Oolite Bulletins

Finished the Constrictor Mission yesterday while off work on sick leave...

It took two attempts, though. The first time, I shot him and he blasted off my screens too fast to follow. The second time, I waited until I was closer until firing, and the police turned up and kept him too busy to run in a straight line, so I was able to keep up until he ran out of witchdrive fuel.

Then it turned into a race - who would fire the final shot that destroyed him? Fortunately, I did - AND I managed to scoop his escape capsule, which, btw, I had to use fuel injectors to catch up to!

I'm now up to dangerous, and off to the next mission.

I'm intending to play through to ELITE (again; I made it there in the 80s) in strict mode, then come back and have some fun with OXPs.

Guess I got lucky on this one?

When I first got the mission, I couldn't go back to where he was first reported because I had just started a contract which brought me to the other side of the galaxy. On my way back to the first reported sighting many, many jumps later I got the dreaded yet somehow "countrified" statement "Yep, he had a galactic hyperdrive fitted here. Used it too."

I jumped to Galaxy 2 and followed the trail. Eventually I got the "If you really want to fight him, he's at..." message.

I had read this thread and realized I'd need fuel to stay up with him, but the final jump was a long one and I had no fuel left. I figured I'd just jump in to see how rough this guy was.

Sure enough, about 10 seconds after I jump in, he appears (oddly, the first time, he seemed to fire at me while I was jumping, damaging my Advanced Space Compass). The second time I jumped I did notice a graphical aberration but no damage.

He locks onto me, I get him in my sights, and blast him, scoring 8-10 successive hits. He starts shooting sparks and I hit him with one more barrage. He fires a missile or two and explodes. One of the missiles must have been ECM hardened and hits, but that's it. I've fought Pythons who were harder...

Anyway the chase was fun and I'm pleased that the combat wasn't impossible, but it was definitely not very hard. I was expecting a protracted chase with the fuel injectors on or very strong shields.

I'm not complaining, as I'm now Dangerous status and 5000 credits richer, but this thread oversells it a bit, at least in my case. Maybe I damaged his fuel injectors? Or maybe I'm just very good? (doubtful)

Sometimes you get lucky!

If you keep a saved game you can have as many goes at him as you like, it does not always turn out that easy!

Aw, pity I started playing Oolite far too late to nitpick on the comment on the last page about ArcElite, which didn't have a Constrictor mission.

Well, I've found and blasted it in Oolite now. I was slightly thrown by emerging into Galaxy 2 at a different spot from the BBC version location, but I had a dim memory of roughly where the trail began (I remembered where it ends, but that's cheating, and in any case it might've changed for Oolite). The messages on the trail appearing in mid-flight instead of when docked made the whole thing easier (and without the random element ). A mission briefing more akin to the Beeb one would've upped the atmosphere a bit too. It certainly did for me, when I first played ELite, didn't know about missions, and saw "INCOMING MESSAGE" flash up on the screen. Actually, I think my instinctive reaction to the word "Incoming" was to hit the E key, but in any case I found the whole thing pretty exciting. Games just don't do that to me any more

This is how the mission was on the orginal BBC B version on Elite. Giles therefore re-imaged it here, and its one of the 5 missions included in the un-exanded game. The OXPs add over 100 more missions, but hopefully writers have been true to the spirit of Elite and many missions will bring back memories of Classic Elite missions. Check he Wiki Missions page for more info and downloads!

Helvellyn wrote:

I was slightly thrown by emerging into Galaxy 2 at a different spot from the BBC version location,

That's because Oolite handles intergalactical transport differently. In the old versions of Elite you entered every new galaxy at a fixed point, no matter where you jumped from in the previous galaxy. In Oolite you materialize in the system that is closest to the position of the exit-system in the previous galaxy.

Therefore it is possible after a galactic jump to arrive in a system out of which you can't get anymore, because it is not connected to any neighbouring system by a less-then-7-LY-jump.

No risk, no fun!

Actually, ArcElite threw you into a random system.

It would be nice if it was possible to escape, by being able to buy a ship with a different hyperspace range, but they all seem to be the same.

Yes, the 7LY limit is hardcoded. Despite the wishes of expansion occasionally coming up here the general view is to leave it as it is. We don't want to eliminate all challenges!

And just in case you haven't yet noticed: Shorter jumps are often better, because they take up less time. The duration of a jump grows with the square of the distance covered. So for contracts one single long-range jump would be the worst possible idea. Your customers at the other end of the galaxy would be dead before you deliver their goods to them.

Commander McLane wrote:

Therefore it is possible after a galactic jump to arrive in a system out of which you can't get anymore, because it is not connected to any neighbouring system by a less-then-7-LY-jump.

didn't Master Giles fix that, so it is actually inpossible to reach those dead end places?

Which i thought was a pity because those places were begging for a 'get out' OXP mission...

Rxke wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

Therefore it is possible after a galactic jump to arrive in a system out of which you can't get anymore, because it is not connected to any neighbouring system by a less-then-7-LY-jump.

didn't Master Giles fix that, so it is actually inpossible to reach those dead end places?

Which i thought was a pity because those places were begging for a 'get out' OXP mission...

I don't think he did, and the idea of a mission like that has been discussed here. IIRC there is actually only one real dead end in the game, and there are people around who know where that is, which I don't recall now.

I believe it's Oresrati in the lower left hand corner of the last galaxy. Hyperspace here (from Rainza) and you are stuck - it's a Tech Level 5 so no Galactic hyperdrive.

BTBC wrote:

I believe it's Oresrati in the lower left hand corner of the last galaxy. Hyperspace here (from Rainza) and you are stuck - it's a Tech Level 5 so no Galactic hyperdrive.

If you can hyperspace there you can surely hyperspace back, unless you mean GalHyp there.

I suppose I'm just going to have to put up with disagreeing about hyperspace ranges. It seems daft to me that you can have an amazing top-of-the-range ship with heaven only knows what equipment, yet in hyperpsace it has no advantages over the Adder. IMO Elite-A got it right there.

Helvellyn wrote:

BTBC wrote:

I believe it's Oresrati in the lower left hand corner of the last galaxy. Hyperspace here (from Rainza) and you are stuck - it's a Tech Level 5 so no Galactic hyperdrive.

If you can hyperspace there you can surely hyperspace back, unless you mean GalHyp there.

Yes, that's what he means. You can only reach it with a GalHyp from the previous galaxy, and then you can't hyperspace out.

Just had a nosy at it in ArcElite (since I've nowhere near the resources to get there in Oolite yet), yes, it does look rather on the remote side. Tech level 4 in ArcElite, although ArcElite sometimes differs from the original by a level or two.

Some ships must be able to get to it for it to be a member of the Galactic Cooperative...

I have gone to have a look and you can't get there Oolite moves your G/Hyperdrive exit point into the main group of planets. So you don't end up trapped also I have a correction to make Rainza is nowhere near the place you need to be to jump near Rainza.