Oolite Bulletins

What Commander McLane says previously is absolutely true, in Vanilla Oolite - there are many OXPs that are designed to fill up some of this empty space with interesting things, other planets, moons, stations and ships...

Commander McLane, I'm surprised you never came across this one - 'space dock': the bit inside a station where you dock. Not to be confused with sea docks or dry docks...
More often than not, the main station's dock.




And yes, jumping between systems is normally without problems, once you get to a system, just fly away in any direction that doesn't show either the sun or the main planet. After 20 or 30 seconds in 'fast forward' mode, you should be far away from the space lanes: if you point your ship towards the planet you shouldn't see anybody else until you're close to the station.

I love pirates - blowing them up that is. But you have to respect them when in groups of three or more. Fly away from them at 50 - 75% speed and blast them with the aft laser. Ships like the Asp and Python take more pounding and usually withdraw from the fight when their energy is low. When you have whittled the pack down to one or two you could turn about but it is wise to keep your distance. Too close and you may not have time to ECM a missile or avoid a collision. All you can do then is, "Press Space Commander".

[quote]It seems there is still a little confusion here. For one, I have no idea what you mean with 'space dock'. I've never read this expression before for something in Oolite. Do you mean the main station?

Space lanes have nothing to do with jumping from Leesti to Orerve, or to any other planet. The space lanes are the imaginary 'roads' inside a system. Each system is huge. You can fly in any direction for as long as you want. For hours, days, weeks or months. You will never reach the end of a system. >And 99.99999999999999999999999% of this huge space is completely empty. There is absolutely nothing out there.[quote]


Ok, chill dude. I was only referring to it as a space dock because of all the posts I've seen on docking difficulties/procedures. I'm not sure why that should confuse you. So far, every system I've been to has only one SPACE STATION, so it seems kind of obvious, but it's my mistake. As for space in general.....I don't need an explanation for that.

[quote]Thus, the only thing you need to do is to leave the absolutely straight line between the witchpoint and the planet, and you are guaranteed to never meet any other ship, be it trader or pirate. How do you get away from the absolutely straight line between witchpoint and planet? Just fly sideways for a couple of seconds before heading for the planet. Sideways means: don't have the planet in the middle of your forward view screen, but have it at its very border, or better outside its border. That's what the other guys are trying to tell you.[quote]


I think I got the point. I'm a little confused why you are going so ballistic over what I have asked, but I'm sorry if it upset you. Actually, the best advice I've been given so far has been to stay in the outer systems until I can get my ship built up better, for both trade and battles, and check the incredible map that El Viejo pointed me towards, for which I will be ever grateful. This is a great game, folks. If I step on anyones toes with my questions, I apologize ahead of time. I have no intention of insulting anyone. Thanks again for all the valuable advice given.

CaptSolo wrote:

I love pirates - blowing them up that is. But you have to respect them when in groups of three or more. Fly away from them at 50 - 75% speed and blast them with the aft laser. Ships like the Asp and Python take more pounding and usually withdraw from the fight when their energy is low. When you have whittled the pack down to one or two you could turn about but it is wise to keep your distance. Too close and you may not have time to ECM a missile or avoid a collision. All you can do then is, "Press Space Commander".

Excellent. Thanks CaptSolo, that is great tactical advice.

mandoman wrote:

I was only referring to it as a space dock because of all the posts I've seen on docking difficulties/procedures. I'm not sure why that should confuse you. So far, every system I've been to has only one SPACE STATION, so it seems kind of obvious, but it's my mistake.

Ah, don't worry about the terminology. Thing is, you see, this game has been around for more than a quarter of a century, and many, if not most, of us have played it for just as long, at least intermittently. The labels & names of the various stuff are imprinted on our brains as indelibly as the names of our family members, or our body parts. If someone suddenly uses a different name for something, confusion erupts. It's just like if someone were to refer to your truck by calling it a 'car', only much, much worse. Brains desperately try to engage. Memory banks are activated, cross checking half a dozen previous game incarnation for any reference to this mystery object.

The whole 'old dog, new trick' thing comes to mind.
Bear with us for a while, and in a few weeks you'll be flatly denying you ever called the Main Station by any other name.

In the meantime: Buy high, sell low. Or was that the other way around??

Welcome Mandoman,

If you think the pirates are tough wait until you meet the Thargoids.....

A good way to get some credits under your belt and get the beginnings of an 'Iron Ass' (aka well equipped ship) is to find your self a couple of relatively safe planets close to each other that are likely to be profitable to trade between. There are a couple of contenders quite close to your start position in Lave.

Running computers from rich industrial to poor agricultural, and furs back to the rich industrial from the poor agricultural is a reasonably quick money spinner. If you choose planets that are relatively safe government types (Corporate States, Democracy's, Confederacies) and stay out of the witchpoint / planet corridor you can make enough cash for the essential upgrades with minimal pirate intervention in a couple of real time hours of game play. Use the system info screen (f7) to check economy and government types of systems before you decide to go there.

For me essential initial upgrades are the ECM, a front beam laser (aft lasers you will learn to love later in your career), fuel injectors and as a time saver a docking computer. Then a bigger cargo bay and some scoops. Once I've got those I feel that I can carefully venture to the more risky systems, (Anarchies, Feudal States) and start installing OXP's to make the Ooniverse even more interesting (i.e. dangerous), like Pirate Coves, Deep Space Pirates and for profitable bounty hunting Random Hits.

Even with a fully kitted out ship the best commander will still occasionally have to 'hit space commander', and knows the value of the tactical withdrawal (aka 'f%*k it and run!').

I see so many people complaining about the pirates, why?

they are really easy to kill unless you have some oxps that add harder ones, it is only really difficult when fighting a group of angry griff kraits, Xeikils and supercobras... then it gets interesting, or even being a pirate and taking out huge convoys.

Talk to the frog, man ... or rather, let the frog talk to you. He's seen it all, and will tell you all about it, at great length.

Also, I've heard rumours that pirates can be distracted by floating cargo. If you're really in dire straits, try jettisoning some of your load. They might leave you alone and go to scoop it up, long enough for you to make a getaway, at least. It's a blow to the pride (and to the wallet) but it's better than dying.

As you gradually wrap layers of iron, steel, titanium, duralium etc. around your hindquarters, you'll come to find that learning to shoot a rear laser is a handy investment of time and money. If you flee from a pirate pack, you'll find that the pack will get stretched out: the faster ones will keep up with you and the slower ones will lag behind. If you can pick a couple off in the pursuit – or at least knock the shine off their day – then pretty soon you can even up the odds.

I spent ages on ArcElite where my tactic was to simply run from pirates. As a result, an aft beam laser was often one of the first things I bought, and I've become quite proficient at shooting behind me. 'Tis a skill well worth learning. If you're mobbed by a pack, try picking off the smaller ships like Mambas or Sidewinders at a distance. Their energy/shields are lower than the larger vessels, but their lasers inflict just as much damage, and eliminating these guys fast and early can buy you some much needed breathing space. Then, if you're still in a fit condition to fight, you can get closer to take out the big ones. It took me a long time before I was comfortable dog-fighting in close with my front laser. Getting on their tail behind them works best - they'll try to wriggle out of the way and usually present you with a lovely view of their top/bottom hull plate; a nice wide target to hit. And of course, if they're getting out of your way, then they're not firing at you.

I remember when I really first started out. The ultimate aim was to manage to dock with a station enough times to earn enough money for a docking computer. Nowadays, I only buy one because I'm impatient and want to make use of the insta-dock, and because I like a nice empty equipment-for-sale screen. But for a Jameson, they can be a good investment.

Personally, I'd prioritise buying fuel injectors. You can often out-run ships and even missiles, and living to fight another day is a valuable lesson. Once you are able to survive a mugging and eliminate a band of pirates, then it's worth getting hold of a fuel scoop. Recently deceased pirates quite often recompense you for the inconvenience by leaving behind their own cargo. Scoop it up and sell it in the right places, and you'll quickly pay back the cost of the scoop and make pure profit. (Oh, and you could also scoop up some fuel with them... Yeah...)

I didn't learn about the avoiding the spacelanes trick until it was too late to be useful. These days I only use it when I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. But it can really speed things up!

The Lave Academy oxp can be quite useful to beginners and help you hone your skills in a non-combat environment, if you're struggling.

Mauiby de Fug wrote:

I didn't learn about the avoiding the spacelanes trick until it was too late to be useful. These days I only use it when I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. But it can really speed things up!

If I really want to speed up things these days, I type in the JS-console as soon as I entered the system. Of course this is plainly cheating, but to my defense I can say that I'm not actually playing the game but mostly only play testing. And if a test requires me to travel from one system to another and dock with the station I am happy for every shortcut I can take.

It's cool just reading all of your experiences, and strategies. I can see why this game has been around for so long. I never knew about it before I chucked Windows 7 for Ubuntu 10.10. Great stuff.

mandoman wrote:

I can see why this game has been around for so long.

Yeah... twenty-five years (on and off) of plying my particular 'trade' along the myriad 'lanes of the Eight... wonderful!

mandoman wrote:

I can see why this game has been around for so long. I never knew about it before I chucked Windows 7 for Ubuntu 10.10. Great stuff.

Life just got better twice over

Yes, I think so too. Just for the heck of it I traded my Mark III for an Adder. I found one that was already loaded with an extra energy pack, Advanced Target Compass (Neither of them are on the Oolite Reference Sheet I have), and a Docking computer (that I don't need, or use, LOL). The old Mark III is only worth 88,000 Galactic Credits, give or take a couple thousand, so I bought the Adder on a temporary basis, and added every other thing I could find on to it. Beam Laser, ECM, and Energy Bomb (whatever that is, I know, go look it up, and I will). I haven't found a cloaking device yet, or energy fuel injectors, but I'm keeping my eyes open. I haven't been destroyed yet since I bought the Adder, and I've been to four different planet systems with it. I've killed three pirates (that beam laser is absolute destructatude), and taken the bounty on them, and made two others change their minds about attacking me further, though I'm still listed as Harmless, LOL!!!

I haven't saved the game yet since buying the Adder, so if I get destroyed, I can reclaim the old Mark III. It does carry a lot bigger load, though I've been buying Space Stations out of gems, gold, and platinum. If I get enough of that put away, I should eventually come onto a System that could be a big payoff.....or not, who knows.