Oolite Bulletins

so many years after Frontier...

I'd like to return to this world that made me dream so much!

Unfortunately I'm a bit stuck - can you help me to start?

I'm having troubles finding the stations!
I selected my 1st destination (Disio) & went there. Following a good advice I removed myself a bit from the straight line to the planet to avoid pirates,
then I tried to follow the guide http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/How_to_Dock
Unfortunately I'm never able to find any station, even touring around the planet (lucky me I found out the shift-f trick to compress time!)
I only find random ships, some police, & at the end some pirates that find and finish me off.
Where, oh where is that damn station?



thank you1


alessandro

Hello and welcome

I dont think shift-F does compress time? as far as I can see it appears at least on my set up to bring up the frame rate counter?

as for finding the station it might be best, until you get the advanced space compass its visual scanning for the station, It might best for your first run to instead of heading to diso to head to leesti which is at least relatively safe (and a better planet to trade with from Lave where you start) Leesti station is most likely visible as soon as you arrive in system, looking like a slightly larger star than the others a short distance from the planet itself. I tend to rotate the ship so the station is pointing north (sitting above the top of the planet) and then aim the ship well above that point before activating the torus drive to avoid the traffic.

On systems where the station isnt quite so easy to spot immediatly I pick any direction out of the traffic lane, torus for 15 seconds, disengage then look down at the planet and see if I can spot the small shape of the station, its rare I have to use more that 15 seconds of torus, I then follow the procedure above aligning the station at the top of the planet and heading above that.

alexxxm wrote:

Where, oh where is that damn station?

Once you're reasonably close to the planet, your compass will change from pointing towards the planet to pointing towards the station.

Unless you went really far off-lane, the station will be on the same side of the planet that you're on.

(If you want a bit more practice, go to Leesti rather than Diso: Leesti station is approximately on the sun-planet line, which will make it easier to find)

alexxxm wrote:

then I tried to follow the guide http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/How_to_Dock

Hmm... those instructions presume you already have an Advanced Space Compass. Not likely!
Aim directly for the planet and the green circle in the basic compass will be centred. When you're close enough, the green circle will move to indicate the station.

Oh... welcome aboard.

Hi Allesandro, and first of all welcome to the Friendliest Board This Side Of Riedquat™!

The station is always close to the planet, and always visible from the space lane that comes from the witchpoint. So, if you don't remove yourself too far from the straight line you should see it on the side of the planet while you close in.

Alternatively you can use your space compass. When you are close enough to the planet the green circle no longer points to the planet, but to the location of the station (see the Pilot's Reference Manual on the Wiki).

guys, thank you everybody!
I'll try it now, as soon as I finish my breakfast coffee...

damn, I just looked at my radar, didnt know that that ball inside a circle could represent something other than the planet, seems so easier now!

Regarding Shift-F - I found about it here on the boards: Shift-F then Pause, then up&down (or left&right?) and un-Pause: it lets you change between 1x to 16x time compress


see you soon in orbit!


alessandro

You can also slow time down to 0.5x, 0.25x, or slower with pause and left/right arrows. This can almost be considered a cheat to use in combat, but if your framerate is low (like <30fps) the keyboard controls get rather bad at precision aiming and slower game speeds can compensate.

Is noone else but me thinking that both leaving the spacelanes and TAF are not good advice, for a beginner ?

leaving the spacelanes : you miss the game. It is a kind of emergency exit.
I feel that by circumventing the game's restrictions (do not go to systems you are not up to) you loose realism / involvement / inmersion -> the game itself : FUN!

TAF (Shift+F and so on) : another measure useful for technical problems (very low framerates, player handicap, etc.) but for normal gameplay ?
speeding the game up can result in things messing up - e.g. at TAF 4x or higher noone will ever dock in my Ooniverse. (have not yet tested Eric's newest changes to docking - compiling here is slow.)
slowing the game down - don't know, so far I've never used it. But my guess is, depending on player's personality, it may also decrease enjoying the game, or make achievements feel not so great, etc. along this line.
And I doubt it helps with developping skills as much as "standard" gameplay would.

My advice is : try to play the "normal" way - if it doesn't work for you, you can then still retreat to "tricks"- nothing lost.
And get yourself witchfuel injectors soon.

snork wrote:

Is noone else but me thinking that both leaving the spacelanes and TAF are not good advice, for a beginner ?

I agree that it's probably not a good advice, but in this case it wasn't given as an advice. He had found out about it and used it all by himself.

snork wrote:

My advice is : try to play the "normal" way - if it doesn't work for you, you can then still retreat to "tricks"- nothing lost.

Very good advice!

snork wrote:

leaving the spacelanes : you miss the game. It is a kind of emergency exit.

Not when you install the [wiki]DeepSpacePirates[/wiki].oxp. There will be fun, but probably to much for a beginner

snork wrote:

speeding the game up can result in things messing up - e.g. at TAF 4x or higher noone will ever dock in my Ooniverse. (have not yet tested Eric's newest changes to docking - compiling here is slow.)

For me docking went smooth for most ships, even at 16x TAF after those changes you refer to. But I must admit that my PC runs at a high frame rate to begin with.

Eric Walch wrote:

snork wrote:

speeding the game up can result in things messing up - e.g. at TAF 4x or higher noone will ever dock in my Ooniverse. (have not yet tested Eric's newest changes to docking - compiling here is slow.)

For me docking went smooth for most ships, even at 16x TAF after those changes you refer to. But I must admit that my PC runs at a high frame rate to begin with.

I often sit in front of a station and watch ships docking and launching at 4 x TAF, because it's just too slow otherwise. At 4x the whole process runs quite smoothly, and even long docking queues are clearing up nicely.