Oolite Bulletins

Even knowing the trick wasn't enough for me today. (Spoilers below... although not many more than in previous posts )

So, I decide to get rid of my infestation with a quick flame-grilling and head for the nearest star with my newly-installed heat shielding at the ready. The temperature starts climbing... and climbing... and climbing... and the trumble just sits there looking entirely unconcerned as alarms go off all over the cockpit. As the gauge creeps up through the last few notches, I have to hyperspace out, and the damned thing is still alive.

Okay, try again at the next star. They've bred now, and one hungry trumble has turned into three ravenous ones. This time two of them barbecue perfectly, but the last one still remains stubbornly alive. I decide I'll wait a little longer this time. The needle on the temperature gauge taps against the top of the scale and I bottle out again, but as the witchspace countdown hits 9, my shields drain away and my ship bursts into a cloud of incandescent vapour. The last thing I hear is a smug little trill as the air dissipates away into vacuum.

I reload several times and try again, and get the same result each time.

I was seriously thinking of sending a bug report, but thought I'd have one more go and see if it was possible to hold the ship at a steady temperature for a while. It turned out I needed to get the temperature into the danger zone, then quickly use injectors to fly out to an altitude where it stayed at a steady flashing red, then sit there sweating for about three or four more minutes before the trumble finally succumbed. The little bugger must've had asbestos fur.

I haven't had one do that before... they'd better not be starting to evolve heat resistance!

Yes, BBQ-ing is a delicate art. When you try to roast your meat to fast, you end up with something that has a black crust at the outside while still raw and living at the inside.

Did nobody experiment with feeding trumbles? Different containers have different food values for trumbles. They prefer stuff like food, liquor, drugs etc.. When feeding stuff like gems or rocks, they stay hungry and soon will start with the next container. Just feed them cheep food and they are more likely to stay away from your more valuable cargo. That allows to keep them as pet while trading. Besides that, you need the monthly BBQ to keep your viewscreen clear.

hehe,

I have had one Trumble for months now in my Adder. I have only precious items and the thing hasn't yet munched any of those. It has yet to eat my passenger! But I might have to see about clearing him out before I upgrade to an S9.
But for the moment I am going to keep my pet. I might just keep him for as long as I can and hope he doesn't die if I need to do a clear out. If he does it just wont be the same and I will clear them all out.

Fatleaf wrote:

I have had one Trumble for months now in my Adder. I have only precious items and the thing hasn't yet munched any of those. It has yet to eat my passenger! But I might have to see about clearing him out before I upgrade to an S9.
But for the moment I am going to keep my pet. I might just keep him for as long as I can and hope he doesn't die if I need to do a clear out. If he does it just wont be the same and I will clear them all out.

Your Adder? I didn't think passengers fit in one of those things!

Maybe the Trumble is schizophrenic

Hans Olo wrote:

Fatleaf wrote:

I have had one Trumble for months now in my Adder. I have only precious items and the thing hasn't yet munched any of those. It has yet to eat my passenger! But I might have to see about clearing him out before I upgrade to an S9.
But for the moment I am going to keep my pet. I might just keep him for as long as I can and hope he doesn't die if I need to do a clear out. If he does it just wont be the same and I will clear them all out.

Your Adder? I didn't think passengers fit in one of those things!

Well, I altered the shipdata.plst file to correct the bug (I view it as a bug) of the NPC Adder having 5TC of cargo space and the player Adder having only 2. So I give it 5TC the same as the NPC. Just enough room for a passenger berth. I then go running passengers about taking out any miscreants with my military laser. Most passengers like the Trumble as it is a great stress reliever for them when I am in combat. The cooing and the soft fur is enough to stop most life forms from hurling over the cabin.

An iron-assed Adder is a sweet little ship... I have one in my garage.

Fatleaf wrote:

Well, I altered the shipdata.plst file to correct the bug (I view it as a bug) of the NPC Adder having 5TC of cargo space and the player Adder having only 2. So I give it 5TC the same as the NPC. Just enough room for a passenger berth. I then go running passengers about taking out any miscreants with my military laser. Most passengers like the Trumble as it is a great stress reliever for them when I am in combat. The cooing and the soft fur is enough to stop most life forms from hurling over the cabin.

Oh, good idea! I flew an adder for a while. Fun ride. Flies well.

And with no cargo space left, there's nothing for the trumble to nibble on. Should last a while.

aegidian wrote:

And with no cargo space left, there's nothing for the trumble to nibble on. Should last a while.

yeah, that was my thinking. But once I have enough to upgrade to a S9, then if I don't manage it carefully it could get a bit crowded in the cockpit!

HAH! Thanks! I know that I did this 30 years ago in the original Elite, but I forgot how to do it. I picked up an interesting looking canister and I thought it was going to be something silly like "trumble furs" because I saw an image of one of them on the side. Surprise! And my lazy cats haven't even woken up from their naps.

EDIT: YES! They're dead!

The things I do for science...(shakes head)

I'd figured out the...er...solar response to trumbleitis pretty quickly, if by accident - I'd noticed during a refuelling skim that it started making sounds of distress, so I explored it a bit, resulting in a satisfactorily trumble-free cabin.
I just got another one - some brat taking a look around my ship left the dratted thing behind.
Then I remembered there's another way to achieve trumble-unfriendly cabin conditions, one that involves another type of heavenly body...particularly if you're making use of the Planetfall OXP, though that's not required. Seems to be a lot easier to control your temperature, too - just tweak the throttle a bit. End result is a fuzz-free cabin and a nice lunch to boot.

You can get unlucky and have one that's very hard to kill. Happened to me a while ago, must have tried a dozen times. In the end I said the hell with it and got Untrumbled.

ffutures wrote:

You can get unlucky and have one that's very hard to kill. Happened to me a while ago, must have tried a dozen times. In the end I said the hell with it and got Untrumbled.

(Spoilers below - though I'm pretty sure the general idea is more or less out there.)

I think I've been fortunate enough to avoid armoured trumbles, though this last one did take a good fraction of an orbit to nuke. Still, the nice thing about atmospheric roasting is one has total control of the cabin temperature: let it climb right up to the top bar minus one, reduce throttle and just cruise at that altitude until the little lint-monster bites it.

I'm curious though about the other effects you folks are discussing. I've never had one around long enough to experience it for myself, so I'm unsure: Do they eat cargo, equipment, etc. or are you just having us poor uninfested folks on?

I'm wondering if it's like the Ship's Cat - I've had Jonesey forever now and I've never heard or seen a peep out of him. Which is good, I think...wouldn't want him to start hissing while I was washing my face under a loading gantry... (shudder)