Oolite Bulletins

Commander McLane:

Ja, I understand parallax, but it's beyond that - or perhaps uber parallax.

Now that I know how to capture a picture in Oolite, I'll show you.

I went to a tech level 12 station and purchased an Anaconda, fitted mining lasers on both port and starboard, launched and went hunting for some asteroids.





So you see here, I found an excellent specimen upon which to demonstrate.







Here I am missing my mark. Like how bad can this parallax be?






So I move in even closer. See how it is so perfectly lined up?






Here I am completely missing again. And, I am holding down on the fire button continuously, so it's not because I need several hits to cause it to break up, or nothing.






All right. So I spot another asteroid, this one is a monster. I thought it might be a rock hermit even, and move in as close I can and yaw just enough so that you can see that I'm 51 meters from it. I then redressed my angle so that it covered completely the entire (port) view screen. Held my finger down on the fire button for over 2 minutes, and still didn't hit it.

Just to make certain of everything, I lined up the ship from the outside viewpoints, and was able to move along the yaw axis and bump it with both the bow and stern of the ship - after these experiments in the pictures. So there is absolutely no way that my laser could miss, because of parallax, as the asteroid covered every possible angle of firing, and more. So unless the parallax goes beyond 180 degrees of firing on either port or starboard, there is a glitch with the Anaconda.


Edit: Ha-ha. Okay, I can't show the pictures because the forum says they have to be 1,000 pixels or less. I went to edit them, to 800x400 size, but the forum says they are still over 1,000 ? Sorry, I can't figure how to fix them so they can be displayed.

Edit #2: Griff, came through and solved the problem.

Agis Silverfish:

After the above (posted) demonstration, I witched to the closest anarchy system, because I likely forgot to give other information that might help.

This Anaconda had Beam Lasers, for and aft.
Mining Lasers port and starboard.
Scanner Targeting Enhancement.
Shield Boosters.
5x ECM Hardened Missiles
ECM System.
Witch Fuel Injectors.
Advanced Space Compass.
Fuel Scoops.
Heat Shielding.
And finally, Wormhole Scanner.

Nothing was at the withpoint beacon, so I drifted off into nearby deep space from it, and entered into a "stalk & kill" mode.
I got a few DS pirates, and jumped three escorted trader convoys (from near point blank range I engaged), and two lone SAR boats, in all.
Final tally was 11 kills, and 9 got away from me, before quitting the game and coming here.

Things I noticed:

- You really want witchfuel injectors. I depended on them for; getting away from danger, splitting pursuers into more manageable group sizes, and for catching up to specific targets to finish them quickly. This equipment is a must have, but once you can afford a 'Conda, these are not a problem to also acquire.

- It's very difficult to get successive missiles impacting on both your shields, because she pitches / yaws so meekly, if they're coming from the same direction. Normally I wouldn't let them impact, but was testing things again.

- If you want to kill something, do it quickly, because you can't catch them if they inject out from you.

- Splitting up attackers is quite helpful. If let's say an Asp Mk. II, a Mamba, and a Cobra Mk. III are trying to run me down - I'll wait till around 8 to 6 km's for the Asp to be and launch a missile at him. He'll cut and run and be out of your hair for a while - besides you can't catch him on injectors yourself any ways - so eliminate him right away as a threat. I'll then ignore the Cobra and try to laser the Mamba (Krait, Sidewinder) as hard as possible, once he decides he's hurting too much, he'll peel away for a bit. Now with whatever laser is not overheated, I'll kill the Cobra Mk I (or III), because they seem to linger no matter how much punishment they absorb. By this time, the fight is in close and tight, and you can't turn, roll, etc to maintain a laser lead on them, so you have to be aware of where they are and counter pitch (or turn), to be on them soon again. Keep a finger over the ECM key though, cause they'll launch just before the start venting, and you can't dodge a missile in a 'Conda. By the time these two are dead, the Asp should be making his way back. Stand still and line him up. If you are moving, he'll correct course, you want Asps (and Fer-de-Lances) to be coming straight down the tubes on you, cause you can't maneuver your laser(s) well. Any ways, from 10 km on in, you lean on the button and red line the laser. Even though he might not be dead, he will be if he keeps coming, because a few seconds cool down is what's required for you to start causing him to vent.

he - he. Looks like I'm rambling.
I was looking for trouble there - but as a trader, you'd be wanting to avoid it. That's just what I remember that worked well when I found it, and likely give you some ideas so you can develop your own style with a 'Conda.

DeathKnyte wrote:

First of all, before you can post a link to picture, you'll need to upload the picture to a photo sharing site, like photobucket or imageshack. You cannot post pictures directly from your computer. As soon as you log off and your computer is disconnected from the boards, how would anybody else see what's on your computer? Thus, you need your pictures to be on the internet somewhere.

"As1.png" is clearly not a URL (internet address), thus I reckon that's where things went wrong. A link to a picture should look like one of these (five randomly selected pictures from the Screenshots thread):
http://i33.servimg.com/u/f33/16/73/49/25/oolite10.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8031/8005 ... 51bf_c.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/jV7t9.png
http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u36 ... 4d2e09.png
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5645/oolite089.png

You note that each of those begins with "http://", because it links to a picture that has been uploaded to the internet before. Your links aren't links at all, just file names.

********

As for the phenomenon itself: yes, it's simply parallax. In most ships the view positions are not that far away from the weapon mounts. But the Anaconda is so big and has such a specific geometry, that in its case it really makes a difference. Your side view is basically out of your cockpit window (for a moment ignoring the fact that there isn't a window), while the weapon mount sits where the ship is widest. Here's a screenshot of the starboard laser for illustration:



The distance between the two points is 110 meters. That's quite a lot. So what you're seeing when looking out of your starboard screen is a weapon fired 110 meters to the right of your own position, so of course it comes from the right border of your screen. Parallax also means that the laser will only hit targets that are 110 meters to the right of your view position, because all lasers fire strictly forward. The weapon mount is also slightly below the cockpit, thus when firing you see the laser on the far right and slightly from the top. The same goes for the port laser, of course, only mirrored.

The effect becomes even a little bigger when you fire while moving forward. Due to some programming constraints all weapon mount points seem to move slightly to the back when firing while moving. How far back depends on your speed at the time. This is because there is a slight delay between you pulling the trigger and the laser actually firing. During that time your ship has already moved forward, but the laser is still drawn according to your old position. This gets worse, of course, when you fire while flying at a very high speed.

The Anaconda has another oddity, which you certainly have noticed. Again due to its specific geometry, its rear laser fires from above your view position, which is below the laser mount. It's the only ship in the core set where you will see a laser firing from the top of your screen.

Ja, I got all that.
I even have an account at photobucket.

The problem is that the pictures have to be no more than 1000 pixels (that's what I thought I said, guess it wasn't clear enough, sorry), for the forum to accept them.

How do I make them conform to that specification (or size, or whatever pixels mean), is what I need to know?

And while we're on this subject; should I keep them as PNG (that's what the game makes them), or would JPEG, or something else be better?


Neat picture in your above post, showing the viewing perspective point and the firing point of the side lasers, on the Anaconda.
That gives me an idea for something else to test.

DeathKnyte wrote:

Ja, I got all that.
I even have an account at photobucket.

The problem is that the pictures have to be no more than 1000 pixels (that's what I thought I said, guess it wasn't clear enough, sorry), for the forum to accept them.

How do I make them conform to that specification (or size, or whatever pixels mean), is what I need to know?

in Photobucket there's an 'Edit photos' button on the menubar, click on that then select the photo you need to edit. Once it's loaded up there'll be a strip of buttons along the bottom of your screen, click on 'Adjustment' then 'resize', you should then be able to specify a new size for your image in a pop-up

Griff:

Ah, cool. You're the man.

So then a pixel is a unit of measurement for pictures, cause I brought the one the game makes down to 1,000 max. on the horizontal (the vertical was adjusted to maintain aspect ratio).


Commander McLane:

Okie, I fixed my above post.

Now I'll work, on organizing some more stuff....

yeah that's right, a pixel is a sort of 'dot' of pure colour, and the pictures on our computer screens are made up of rows and rows of them all placed together sort of like the squares in a word search puzzle or something like that.
If you have some image editing software on your computer, open up one of your images in it and find the 'zoom' option and set it quite high, you'll see all the pixels that make up your image drawn as large boxes of colour

Griff wrote:

If you have some image editing software on your computer, open up one of your images in it and find the 'zoom' option and set it quite high, you'll see all the pixels that make up your image drawn as large boxes of colour

You can also use image editors to re-scale your image - make the image any size you want, so you could use this to re-size your screenshots before you upload them to you image host. I normally make mine no larger than 900px wide as they should then fit most monitors without needing a scrollbar.
If you don't have any such software, I would recommend Gimp, which is free, cross-platform and open-source. It is fully featured and is used by many of us.

Okay, Griff, I'm going to see if I can figure it out in MS Paint, before uploading to photobucket in the future. It comes with some pretty good instructions. And yes, if I zoom the pictures to like 1000%, i see exactly what you're saying.


Smivs, uhmmm.... You know I trust you, and I'll look into that GIMP thing. I know I'll need something like that for my Massurana project in my thread. We'll be visiting that as soon as I finish these other things first.

Concerning the limit of 900 pixels, would it be better for it to be even less than that on these forums? Like 800, or somethin'?

DeathKnyte wrote:

I'm going to see if I can figure it out in MS Paint... I'll look into that GIMP thing.

MS Paint is archaic! Go straight to GIMP - even a dumb pilot such as I can use it (at its basic levels, anyway).

All right; so after considering what Commander McLane had written, and wanting to ascertain myself of my own given advice - I devised what will hopefully be my final test on the potential of the Anaconda...


I was at Xexedi, bought an Anaconda from the ship yard, and proceeded to outfit her for a full combat test.


The three pictures below, show the equipment, with which she was outfitted, as well as what I had in the hold, before setting out.







That's about the best you can get with the core game. A naval energy unit was not available (and don't spoil me how to get one, cause I'll figure it out eventually), and the military shields can only be purchased at Ceesxe (didn't feel like traveling there for this experiment).


First plan, was to see if I could hit anything with the sides lasers. So I launched from Torus Station - Virgin, went about 6 km along the docking lane, turned so that my starboard laser would lock, centered the firing sight on it, and....



Hit the station!
Man, I was glad - these stations are like 10 km wide, so if I would have missed I would have felt really inept - or proven that the Anaconda side laser glitch was true (obviously turns out here that it is not - well against a 10 km wide target, any ways).
The station is so large, that even though I'm just over 6 km from it, even in full screen you can't get a reading on the distance from the target lock.
Oh yes - you see the little purple blip at the top of my IFF scanner, broadcasting my new status of being a fugitive?
Well, he was soon joined by 9 more...




There were ten GalCop Viper Interceptors total here.
It was very difficult for me to snap the pictures with one hand while trying to dodge fire.
I had to now prove whether the 'Conda could take these guys on, or not.
I can't witch out, because you need to be 25 km from a Torus before being allowed, so no choice here - it was fight or die.

Edit: I have removed the text on how I fought. I have given enough fighting tips already in my prior posts, and maybe some of you would like to learn it for yourselves, without me spoiling that for you.

I killed seven of the police Vipers, three got away from me (which I never was able to locate again).
While I was dog-fighting it out with the police, some local ships decided that they wanted to cash in on my bounty - I vaporized all those next - because I found it highly unsportsmanlike to shoot me while I was already outnumbered 10:1 with the GalCop vipers.
After that, I obliterated everything near and around the station.
Once accomplished, I set the compass for the witchpoint beacon, and swept the lane of everything along it's path.
Pirate groups, convoys, transports, traders, SAR boats, bounty hunters - I didn't care.
I was not lurking, hunting, or springing on anyone like I had done in my previous post.
No subtleties. This was all a deliberate; locate, engage, and destroy outing.
Anything that didn't witch out, or run away from me, was systematically vaporized.
Once the entire system lane had been swept, I witched out to Laenin in order to start the process of clearing my name.




I took the above picture, because that DS pirate made me laugh with what he said about my "exciting ship".
It befitted what I was proving with the Anaconda during this test.
Seconds later he got vaporized, I (jump) engined to the station (you can make it out below the planet).
Saw there was traffic ahead of me, so asked for docking clearance from 25 km out.
Was informed that I was number 13 in the que, so figuring I had a little time, went to the navigation beacon and nudged (pushed) it out of position. That gave me a little more running room for a long line up approach.
When clearance came, I went in all the way on injectors.



That's the picture that turned out the best to demonstrate some things here.
Although, the Anaconda is really big in size, it is very easy to dock manually.
Since the Anaconda has such a poor rate of pitch / yaw, it is hard to over-react on the stick and pull her out of line.
It fits any which way through the docking entrance.
The above picture, just about demonstrates all that.

So now, I'm back,
All prior sins (terror) forgotten, and you can see how we fared from the pictures below.







54 kills - None by the side lasers, 6 to 8 by the rear laser, all the rest from the forward firing one.
Oh yes; Commander McLane, I do know about the rear laser firing from above the targeting sights. But it does not affect me that much. Only if a target is very close, or beyond 8 km does it start to throw me off.
I had installed the Trophy oxp before embarking on this, and was depending on that to show you the tally. However there's a bug in that oxp and it just showed the types once I was docked.
I did keep track of what got away from me, on paper next to my computer: Asp Mk. II x2, Fer-de-Lance x3, Krait x2, Anaconda x2, Boa x4, GalCop Viper Interceptor x3.
So 70 targets engaged in all. The traders got away from me mostly by witching, while the rest were by injecting.
Other points of interest; you'll see that I took no internal damage to any system, and did not need to use any of my missiles either.


Conclusion:

The Anaconda is a fine ship capable of doing it all as a (mega) trader, and then some.
It has massive cargo capacity, so running passenger / cargo / specialty contracts, can bring in piles of credits.
It can hold it's own, and push through pirate packs to system stations.
The poor top speed, acceleration, and massive target size are definitely a deterrent to making it as your main fighter style craft (but it was never designed as such).
Whether it can complete the more difficult missions in the game, I don't know.
Seems like I have more to learn.
But after the above tests, and in the hands of someone more competent than me, I wouldn't be surprised if it could.
I still don't feel like perusing my career of an assassin with one, though.

@DeathKnyte

Damn, you have my sincere respect taking that beast into combat. I breakout into a cold sweat thinking about doing combat in that rogue asteroid.

Given the massive parallax issues with side guns on an Anaconda would it make sense to use the custom external camera views to add two cameras one above each of the port/starboard gun ports? A little more cumbersome than simply tapping F3/F4 but better than not being able to hit the proverbial barn door with a side on shot. (If you're going to insist for using an Anaconda for mining)

If you're having problems with core missiles, Auto-ECM OXP is great. I have it equipped on my own ship. I also have several weaponry OXPs installed, so Missile Spoof fills the gaps ECM can't cover. With these two, it is a lot easier to stay in a fight.

Also, if you're going high-ton trader, a good bet is the Armory OXP. Captured Thargon Ship Defense System is excellent, as is the Aquarian Guardian Defense System. This OXP does add some challenging missiles to deal with, and you should have a finger hovering over the "target incoming missile" and injector keys. You could also install Missile Analyzer OXP, which automatically targets any missile not eliminated by ECM.

Certainly not a skill-based way of playing with only eyecandy and core ships, but once you're up to snuff with a highly geared-up cruiser like my Sic Vita Est, try out ToughGuys3 OXP. With three different levels of intensity, you can build up to trading while hammering your way through pirate packs.

Wow! Thanks to you all, specially DeathKnyte!