Oolite Bulletins

The most effective way of making money seem to be the precious metals cargo contracts. It's quite possible (actually, easy as it's enough to rebuy the cargo at the target planet ) to work up the cargo reputation with 35TC cargo space, but I don't think I've seen a cargo contract with less than 30TC, so that seems to be the minimum cargo space required.
Let's assume I come from an Adder or a Cobra 1. Can you recommend me a (OXP trader ship with at least 35TC (and doesn't need much more) that's cheaper than a Cobra 3 (and has worse stats otherwise, to balance it) ?
Once the cargo reputation is at max, a fighter ship with little to no cargo space is enough to keep the cargo reputation. (It was close several times when I tried, violated a few contracts, but I recovered )

According to this list (http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Expens ... 8Oolite%29) you've got two options at Cobra Mk III cost or under: the Griff Boa or the Z-ships Porcupine. Hope that helps.

Griff Boa is expensive (price in the list seems outdatet) and Porcupine costs 150k as well. Cobra 3 seems the better option. Or one of its "siblings" at the same price.
Looks like this is a gap in the market ? A small clumsy cheap frighter with 35TC.

Anonymissimus wrote:

OXP trader ship with at least 35TC that's cheaper than a Cobra 3 (and has worse stats otherwise, to balance it) ?

How about [wiki]Miner Cobra[/wiki] for 107.000?

Planet Express ship - cheap at 100K credits (I traded a not particularly well equipped Cobra III and got change) and VERY fast, 45 tons if you fit the hold expansion.

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/D.T.T. ... ip_Designs

later - forgot to say it's 30 tons without the hold expansion, so you need to prioritize that.

phkb wrote:

According to this list (http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Expens ... 8Oolite%29) you've got two options at Cobra Mk III cost or under: the Griff Boa or the Z-ships Porcupine. Hope that helps.

I note that the D.T.T. ships aren't in that list, guess I'll have to add them..

Edit: Damn.. it has that bloody alternating coloured lines thing going on.. what a royal PITA that makes it to update. It was a pain on the OXP List, too, before it was ditched. Think I'll get rid of it on this list while I'm at it.

Edit 2: Done.. now there's only the Alphabetical, Cargo Capacity, Max Speed and Size lists to go!

ffutures wrote:

Planet Express ship - cheap at 100K credits (I traded a not particularly well equipped Cobra III and got change) and VERY fast, 45 tons if you fit the hold expansion.

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/D.T.T. ... ip_Designs

later - forgot to say it's 30 tons without the hold expansion, so you need to prioritize that.

The smaller version of  D.T.T.'s Heavy Metal Freight Hauler is the same base price as a Cobra MkIII (150K), and carries 50 TC as standard.

Two useful suggestions. However, they look a little unbalanced.
For the minor cobra, I suggest to also reduce speed ("less room for the engines due to cargo space"), as none of the other properties hurt that much. Not because it's annoying to wait until you're out of masslock range, but since it determines whether you can outrun attackers, with or without injectors. Maybe 0.30 so almost all pirates can keep up with it.

And the express ship has that good cost/speed/cargo that its energy/shield/weapon should be about as bad as the Adder's.

Anonymissimus wrote:

Two useful suggestions. However, they look a little unbalanced.
For the minor cobra, I suggest to also reduce speed ("less room for the engines due to cargo space"), as none of the other properties hurt that much. Not because it's annoying to wait until you're out of masslock range, but since it determines whether you can outrun attackers, with or without injectors. Maybe 0.30 so almost all pirates can keep up with it.

And the express ship has that good cost/speed/cargo that its energy/shield/weapon should be about as bad as the Adder's.

Well.. that's basically just your opinion of how things "should" be. The people who created them like them fine just the way they are.. but feel free to tweak your own copies to the way you want them.. that's kind of the point of Oolite, after all. And if you do, you're welcome to post your changes to the tweaking thread.

Just looked at that list. One thing that would be really useful on it (and on ship descriptions generally) is the cost and size of any cargo expansion, since it has a huge bearing on how profitable the ship can be.

ffutures wrote:

Just looked at that list. One thing that would be really useful on it (and on ship descriptions generally) is the cost and size of any cargo expansion, since it has a huge bearing on how profitable the ship can be.

That would be quite a project.. before putting it up there, you'd basically have to examine the equipment.plist for every individual ship, and extract the information. Feel free to take a crack at it, we don't have enough dedicated wiki maintainers.. I do some here and there when I'm in the mood, but it's a huge job.

That reminds me.. I see that the 1.82 release has yet to be added to the Wikipedia entry for Oolite. Guess it's time I got on it.

Edit: Wikipedia entry updated.

Trouble is I wouldn't know where to start looking. I was hoping there might be some sort of master list or something.

If there's a template for ship entries on the Wiki could this be added? Then at least new designs should say.

ffutures wrote:

I was hoping there might be some sort of master list or something.

The problem with master lists is, somebody has to make them.. and keep them up to date. So far no-one has stepped forward to make one.. most wiki work is done on a very ad-hoc basis.

ffutures wrote:

If there's a template for ship entries on the Wiki could this be added? Then at least new designs should say.

There are no templates that I'm aware of.. Maik might know.