Oolite Bulletins

Storm wrote:

Also, a thought regarding Asp Mk II's. From the original Elite Jane's Guide, 'Integument has chameleon properties enabling the ship to assume effective camouflage in any type of environment.' This suggests that Cloaking Devices are standard, though my thinking would be that they need specialized maintenance and/or regularly changed encrypted command codes to function properly. Wings of cloaked Navy Asp Mk II's would certainly be able to hold their own against a much larger Thargoid force, perhaps giving HISMN a much needed edge.

Yes to all of the above I think, and there is more.
I have read through a lot of old Elite manuals (from different versions) lately, and there are a few inconsistencies between the different versions and also with the Oolite implementation.
Another example is the Sidewinder. In Oolite it has no missiles, while according to different Elite manuals it is described as having "missiles" or the manual specifies a single missile pod.

The actual specifications on the Navy versions of the ships is still undecided. It all depends on how the new AI stuff in 1.77 works out. Would be great to make the Navy ships really tough without giving them all Military lasers and 8 missiles each.

Giving any ship 8 missiles presumes it initially had a lot of internal space that was used by the cargo holds. That's only suited for rebuilt freighter types...Anacondas, Boas 1/2, and Pythons. Maybe the Cobra 3 as well, though that seems a bit silly.

The biggest problem is giving the Navy ships improved AI behavior suitable for their veteran-to-elite status. A regular trader in a freighter type with 4 escorts typically loses to ~4 Thargoids not because of a lack of firepower or shielding but because of poor tactics.

Switeck wrote:

The biggest problem is giving the Navy ships improved AI behavior suitable for their veteran-to-elite status.

If this gets sorted (and I think this might be relatively easy to do in 1.77?), then might it be worth signalling this somehow on the ships' livery? Badges of rank, perhaps, that could be visible from some distance away? I'm pleased that the Navy skins seem to be heading towards the bright/white end of things, but some colour highlights wouldn't go amiss: having bars denoting the pilots' ranks would be a strong visual image (maybe in blue?). If we assume that rookie Navy pilots are classed Above Average, we could have:

No bars: Above Average
1 bar (port wing): Competent
2 bars (port wing): Dangerous
2 bars (port wing), 1 bar (starboard wing): Deadly
2 bars (both wings): Elite

It would snazz up the appearance of Navy ships no end, and give players something to look at (and look out for) as well.

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Disembodied wrote:

Switeck wrote:

The biggest problem is giving the Navy ships improved AI behavior suitable for their veteran-to-elite status.

If this gets sorted (and I think this might be relatively easy to do in 1.77?), then might it be worth signalling this somehow on the ships' livery? Badges of rank, perhaps, that could be visible from some distance away? I'm pleased that the Navy skins seem to be heading towards the bright/white end of things, but some colour highlights wouldn't go amiss: having bars denoting the pilots' ranks would be a strong visual image (maybe in blue?). If we assume that rookie Navy pilots are classed Above Average, we could have:

No bars: Above Average
1 bar (port wing): Competent
2 bars (port wing): Dangerous
2 bars (port wing), 1 bar (starboard wing): Deadly
2 bars (both wings): Elite

It would snazz up the appearance of Navy ships no end, and give players something to look at (and look out for) as well.

I have a thought of something like this, but not sure if it's a good idea. With all the other ideas flying around I'm reluctant to overcomplicate things.

Anyway, navy squadrons work up and train together, so my plan was for some background information that would show the crests of veteran and newly created squadrons. So if you see the crest for a veteran squadron, stay well clear. But this would probably not be in version one. Main focus for version one is general Navy behaviour and ships/stations Eye Candy.

Hey guys. Couple of possible suggestions for a flag for Her Imperial Majesty's Space Navy.



The eight red and blue rectangles representing, of course, the Eight charts.

Storm wrote:

Hey guys. Couple of possible suggestions for a flag for Her Imperial Majesty's Space Navy.



The eight red and blue rectangles representing, of course, the Eight charts.

Or you could have 8 stars in a circle on a background of imperial purple.

If you wanted a symbol to represent the eight octants, then an octagon (of whichever colour/background) might be an idea too.

An octagon might look a bit too much like a Thargoid for the Navy's liking..

Tricky wrote:

Or you could have 8 stars in a circle on a background of imperial purple.

I did an eight-circles thing a while back ... I should have vector files kicking about somewhere if anyone wants to use it.

Ha, that could be the symbol for the Oolympics!

El Viejo wrote:

If you wanted a symbol to represent the eight octants, then an octagon (of whichever colour/background) might be an idea too.

Diziet Sma wrote:

An octagon might look a bit too much like a Thargoid for the Navy's liking..

An octagon with a big red X over it maybe? Hehe

Smivs wrote:

Ha, that could be the symbol for the Oolympics!

Oolympics? Hmm an OXP that only works once every four years?

Messing about with my Asp model and texturing...



Of course, that camo pattern isn't of any real effectual use, that's what Cloaking Devices are for, but thought it looked pretty cool.

Storm wrote:

Of course, that camo pattern isn't of any real effectual use, that's what Cloaking Devices are for

I'd say that the cloak is not really any use, visually.

It's not officially a core ship... but it is an original Bell & Braben design...



Galactic Navy Advanced Tactical (G.N.A.T.) Fighter?

Storm wrote:

It's not officially a core ship... but it is an original Bell & Braben design...



Galactic Navy Advanced Tactical (G.N.A.T.) Fighter?

I would say that became the Krait.

That's what I thought at first too, but I've since noticed Griff's mention of the model intended for Elite 2 here after some more google searching on it.

Also something maybe of interest, the Red Arrows aerobatic display team first flew in Gnat's.