Oolite Bulletins

Some unrelated thoughts I had recently playing Oolite:

1. We players are very lucky since every time we use an escape pod there seems to be no ship in the vicinity scooping our pod up and selling us into slavery ...

2. In original Elite every ship has a number of crew men stated in the original flying manual, e. g. the Cobra Mk III 1-2, the Python 20-30, the Boa 15-28 and the Anaconda 40-72 (all numbers vom the Elite (Classic) Wiki). This is reasonable considering the size of these ships. In Oolite this seems to be of no importance (even no entry in the Oolite Wiki). Maybe it is possible to add a kind of "pay day" for wages if you fly a bigger ship having more than one crew man.

Lanx wrote:

Some unrelated thoughts I had recently playing Oolite:

1. We players are very lucky since every time we use an escape pod there seems to be no ship in the vicinity scooping our pod up and selling us into slavery ...

2. In original Elite every ship has a number of crew men stated in the original flying manual, e. g. the Cobra Mk III 1-2, the Python 20-30, the Boa 15-28 and the Anaconda 40-72 (all numbers vom the Elite (Classic) Wiki). This is reasonable considering the size of these ships. In Oolite this seems to be of no importance (even no entry in the Oolite Wiki). Maybe it is possible to add a kind of "pay day" for wages if you fly a bigger ship having more than one crew man.

I like both ideas!

Lanx wrote:

Some unrelated thoughts I had recently playing Oolite:

1. We players are very lucky since every time we use an escape pod there seems to be no ship in the vicinity scooping our pod up and selling us into slavery ...

I mean, i think this should be enhanced:

a) you may be paid more than regolar slave price by insurance company
b) we should have a chance to get in trouble after escape

Maybe it is possible to add a kind of "pay day" for wages if you fly a bigger ship having more than one crew man.

Nah, you just let back-pay accumulate until the next time you have to use the escape pod thats no bigger for an anaconda than it was for a cobra...

In that case you get an anacondaful of people on your heels

1. We players are very lucky since every time we use an escape pod there seems to be no ship in the vicinity scooping our pod up and selling us into slavery ...

Giles is working on more interaction on this point, so sit tight, but i guess getting enslaved isn't in his tada list

it would be a fun little minigame though, a nervous unarmed dash in the pod to reach safety. enslavement would be a fate like death.

unless you're sold as an "entertainment" slave to some beautiful woman despot..


I think i remember reading in the FE2 (or was it FFE?) manual that the escape capsule was installed over the ship's command and control bridge. I think it specified that only one person (the commander) was to use it since he would be in the control seat anyways.

It would probably be interesting to have a set of escape capsules or boats on a ship that release once the abandon ship command is given. This makes sense given the FE2 description, but in good old Elite unless you're Jabba the Hut, how do you justify 1 TON of slaves if it's only one person in it?

EAGLE 5 wrote:

I think i remember reading in the FE2 (or was it FFE?) manual that the escape capsule was installed over the ship's command and control bridge. I think it specified that only one person (the commander) was to use it since he would be in the control seat anyways.

It was in the original manual as well:

"THE BRIDGE has seats for pilot and co-pilot, a MedStim Center, entrance to the escape pod, descent well to living quarters, communications console, special suit locker, RemLock supply case, attachment facilities for AutoDock System and a hand-weapons locker. The main wall is occupied by the scanner screen, astrogation console and main systems monitors."

ArkanoiD wrote:

I mean, i think this should be enhanced:

a) you may be paid more than regolar slave price by insurance company)

Wasn't there in some version of Elite (don't remember which) a "lawful" rating and a "criminal" one too? If you had enough rating you could do more complex/better_paying lawful or climinal missions or something.

Returning escape pods and slaves to law enforcement OR to criminal organizations (accessed when docked via F4 pressed once or twice) could modify one of these ratings... and with a high enough rating the player could have the option to do more kinds of missions for the cops or the mafia...

Getting extra $ for returning escape pods is in aegidian's TODO.

EAGLE 5 wrote:

how do you justify 1 TON of slaves if it's only one person in it?

Life support systems.

A complete escape pod with life support, rations, water recycling, engines and fuel in only 1 tonne is pretty silly. Should be five at least.

but cramming it into one Cubic Tonne Unit to have it occupy exactly as much space in a cargo bay as 1t food is brill reasoning to me

…a cubic tonne?

*stabbitystabbitykill*

someone needs to be set free from the old dogmas..