Oolite Bulletins

Thanks Fellows. It does have an observation deck and quarters for the royal family and guests. Smivs would tell me the port windows are too large in relation to its size (which is quite large) and he is right of course.

In reply to Mandoman's query: I am a bounty hunter too and during my push to elite rank I rarely bought cargo preferring to take from those nasty pirates instead. To make the game more interesting I have had several flavours of Smivs ToughGuys installed as well as a few other OXP's that balanced the game more in favor of the criminals. Try Renegade Pirates sometime heh!

I have commanded only two other ships besides the trusty ole Cobra Mark III and they were my designs. Guess it's only natural to want to do that. I have started over again with Smivs Cobra 3 and plan to stay with it.

Looks fine to me Solo, very nice. The windows might be a bit big, but scale in Oolite is nuts as we all know, and windows to scale on large ships are so small you can't see them so a compromise is necessary sometimes - getting the balance right between 'realistic' and 'looking good' is the key, and I think you've got it just right there.
Nice ship.

This is the Kracken - an escort fighter for my carrier. Quite quick and nimble, but not that big.




Ironfist

edited: damn why did these images not appear properly!

@CaptSolo, I have to say that that is a beautiful ship, I love the attention-to-detail in the windows, excelent work

@Ironfist, I'm liking that ship a lot, really good use of purples... <imagines the ship flying with injectors, likes>

Ironfist wrote:

This is the Kracken - an escort fighter for my carrier. Quite quick and nimble, but not that big.

It's an interesting design, but I'd query the name ... a "Kraken" is a giant sea-monster, supposedly based on the giant squid. Maybe not the best name for a fighter?

The Kracken was a killer of epic proportions. That's not a bad name for a killer ship at all. I think I have the SunBat finished, though I need someone to test it out for me, and let me know about all the mistakes in it.


By mandomans at 2011-10-06


By mandomans at 2011-10-06

mandoman wrote:

I think I have the SunBat finished, though I need someone to test it out for me, and let me know about all the mistakes in it.

Mandoman, I'm officially a member of the Guild of Test Pilots so pm with a download link (.zip or .tar) and I will test your ship. Looks great by the way. One thing though, my computer doesn't support shaders.

Very nice mandoman , the front aspect is great for head on attacks, but the yellow bulls-eyes have to go. Will make too easy a target against the black of space.

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Very nice mandoman , the front aspect is great for head on attacks, but the yellow bulls-eyes have to go. Will make too easy a target against the black of space.

Well, here's my thoughts on those bulls-eyes. The SunBat is smokin' fast. I gave it a top speed of .550 LS. This was to deal with the fact that it only has one laser, and it's at the front. That gives it more power toward the engines. However, out in a dog fight, it is devastating when loaded with all the military/naval goodies, and some good hardened missiles. Originally I put those yellow suns on there because of it's name, but I had an experience that made me think it needed them as a counter to it's speed, and stealth. It is nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, until it's right on top of you. I actually ran into one in the game, while flying my Mandomerlin. I was a hair faster than it, but when ever it veered away from me, and away from the sun, it basically all but disappeared. My sensors could track it, but that was it. I don't know if you have had a dog-fight with a Merlin, or not, but they are nearly indestructible. But you can see them. You can see them a long way off, as well as pick them up on sensors, so I can just blast away at them until they finally explode with loud curses thrown my way. The SunBat I rumbled with simply flew out of sight, though not out of sensor range, and I couldn't see what angle it was at to fire at it accurately. That was with it's beautiful bulls-eye suns. They do NOT serve as a bulls-eye. Not unless you can catch it with some kind of light source behind it. I think it is very formidable, even with only one laser, and huge bulls-eyes on it. However, after all of that, I do want other's opinion, which is why I want others to test fly it for me. Would you like to try it? If I did it right, you should be able to download a tar.gz of it at Box.

http://www.box.net/shared/g0832f5ji5c8srn9x6ud

I would really like to know what you think.

Hi folks,

here are the first drafts of two ships I´m currently working on:


... the natrix



... and the trident.


This is my first attempt to build a oolite-ship and it took some time to learn the basics of wings3d. Shipbuilding is indeed lots of fun.

I´m planning an ambience-oxp for the planet Riredi containing the trident. The trident is of insectoid design by the riredians. Riredi is a small planet in gal-sector 1. This world is very fabled for the Rirediian mountain slug and home of the corporation that produces the trident. For some strange reason the riredians seem to have a affinity to the number 3. This shows up in their architecture an shipdesign.

Here are the specs I´m planning for the trident:

Size (metres, W×H×L) 81 x 81 x 81
Cargo capacity 72 TC
Cargo bay extension N/A
Maximum speed 0.33 LM
Manoeuvrability Roll: 1.33
Pitch: 1.33
Energy banks 6
Energy recharge rate Medium (3.3)
Gun mounts Fore, Aft
Missile slots 3
Shield boosters available Yes
Military shields available Yes
Hyperspace capable Yes
OXP or standard OXP
Available to player Yes
Base price 366000 Cr

Next step is that I´m going to learn a about textures ...

Best regards

C.B.

Captain Beatnik, a very alien design and the stats look rather balanced. Will be cool to see the final product.

Mandoman, I spent an afternoon doing just what you asked. I see now why the yellow circles are there. The ship texture is just sooo black and the ship is just way too uber. It is too hard to hit and the energy is too high and even when you do your lasers can't cool down fast enough to take it out because the ships regeneration rate is too high. No worries. I think I can help you visualize a different way to use this ship in game to give the player something interesting to fight and fly.

As a demonstration for you(use it if you want to)I've revamped the whole thing in the following ways:
-the ship is now balanced and is now just above the abilities of a sidewinder.
-the ship appears as a swarm of 4(3 wingmen and 1 leader).
-some ofthe ships have modified weapon energies for the forward weapons.
-there is a small chance of encountering a sniper wingman or an artillery wingman each with an emphasis on a different weapon.

I test drove the swarm idea first before making many of the major changes and it makes for quite a dogfight whether you fly a cobramk3 ironassed or another sunbat ironassed. Just giving it the final shakedown tests in combat before tweaking and handing it back off to you tomorrow by a PM with the download link.

Hehe! The next 3 or 4 hours are going to be fun!

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Captain Beatnik, a very alien design and the stats look rather balanced. Will be cool to see the final product.

Mandoman, I spent an afternoon doing just what you asked. I see now why the yellow circles are there. The ship texture is just sooo black and the ship is just way too uber. It is too hard to hit and the energy is too high and even when you do your lasers can't cool down fast enough to take it out because the ships regeneration rate is too high. No worries. I think I can help you visualize a different way to use this ship in game to give the player something interesting to fight and fly.

As a demonstration for you(use it if you want to)I've revamped the whole thing in the following ways:
-the ship is now balanced and is now just above the abilities of a sidewinder.
-the ship appears as a swarm of 4(3 wingmen and 1 leader).
-some ofthe ships have modified weapon energies for the forward weapons.
-there is a small chance of encountering a sniper wingman or an artillery wingman each with an emphasis on a different weapon.

I test drove the swarm idea first before making many of the major changes and it makes for quite a dogfight whether you fly a cobramk3 ironassed or another sunbat ironassed. Just giving it the final shakedown tests in combat before tweaking and handing it back off to you tomorrow by a PM with the download link.

Hehe! The next 3 or 4 hours are going to be fun!

Captain Beatnick, those are some cool designs. They DO look alien, which is not a bad thing at all. Nice job.

I didn't think you were going to let me get away with upping the speed on the SunBat, but you can't blame me for trying.

Anyway, your scenario sounds extra cool. I wouldn't have known how to even make the oxp present the ship(s) in that way. I'm anxious to see what you have done. I'm glad you agree with me about the suns not making a difference. It really IS hard to see, and therefore hit. Thanks a lot for helping me with this ship, seeing as it is my first attempt.

Mandoman, the download link has been PM'ed to you. Have fun with that and you're welcome. And thanks to you too, I needed a distraction and some more fun playtesting. Now back to the huds.

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Mandoman, the download link has been PM'ed to you. Have fun with that and you're welcome. And thanks to you too, I needed a distraction and some more fun playtesting. Now back to the huds.

You mean you are going to try to one-up your last HUD??? That should be radical. Can't wait to see it, as your HUD is the only one I use, now.

mandoman wrote:

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Mandoman, the download link has been PM'ed to you. Have fun with that and you're welcome. And thanks to you too, I needed a distraction and some more fun playtesting. Now back to the huds.

You mean you are going to try to one-up your last HUD??? That should be radical. Can't wait to see it, as your HUD is the only one I use, now.

Check out my post in the screenshots viewtopic. The hud used is the chupacabrahud and the ship in the screenshot(s) is the chupacabra. To be released very soon. First as part of the chupacabra.oxp and then as a stand-alone version. As for one-upping my last hud, I am going right back to the numeric and pie huds for the next version after the chupacabrahud is passed on to Staer9 for his chupacabra.oxp.