Oolite Bulletins

I had a nasty surprise yesterday. I decided to play around with my mil laser a bit by shooting at an asteroid. Come to find out, there was a GalCop sitting on the other side of the thing. He revved up and began firing at ME! I quit the game and started from the last point. I'm not about to kill a GalCop, and I do NOT need any marks on my record.

Dragonfire wrote:

I had a nasty surprise yesterday. I decided to play around with my mil laser a bit by shooting at an asteroid. Come to find out, there was a GalCop sitting on the other side of the thing. He revved up and began firing at ME! I quit the game and started from the last point. I'm not about to kill a GalCop, and I do NOT need any marks on my record.

If only RL(tm) was as easy...

And then I got killed six times on my way into a feudal planet. Gaaah. Methinks the "Deepspace Pirates" OXP is going bye bye.

Fugitive, once again (those cheap narcotics were just too much a profit opportunity to ignore them). Under persuit, once again. So what do you do? Right, jump out of the mess into a (hopefully) cop-free system. Bad thing: before starting the game, I've just added the Galactic Navy OXP - so once I get out of witchspace, there's a whole bunch of Vipers homing in on me where usually no ships are located. Result: press space, commander!

Reminds me of the time I forgot to off-load some Narcs I'd scooped, launched from the main station and headed for the SecCom station. That was not a good move.

Smivs wrote:

Reminds me of the time I forgot to off-load some Narcs I'd scooped, launched from the main station and headed for the SecCom station. That was not a good move.

...but Admiral, they're not narcotics, they're medical supplies...

That's what the OXP for turning illegal cargo over to GalCop at the station is for. It prompts you.

I finally mined my first asteroid yesterday. Not a ton of profit, but a bit. I may start docking and offloading, then turning around and going back to mine, then sell those off before buying my next load and leaving the system.

I also crashed on my way into a space bar. Methinks I should be stopping at the station and saving FIRST, then going back to that bar, just in case. Press space and say goodbye to those six kills, commander.

Asteroid mining is only highly profitable with Ore_processor 1.58.oxp ...but then it's maybe a bit too much.
Real-time wise, mining is pretty slow for what you get, unless you're piloting a "bottomless pit" cargo hold like a Python or bigger.

When I'm in my Cobra 3, I start tossing minerals back out or sell them to the nearby rock hermit...because they're just not worth my effort to haul 35TC of them to the main station.

Mm, I just got THAT oxp. Thanks for the tip!

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Cruising the northern sector of chart 3 in my beat up Boa, trying to build my cargo haulage reputation. Got myself a 40T Alien Items contract, just a couple of hops away. What could possibly go wrong?

You guessed it, I got in a firefight and amid the numerous messages popping up on my screen, I saw a couple of instances of "Alien Items destroyed". Damn!

Alien Items are impossible to get on the regular station markets and while Pi-42 are somehow able to get their hands on some (at bargain basement prices I might add) I couldn't count on any Con Stores between myself and the destination, and with the clock ticking on the contract, I forced a mis-jump into interstellar space where I knew some Thargoids would be waiting for me.

I was hoping for a surgical strike, scoop and flee but found myself in the middle of 6 thargoid carriers and one of their massive mother ships. Their omnidirectional lasers were making quick work of my shields and energy banks. This is about the only time I can justify using an Energy Bomb - the bugs deserve no quarter.

The Ebomb got rid of most of the nasties and left me some dormant robot fighters to pick up. A couple of runs (at a distance) past the mothership and I was even able to snipe her into the vaccuum.

A bit of quick scooping and it was job done, and I jumped to my target system.

What did I learn from this? I'm going to think twice before taking on another Alien Items contract. Having to spending 900Cr (the E-bomb) to salvage my reputation is a high price to pay...

Real world:
Driving down the M1 motorway into London many years ago, early one morning, it was almost empty. On the hard shoulder was a car and behind it, a Police car. Someone had been stopped for something.

They must have just finished up as I approached: the car driver in front pulled out in front of me. No indication, no accelerating on the hard shoulder before moving into the inside lane, nothing. He simply drove out into the inside lane ... about 40 metres in front of me, giving me about 2 seconds to react.

Thankfully, I was awake, paying attention and driving a decent car; I was able to comfortably (but only just!) swerve around him.

What surprised me was the reaction of the driver of the Police car. As the car pulled out, so he shot out behind him at an angle and stopped.

That is, with sub-second reactions, he had placed himself between the other car and me. If I had been retuning the radio, or yawning, or otherwise distracted, I would have driven straight into the Police car driver's door at 70 mph, probably bounced over a lane or two and come to a halt - instead of hitting the slow moving idiot driver flat on. The twat that pulled out would have been fine. The copper that put himself in as a shield would have been crippled or dead.

Oolite world:
I searched for Captain "Black Dog" Cerebus all round the Aarat system, flying back an forth between space station, sun and waypoint, taking out loads of pirates in the process. I was single-handedly clearing out the entire system of all the scum! Eventually he turns up, and with a few shots of military laser at short range right into his cockpit, he fled to Usraer - another anarchy! I followed him through his own jump point - just as well since I was out of fuel. So I keep adding to my kill count until I find him again and finish him off. Ha ha ha! So easy.

I've got quite a few damaged systems by now. Time to head to the space station. Woot! I meet a GalCop on his patrol - time for ME to be the albatross! I follow him in, helping him take out some stray offenders and fugitives, then scooping the cargo for myself. I must try this technique again! I've got a cargo hold with scores of tonnes of stuff, at least 20 kills more than when I set off, a completed contract, and an escort home. Just a bit further and I can record my kills and then get some serious sleep!

Then all hell breaks loose: two flocks of pirates; one from each side, appear with seconds of one another. I can't run - I have no fuel. The cop & I are on our own. He goes one way; I go the other. And wow! what a fight!

There's metal plates and escape pods and missiles and cargopods and ships and god-only-knows-what on the scanner - it was uselessly cluttered. The sky was full of streaks of engine burn, lasers, flickers of light. The ship sirens are warning of missiles, ECMs being fired, systems being damaged, laser fire hitting the hull, lasers overheating. It was too much, TOO MUCH! Follow the scanner arrow, turn, accelerate, decelerate, fire, switch to rear view, fire, turn, front view, ECM, turn, fire...

Then I realised we were winning, there were only two ships left out there: an Asp and the GalCop. The Asp was coming in from my left, and was close, DAMN CLOSE. I'm on my last energy bank, he's gonna missile me and I can't ECM. Only one chance, hit him with the portside laser. Damn, damn, damn I flick to the portside view and there he is, coming up in the view port, ready to fire his missile and turn under me and

BOOM!

As the GalCop Viper flew right across the front of me, he swerved to his starboard and met the Asp. Head on.

I came to a halt and stared at the screen. There's nothing left alive out there. After a few seconds I realised I was already fuel-scooping the cargo and metal plates without even thinking.

"Oh well, SandJ. Back to work. It's just another day."

Good stories both! Although the RL(tm) one infinitely more frightening!

It was routine cargo run in Isinor system: from jump point to station, cargo bay full of computers. And what do I see soon after jumping in? Cargo ship with escort... Aw Hell, wolf pack of pirates! I try circle around them and slowly steer towards the station, but pack just keeps on my rear and pulse lasers have already punched through rear shield! From my rear view I target and fire missiles, each against different target. All missiles gone and no rear laser... Anyway in face of my missiles, at least the three pirates turn around and some others just can't keep up with my Cobra Mk III. Except one persistent Sidewinder. He keeps firing, sometimes hits, more often not. Occasionally I change heading little just to throw off his aim. And I get inside station's safe zone and GalCop Viper comes to the resque! I turn around and finally shoot back with my own pulse laser, but cop takes the kill. Anyway dock with the station, immediately all pylons with new missiles and back to Zaonce with full cargo of wine and furs. First order of business in Zaonce's station is to equip my Cobra with Beamers, fore and aft alike, fuel injectors, targeting systems, ECM... And THEN I started racking up my kill count

I thought this was going to be the typical Random Hits contract kill. Oh no, nothing of the sort!

For some reason, I decided to take the Stormbringer. After Rupert and I chased off the Boyracers who were stealing parts off the ship, got everything put back in order, then we were off on a rather uneventful journey; not so much as a Thargoid ambush to slow us down. Thusly when we found the target we were fully stocked, undamaged, and prepared for the worse he could throw at us.

His escort, a handfull of ruffians in underpowered ships, were easily dispatched to Giles' Keep. The target, however, made a run for it. "I've got the racing model!", he taunted as he ran. "That's ok, I've got the pursuit model," I answered, as I lit the injectors and chased after. I gained on him, and hit him with a burst from my laser.
He panicked and witched out. Not to be dissuaded, I dived into his wormhole.

He shouted some cussing at me, shot at my ship, and again witched out. Again I chased him through the wormhole.

He takes more shots at me and injectors off, daring me to catch him. I chase again, and tickle his aft with my laser a couple more bursts. Again he witches out, again I follow, and this time he actually fights back. Rupert thinks he exhausted all his drop tanks, and I agree, as he hasn't shot a missile at us the entire time.

The mark's efforts are in vain however, as I have soon shot him down.

In closing, the mark would've flown circles around Persistence, evaded her firepower, and got away. But the Stormbringer is tuned to wound her prey from a distance, then quickly close for the kill. She can also chase down hotfoots and injectorheads, as this unfortunate cad found out the hard way. I must admit though, he gave me a run for the money!

What are Stormbringer and Persistence?