Oolite Bulletins

A Primer for New Jamesons Part 1:KIT

Congratulations ! You have survived Lave Academy.
Now What? A glorious voyage into the unknown to reap fame and Glory unto yourself?
With what? A ship equipped with a popgun and 100 Cr to your name?
Lets get serious. You need a lot of kit before you can garner the fame and riches that you are looking for.
1. Kit that you should get: (asap)
a. Large cargo bay… the more you can carry… the richer you will get.
b. Injector: Face it, the Cobra MKIII is a mighty fine vessel but you need speed to escape from baddies.
c. Scoop: this helps if you gather cargo in space. Think FREE profit when you gather them up.
d. ECM : help avoid missiles that will be launched at you.
e. Docking computer: some mighty fine pilots think this is not needed but it will get you in quicker and safer .
f. Weapons: upgrade your weapon until you got something that you will have faith in IE: rail guns, military laser
g. Energy Bomb: Scenario: you are being attacked by multiple ships, your shields are fast disappearing, your laser is ineffective, what do you do? Die! With the Energy bomb, you has a last second reprieve… it will take out most vessels, give you the bounties and kill counts and possibly provide you with cargo that can be scooped. There will be those who say: NONONONONO to this tactic but it is something that you can use.

Next topic will be tactics for survival and getting credits.

Well yes... but the energy bomb is no longer available in Oolite (and rightly so).
Yes, I know it can be restored... but a new Jameson should not be thinking that way.

Docking computer before weapons upgrade? Really?

The DC is one of the last things you should get. It is best to view it as an expensive luxury that by the time you can afford it, you don't need it.

Fatleaf wrote:

Docking computer before weapons upgrade? Really?

The DC is one of the last things you should get. It is best to view it as an expensive luxury that by the time you can afford it, you don't need it.

Yep, for me the Docking Computer is one of the last things to buy in its price range. It's rather a convenience item than really essential. What it does is sparing me the last bit of travel to the station entrance via its insta-dock capability, thereby saving gaming time. But that's not a real in-game benefit. It's good for me, the player, not for the character that I'm playing in-game.

I buy docking computers before upgrading my lasers when I'm playing "iron man" style. My reasoning is that I can (and should) run away from pirates at that stage of the game, but I can't avoid docking. You get bored of manual docking, boredom leads to carelessness, and carelessness leads to death. One screwup while docking and your ship's a write-off. And there's always that tiny chance of some nitwit launching on full power out of the docking bay just as you're on your final approach.

In a normal game, though, I agree that I'd go for a forward beam laser before the docking computers, just so I'm not a soft target for every jumped-up amateur buccaneer in the spacelanes. And since you get to trade in your old laser at full market value, it works out cheaper than it looks.

Those of you who disagree, thank you.
What I am doing is setting the Jamesons out knowing that
1. in space,,, only the quick and the dead are important. My intent is to keep them among the quick and if using a
n energy bomb keeps them alive.. so be it. Why put their minds in a mold that is being imposed by ancient mariners?
2. Technology has advanced since the ancient mariners had their heydays. Use technology to dock, fight, trade, find
rock hermits . Manual docking is slow and dangerous. Let the technology do
it for you.... after all it is available. Space compass is a common technology that is in use. Let's get rid of it and try to locate all the various items that are out there. Space route planning.. a technology that allows you to map your trade routes. get rid of it.. manually fly your routes . Getting my point? Give the New Jamesons every bit .help that they can get technologically. after all there are no horse and buggies in space.. just killers and victims.

rayner wrote:

You get bored of manual docking...

Really? I've been docking manually for years now, and I never find it boring. On the contrary, it's always interesting, and docking on injectors is rather exciting.

Dawn Trader wrote:

Manual docking is slow and dangerous.

Manual docking is slow? Surely you jest, amigo?
As for the energy bomb, it's an old, tired discussion - but why should the player be the only one who can use it?

Cody,
I do not jest.. for a new jameson... the #1 killer is the approach to a station, you know that and I know that you are pulling my leg.
OOlite is set in the future... it is anachronistic for pilots not to use technology that is available.. just look at all the OXP's that add advanced
technology in all forms.

I see that you have no comment on my other observations... you silence is a quiet agreement.
You are right.. the energy bomb discussion goes back to 2004 with 78 pages of discussion. Then someone arbritarily decided to take it out but left the Q bomb( an abomination) to stay and let the NPC players use it. Let the jameson decide whether or not he/she/it wants it but don't denigrate them for making that choice if they want it. If someone wants to script
energy bombs into NPC that if fine with me. Then it will be a real game of no mercy then.

Dawn Trader wrote:

... for a new jameson... the #1 killer is the approach to a station...

<chortles> Frankly amigo, that's rubbish! By the time a new Jameson can afford the luxury of DC, they must have learned to dock manually.
As for the bombs/mines... we will have to agree to disagree, I think (though I don't carry a QCM - never have).

That doesn't mean that they have to like it Seedy bars, hermits, gas stops, constores all require manual docking , so they will learn. agree/disagree but since this is my primer... I will present it my way.....
Write your own primer and let's see how you do. Take the next one: how to survive in oolite .. that is a direct dare

Dawn Trader wrote:

Seedy bars, hermits, gas stops, constores all require manual docking...

Hmm... native hermits don't rotate (as I recall), and the other three are all OXPs (and I won't go into my opinion of them).
As for me writing a primer... nah, poor Mr Gimlet would freak out at my methods! You carry on, amigo... it's entertaining.

Dawn Trader wrote:

for a new jameson... the #1 killer is the approach to a station,

Cody is not alone, I seriously doubt that, too.

It's always been a myth (as in: a factually untrue lore) that docking is so hard in Elite, and that pilots die by the dozen doing it. I've played Elite since 1985, and I never saw any problem in manually docking. And if anything, it has become much easier in Oolite compared to Elite, with the station being textured instead of just a see-through wireframe, and with the nav buoy, and all that.

Dawn Trader wrote:

If someone wants to script energy bombs into NPC that if fine with me. Then it will be a real game of no mercy then.

Heh. Long time ago, when energy bomb discussions were The Hot Thing, I had written a small OXP that did just that. You want to have e-bombs? Fine, but let NPCs have them as well, just like every other weapon. Then it's fair game for all.

So, anyone who feels like using e-bombs, feel free to install this OXP which gives NPCs energy bomb usage capability and once you have played a bit with it, come back and let us know what a c**p experience that was. I do hope that this little OXP will help clarify once and for all why the eBomb is NOT a good idea and it exists only as an optional modification these days. Personally, I don't think I'll be revisiting any Energy Bomb discussions from this point onwards.

45% of the ships you fight against will have e-bomb ready to go. Feels like a good percentage, given the low price of the equipment.

Link to download: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwG6R5Q ... sp=sharing

As I have don't have it yet, how does the Docking Computer actually work? Does it just auto-pilot into the docking bay, or is like the Docking Computer in X3 and it just teleports your ship into the station when you're within so many kilometers from it?

I want to know, because if it's just an auto-pilot, I think it might be faster to manually dock. I have to agree with the guy above that said docking in Elite isn't difficult. It was a little different than what I was used to (with the dock constantly rotating, so I had to match it's rotation to not clip my winglets), but it's not that hard if you have any sort of spatial awareness.

Oh, and while I am at it: How do you dock with the docking procedures enabled? I turned them on to see what it did, and I kept getting fined for docking without clearance, but pressing C never did anything to get clearance. As C was the only button I found that had anything to do with docking, I had assumed it was used to contact the station to request clearance as well as activate auto-docking.

With the DC you have a choice: insta-docking (teleporting, if you like... though it does take ship's clock time), or auto-pilot into the station, which can be very slow.
Docking procedures requires you to target the station and press 'L' (I think... I never use it).