Oolite Bulletins

I got my set from a pirate who was a little overconfident in his Krait while going up against a "lumbering freighter"... he met his end nice and quick.

Ingram military lasers, with added spikes, and prongs and blackened bits. This gun has a right end and a wrong end. And it's totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them.This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with.*

*stolen from Saint Douglas of Adams..

I really wouldn't try anything without military lasers fore & aft and if you're downgrading to a cheaper ship to liberate cash for guns you'll be able to afford them (e.g. at Onrira)

Everything else is too expensive, even ECM hardened missiles, which do work OK; I prefer the interception missile (Missiles and Bombs v2.2.oxp) and whatever shield reinforcement you can afford.

..and ECM for yourself

(beam laser pretty good too, though)

I got enough kills to get up to mostly harmless on just a pulse laser, but as an experienced player (Yes, I *do* have a BBC machine in the corner of the room with Elite in the drive ) I went with a beam laser asap, then to a military laser after a while.
Once you have a beam laser, you can add in all the other useful things, like ECM and fuel scoops, which should be next on your list after the beam laser.

My first iron ass ship had military lasers fore and aft, beam on one side, mining laser on the other, and all the cool extras.

I would say that injectors+ECM are more important than laser. Imjectors allow you to run away from combat if things look grim.

Sarin wrote:

I would say that injectors+ECM are more important than laser. Imjectors allow you to run away from combat if things look grim.

Up to a point, I respectfully disagree, sir

Except for overheating, your gun is failproof. And a more powerful gun evens the odds in your favor, ie a beam laser trumps a pulse laser for defeating hostiles. If not outgunned, then you're usually outnumbered.

Everything else can be battle damaged, relies on something else that can be battle damaged, or on finite resources like fuel and ammo.

Yes, having a Plan B in case things go wrong is important, but if your Plan B relies on fragile kit and/or limited resources, then your Plan B will need a Plan B.

This is where it's necessary have a brain. That Plan B (and the backup plan) are going to be constantly revised on the fly.

Well they do say in any combat situation, the first casualty is the plan.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

Sarin wrote:

I would say that injectors+ECM are more important than laser. Imjectors allow you to run away from combat if things look grim.

Up to a point, I respectfully disagree, sir

Except for overheating, your gun is failproof. And a more powerful gun evens the odds in your favor, ie a beam laser trumps a pulse laser for defeating hostiles. If not outgunned, then you're usually outnumbered.

Everything else can be battle damaged, relies on something else that can be battle damaged, or on finite resources like fuel and ammo.

Yes, having a Plan B in case things go wrong is important, but if your Plan B relies on fragile kit and/or limited resources, then your Plan B will need a Plan B.

This is where it's necessary have a brain. That Plan B (and the backup plan) are going to be constantly revised on the fly.

Well...In my experience, the weaker pirates can be killed with pulse laser, however quite often, I got shot up by a weak guy that happened to pack a few missiles. Until you get shield boosters, Cobby III can't take more than one normal missile with full shields, hardheads are insta. That is why ECM is most important for me, and injectors to run away from hardheads.

I NEED the witchfuel drive to close in fast on offenders, I am bad at long distance shooting.

I remember being able to kill a Thargoid ship with beam laser, so I think as long as "hunting" does not necessarily mean in anarchy systems / versus big groups of offenders, I could do with beam laser, witchfuel drive, scanner targeting enhancement and ECM.

Scooping device, of course, though not really needed.

So, I am with disembodied in this.

That's just like me...playing on keyboard so sniping is quite hard, so I usually use injectors to close on less than 1 km to enemy, then cut the engines and loop behind him.

Yep, beam laser is just powerful enough to kill basic Tharg warship. I actually didn't need to upgrade to military until I met Kaks' Iron ass Cobby.

Sarin wrote:

That's just like me...playing on keyboard so sniping is quite hard, so I usually use injectors to close on less than 1 km to enemy, then cut the engines and loop behind him.

Yep, beam laser is just powerful enough to kill basic Tharg warship. I actually didn't need to upgrade to military until I met Kaks' Iron ass Cobby.

That'll work up to a point but shows its limitations as an approach when you install oxps like Thargorn Threat. Getting within 5000m of one of the battleships is likely to be an interesting yet short experience.

I never seen one of those, but I suppose they're big enough to be hit from 20 km.

Yeah, they are. But you'll need to be iron assed and packing military lasers and military shields to take one of those bruisers on. They're armed to the teeth, and can absorb a scary amount of damage; iron assed enough to survive an E-bomb blast. They have plasma flak guns as well, so don't get too close.

I tend to think hunting is feasible when once I get a beam laser, injectors and fuel scoops, but staying clear of dangerous worlds, and OXPs that make life hard for the average jameson, is still advisable.

I went out to Riedquat in a brand new basic Cobra to make sure my install was working again. Reminded how hard it is without the stuff. No ECM is bad, and even when I took something down, I couldn't pick up it's stuff since I had no fuel scoops, arrgh

Id say a true minimum config to be able to go hunting is an ECM and a forward beam laser. Less than that and you will be in trouble. More than that is sensible but not totally critical unless you get unlucky.

A scoop is required before it makes sense economically, but you can fight for fun without one.

Injectors are nice, but if elite was playable without them, then I guess oolite must be.

And when I say a beam laser is a minimum, I mean it. You really need a military laser at least forward, and ideally rear to be credible.