Oolite Bulletins

Last night.. (ok, all night, 'til 6am ) I took a fresh Jameson for a spin in trunk. I was happily tooling along, sticking to the 'lanes, doing milk-runs between Diso and Leesti to raise the cash for a cargo-extension and injectors. My choice of systems worked out well, since while I did occasionally see some battles around me, I was left alone..

All until I was happily inbound at Diso, with 10TC of computers on board, and gleefully counting the money I'd net on this run.. soon as I was back at Leesti, those injectors were mine! Moments later, half a dozen ships popped up on the scanner.. a chill ran down my spine when I realised they were heading for me. As things turned out, I never even had time to ID any of them.

A comms message appeared.. "Hand over 6 barrels, or prepare to die!" Grimacing at what the loss of 6TC of computers would mean for my plans, my hand reached for the 'dump cargo' key, but as I did so, all 6 ships opened fire at once. My shields were down in a second, and I'd barely began evasive manoeuvres before "Press space" came up on the screen.


And therein lies my complaint/suggestion.. if pirates are going to shout "Stand and deliver!", shouldn't they at least give you 5-10 seconds to comply? Perhaps even with a follow-up message after (say) 5 seconds - "You think I'm joking? You have ten seconds to begin dumping cargo, or we open fire!". I swear they opened fire in less than a second of the message appearing on screen.. 1.5 seconds tops.


I will say one thing, this has added another item to my checklist of standard post-launch procedures.. toggle the 'select cargo' key until the cheapest goods on board are set up ready to dump at a moment's notice..


Unrelated: Now that so much in the core game has been made prettier, has any consideration been given to upgrading the basic navbuoy? It's starting to look really out of place in comparison to everything else. If he was agreeable, Cmd. Cheyd's Deep Horizon Nav Buoy would be ideal.

On another unrelated note, please add an indicator light to both of the standard HUD displays for precision mode! Being able to instantly see which mode you were in, would make things much easier..

Diziet Sma wrote:

And therein lies my complaint/suggestion.. if pirates are going to shout "Stand and deliver!", shouldn't they at least give you 5-10 seconds to comply?

Part of it is that having revealed their intentions, they don't want to be hanging around for a few seconds while the freighter's escort wing lines up its shots.

There should usually be a delay anyway just because they'll send the comms message a few seconds after detecting you, and they should be out of weapons range - or at the very least accurate weapons range, at that point.

Diziet Sma wrote:

On another unrelated note, please add an indicator light to both of the standard HUD displays for precision mode! Being able to instantly see which mode you were in, would make things much easier..

It's there in the plists already, just commented out. I assume because it doesn't make much sense if you don't have a joystick fitted. I suppose it could light up if the player was holding keyboard precision, too.

cim wrote:

There should usually be a delay anyway just because they'll send the comms message a few seconds after detecting you, and they should be out of weapons range - or at the very least accurate weapons range, at that point.

Ok.. guess I was just unlucky that time.. on other occasions, they've waited a little while.

cim wrote:

It's there in the plists already, just commented out. I assume because it doesn't make much sense if you don't have a joystick fitted. I suppose it could light up if the player was holding keyboard precision, too.

That's what I'd have expected, that it would work for both joystick and keyboard.

That has happened to me too, the demand for tribute, followed immediately by a barrage of accurate laser fire - but it is rare.
Agree about the nav buoy - I use Cheyd's, but it requires shaders (I think), so maybe not suitable.

I may be wrong and haven't checked the code to confirm, but I was under the impression that if the player drops the required cargo at any time after the demand is made, they would just stop firing and go for the loot? If this happens again, it might be worth dumping the cargo anyway to see what happens.

Ok.. will keep that in mind.. if I can react fast enough.

cim wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

On another unrelated note, please add an indicator light to both of the standard HUD displays for precision mode! Being able to instantly see which mode you were in, would make things much easier..

It's there in the plists already, just commented out. I assume because it doesn't make much sense if you don't have a joystick fitted. I suppose it could light up if the player was holding keyboard precision, too.

I found the code for it in the standard HUD, but the small HUD doesn't appear to have one.

cim wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

On another unrelated note, please add an indicator light to both of the standard HUD displays for precision mode! Being able to instantly see which mode you were in, would make things much easier..

It's there in the plists already, just commented out. I assume because it doesn't make much sense if you don't have a joystick fitted. I suppose it could light up if the player was holding keyboard precision, too.

Looking a bit closer, I don't think it makes much sense to display this for keyboard precision - it's a modifier, not a toggle, so you should already be aware you're using it, and you don't really want that light blinking if you're pressing Ctrl for other reasons. What I'll do is uncomment the entry in hud.plist and add a similar one to hud-small, but then make it completely hide the dial if there aren't any joysticks actually detected.

O_o I had no idea there was such a thing as keyboard precision, and I don't think the Ctrl key is mentioned anywhere in the Reference Sheet... time to update it?

Zireael wrote:

O_o I had no idea there was such a thing as keyboard precision, and I don't think the Ctrl key is mentioned anywhere in the Reference Sheet... time to update it?

Check again: Flight Controls section, 8th entry: Ctrl: Fine control of pitch, roll and yaw.

Diziet Sma wrote:

If he was agreeable, Cmd. Cheyd's Deep Horizon Nav Buoy would be ideal.

In all truth, I expected Griff to come up with something that was far better than mine long before now. Every time I see his thread is updated, I wonder if he's finally done it.

That said, if it met with the community's approval, I'd be more than honored if mine were to appear in core-game. I'd happily provide a copy with an altered (less restrictive) license or whatever I needed to do. Or if needed, a version that is shaderless. Whatever was requried.

However, if Griff has plans for something, I'd also step aside for the Maestro to perform his magic.