Oolite Bulletins

cim wrote:

I do find that compared to the BBC Elite, the safe systems are less safe and the dangerous systems are less dangerous, by quite a margin. I wouldn't want to go quite so far as the BBC Elite where the most dangerous thing you'd be likely to find in a Corporate or Democracy was a rogue asteroid, of course, while Anarchies were a guaranteed running battle all the way to the planet, but the current spread has always seemed too compact to me.

I have some work I want to do at some point on the system populator to make it more easily scriptable - once that's done it should be much easier to experiment by OXP with changes to the difficulty curve.

Sounds good! I think that some systems, like Corporate States and the richer Democracies, should be virtually pirate-free, though (there are pirates off Somalia, but none in the English Channel ...). Maybe there would be the odd Thargoid raider, if you were very unlucky, but I think it should be possible for players to go to some systems and be confident that they won't meet any pirates. Those routes would be the "paddling pools" where new players can learn the basics without dying every other trip (or six trips in a row!).

Sparetomato wrote:

I've installed Griff's ships OXP and the BGS-A1 OXP but that's all - those shouldn't add extra patrols should they? I read that they were just skins and sounds...

Yes, BGS only does images and sound/music stuff. Griffs ships are mainly eye-candy, but adds also e.g. rear lasers to some bigger ships (like the Anaconda or Boa). You probably won't notice a big difference in v1.76.x.

And welcome onboard .-)

cim wrote:

I have some work I want to do at some point on the system populator to make it more easily scriptable - once that's done it should be much easier to experiment by OXP with changes to the difficulty curve.

Cool.-)

cim wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

the good news is, your highlighting of this issue means it should be taken care of in the next release/update of Oolite.

I think you're extrapolating a little too much from my "at some point", there

My bad.. sorry..

cim wrote:

Disembodied wrote:

I think that might be a design flaw, though, if packs of pirates are hunting in places like Zaonce.

I do find that compared to the BBC Elite, the safe systems are less safe and the dangerous systems are less dangerous, by quite a margin. I wouldn't want to go quite so far as the BBC Elite where the most dangerous thing you'd be likely to find in a Corporate or Democracy was a rogue asteroid, of course, while Anarchies were a guaranteed running battle all the way to the planet, but the current spread has always seemed too compact to me.

I have some work I want to do at some point on the system populator to make it more easily scriptable - once that's done it should be much easier to experiment by OXP with changes to the difficulty curve.

I agree with this, I remember in the spectrum c64 bbc versions, the chances of finding anyone on its way to leesti were very slim, and the chances of surviving a trip to an anarchy planet equally as slim

perhaps of course, i am misremembering

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post an update to let you know how I was getting on as a newbie.

After taking Smivs advice, I did a few runs avoiding the space lanes, and got through no problem.

Managed to upgrade my pulse laser to a beam laser and now I'm finding I can just about hold my own in a fight. If I fly through the space lanes, I'm still encountering pirates, but since upgrading, I'm only being attacked by 2 craft - is there some form of AI that's targeting me less now I'm a little more powerful?

Before I was being jumped by at least 1 Cobra Mark 3 and a couple of other craft, now I'm mainly being targeted by Pythons and Mambas, but only in pairs, which makes it a little easier.

Thanks for the tips and the warm welcome

This, "am I attacked more/less often because I'm more powerful" is just one of these emergent behaviours that the game seems to exhibit. I wonder, for example, if 3 potential pirates see you, 2 attack, you open fire, it's obvious you have a beam and not a pulse laser and the third changes its mind and doesn't actually attack you...

Statistical anomalies I'm afraid. Unless cim has sneaked some code in under the radar.

The AI commands scanForRandomMerchantman and checkGroupOddsVersusTarget, which the pirates use when considering to attack, don't contain code that would exhibit the behaviour you are experiencing.