Oolite Bulletins

G'day fellow Commanders

Not a regular visitor BUT I really could use some advice please.

After appx 3years playing 1.7 and having the Super Dooper Cobra OXP and all the trimmings have decided to go for Oolite 1.82(?).

Down loaded and migrated all the OXP's I've aquired, even, after a fair bit of mid night oil the Jump Planner as well, anyway, my problem is I like to bounty hunt, targeting the bad guys and herein is my problem -

The buggers dont play fair, completley different game play to earlier version, in 1.7 can attack and take out a group of 4/5 baddies, in this they dont hang about to be shot at, get shot off at me while Im trying to line them up, AND despite having Naval Grid etc loose loads of eqipment AND get killed PDQ.

The question is....Can the difficulty level be changed, in 1.7 slowing the game down using Pause and left/right arrow keys was useful but that function appears unavailable.

If you're still reading, nice one and ANY advice giving me a chance of actually playing would be really apppreciated

Hmm... things are a little different in 1.82, yes... but not as difficult as 1.80 was. As for TAF... that was only ever meant as a dev tool, and not intended for gameplay, so it was removed from deployment builds. Advice: be more cautious, and pick your fights with care... it's dangerous out there! <grins>

The Mekon wrote:

Down loaded and migrated all the OXP's I've aquired

This might be the root of some of your problems. Before the Great AI Uplift of 1.80, lots of OXPs made their NPCs challenging by beefing up their energy and armaments. They were all dumb as stumps, but at least they could take a battering before blowing up, and when they did occasionally manage to land a blow on the player, at least it seemed like they were dangerous opponents.

However, when The Smartening happened, all those beefy-but-brainless NPCs not only learned how to aim a gun, they acquired a dose of guile, too. Now they can reduce a player to fragments in a few short seconds (as might be expected, given the 5-to-1 or better odds in their favour, and the liberal sprinkling of military lasers etc.). It could be worth checking to see if there are more recent versions of your OXPs around, where NPCs have had their claws trimmed for 1.80 and up. Failing that, you might want to go through any OXP that's producing terrifying opposition and knock any military lasers down to beams.

The other tactic is, like Cody says - learn to be more cautious, and give your enemies a little more respect than you used to!

Welcome back!

Time acceleration/deceleration is in "OXP Developer release" of Oolite, which is equal in gameplay with the stable release just some helper functions are enabled. Scroll down in http://oolite.org/download/ and select the one for your OS. If you use deceleration only then probably will not suffer problems caused by accelerated time like less accurate AI calculations.

You can balance the game with helper addons like [wiki]Energy Equipment OXP[/wiki], [wiki]IronHide OXP[/wiki], [wiki]Repair Bots OXP[/wiki] or even replace a side laser to  Eco Reactor, the list is long. I think in 1.82 these are more important than before, worth to do some shopping.

<chortles> The Smartening, eh? I like that!

Cody wrote:

<chortles> The Smartening, eh? I like that!

It's not quite The Singularity, but we all have to start somewhere!

Disembodied wrote:

The Mekon wrote:

etc.). It could be worth checking to see if there are more recent versions of your OXPs around, where NPCs have had their claws trimmed for 1.80 and up. Failing that, you might want to go through any OXP that's producing terrifying opposition and knock any military lasers down to beams.

The other tactic is, like Cody says - learn to be more cautious, and give your enemies a little more respect than you used to!

Thanks for ALL the replies, this is perhaps my best starting point.

If I understand your correctly(?) by down loading equipment/ship oxps it enables the programme to generate opposition ships equipped with said equipment. and removing the ships?, will soften the hidings Im getting , or is the equipment.

Could not find a later oxp/ozp for the SuperCobra, reason for migrating ealier OXP's from 1.72.

The Mekon wrote:

If I understand your correctly(?) by down loading equipment/ship oxps it enables the programme to generate opposition ships equipped with said equipment. and removing the ships?, will soften the hidings Im getting , or is the equipment.

Yes - if you take out OXPs which are adding in tougher, faster, better-armed ships, you should have an easier time of it. The core game ships will still offer you more of a challenge than they used to: they won't just sit there while you line them up and knock them down, and they will fire back and hit you more often (especially if you don't dodge around), but at least they won't be bristling with military-grade weapons and shields. Still, though, give them some respect: don't charge into a pack of five or six bad guys and expect to come out unscathed!

On the other hand, you could make things tougher by installing  Skilled NPCs - test yourself! <grins>


On the subject of tougher: I reckon GalCop Vipers need to be toughened and/or smartened!

Cody wrote:

On the subject of tougher: I reckon GalCop Vipers need to be toughened and/or smartened!

Is that versus players, or NPCs? Or both?

Against NPCs - I see Vipers getting mobbed by pirate gangs too often (they also struggle against assassins, but that's the heavy mob).

The Mekon wrote:

Could not find a later oxp/ozp for the SuperCobra, reason for migrating ealier OXP's from 1.72.

It may be a good idea to update as many oxps as you can to the latest version possible. It is now possible to save at many oxp stations if using updated versions, and old stations may not have useful markets. Some oxps like Random Hits add a lot of tough ships, but the newer RH version has toned down the AIs to make them more survivable.

Cody wrote:

Against NPCs - I see Vipers getting mobbed by pirate gangs too often (they also struggle against assassins, but that's the heavy mob).

Hmm ... that is consistent, though, with the gradual failure of the Co-operative to hold things together. They are fighting a losing battle!

Hmm... who'd be a copper, eh?

Disembodied wrote:

... the gradual failure of the Co-operative to hold things together.

Shades of RL there, methinks!

My standard tactic in the new order is to fight battles at close range if possible - get in fast and hold fire until you're close, continually change course and attitude, but keep the buggers so close that they don't get a chance to get a bead on you properly. You'll still probably get hurt occasionally, fights are much more of a slog than they used to be, but if you're careful you can still beat fairly healthy odds.

Additionally, remember that the cloaking device doesn't work as well as it used to - it's OK if you are already cloaked before enemies see you, not much good otherwise - and that running away is always an option.