Oolite Bulletins

According to the discussion and the 1.82 changelog, the laser was adjusted in a way that the damage per shot is less and with it the laser temperature increase per shot is also less. This effectively results in the same total damage dealt out until laser overheat but ist has less impact on the laser temperature if you fire a series of missed bursts. Correct?

What I wonder: I frequently come across a Krait or an ASP that survive my attack then fly away on injector. Specially, if the ASP is the second ship I attack with a then already warmed up laser. It's lengthy process to close up on the damaged shop, fire two shots, then see it flee again and so on. If the damage per shot is smaller, this make take even longer?

Is there an OXP that takes the laser power / heat rate back to the old values? There was one in 1.8, that reduced both.

What is the AI change that is mentioned in the changelog? Smarter AI?

ralph_hh wrote:

What is the AI change that is mentioned in the changelog? Smarter AI?

No time right now to scan through the entire 1.82 changelog for the exact changes, but for me, one of the most important AI work done in the latest version is the one discussed here: github pull request #106.

All in all, you're a tad safer with Oolite 1.82 (1.80 was deemed too vicious)! <wanders off, singing a Lou Reed song>

ralph_hh wrote:

If the damage per shot is smaller, this make take even longer?

Yes. The idea behind is that take longer also for a pirate to eliminate the player. There is no such reverse oxp but about the same if you edit the damage value in oolite.app/Resources/Config/equipment.plist after beam laser to 15 and below military laser to 23, then increase the related shot temperatures also.

Alternatively you can get stronger weapons from [wiki]New lasers[/wiki] and [wiki]Laser Cannons[/wiki].

ralph_hh wrote:

What I wonder: I frequently come across a Krait or an ASP that survive my attack then fly away on injector. Specially, if the ASP is the second ship I attack with a then already warmed up laser. It's lengthy process to close up on the damaged shop, fire two shots, then see it flee again and so on. If the damage per shot is smaller, this make take even longer?

In that particular case, where you're really having to work to line up even a single shot, yes, it'll probably take a bit longer. (In that case, assuming you're accurate when you do fire, the mining laser would be the best weapon as its damage-per-shot is massive)

In normal combat, though, especially if you have two or more lasers fitted, it means you don't run into overheating anywhere near as often - switch to the second laser and by the time that one's overheated, the first will be almost cool, rather than still hot. I found since the change that even when fighting a large pack I rarely needed to use the aft laser.

There was some discussion in the 1.82 development thread, if the new patch would make the widely used tactic useless (which is also my standard method): Attack the first ship with the front laser, then turn around, Keep an equal distance to the enemies and pick them apart with the rear laser. Occasionally, if the distance is safe or if there are only two or three left, turn again and finish using the front laser.
You do not use the aft one? It seems a weird idea to go front face into a group of 5, sometimes 10 or more pirates??
Well, I'll see.

Mining laser - an option for the side lasers, but I don't think, I can accurately aim with those.

<shameless plug mode on>
There is also the Laser Mount Switching System that allows you to install two lasers in each position and easily switch between them during flight.
<shameless plug mode off>

ralph_hh wrote:

There was some discussion in the 1.82 development thread, if the new patch would make the widely used tactic useless (which is also my standard method): Attack the first ship with the front laser, then turn around, Keep an equal distance to the enemies and pick them apart with the rear laser. Occasionally, if the distance is safe or if there are only two or three left, turn again and finish using the front laser.

The laser change shouldn't make it any less effective, but if there are ships with injectors in the pack they'll try to disrupt this tactic.

ralph_hh wrote:

You do not use the aft one? It seems a weird idea to go front face into a group of 5, sometimes 10 or more pirates??

With the aiming changes in 1.82, getting up close to the group and dogfighting is probably safer than standing back at a distance. Conversely, since you're not on target constantly, the front laser rarely gets hot enough to need to switch until the "mopping up" stage of the fight.

Seems difficult to believe, but admittedly until I tried, it's a blind man talking about colours here...
In 1.80 in the "save" distance you get attacked by those with military lasers which overheat the same way yours does. With very skilled NPC you have to be very carefull. But: You are indeed save from the rest of the pack that uses beam lasers that do not shoot that far. Getting closer means ALL of the ship firing at you.

I use 1.82 some time now. The experience is... Well...

A dived head on into some groups of pirates as "advised" to do some close combat. Maybe I was a bit too enthusiastic to take on 7 at once, my ship received heavy damage. So I keep my distance with large groups.

The run away and fire from the rear tactic seems to be sabotaged. The erratic constant movement of the ships makes it difficult to aim and the hit you score is now less damage as before. Sometimes takes forever and the ships like an ASP or the Ferdie that turn around and run away at lightspeed are simply annoying. But, ok, it works. Can't say that it is more or less difficult. Just sometimes I takes more time.

On thing to say is misjumps: Don't know, if the Thargoids moving pattern was altered with the new AI. That was difficult before. Spiraling targets that shot from any angle. Difficult to hit. But now my lasers do only half the damage. I had an encounter with two cruisers and some battleships, that lasted endless.

ralph_hh wrote:

I had an encounter with two cruisers and some battleships, that lasted endless.

Those are from OXPs, right? Probably OXPs that were made before the revision of laser damage? If so, they are most likely optimized for the way things worked previously and it should be up to their maintainers to rebalance them, if they so wish.

It seems that you prefer the laser damage levels of previous versions. The good news is that, in 1.82, you can tweak the damage of each laser by editing equipment.plist.