Oolite Bulletins

Correct, DH. At the time, I was chasing an FdL, but my forward mili-laser was redlined. I had a half dozen other pirates crawling over my iron ass and the Sidewinder just came up from beneath me. I was actually trying to toggle the ECM but hit the 'D' button instead. Next thing I saw was "Food Ejected" followed by "Bounty: 22 Cr" and my credit rating incremented by 22.1 Cr. I like to think that the container was filled with chocolate cake so I can say that the pilot suffered 'DEath by Chocolate'...

Captain Hesperus

Captain Hesperus wrote:

I like to think that the container was filled with chocolate cake so I can say that the pilot suffered 'DEath by Chocolate'...

Considering it was you I'm pretty sure that it did not contain food anymore, but a couple of trumbles

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I recently finished a Galactic Navy mission, one where you have to repel a Thargoid invasion. I went right into the thick of the fighting, destroying as many Thargoids as I could.

Soon there were so many flashing red and green contacts that I was sure I was going to die, but damned if I didn't take some with me. I went head-to-head with a Thargoid Battleship. It was soon destroyed and then...

Everything went dead. All of those contacts were robot fighters, and that Battleship was their last control center. I've never scooped so many fighters before. I actually filled my cargo hold with almost nothing but fighters.

Unfortunately, there were a few cruisers near the Coriolis Station that hadn't yet been destroyed. I ended up playing chicken with one and we both broke in the same direction. Hit Space Commander.

Azathoth wrote:

Surely the most fearsome adversaries I have faced in this game.

Maybe this is what Galcop needs to do to deal with the Thargoids for once and for all... sic the Black Monks onto 'em!

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Next thing I saw was "Food Ejected" followed by "Bounty: 22 Cr" and my credit rating incremented by 22.1 Cr. I like to think that the container was filled with chocolate cake so I can say that the pilot suffered 'DEath by Chocolate'...

Captain Hesperus

That's one for the space bar! Right after the scar show and tell.
Sounds like a viable form of ammunition (given the cost of food). We've just got to get the right eject position designed on a ship to turn it a red dwarf Garbage Cannon.

ClymAngus wrote:

We've just got to get the right eject position designed on a ship to turn it a red dwarf Garbage Cannon.

Try the Jabberwocky, it ejects everything into forward direction. However, I typically did end up being hit by the things I ejected (mines and cargo)

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My personal best moment involves an accidental misjump in a relatively safe area - I was flying from Isinor to Qutiri in Galaxy 1. Anyway, I ended up literally right in the middle of a massive concentration of Thargoid ships - dozens of them, of varying classes. Bear in mind I'm in a rustbucket Cobra Mark I; although it's kitted out with military lasers fore and aft, shield boosters and an extra energy unit it's far from being an ideal combat vessel.

I had five captured Thargons mounted, so I immediately released them and left them to harass the enemy while I booked it towards the only friendly contacts I could see - which turned out to be two badly damaged Navy frigates and a single Navy Viper that exploded just as I arrived. Normally I would have just used them to divert enemy fire while I witched out, but this time I decided to help a bit. I switched to aft guns and sighted in my first target, a Thargoid cruiser. Held the beam on him, blew him out of the sky. Turned around, switched to forward guns, shot into the furball at maximum speed, and the battle was joined.

When the dust finally settled, there was just me, one Navy frigate, and well over a hundred disabled Thargons floating lazily about. In all, I racked up 28 kills, plus a couple dozen disabled fighters I blew up for the bounty (and to increase my rating), and I completely filled my hold with Alien Items. Total damage suffered: slim to none; the only thing damaged was my Planetary Information System.

Master Bates wrote:

My personal best moment involves an accidental misjump in a relatively safe area - I was flying from Isinor to Qutiri in Galaxy 1. Anyway, I ended up literally right in the middle of a massive concentration of Thargoid ships - dozens of them, of varying classes. Bear in mind I'm in a rustbucket Cobra Mark I; although it's kitted out with military lasers fore and aft, shield boosters and an extra energy unit it's far from being an ideal combat vessel.

I had five captured Thargons mounted, so I immediately released them and left them to harass the enemy while I booked it towards the only friendly contacts I could see - which turned out to be two badly damaged Navy frigates and a single Navy Viper that exploded just as I arrived. Normally I would have just used them to divert enemy fire while I witched out, but this time I decided to help a bit. I switched to aft guns and sighted in my first target, a Thargoid cruiser. Held the beam on him, blew him out of the sky. Turned around, switched to forward guns, shot into the furball at maximum speed, and the battle was joined.

When the dust finally settled, there was just me, one Navy frigate, and well over a hundred disabled Thargons floating lazily about. In all, I racked up 28 kills, plus a couple dozen disabled fighters I blew up for the bounty (and to increase my rating), and I completely filled my hold with Alien Items. Total damage suffered: slim to none; the only thing damaged was my Planetary Information System.

I really do need to down load the additional Navy and Thargoid oxps (although I'm still harmless with a hardly-iron-ass Cobby3) just to see some of the grand Space Opera type battles!

Awesome'est Moment;

Getting that magical ***Elite*** status...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

I really do need to down load the additional Navy and Thargoid oxps (although I'm still harmless with a hardly-iron-ass Cobby3) just to see some of the grand Space Opera type battles!

Yeah, those are really great and except a few Assassins missions I've never seen anything like this. Furthermore, there's the toilet seat medal to be gained

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Well, going from newbie Jameson to competent in 5m:47s was good for a laugh, even if I did achieve it in the most low-down, cowardly way possible. Watching the Tionisla graveyard go up in a purple haze was worth every second of it!

My new most awesome moment:

After finally making it to Competent, I decided to enlist in the Navy. I was given an assignement to repel a Thargoid invasion of Reinen (on the other side of Chart 1...sigh). Anyway, after jumping about fifty times (due to dying in transit once and having to start over), I made it to the system and formed up with the reserve squadron - two Asps and two Cobras (a Mark I and a Mark III), along with two Sidewinders I hired as wingmen at the last station. I had upgraded to a Cobra Mark II-X by this point, with a mil laser forward and a beam laser aft.

Upon forming up with the reserve squadron, I started seeing lots of stuff in the distance, just outside sensor range - red clouds of dispersing plasma from Thargoid battleship plasma cannons and the main batteries of Naval frigates, the telltale green beams of Tharg lasers, the red lines of civilian weapons, the purplish fingers of police fightercraft, and of course lots of explosions. We were just about to reach the main furball when five flashing contacts show up on sensors - active Thargons, with no control ship in sight (it was there, just lurking outside of sensor range). Inexplicably, they all targeted me. My only two missiles dispatched two of them, my forward laser a third, and the fourth fell to my aft gun just as someone (fairly sure it was a Python who we passed earlier) destroyed the control craft and the last went silent.

Resuming course, I noticed something ominous - there were no more flashes and not a trace of laser fire. We started passing debris - a lot of it, mostly cargo pods, with one or two dead Thargons and several metal fragments mixed in. I scooped an escape pod, containing a human colonial whose name I don't recall. Aside from the aforementioned Python, which was puttering along all lonely and escort-less, my squad were the only contacts within range. This went on for several boring and vaguely creepy minutes - we were in the middle of the spacelane in a usually-crowded system, and we were the only people there, puttering slowly along because we were flying in formation and masslocking each other.

Finally something interesting happened - well over a dozen contacts at my eight o'clock and extremely low - Thargoids, every one of them, including a cruiser and three battleships (and a lot of Thargons). I tilted down and to the left and hit my injectors, blowing right past them as my squadmates maneuvered to engage. I shut off my engines and switched to aft laser, hammering one of the battleships as it opened up on my comrades. When it noticed me, I turned around and switched back to fore guns, pounding it until the laser overheated and I turned and ran. I had read about Captain Hesperus' trick involving food canisters and injectors, so I had started carrying an emergency 2-ton supply of food with me everywhere for exactly this eventuality. I slowed to a stop, let the ship catch up (taking a lot of damage as a result), and then hit injectors, ejected both canisters in rapid succession to damage him, and finished him off with a prolonged Beam Laser blast.

Turned around and headed back to take out the last Battleship (my squadmates and escorts had taken out one, losing an Asp and the Mark I in the process). We destroyed it, with effort and determination and no finesse whatsoever, and turned to finish off the last few Thargs - a Cruiser and an Invader, plus their fighter complement. The Invader goes down fast. The Cruiser was more of a challenge, especially since my comrades started missing all the time, it was targeting me exclusively, and cumulative battle damage had left me near destruction. I kept firing anyway, as it whittled away at my shields and energy banks. Right before my energy banks reached zero, I ejected. As the pod flew away I saw the cruiser explode (although I wasn't credited with the kill as I didn't fire the final shot). Annoyingly, the ship I ejected from survived, which means some human colonial in an escape pod got a free Cobra Mark II-X.

When I launched again the system was notably devoid of Thargoids and relatively safe. I headed back to the nearest Sector Command and got my next mission.

Fantastic Story!

Nothing too impressive, but I'm still pretty new. I think my only cool moment was when I crashed on docking, though not because I hit the sides or roof of the bay, but the back. I had really gotten the hang of keyboard controls, so I decided to spice it up a bit and start landing while using my WFI. I presume I was going at .7 LS. I wondered if it was possible to hit the back of the bay before getting drawn into the docking portal. Well, that mystery is solved.

Similar to crashing on docking, yesterday was the first day I ever got killed in the few seconds after ejecting and before auto docking. It was a series of af out 5 missiles that were heading for my ship when I baled out, and they must have all continued at my capsule rather than my ship.

It was quite strange watching my ship fly away unharmed in the background. And interestingly oolite went into some kind of horrible broken state, and froze up (I had to kill the process).