Oolite Bulletins

There are times when the fuel scoops seem to take an age to latch onto a particularly stubborn cargo container.

Is it possible to upgrade the AI (either by OXP or via core) of the fuel scoops to lessen the probablility of this? Ideally this should be an in game purchasable upgrade rather than something bestowed on the player by default.

Perhaps make this item standard on the more expensive ships...

Well, it's definitely possible for an oxp to place any targetted object a couple of inches in front of the scoop - different ships can have different scoop positions, though!

Actually, I seem to remember someone releasing a tractor beam oxp. Hopefully someone else will have better memories than me...

Bugbear wrote:

There are times when the fuel scoops seem to take an age to latch onto a particularly stubborn cargo container.

Is it possible to upgrade the AI (either by OXP or via core) of the fuel scoops to lessen the probablility of this?

It would be easy by increasing the strength of the tractor beam. However, it takes away one of the charms of scooping: it should be an art (like manually docking) and not something that goes right by itself.

Technically, the tractor beam is activated when the cargo hits the ships hull. From than on, it is tractored in the direction of the scoop position. The barrel however has inertia, so it can miss the scoop position, resulting in making turns around the scoop position.

When you make an approach that ensures that the barrel will immediately go through the scoop position, scooping up is immediately. This is the art of scooping and the position is different for every ship and should be optimised by the ship designer.
When failing to hit the optimal spot, you always can speed up the scooping by lowering your speed.

Making this easier takes the charm of scooping away in my opinion.

Never flown a Boa... flown thru a few though... scoop scoop scoop. I can't imagine scooping up cargo in a Boa. A bit like opening your yoghurt with a combine harvester.

Eric Walch wrote:

When you make an approach that ensures that the barrel will immediately go through the scoop position, scooping up is immediately. This is the art of scooping and the position is different for every ship and should be optimised by the ship designer.
When failing to hit the optimal spot, you always can speed up the scooping by lowering your speed.

Making this easier takes the charm of scooping away in my opinion.

A well if it's just a matter of technique, then I'm happy to leave things as they are. This is supposed to be a game of skill after all. It can add to the immersion in a sense. I can imagine my pilot in the heat of battle scooping away, then he gets one subborn container and starts cursing "Not now, dammit!" 'cause he knows that if he hits the injectors at that point, he will wind up slingshotting the pod away and losing the plunder.

And now I've just learnt something new about Oolite. I loaded up game with a ship that has injectors installed, loaded up with 20T of cargo then boosted.

Fly about 15km out from the station, do a 180 turn, line up the station, then hit the injectors and start dumping cargo.

Turns out that there is a maximum speed at which you can dump cargo.

However, if you release the injectors just before dumping cargo, you can get the pods racing away from you at speed. Hah! Poor man's rail gun!

Bugbear wrote:

loaded up with 20T of cargo ... release the injectors just before dumping cargo ... Poor Rich man's rail gun!

Fixed that for you.


(More expensive than firing a missile, but I see what you mean.)

SandJ wrote:

Bugbear wrote:

loaded up with 20T of cargo ... release the injectors just before dumping cargo ... Poor Rich man's rail gun!

Fixed that for you.


(More expensive than firing a missile, but I see what you mean.)

Oh I don't know - being a clean living trader, it gives me an excuse to buy 35T of Narcotics at 0.4cr...

Bugbear wrote:

However, if you release the injectors just before dumping cargo, you can get the pods racing away from you at speed. Hah! Poor man's rail gun!

I'm pretty sure I recall DaddyHoggy telling about the time he accidentally dumped a cargo container just as his attacker made a head-on pass and swerved underneath him..

BOOM!