Oolite Bulletins

I might be getting ahead of myself looking for latergame stuff when I'm still flying a secondhand python (kudos to spara for the alternate start oxp), but I've been looking around and it seems that the only player purchasable big ships are all warships. I'm a little curious about this, is there some sort of limitation that's prevented a playable superfreighter? Or am I just the only person loopy enough to fly something so pointlessly big (especially considering the anacondas hyperspace cargo hold :p)?

Why do my posts always come across as whiny to myself? :/

The main reason has always been that they are too big to dock, which is obviously a problem.
Various ways around this have been found, but so far none have appeared in-game for various reasons.

Takahashi_Yuuki wrote:

Why do my posts always come across as whiny to myself? :/

MAYBE! You need a more assertive font! ;D

Layne wrote:

Takahashi_Yuuki wrote:

Why do my posts always come across as whiny to myself? :/

MAYBE! You need a more assertive font! ;D

This made me laugh.

Smivs wrote:

The main reason has always been that they are too big to dock, which is obviously a problem.
Various ways around this have been found, but so far none have appeared in-game for various reasons.

I think one of the more obvious reasons is that massive cargo space in the realm of 2000T is mostly overkill. In any case, I'm probably going to take a look at how to work with OXPs and see if I can't cobble a working ship out of one of ADCKs Bulk Haulers from that OXP, though I suspect it's nowhere near as simple as I'm hoping.

Takahashi_Yuuki wrote:

I think one of the more obvious reasons is that massive cargo space in the realm of 2000T is mostly overkill. In any case, I'm probably going to take a look at how to work with OXPs and see if I can't cobble a working ship out of one of ADCKs Bulk Haulers from that OXP, though I suspect it's nowhere near as simple as I'm hoping.

I also believe the economic model for Oolite isn't geared around trading in massive bulk. There's no price suppression when huge supplies flood the market, and no inflation of prices at the source when an entire system's worth of commodity is purchased. And really, once you're trading in such gigantic amounts, all the extra money becomes pointless. You'll be able to buy every ship upgrade within a very short time and then there's nothing much left to work towards. A ship that big should also be so bad at maneuvering that you'd have to rely on escorts, of which there are only a few oxps that supply. This is on top of the docking problem Smivs already mentioned.
My personal take on the physics of it is that there might (in-universe) be a mass limit on the size of a ship that can pass through Witchspace. Smaller traders are the norm because that's the only way to move goods about. (Obviously the Thargoids probably have this problem cracked and can use larger ships in Witchspace.) Of course, this is purely my own personal headcanon. It's the same reason I mentally believe the geometric shapes of the ships are calculated deliberately as part of the geometry that enables them to pass through Witchspace. Ships /have/ to look like wedges and triangles or the angles don't properly align for Witchspace travel. (This outlook is heavily influenced by the horror writings of Lovecraft and O. Onions; geometry matters. ) Anyhow, none of that is in the slightest way official, it's just my own take on the game universe.

Welcome here!

Takahashi_Yuuki wrote:

is there some sort of limitation that's prevented a playable superfreighter?

As you will see there is not so much limit here, mainly we use the common sense to avoid extreme mistakes. It is your decision if a really big ship with 1000t cargo, 50ly fuel and an alternative docking method using cargoships is serve your needs or too good to use.

Note a big ship is an easy target, so if you think a large is ship is a great help in gameplay then be ready for fighting against pirates with handicap, which is fun imho and nowadays can be compensated with escorts.

P.S. There is an even more extreme "ship" with 5000t cargo here.

The Andromeda is pretty gross - 1000 tons cargo, and internal fuel tanks for 50 LY worth of refuelling. Also 16 missiles, and can get into Witch Space unusually fast. It solves the docking problem by having a big cargo pod that docks while the ship presumably hovers outside the station. But it's a bit slow in normal space, and not really much fun because you can almost always jump away from problems on injectors without running out of fuel, repeated jumps without stopping to refuel make long cargo runs trivial (and reduce misjumps to a minor waste of time), and it's difficult to find enough worthwhile cargo to fill the holds and/or make things interesting. Yours for a mere million credits or so...

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Andromeda

later - sorry, I somehow missed noticing the last post also linked to the Andromeda.

I imagine ships of this type are solely used for large bulk contracts issued by large corporations and governments. While the currently playable trade ships are used for freelance work and package delivery a la UPS. But I personally don't mind if most of the cargo space is going to waste, you could say that I'm the fisherman that looks longingly at the oil tankers that go by.

But in more interesting news, I found this while fiddling about with making bulk carriers buy-able and wondered if anyone had thought of making a cockpit effect via clever camera placement.

My modified cargo contracts OXZ only goes up to about 700 TC size each. But you can have more than 1 started at once, so even a superfreighter might max out given enough of them.

Takahashi_Yuuki wrote:

But in more interesting news, I found this while fiddling about with making bulk carriers buy-able and wondered if anyone had thought of making a cockpit effect via clever camera placement.

Actually, yes, I found just such an arrangement in the old oxp Aegidian's X-Ships, on the Cobra 2-- the rear view is up top and with a bit of the back engines visible, and port/starboard views have a bit of wing visible in either case. I find it quite nice, myself, gives me a sense of scale and a bit of feeling of 'being there'. Not for everyone, I'm sure, but it suits me.

Takahashi_Yuuki wrote:

In any case, I'm probably going to take a look at how to work with OXPs and see if I can't cobble a working ship out of one of ADCKs Bulk Haulers from that OXP, though I suspect it's nowhere near as simple as I'm hoping.

I've cobbled together a player flyable Behemoth.. can give you a download link if you like, so you can see what I did. (the external views were the trickiest bit)

It can be launched from a station.. but once launched, you won't be able to dock it. And it handles like a waterlogged brick. Kinda fun to mess around with for a bit, though.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Takahashi_Yuuki wrote:

In any case, I'm probably going to take a look at how to work with OXPs and see if I can't cobble a working ship out of one of ADCKs Bulk Haulers from that OXP, though I suspect it's nowhere near as simple as I'm hoping.

I've cobbled together a player flyable Behemoth.. can give you a download link if you like, so you can see what I did. (the external views were the trickiest bit)

It can be launched from a station.. but once launched, you won't be able to dock it. And it handles like a waterlogged brick. Kinda fun to mess around with for a bit, though.

Would be helpful, the external views are a big issue for me as I've no idea how to get them to work. But aside from some trouble getting the Long range cruiser to show up in the shop and the issue of pricing and preinstalled gear, I'm mostly done.* And I've sidestepped the docking issue by simply landing on the planet itself.


*Unless I feel like going through a ton of effort to make the lynx work like a normal ship.

A Behemoth might be able to dock at a Superhub at least, but those are only found at TL 14 and 15 systems.

Switeck wrote:

A Behemoth might be able to dock at a Superhub at least, but those are only found at TL 14 and 15 systems.

I hadn't thought of that.. might try it some time.

Takahashi_Yuuki wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

I've cobbled together a player flyable Behemoth.. can give you a download link if you like

Would be helpful, the external views are a big issue for me as I've no idea how to get them to work.

You have a PM.