First experiences / difficulties

[spara]

The player could receive a message about NPC equipment being damaged.

But not in the core game imho. The current internal equipments mean damages are not detectable from outside, as an important info what every commander would like to keep in secret.

The message can be vague, like "You hit something critical". The nicest, IMHO, would be a visual hit effect, a flash or something, when equipment gets damaged. It would add some excitement: "I hope, it was the injectors", but it would not really give away too much information.

Overall I think that if the player is not given any feedback on hitting equipment, then implementing NPC equipment getting damage is not worth it. It's way too subtle to be noticeable by the player and as such does not add to the game.

[Diziet Sma]

Overall I think that if the player is not given any feedback on hitting equipment, then implementing NPC equipment getting damage is not worth it. It's way too subtle to be noticeable by the player and as such does not add to the game.

I'd disagree.. regardless of feedback (which I'd prefer to not get) the chance of taking out the NPCs injectors or ECM is worthwhile.. the player may or may not notice, but it would definitely make some difference in combat, and therefore does add to the game.

[spara]

Overall I think that if the player is not given any feedback on hitting equipment, then implementing NPC equipment getting damage is not worth it. It's way too subtle to be noticeable by the player and as such does not add to the game.

I'd disagree.. regardless of feedback (which I'd prefer to not get) the chance of taking out the NPCs injectors or ECM is worthwhile.. the player may or may not notice, but it would definitely make some difference in combat, and therefore does add to the game.

Just for the record. I'm not advocating for full blown hit diagram here, I was just throwing in some possibilities of making damageable NPC equipment to be more visible to the player. But I would definitely favor something as subtle as a different colored flasher when I hit something critical. I think it would add to the excitement in the heat of the battle. And now to think about it, a possibility to knock out enemy ECM system would make those standard missiles a bit more useful.

[Fritz]

I think, a kind of indicator of how the enemy ship is doing (% energy left), perhaps included in the crosshairs, would prevent new players from getting the impression that NPC ships are immune to the weaker lasers (that's what happened to me). But it would also be a bit unrealistic, as the remaining energy data is something every pilot would keep a secret. So I have no strong opinion about this. But if somebody decides to include it, it should be part of the standard game because a newbie wouldn't install an OXP and he couldn't afford it as a special piece of equipment.

By the way, meanwhile I'm "average" and not far from "above average".

I learned some strategies for different attack scenarios, and if I'm careful and watching my shields I can usually survive attacks and even destroy some or all of the attackers (4 "kills" in one combat without losing cargo or equipment is my personal best). And meanwhile I know when it is better to run away...

I noticed that in certain situations long distance fire after very careful aiming _can_ be effective. Many NPC ships in "attack mode" don't change direction when they are hit, and they stick to their head-on tactics. They do turn away at the last moment when they are almost destroyed but they usually only have time for this this if my laser has gotten too hot. This behaviour may seem a bit unrealistic, but if I think about it, I don't attack single ships very differently. If I move when being hit, I'll lose my aim, and the same should be true for NPC ships. I try to "empty" my laser and I only turn away when the shields are gone or the laser is overheated.

I don't see how an Thargoid encounter can be survivable on Oolite!

I keep long distance and hit motherships from far before tharglets surround me, then run away and repeat.

So they don't recharge their energy banks or do it very slowly?

I did meet Thargoids again, this time near a planet. I did manage to survive for some time and had time to try to figure out a strategy, but it is very difficult. They seem to be able to fire in all directions (turrets?) and the only thing I could do was to prevent both shields from completely breaking down. I finally did manage to hit the base ship very intensely, and as a reaction it released more Thargons, but I don't know if that was a sign for near fatal damage (here I'm missing an energy indicator again!). Anyway, this attack ruined what remained of my front shields and energy banks, and the additional Thargons were at least one too many...

[Cody]

Thing with Thargoids is when you splash the warship (mothership), the drones go inactive soon after.
I go in fast (on injectors if I have the fuel), and take the warship out up-close - and they are big!

[Smivs]

(here I'm missing an energy indicator again!).

It's hard to see how your ship could detect the energy levels of other ships so an indicator wouldn't really make sense to my mind. And anyway, if you could do it, so could they - do you really want your enemy to know how nearly dead you are.
(Remember Oolite, unlike Elite, is deliberately NOT player-centric wherever possible.)

[cim]

It's hard to see how your ship could detect the energy levels of other ships

There are various indicators already.

As their energy goes down the laser hits will go from energy glows on their hull to small sparks flying off. As it goes down further their engine trails will start to flicker quite a lot. Also at low energy you'll get small balls of plasma leaking out and flying off.

Mostly things you'll only pick up on up close - and quite subtle if you don't know what you're looking for - but definitely there.

and as a reaction it released more Thargons, but I don't know if that was a sign for near fatal damage

Yes - or at least severe damage. A full military laser blast from cold to overheating will kill them - if you get every shot on target. If you miss you'll probably need a second laser.

[Norby]

I don't know if that was a sign for near fatal damage

If you would like "review" a battle then [wiki]LogEvents[/wiki] put many data into your Latest.log.

[Cody]

Mostly things you'll only pick up on up close...

<nods> Ahh yes, the joys of close quarters combat - like explosions!

[Norby]

Mostly things you'll only pick up on up close

[wiki]CombatMFD[/wiki] can help to detect the eninge plume changes from far: Damaged and Weak words will be displayed in sync with these visual effects.

In my HUDs (like Large HUD in [wiki]HUDSelector[/wiki]) these words are shown near the crosshairs also, useful when a heated combat cause tunnel vision.

[Cody]

Something to consider with hud/sights/ordnance OXPs that aid the player in combat is do NPCs have that aid too?

[Fritz]

I'll just warm up my original thread since the topic still kind of fits.

Since my first experiences I've played Oolite regularly and meanwhile I'm 'dangerous' and my initial difficulties in fighting are a thing of the past. I have two military lasers and shield boosters, and now the fighting balance seems more like the original Elite I was used to.

Being a software developer I of course started to tinker with some OXPs. I've seen that there is a tinker thread in this forum, perhaps I'll present my modifications there.

Because fighting and normal trading is becoming routine I started to look at the contracts. And, to be honest, I don't understand the point of it. I didn't find any manual or documentation, so I'll just describe my problems here:

The fist problem is that I'm apparently not experienced enough for many contracts. As I said, I have been 'dangerous' for some time. Do I have to be 'deadly' or 'elite' before I have the opportunity to get a contract that earns more than about 500 Cr.? Or do I have to earn a kind of 'parcel experience' and/or 'passenger experience' by taking low paying contracts? If yes, there should be some information about my current status!

The more serious problem seems to be the amount of money that can be earned.

The first contract I took was carrying an unimportant parcel over about 20 LY for something like 9.50 Cr. I accepted the contract only because I wanted to see what would happen and because I wanted to go in the direction anyhow. I hoped that something interesting or motivating would happen during or after the trip, but I got my money and nothing else changed. Two other parcel contracts turned out the same way.

Where I am at the moment, the highest paying parcel contract is 432 Cr, and it involves crossing most of the galaxy. It is only a small fraction of the money I could make on the journey anyway with trading, bounties and scooping freight containers.

I don't think I'm the victim of a bug, but I have the feeling that the fees are about two orders of magnitude too low. You don't think about 9.50, 95 or 432 Cr if you have more than 50000 Cr on your bank account. 950 Cr instead of 9.50 would probably be worth the effort if the trip isn't too long, but it is still less than can be made on a short cargo run with a load of 30 t computers. I know, it's only a game, but it still seems wrong, especially if the only reward is a short message after docking!

The same problem, even worse, exists with the passenger contracts. The fees for flying somebody across the galaxy seem too low, and we have the additional problem of needing a passenger cabin. Why should I reduce my valuable cargo space by 5 t, only to be able to carry passengers paying me much less than the lost cargo space would earn on a trip of the same length? What is my reward other than a message like "X pays you 756 Cr."? Apart from this, I could carry 35 passengers in slave containers!

Cargo contracts are uninteresting for me at the moment since I can't afford a big freighter (and If I could I probably wouldn't want to fly it!). But the fees also seem too low compared to what could be earned with normal trading. Example: 50 t food over about 5 jumps. I would have to pay 180 Cr to get the contract and (I assume) the cargo, but the market price at the current system is 2.30 Cr, that would be an investment of 115 Cr with normal trading. I would get paid 300 Cr on delivery, 6 Cr per tonne. This is more than the average food price on the destination planet but it is lower than the food price on some other planets. So, from a traders viewpoint, the whole trip would be a waste of time and money, and it would be better to burn the contract and sell the food on some other planet!

To put it short, the whole contract thing seems to be a complex way to lose money or, in the best case, to earn small amounts of additional money. But probably I've overlooked something...

[Cody]

For parcel contracts (and with the others), you gotta earn rep. Start modest, and slowly the lucrative contracts will appear.
For example, I'm currently running this lot across the seventh octant - value over 90k, plus a few bonuses on top (I hope).

[phkb]

Cody, can I ask what OXP is adding the "Courier Rank: Elite" to your manifest screen?

[Cody]

Cody, can I ask what OXP is adding the "Courier Rank: Elite" to your manifest screen?

That's a heavily-butchered version of  Display Reputation, by McLane.


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