative!
Of course, this requires some dedication - and it can be rather addictive.

Pays to check your HUD...

So I was doing the Laenin - Xexedi trade route, and I was docking at Xexedi main. Switched off my weapons systems, since last time I hit the fire button, (which is placed rather close to the decelerate button mind you) and hit the station, getting the whole sector command on me. Anyway, I docked, made repairs and refuels, unloaded, loaded and had a nice time at the bar. A few hours later, I was launching from the station. Hit the jump to Laenin and came in nicely. After a few seconds on torus drive, I ran into two pirate groups! I was surprised that they still hadn't turned on each other, Either way, I thought this would be a great time to use energy bomb! Shortly after the sirens went off, the ships were within range, and I hit tab.

Nothing.

Tab...

Nothing.

Tab, tab, tab, tab, tab

Nothing.

I shot down at least 2 ships before my ship started taking amour damage. Worse, I was losing my rather large shipment of computers! I fuel injected my way to the station before docking and selling what was left of my computers. I consulted the guy in charge of cargo transfers.

1 ton. Seriously? He had quite any annoyed face which said, 'Another try hard trader. Don't they ever learn that pirates more frequent in these systems?'

That's when I realised something. My HUD was a tad darker. I checked the brightness dial on the monitor.

Still 100%. Glare filters were fine. I looked around the HUD to see if there was any hint on what was the problem, but I could find...anything. Except in the bottom left corner.

'Weapons Systems offline'

I almost pulled my feathers out.

Paladin Tux wrote:

... since last time I hit the fire button, (which is placed rather close to the decelerate button mind you)

That was the very fist thing I changed after installing Oolite! I don't know what was the idea behind using this key, but there has to be some non-obvious reason, probably related to the keyboard matrix curcuits. I think, it was A on the C-64 version too, but I played it with a joystick, so it didn't matter.

I have mapped fire to the space bar and I (almost) never hit it accidentally.

Fritz wrote:

I have mapped fire to the space bar and I (almost) never hit it accidentally.

The Fire key is disabled in my personal keyconfig.plist (and a few other keys have been changed around).

After a long stay in G7 (my favourite octant), I find myself back in G1 again - and from a high-class interstellar courier's perspective, it stinks! I picked up a parcel contract at Sori going all the way to Uszaa - 131ly and 40 jumps. Fine, and well worth my time at 37k, but Lachesis was already close to needing an overhaul when I started out, and I need more hardheads badly. The next TL10 on the route (Esusti) is something like 16 jumps away - tough! Not only that, but I might be forced to overhaul at a feudal TL7 and even that is 5 jumps off. I've already suffered one misjump, and my ship's value is as low as I've ever seen it. I'll probably have to detour to a nearby TL10, but that will add time to the run, and with a high-value contract, one needs to press hard for the maximum bonus - every second counts!

Great fun though! Quicksilver Messenger Service always delivers!

Paladin Tux wrote:

Pays to check your HUD...

So I was doing the Laenin - Xexedi trade route, and I was docking at Xexedi main. Switched off my weapons systems, since last time I hit the fire button, (which is placed rather close to the decelerate button mind you) and hit the station, getting the whole sector command on me.

Hehe... nice one
I like the three mostly used buttons close to each other I navigate my big Thrustmaster joystick with three fingers at the base and I fire with "A". But I use the injector to dock, the I-key is well away from the fire key A.

cdr_slickov wrote:

Currently, I'm running a triangular trade circuit between Aona (an industrial system that has outlawed imported machinery, for which I have a permit to bring in at an absurdly high profit margin),

Never heard of such thing. Is that a core game feature or some oxp?

ralph_hh wrote:

cdr_slickov wrote:

Currently, I'm running a triangular trade circuit between Aona (an industrial system that has outlawed imported machinery, for which I have a permit to bring in at an absurdly high profit margin),

Never heard of such thing. Is that a core game feature or some oxp?

phkb's Smugglers oxp, iirc.

Cody wrote:

I find myself back in G1 again - and from a high-class interstellar courier's perspective, it stinks!

Lara'tan is much better - the Qusoxe/Qumaza crossing is an excellent choke-point.

Just passed Xeines once again, with 4 well paying passengers. This time only 12 assassins... I fought them off, losing ECM, fuel scoops, and injectors in the process. Then, on my way to the station, I met three pirates. Without ECM I didn't want to risk anything, and so I turned around and tried to kill them from a distance. The last survivor was an Iguana, and when I hit him really hard, he fired 4 missiles in a row! My aft laser was red hot, and I didn't manage to hit one of them, but I at least managed to give the Iguana a final blow when trying to do so. Luckily the aft shield was up at 100% again when the first missile hit...

01:23:35.781 [LogEvents]: Missile 10353 from Iguana 32560 spawned at 12 km
...
01:23:37.651 [LogEvents]: Player attacked with Missile from Iguana 32560
01:23:37.750 [LogEvents]: Missile 6020 from Iguana 32560 spawned at 12 km
01:23:39.654 [LogEvents]: Player attacked with Missile from Iguana 32560
01:23:39.786 [LogEvents]: Missile 17988 from Iguana 32560 spawned at 14 km
01:23:41.689 [LogEvents]: Player attacked with Missile from Iguana 32560
01:23:41.804 [LogEvents]: Missile 9350 from Iguana 32560 spawned at 15 km
...
01:23:46.592 [LogEvents]: Player got message from Iguana 32560 : You win this time! Keep your cargo.
...
01:23:51.496 [LogEvents]: Player target Iguana 32560 is destroyed
01:23:51.496 [LogEvents]: Player killed Iguana 32560 with energy damage
...
01:24:05.091 [LogEvents]: Player attacked by Missile 10353 384+384 shield and 450 energy left
01:24:05.091 [LogEvents]: Player taking shield damage from Missile 10353 384+190 shield and 450 energy left
...
01:24:10.862 [LogEvents]: Player attacked by Missile 6020 384+207 shield and 450 energy left
01:24:10.862 [LogEvents]: Player taking shield damage from Missile 6020 384+23 shield and 450 energy left
...
01:24:20.521 [LogEvents]: Player attacked by Missile 17988 384+52 shield and 450 energy left
01:24:20.521 [LogEvents]: Player taking 160 energy damage from Missile 17988 384+0 shield and 290 energy left
01:24:25.742 [LogEvents]: Player attacked by Missile 9350 384+16 shield and 311 energy left
01:24:25.742 [LogEvents]: Player taking 225 energy damage from Missile 9350 384+0 shield and 86 energy left

Phew! In hindsight it perhaps would have been better to turn around and meet the 3rd and 4th missile with the front shields. But the Python doesn't turn fast, and I decided to continue to try to hit them with the laser.

Fritz wrote:

perhaps would have been better to turn around and meet the 3rd and 4th missile with the front shields.

Numbers in dealEnergyDamage show that a missile can cause triple damage frontally than from aft so if you turn around then blast through your full shield and press space. Even if you manage to hit ideally with the edge of the frontal shield you get double damage due to the higher collision speed so I think your presented tactics is the best.
Turn around (and slow down!) at last resort only if less than 4 energy banks left and no aft shield imho.

Fritz wrote:

Then, on my way to the station, I met three pirates. Without ECM I didn't want to risk anything, and so I turned around and tried to kill them from a distance.

Why not buying them off then ? It's just that you have to surrender, but from an economical (how little did they want, 3 TC ?) and tactical (you survive for sure) point of view often the wisest choice.