Oolite Bulletins

Smivs wrote:

I suspect one of the main reasons there are no galaxy-spanning missions is because it would have been such a pain for the player to spend half the time looking for TL10 planets instead of getting on with the mission.

Not really. It's not that TL10+ planets are exceedingly rare in the Ooniverse.

In Cataclysm I also took care that all places from where you have to jump to the next galaxy are reasonably close to a system where you can buy the equipment. Something like this is an integral part of mission design after all, and therefore falls clearly into the responsibility of the scripter. If there are absolutely no suitable planets in the vicinity, there are always fallback methods, like awarding the player a galactic hyperdrive right away. It just takes one sentence on the mission screen. "Since we need you to travel urgently, we have taken the liberty to install a galdrive on your ship as we speak. You don't mind that we have used your credit card, do you?"

The point of galactic jumps taking no game time is a good one, by the way. For me it doesn't feel right, almost buggy (although I think it's inherited). If the eight 'galaxies' in reality represent distant parts of one galaxy, and the travel process is mostly the same than normal witchspace travel, only using more energy (for the player it looks exactly the same), then if anything it should take more time, not zero.

I think it's an inconsistency in the game which usually is ignored, because galactic jumps are rare. If you happen to do one, you probably look somewhere else on your screen and don't even notice (I don't usually compare game time before and after jumps, so without the activity on the screen in form of moving numbers and the '(adjusting)' message I wouldn't really notice that a jump takes time, and how much it is*). Making a quick circle available may probably rub this inconsistency into players' faces. At least it doesn't hide it. But that's not your fault.


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*To be honest, I am not usually aware of game time at all, and I guess that's how it is for most players. For instance, I don't care what time of day the game clock indicates, because there is no discernible difference between day and night, or between AM and PM. My pilot never goes to sleep for eight hours. He also doesn't use any visible game time for things like eating or personal hygiene, which would make up a fair amount of time for anybody RealLife™. In the game only docking, launching, and buying equipment on the F3-screen take time; and of course the witchjumps, but it isn't clear what is actually happening during the latter. Is the pilot aware of it, does he sleep or spend it in suspended animation, or does the jump happen instantly from his perspective (I tend to think the latter, because that's how I'm witnessing it in front of my screen)? In the station-connected cases I imagine there are routines happening which I'm just not shown.

BTW: The possibility to influence game time by script (by advancing the clock) is a quite new one. It was only added in 1.74. So now you could actually attach a travel time to galactic jumps by script, and it would be a very short script. Anything up to 30 days is possible. Now you can start to think: would every galactic jump take the same amount of time? Or would the distance of your entry point to your exit point on the galactic map also come into consideration? The latter would make jumps take much shorter if all systems are reachable, and make them potentially much longer if the player is transferred to the closest interconnected system which might by a fair distance away from his entry point. Or if you have your setting to a fixed entry point, the travel duration would perhaps always be the same. (I take it, by the way, that your record was set with BEHAVIOUR_ALL_SYSTEMS_REACHABLE, because you would have to do a fair amount of travel back to Lave otherwise? And if so, does buying your equipment change that setting permanently, or does the script change it back after making the jump?)

Commander McLane wrote:

The point of galactic jumps taking no game time is a good one, by the way. For me it doesn't feel right, almost buggy (although I think it's inherited). If the eight 'galaxies' in reality represent distant parts of one galaxy, and the travel process is mostly the same than normal witchspace travel, only using more energy (for the player it looks exactly the same), then if anything it should take more time, not zero.

I agree with you there, McLane... I do pay attention to my shipclock, and it's always puzzled me as to why a gal-jump takes no time.
I'd think it would take at least as long as a full 6.8lt jump, but most probably a lot longer.

I would consider making the GalDrivePod more expensive, though no more than double the price of a regular Galactic Hyperdrive unit...for many of the same reasons pointed out here. It's a quick replacement for an item you're supposed to only have 1 of at a time, like an energy bomb or escape pod.
10k sounds reasonable enough...that way you'll likely only use one if you *HAVE* to, unless you're filthy stinking rich.

Going from Galaxy 1 back to Galaxy 1, you could probably do it quick enough in a Boa 2 or even a Boa or Cobra 3 with their 4 missile pylons all filled with GalDrivePods. Probably 1 out of 2 Galaxy maps has a TL10+ place to buy a regular Galactic Hyperdrive unit within 1 jump to save your limited GalDrivePods. And if you're doing trading along the way, you're probably making 1-2 regular hyperspace jumps per Galaxy map anyway.

I wonder if there's a place in the Galaxies where every GH delivers you to a high tech system

TGHC wrote:

I wonder if there's a place in the Galaxies where every GH delivers you to a high tech system

I guess if you investigate the galaxy maps which our friend ClymAngus (sometimes, very casually) mentions, you could find out.


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Sorry, ClymAngus, I just couldn't resist. For the record: I don't think that you're blowing your trumpet too much.

Commander McLane wrote:

For the record: I don't think that you're blowing your trumpet too much.

For the record: I don't think that CA blows his trumpet enough, especially regarding the vector maps.

As far as the price is concerned, I see the GDP as a regular Galactic Hyperdrive that comes in a box...some sort of protective container. When it's activated, the casing is ejected and the new unit is primed and ready for use. At 7 500 Cr it is 2 500Cr more than the basic item, and I think 2 500Cr for a box is actually quite expensive. Also it's availability at TL 12 makes it a bit more exclusive.
As for it's potential uses, well that's up to OXP authors, and their imaginations. As I stressed I see it as being particularly useful in time-critical situations - situations that were simply not possible in OXPs before. It opens up possibilities that previously did not exist and that has to be a good thing.
For what it's worth it took me a distressing amount of time to track down a TL10 to buy the regular galactic Hyperdrive that my Anaconda needed for the record attempt, so again I've created a situation where this time and effort can be saved if that's appropriate to any given OXP scenario.
It's there now, so it can be used, or not, as people see fit.

El Viejo wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

For the record: I don't think that you're blowing your trumpet too much.

For the record: I don't think that CA blows his trumpet enough, especially regarding the vector maps.

De, de-de-de, de, de-de, deeee! <Or replace with better facsimile of trumpet rendered in text metaphor type thing>

Cheers,

Drew.

TGHC wrote:

I wonder if there's a place in the Galaxies where every GH delivers you to a high tech system

I think that can be automated by the way I used in LongRangeScanner for the optional equipment to make cheat jumps.

You can understand the way you are entering the witchspace by,
cause can be either “standard jump”, “galactic jump” or “wormhole”

Than start your code to find a TL 10 higher nearby and make an automated jump there in shipExitedWitchspace.

drew wrote:

De, de-de-de, de, de-de, deeee! <Or replace with better facsimile of trumpet rendered in text metaphor type thing>

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

Ah, brings back all those fond World Cup memories. Thanks!

Ahruman wrote:

drew wrote:

De, de-de-de, de, de-de, deeee! <Or replace with better facsimile of trumpet rendered in text metaphor type thing>

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

oW! Headphones on, no warning, brain full of bad trumpet with a garnish of Tinnitus. Cheers.

Ok back to the point; so as this is a missile replacement? You could technically have multiple drives up to the number of missile slots you have?

ClymAngus wrote:

Ok back to the point; so as this is a missile replacement? You could technically have multiple drives up to the number of missile slots you have?

That's right, it's pylon mounted so the number is only limited by the number of pylons your ship has. That's why I used an Anaconda for the 'Round Trip' - seven GalDrivePods (on the pylons) plus one regular GalDrive, eight in total. One for each galaxy.

Smivs wrote:

ClymAngus wrote:

Ok back to the point; so as this is a missile replacement? You could technically have multiple drives up to the number of missile slots you have?

That's right, it's pylon mounted so the number is only limited by the number of pylons your ship has. That's why I used an Anaconda for the 'Round Trip' - seven GalDrivePods (on the pylons) plus one regular GalDrive, eight in total. One for each galaxy.

That's cool, I was just checking it over; 2500 more expensive than your standard hyperdrive and 2 tecs above. That's very well thought out actually. Nicely done.