Oolite Bulletins

Hi all,
I could be dumb / lazy here but I've found it suprisingly difficult to locate 'official' sources of information for what is admittedly basic game info. Some of it is relevant to players and developers alike, others are of interest only to developers.

Firstly the player rankings and the scores required to achieve each rank. Is this listed anywhere on the wiki?

Similarly, the governments and their ranking in terms of relative safety. I know I've asked for (and recieved) this info just recently so I know where to find it, but would it also be worth putting this list up on the wiki for new players?

Incidentally, do the inhabitants of a system have any bearing on the safety of a system? For example, all other system variables being equal, would a human colonial populated system be necessarily more dangerous than a rodent populated system?

Bugbear wrote:

Hi all,
I could be dumb / lazy here but I've found it suprisingly difficult to locate 'official' sources of information for what is admittedly basic game info. Some of it is relevant to players and developers alike, others are of interest only to developers.

Firstly the player rankings and the scores required to achieve each rank. Is this listed anywhere on the wiki?

Yes, on the  Elite Rating page.

Bugbear wrote:

Similarly, the governments and their ranking in terms of relative safety. I know I've asked for (and recieved) this info just recently so I know where to find it, but would it also be worth putting this list up on the wiki for new players?

The  Powers and Organisations page contains descriptions of Governments and their relative safety (among other organisations).

Bugbear wrote:

Incidentally, do the inhabitants of a system have any bearing on the safety of a system? For example, all other system variables being equal, would a human colonial populated system be necessarily more dangerous than a rodent populated system?

I believe that the inhabitants of a system is basically ambience and has no bearing on the safety of a system. Though it might be an interesting idea to create such a factor somehow in an OXP...?

You know, a lot of it is in the Ship's Manual add-on for Ship Library, so you can find it in-game too.

The information is also completely available on the Oolite Reference Sheet (page 3, both), which (I believe) is nowadays even shipped together with the game. Thus it shouldn't be hard to come by.

Ranthe wrote:

Bugbear wrote:

<...snip...>
Firstly the player rankings and the scores required to achieve each rank. Is this listed anywhere on the wiki?

Yes, on the  Elite Rating page.

Thank you

Ranthe wrote:

Bugbear wrote:

Similarly, the governments and their ranking in terms of relative safety. <...snip...>

The  Powers and Organisations page contains descriptions of Governments and their relative safety (among other organisations).

and again, Thank you

Ranthe wrote:

I believe that the inhabitants of a system is basically ambience and has no bearing on the safety of a system. Though it might be an interesting idea to create such a factor somehow in an OXP...?

In an ideal world, I'd love to see AI modifiers to reflect the different behaviours of each species so that an experienced pilot could tell whether they are observing a feline vs a frog vs a lobstoid.

I'd expect felines to stalk their prey alone, or if they aren't hunting, be totally oblivious to the player (i.e. they are napping but with one eye open...). That's been my experience of domestic cats. Then again we could take the example of lions that do hunt cooperatively in packs...

Avian pilots could be skittish, following the example of your typical city pigeons. They would scatter or take evasive as soon as you mass lock on their six. Alternatively, you can model the avians on the eagle, that swoops in for the kill - could that explain the kamikaze Fer de Lance that screams in on injectors?

Not sure yet what to make of the frogs or the lobsters. With the frogs, we could let our imagination run wild with the way that they project their tongues to catch their prey. Perhaps frogs have a penchant for using missiles?

Oh well...modifying AI is way beyond my abilities at this point in time...

Bugbear wrote:

In an ideal world, I'd love to see AI modifiers to reflect the different behaviours of each species so that an experienced pilot could tell whether they are observing a feline vs a frog vs a lobstoid.

That would assume that e.g. all felines (the Harmless Furry Felines, the Fierce Black Bony Felines, and all the rest) were part of the same species, and with the same cultural behaviours as well ...

Given that not all human beings from the same society (or from the same city, street, or family) will respond in the same way to a given event, I don't think it would add anything to make large generalisations about intelligent alien individuals: that sort of thing is very lazy Star Trek-esque "all [species X] are [behaviour Y]" stuff. Just because an alien race might be descended from a feline progenitor doesn't mean that they all have to behave like some form of Earth cat: we're descended from monkeys, but I honestly can't remember the last time I threw my faeces at anybody ...

Disembodied wrote:

... we're descended from monkeys, but I honestly can't remember the last time I threw my faeces at anybody ...

I'll pay that!!