Oolite Bulletins

Just to be nosey...
What are you flying at the moment and what (if anything) do you plan to trade it in for?

I'm currently running a Cobra Mark III-XT which I love but am considering swapping it for a Griffin Mk II.

My bounty hunter flies a Pitviper SE.
My pirate flies a Cobra MkIII.
My smuggler flies a Falcon S.

No plans to change any of them.

My current ship is the Boa Clipper 'Bilbo Maru'. No plans to change it although I do miss the fun of my old Python the 'Fatal Attraction'. She was a real pirate magnet and was loads of fun whereas the Clipper is a bit uber and life is therefore a bit too easy.
No 2 Commander flies a Cobra III and will not be changing it.

Real gameplay: An Ophidian used for cargo hauling across the galaxy. Not intending to change in the near future. Compared to the former cobra3 still a good compromise between lack of speed and increased cargo capacity.
Other than that, any ship I'm currently working on and will work on next

That's her along the margin of the post, in my icon, as bold and brassy as can be! A Cobra II, ~The Witchspace Wench~!

Modified from the original X-ships to bring her into balance with her size (i.e., cargo hold's been chopped to three tons from the original twelve, missile pylons removed, etc. -- she's sized as an interceptor and should have the stats of one.) and given a custom paint-job. No plans to 'upgrade' to any others ships with that commander.

Would Han Solo sell the Falcon for something newer?

My favourite medium-sized ship is the Boa Cruiser; reasonably fast, tough as old boots. But you tend to get into a bit of a rut with it, so I've been playing around with the DTT Planet Express Ship lately - cheap as chips, incredibly fast and agile, a bit fragile until you get some serious upgrades but great fun to fly.

Military Manta Ray, best player ship from Aquatics OXP:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Manta_Ray
Small like an Adder and thus tough to hit, for NPCs even. Its turrets are incredibly helpful in disposing of the general Asp Mark II and Fer de Lance pirates & assassins. There will also be very annoying Shark and Barracuda assassins & pirates though. Even the turrets don't manage to hit those much as they're spinning around like hell. The OXP is well balanced. Haven't seen the military version in the hands of assassins or pirates though, only the police has it occasionally. Need to take precious metal contracts continuously to not lose the reputation, and take care like hell to not let platinum/gold cargo be destroyed.

I did like the Manta Ray, but found the player version to weak for me. Somehow i overlooked the military version.

I looked into shipdata.plist, found the aquatics_milMantaRay-player .
It appears to have a forward AND an aft turret, range 7500 and weapon_energy 25 .
My current ship, the ferdelance3G+(t) has 2 forward turrets, range 6000 / weapon_energy 12, so the Military Manta Ray has more support firepower.

I have been searching for a suitable ship with lower energy_recharge to test naval grid next in my normal game, looks like i found one.

Thanks for the tip , Anonymissimus.

The one and only late model Cobra Mk. III. As you can see, she's been around the octants quite a few times.

CaptSolo wrote:

The one and only late model Cobra Mk. III.

Late-model, early-model, original model - the Cobra Mk III is such a beautiful ship. Only the Python comes near it for looks/lines!

Lone_Wolf wrote:

It appears to have a forward AND an aft turret, range 7500 and weapon_energy 25 .
My current ship, the ferdelance3G+(t) has 2 forward turrets, range 6000 / weapon_energy 12, so the Military Manta Ray has more support firepower.

The turrets are at port and starboard.

Cody wrote:

CaptSolo wrote:

The one and only late model Cobra Mk. III.

Late-model, early-model, original model - the Cobra Mk III is such a beautiful ship. Only the Python comes near it for looks/lines!

I've always found she looks clumsy, has got sharp edges and is just way too large (easy to hit). And appears way too frequent in one form or another, including all the siblings and "nice upgrades".

Anonymissimus wrote:

I've always found she looks clumsy, has got sharp edges and is just way too large (easy to hit). And appears way too frequent in one form or another, including all the siblings and "nice upgrades".

It lacks a certain élan, which is to say, either grace and panache, or a moose, depending on your language.

As many defenders as the Cobra III has, I think none would disagree that it has very little moose in it.

*eyebrow waggle*

My current ship is the Gertrude Obalitz an Omega class Cadeceus.
I have no immediate plans of replacing her. Made quite a few mods to her over the years.
I also keep an Iron Ass Super Cobra that I bought years ago for an outrageous price.
I keep that in an Anarchy system for short bursts of mayhem fun.
Launch, shoot up the station then the seedy bar. Let the fun ensue..
Very good practice for pirate encounters in the 'real' game.

Since about 5 days I'm flying a "Python Gunship" named "Polaris" coming out of a little OXP I made. As I mentioned somewhere already, it is a "military" Python with reduced cargo space (75t), the lost 25 t used for stronger engines giving it the top speed of a Cobra Mk III (but not its maneuverability). Of course it is heavily armoured, and currently it is fitted with 3 passenger cabins. It enables me to do trading, contracts, pirate hunting and/or Thargoid fighting, so I can do what I want (depending on my current mood) without having to maintain more than one commander.

I'm thinking about giving it a new paint job, but I'll probably stick to it for a while, at least until I'm able to make a new model one day. I think the Python has the most realistic design of the bigger ships in the core game - if anything in Oolite can be called realistic. The Cobra Mk. III surely looks good, but nobody would build a ship with these proportions, wider than long, making docking more difficult and maximizing the hit area for the enemy when attacking!

My current impression is that without adding dangerous OXP enemies, a player ship shouldn't be much better than my Polaris (or, let's say, a Cobra Mk. III fitted with 2 military lasers and military shield boosters), or otherwise the game would become too easy.

Just started up a new Jameson, so just a Cobra Mk. I right now. Planning to get some basic mining equipment fitted ASAP, and maybe over the next couple weeks (I can't play that often) work up to a Bug. I love that little ship!