Oolite Bulletins

I must admit that I loved landing on planets and doing those picture-taking missions.
And I don't have anything against Newtonian-ish stuff in games per say- at the very least, not in tabletop games like Power Projection or the online "Space Wing:Void Patrol" boardgame at takeaplay.net. But, and Braben should really have taken that into account, when speeds become too high, it suddenly doesn't work as a game mechanic anymore...

I really hope Elite 4 will have something to deal with this, because I'll bet that it'll work more or less like Frontier. Maybe in-system witchspace-jumps to cut transit times and ensure that ships will not really whizz past each other and still try to get a couple of meaningless pot shots in.

Disembodied's impression of FE2/FFE AI wrote:

Point at enemy; lock auto-pilot on to enemy; fly under auto-pilot towards enemy; start firing at 8km

Start evasive manoeuvres while preventing the relative speed from growing too big

at 2km break off

While firing the main and side thrusters, keep the foe in your sights. Big silhouette passing by, who needs an easier shot? Well, let'im have it!

and shoot on past

At less than 2Km, on the same vector and speed, and your foe just gave you his six - speed up and close in if you can... Oh, yes, and keep firing at will!

rinse; repeat

Nope, because you're either dead or nearly there. If you've got a big ship, I'm doing circles around you and playing tic-tac-toe on your hull; if it was a fighter and you actually managed to survive the first pass, all you want is to get as far away from me as you can...

This is just one of the many tactics I used against the AI. I agree that it can get boring quickly, but then you just invent some new tactics, or dump radioactives over Duval City and sort it out with the grievously pissed-off Imp cops... Or play Oolite with as many OXPs as your 'puter can take, and mourn about the lost Newtonian physics!

Ah, well... but I wasn't fighting you, I was fighting the godawful AI. If, indeed, you could call it "fighting", since on several occasions in Frontier I was attacked by pirates armed with nothing more than harsh language and whose only offensive capability was purely ballistic. I could fight effectively, but it just felt... wrong. I'll take the dodging, twisting dogfights of Oolite over any amount of Newtonian predictabilities. After all, if you're going to break Einstein, why give Newton a free ride?

I really hope Elite 4 will have something to deal with this, because I'll bet that it'll work more or less like Frontier. Maybe in-system witchspace-jumps to cut transit times and ensure that ships will not really whizz past each other and still try to get a couple of meaningless pot shots in.

That might do it. Or Braben could go for longer-range scanners/weapons, engines that can get you from ludicrous speed to zero in, say, 20 seconds tops and some kind of indicator (an arrow, I guess!) to show you the relative motion of whatever you've locked onto. I reckon that'd be an effective "halfway house".

Aren't we all to old to believe in stories about the Easter Bunny and Elite IV in here

Maybe in-system witchspace-jumps to cut transit times and ensure that ships will not really whizz past each other and still try to get a couple of meaningless pot shots in.

Set target, engage autopilot, set stardreamer to level 5, on approach reduce it to level 3 and presto, you've got an intercept!

That might do it. Or Braben could go for longer-range scanners

Like the system map with ships and wormholes on FE2 (and missing on FFE)?

longer-range weapons

IIRC, in FFE the missiles' range is of 250Km or so...

engines that can get you from ludicrous speed to zero in, say, 20 seconds tops

Star Trek, anyone? Beam me up, Scotty!

and some kind of indicator (an arrow, I guess!) to show you the relative motion of whatever you've locked onto.

Ah, finally something that's also on my wishlist! The scanner's club tops could point the relative direction; or as you suggested, a 3D arrow on the HUD's targetting box.

I reckon that'd be an effective "halfway house".

...to try and please Greeks and Trojans! I'd say, implement both flight system options, but don't mix physics models...

Quote:
I reckon that'd be an effective "halfway house".
...to try and please Greeks and Trojans! I'd say, implement both flight system options, but don't mix physics models...

How is having incredibly powerful engines necessarily "mixing physics models"?

@Dr Nil
You mean my 6ft rabbit friend Harvey isn't real?! Noooooo!!

Your large furry leporine friend may well be real - I recently met one at a space bar in galaxy 4