Oolite Bulletins

spara wrote:

Balancing the beast (Cat MkII) proves to be quite a challenge. The stats are based on Neolite's Cat and are quite a bit over the top.

All the old stats are based on making an NPC that's challenging to an iron-assed player, where the NPC has the brains and flight skills of a somewhat subaverage brush. Putting this in the hands of the improved NPC AI, let alone the hands of a player, would be crazy. So it definitely needs chopped right back. Halving the max energy and taking it down to 1 missile seems like a good start.

Part of the issue is how big the ship is, of course. What's it like to hit, compared to e.g. an Asp?

A new version (1.4) is available, if someone wants to test it. Basically those twin laser monsters have been enabled to players.

* Required version Oolite 1.84
* Cat Mark II and Iguana
- Player version enabled
- Two front lasers using the new weapon_mount_mode feature (hence requirement upped to 1.84)
- Cat has been toned down to be in par with the standard ships.

Cat (base price 400000) stats:

"energy_recharge_rate" = 3.0;
"max_cargo" = 5; //no extra cargo space available
"max_energy" = 210.0;
"max_flight_pitch" = 1.6;
"max_flight_roll" = 2.6;
"max_flight_speed" = 420.0;
"max_missiles" = 1;
"thrust" = 45.0;

You can make a luxury taxi out of it

Iguana (base price 280000) stats:

Stats:
"energy_recharge_rate" = 4.0;
"max_cargo" = 6;//+4 with expansion
"max_energy" = 320.0;
"max_flight_pitch" = 1.5;
"max_flight_roll" = 2.5;
"max_flight_speed" = 370.0;
"max_missiles" = 4;
"thrust" = 28.0;

I'll upload it to the wiki when it's up and running again. Meanwhile you can get it from my box: https://app.box.com/s/iao2w4cist8pf8okd3n693ket2238z3m

Hi!

Buy and first fly on Python ET Special, it is forward position veiw is not coorect. It need shift to forward.

Just bringing this one up again, the forward view position of the Python ET Special isn't quite right. I found these figures seemed a little better:

New version coming up as soon as wiki accepts uploading big files.

As a side note, is someone actually enjoying flying Cat or Iguana with their twin lasers? I mean, I flew the Cat for a while and enjoyed it's speed quite a lot, but it's pretty darn hard to hit anything with those twin lasers.

Updated Staer9 shipset (1.4.1) is now available from the in-game expansion manager.
* Requires Oolite 1.84
* Cat and Iguana now have proper twin lasers and player versions with fixed viewpoints.
* Python ET's viewpoints have been fixed.

Just noticed an oddity. A standard Asp Mark II has the dimensions of 64m x 23m x 83m. An Asp Mark II Special, though, has the dimensions of 138m x 33m x 141m (at least according to the "View Ship Specifications" screen), which makes it, I think, slightly bigger than an Anaconda.

I'm trying to imagine flying an Anaconda at 0.40 LM - nice!

"We brake for nobody"

phkb wrote:

A standard Asp Mark II has the dimensions of 64m x 23m x 83m. An Asp Mark II Special, though, has the dimensions of 138m x 33m x 141m

Yes and intentional by the original author. I remember that I asked this once and got this answer. The "special" word mean exactly this speciality.

As Asp X, which also willfully big, this ship is a follower of Aegidian's X-Ships where the size comes from.

With all due respect to aegidian, I think the current dimensions of the Special are a little off. Here's what the shipyard info says about the special (emphasis mine):

Zorgon Petterson Group, in a mostly successful attempt to make Asp Mk I more appealing to customers made a minor facelift to the ship in recent years, creating the Asp Mk II Special. Its performance is substantially similar to the regular version of the ship - most of the changes being cosmetic: enlarged heatsinks around the main engine thrusters and a slight cut-out in the front of the ship, exposing more of the laser barrel, has given the ship a more aggressive look.

Here's a screenshot of both the standard Asp Mark II and the Special, around 200m apart.

That doesn't look like a minor facelift to me!

So, for those who want to adjust the size of the Special, you'll have to create a "shipdata-overrides.plist" file (if you don't already have one) and add the following section:This value pulls the ship back into line of being a mostly cosmetic upgrade of the standard Asp.

Norby wrote:

Asp X, which also willfully big

On the wiki page it actually says the Asp-X is larger than the standard Asp. That's not the case with the special.

Here is a link containing a new shipdata + master fragment shader for the Staer9 ships, based on the new Oolite 1.88 lighting.