Oolite Bulletins

Just a quick query: I have recently developed a love for the aft laser, plus craft don't seem to duck as much if you are hammering them while they are on your tail. however, I cannot get my fingers around the port or starboards. I suspect that this is just acase of practice, I was wondering if anyone has managed to put either of these to good use with any degree of reliability? My coordination is so poor that I more or less have to hope ships cruise in front of my stationary crosshairs.

I've never been able to use them either. I've always wished there were top or bottom laser mounts. The roll-pitch combination would make them uniquely controllable.

I've got a military laser front and aft, but a top or bottom mounted mining laser would be very welcome.

I'm by no means a crack shot out the side window, but keeping in mind that your fingers are still navigating according to forward travel, viewed in your mind's eye, (and half an eye at the radar) it's possible to get a grip on the technique. Doing space profile photography was my oportunity for practice, but pulling up next to a victim and delivering a precise, heavy broadside with the plasma cannons is very satisfying..

Murgh wrote:

...but pulling up next to a victim and delivering a precise, heavy broadside with the plasma cannons is very satisfying..

.....hhahhhhahhhaaa... "take that yer scum!"... hahahaahhhaaa

Odo987 wrote:

I've never been able to use them either. I've always wished there were top or bottom laser mounts. The roll-pitch combination would make them uniquely controllable.

I've got a military laser front and aft, but a top or bottom mounted mining laser would be very welcome.

bottom mounted laser! would be great for passes over a mothership. That and a bottom viewport for scooping cargo, with a miniview on the gui.... hmmm

My ship on the C64 had a mining laser on one of the side mounts. Asteroids don't move very fast and I wasn't using that mount for an offensive weapon, so no loss either way.

I have a mining laser on each side of my ship. It takes ages to line up a good shot on a moving target, so I never use them for combat. Maybe the controls for the port and starboard views should be changed.

I am with Odo987 : Lasers should be top and bottom. In this case, they would really become very usefull.

Maybe in the OXP should there be an option to tell where should be the laser mounting (and thus which direction we should look at with the F1 to F4 keys)

I personally feel the controls should adjust for viewing direction (although side shots would still be somewhat confusing as the pitch and roll rates would effectively be swapped). That said, a cheat of sorts is to rotate a mouse or joystick appropriately… possibly the one situation where the ol’ Apple Puckmouse would be superiour. Pity mine’s broken.

flap wrote:

I am with Odo987 : Lasers should be top and bottom. In this case, they would really become very usefull.

Maybe in the OXP should there be an option to tell where should be the laser mounting (and thus which direction we should look at with the F1 to F4 keys)

The view directions can be changed in the code, in Universe.m:drawFromEntity, view_dir.x ,y ,z but totally bottom doesn't work ((it's all black with a clear pixel in the middle) is there a part of ship in front?) but if you set say... .z=-1 and .y=0.577 you could see at 30 deg "front-down".
But i guess the weapons wouldn't be that easy to change, probably they depend on ship models, no?


Anyways i just thought that a HUD with a viewport looking backwards would be useful in dogfights, and you could have a switch to change it to 30º front-down (or something) to scoop cargo... it could be an upgrade.

The HUD could look something like:
radar, gauges, rear-view
(R) =g= [v]

Couldn't the sidemounts be turrets? You fly the ship with the keyboard and control the turret with the mouse (or vice versa).
In that case, the turrets shouldn't be able to swivel too much, maybe 90° or so.

Lucidor wrote:

Couldn't the sidemounts be turrets? You fly the ship with the keyboard and control the turret with the mouse (or vice versa).
In that case, the turrets shouldn't be able to swivel too much, maybe 90° or so.

I like this idea a lot.

The side mounted lasers are really of little use in actual combat. Yes it is cool to watch plasma cannons, but they are ineffectual.

WWII Flying Fortresses had side gunners IIRC, so why not on an Oolite ship which could be aimed and fired independantly by the Commander from the bridge.

To use this option would mean relinquishing flight controls temporarily in favour of weapon control.

Not sure what the programming implications are though, but food for thought.......

Staying-vaguely-true-to-Elite issues are probably more pertinent. While there are a lot of features I’d like to see in the theoretical space shooter which are not in Oolite, it is necessary to consider whether Oolite is the place for them.

Odo987 wrote:

I've never been able to use them either.

This thread made me revisit them. Actually the port/starboard lasers are acceptable for stationary targets (like asteroids) -- if you have an advanced compass.

Lock onto an asteroid, fly close to it and come to a stop. Change your compass to target your lock. With the asteroid dead ahead pitch up (or down) until the compass changes from green to red. Then switch to the port (or starboard) view and rotate until the asteroid comes into view. It will be dead centered and ready for mining.

I still don't recommend the port/starboard views for combat though.

Ahruman wrote:

Staying-vaguely-true-to-Elite issues are probably more pertinent. While there are a lot of features I’d like to see in the theoretical space shooter which are not in Oolite, it is necessary to consider whether Oolite is the place for them.

I think it is exactly in line with "staying true to Elite", the proposal is basically suggesting better control of aiming with the side weapons, which would make them worth using in combat. In fact it would be far more in line with Elite than perhaps Navigation Beacons, Space lanes, Witch Injectors and the like, which AFIK never appeared in classic Elite. All these new features are enhancements and improvements to the original Elite gameplay and given the choice between "strict" and "enhanced" Oolite, enhanced is a no-brainer.

If it's not a programming nightmare I think it is worthy of serious consideration.