Oolite Bulletins

In my earlier posts here, I lamented how flying wasn't like it is in WC: Privateer. Eventually it occurred to me that I could assign the roll to comma and period and put yaw on the left and right keys, using roll only for the purposes of docking. This has been huuugely helpful, and while I understand that you probably want to remain true to the original Elite and have roll as default on the left and right arrow keys, this should be easily inverted in options for those who don't know about editing property lists.

Glad you got it sorted to your satisfaction, anyway. <grins mischievously> Of course, if I ruled the Ooniverse, I'd do away with yaw!

Cody wrote:

Glad you got it sorted to your satisfaction, anyway. <grins mischievously> Of course, if I ruled the Ooniverse, I'd do away with yaw!

Most space sims have a yaw control. (To my knowledge) all real-world aircraft and watercraft have yaw controls. This is a reasonable thing to have.

Elite was not like most space sims - it had no yaw. The player can use yaw in Oolite, but the core NPCs cannot (unless something has changed recently).

Cody wrote:

Elite was not like most space sims - it had no yaw.

I'm willing to bet this primarily had to do with a) the necessity of docking with stations having artificial gravity and possibly b) software or hardware limitations at that time. In any case, the "canon" is not beyond reproach.

al.khwarizmi wrote:

In any case, the "canon" is not beyond reproach.

Indeed!

Perhaps if the player had to enable yaw, then NPCs could have it enabled too? However, I know that I'm in the minority in supporting equality for NPCs.

Cody wrote:

al.khwarizmi wrote:

In any case, the "canon" is not beyond reproach.

Indeed!

Perhaps if the player had to enable yaw, then NPCs could have it enabled too? However, I know that I'm in the minority in supporting equality for NPCs.

I would say that equality or inequality for NPCs is not simply a matter of what controls are available to them. The ubiquitous Talons in WC: Privateer can even outrun the player ship for a while (unless it's the Centurion maybe, I fly an Orion) but it does them very little good ultimately.

al.khwarizmi wrote:

In my earlier posts here, I lamented how flying wasn't like it is in WC: Privateer. Eventually it occurred to me that I could assign the roll to comma and period and put yaw on the left and right keys, using roll only for the purposes of docking. This has been huuugely helpful, and while I understand that you probably want to remain true to the original Elite and have roll as default on the left and right arrow keys, this should be easily inverted in options for those who don't know about editing property lists.

What we really need is an in-game keyboard config utility to match the in-game joystick config utility.

Cody wrote:

but the core NPCs cannot

NPCs with side lasers will use yaw to line up their shots - but no core NPC has side lasers.

cim wrote:

NPCs with side lasers will use yaw to line up their shots - but no core NPC has side lasers.

That's the condition I couldn't remember. A few OXP ships use it head-on, I think - including the GG, as I recall.

cim wrote:

What we really need is an in-game keyboard config utility to match the in-game joystick config utility.

<nods>

Yaw is very much an in-atmosphere flight control. In a gravity-free vacuum with no horizon, it's redundant: pitch and roll is all you need. There's no difference between yawing to starboard, and rolling 90° to starboard and pitching up (or rolling 90° to port and pitching down).

Disembodied wrote:

There's no difference between yawing to starboard, and rolling 90° to starboard and pitching up

Seems like it would take longer, if the rates are all the same by the time you roll 90° you will have turned 90° using yaw.
OTOH I've played some flight sims and the yaw doesn't really work to steer a plane so I am used to the roll/pitch turning and use it for Oolite.

Stormrider wrote:

Seems like it would take longer, if the rates are all the same by the time you roll 90° you will have turned 90° using yaw.

In Oolite roll and pitch generally have faster turning rates than yaw. So to roll then pitch 90° is probably a little quicker. For smaller changes of direction YMMV.

Diziet Sma wrote:

In Oolite roll and pitch generally have faster turning rates than yaw.

This caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the ED forum. 'Yaw has been nerfed', they cried! 'Yes', said FD, 'that's how we like it!'

Cody wrote:

This caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the ED forum. 'Yaw has been nerfed', they cried! 'Yes', said FD, 'that's how we like it!'

Oh, a tip of the hat to FD for that!

Disembodied wrote:

Oh, a tip of the hat to FD for that!

Indeed - it caused me much mirth! In ED, Yaw is really only useful for fine adjustment of aim, or during docking perhaps - pitch and roll rules!