Oolite Bulletins

I'm a happy keyboard person. I first played Elite on my Dad's Acorn Archimedes, and flew by mouse control, which was somewhat different to the mouse control in Oolite. Also, I play Oolite on a laptop, rather than a desktop and my only mouse is a cheap usb thing which eats batteries ridiculously fast. So, I tried out flying by keyboard. And to be honest, I don't have any problems with it at all. Docking's easy enough, and if my 6100+ kills are anything to go by, I don't have any trouble with combat. I will concede that if you want to change the key setup, it's really not very easy at all. But apart from that, I'm a fan of the keyboard. It takes me back to my childhood watching Wesley Crusher pilot the Enterprise-D by pressing things on the conn, and me dreaming about doing the same... Oolite, although somewhat different, is a very nice substitute for that!

Mauiby de Fug wrote:

and if my 6100+ kills are anything to go by,

Not too far to go then... don't forget, we want a pic of the magic moment, Mauiby.

El Viejo wrote:

Mauiby de Fug wrote:

and if my 6100+ kills are anything to go by,

Not too far to go then... don't forget, we want a pic of the magic moment, Mauiby.

Oh, don't worry, so do I! I never managed to stick with it long enough in Elite to get ranked Elite (although the ranking system was higher, so I had more than 6400 kills). So to achieve it, that'll be good! I'm just waiting till I'm near. Then I'll have to start paying close attention to the score each time before I leave the station, so that I'm prepared for it!

I for one am happy to know there are a few of us keyboard commanders. Do not pity us - we are missing out on nothing. Sure, you press a key and the movement continues on for a short time and sometimes you overshoot the target. I make a practice of overshooting and if executed correctly, your target returns to the crosshairs and gets what for. This technique actually helps to keep the lasers from overheating. Two fingers of my left hand are on the pitch / dive keys and another on the fire key while my right hand controls roll and speed. All the other important functions are close by.

I have no problem with keyboard use, myself. The only slight issue I have is that when switching between using the rear laser and front laser in combat, it sometimes takes my brain a few seconds to make the switch too. If I used a stick I could just flip it around, I suppose.

I think I've seen when going from keyboard to mouse mode in testing that my ship pitches/rolls considerably in what seems a random direction. It's annoying and its one of the reasons I haven't bothered trying to "get good" with the mouse.

Switeck wrote:

I think I've seen when going from keyboard to mouse mode in testing that my ship pitches/rolls considerably in what seems a random direction. It's annoying and its one of the reasons I haven't bothered trying to "get good" with the mouse.

The first thing I do when this happens is right-click. That takes care of the problem within the first second of its occurrence.

Edit: Not sure if this is a problem also on the Mac, but at least for the SDL builds the issue should be fixed in r4585.

Ahruman wrote:

greenseng wrote:

Just a few questions here.

Is it possible, with an oxp, to change the behaviour of a key? Let us say F9.

No.

greenseng wrote:

Is it possible to press it and suddenly the ship rotates with half the speed and likewise with the pitch?

No.

greenseng wrote:

And if you press F9 one more time it just rotates one pixel or pitches one pixel.

No.

greenseng wrote:

And when you press F9 again everything is back to normal. It can also be if you do shift + F9.

No.

greenseng wrote:

Does an oxp-writer have that type of control?

No.

greenseng wrote:

And how much control has an oxp-writer over the ram?
Can one read from a position in the ram?
Can one write?

So very, very no that it’s as no as a very no thing.

Thanks for the straight and good answers. Such clear answers usually don't come cheap.

Conclusion: No oxp-work (probably). Always good with some free holidays. You seem to need some too.

Controlling with a mouse I find difficult, as I have to worry about which direction my mouse is pointed to get my ship turning accurately, and I have to lift up my mouse sometimes to keep moving it a direction, which screws everything up. Mouse control with the trackpad on my computer, however, has all the benefits with neither of these drawbacks. It's difficult to control and fire with the mouse at the same time, but I like using a keyboard button for that anyway.