Oolite Combat

[Christos Eleutheria]

As a lifetime player of Elite from when I was only a kid when it first came out, I have to say I love *almost* everything about Oolite.

The graphics and interface are great, the additional missions for transporting people, cargo or documents for extra credits - being able to upgrade ships etc - all fantastic additions.

What I am finding very frustrating, and frankly not very fun to play, is how much more difficult the combat is in this version.

I have played several version - original Elite, Elite A, Frontier, even the NES version of Elite. The combat is all very similar and well balanced.

Then there's Oolite. What have you done to the combat?!

The lasers look great, with the different colours so you know which type of laser your enemy is using against you.

But what have you done to the Military Laser!?

On every other version of Elite, you can kill the weak units in 2-3 direct hits - eg Kraits, Sidewinders.

Kraits are practically unkillable with Military Lasers in Oolite!!! I've estimated you need at least 20 direct hits with a Military Laser to take them out - and when they are close to dead they will flee!

I've had many combat rounds where I've used 5-6 LY of witchspace injection chasing after a fleeing Krait with Military Lasers, and STILL can't kill the wretched thing.

Now developers. I know what you're *TRYING* to do. Trying to make it more realistic by needing more hits, and allowing the enemy to recharge it's energy and shields whilst it is fleeing.

But it isn't remotely *fun*!

I've got to about 150,000 credits - which in all other versions of Elite I'd be halfway to Deadly by now. But in Oolite - I've got only 135 kills!!

It's nigh on impossible to take out 4-5 opponents with max shields/energy unit and military lasers - where as in every other version I could easily take them all out with barely a scratch.

I have to say, unless there is a mod to fix this to be much more like the original combat - I just can't bring myself to play this much longer...

Anyone got any suggestions please?

[phkb]

Welcome to the boards, Christos!

You can certainly up the power of the military laser. If you're up for a bit of work in a text editor, if you can find the "equipment.plist" file in the "oolite/oolite.app/Resources/Config" folder, then find the section relating to "EQ_WEAPON_MILITARY_LASER", you should see a line that reads "damage = 12.0". If you change that number, and make it, say, 50 (or even higher), you should see an increase in the speed that ships are destroyed.

But be warned. With this change, every ship that has a military laser and gets a bead on you will be able to tear through your shields in seconds. In the core game (ie with no expansions added), I don't think any ship will get the military laser (except perhaps one mission ship). But once you open the door to OXP's, this change could have quite a big impact.

[Nite Owl]

Are you dedicated to sticking with the vanilla game or are you are willing to modify it with OXZ's and OXP's? The mod route will solve this problem rather quickly with just a few additions like New Lasers, Multiple Lasers and Separated Lasers, Eco Lasers, Laser Cannons, you get the idea. The majority of these mods can be downloaded and added to the game from the in game expansion pack manager. For more details on what these and other mods do before you go ahead and add them to your Ooniverse consult the OOLITE WIKI.

[NorthenderPNE]

Are you dedicated to sticking with the vanilla game or are you are willing to modify it with OXZ's and OXP's? The mod route will solve this problem rather quickly with just a few additions like New Lasers, Multiple Lasers and Separated Lasers, Eco Lasers, Laser Cannons, you get the idea. The majority of these mods can be downloaded and added to the game from the in game expansion pack manager. For more details on what these and other mods do before you go ahead and add them to your Ooniverse consult the OOLITE WIKI.

In addition to the above, the essential sniper lock ( http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/SniperLock ) which is the must have equipment in my opinion for taking out the most dangerous of pirates at long range and kill off the rest at close quarters. I use it because i have so many additional pirate oxp/z's.

And welcome to the forum, Christos.

[Cody]

Welcome aboard, Commander!

But what have you done to the Military Laser!? On every other version of Elite, you can kill the weak units in 2-3 direct hits - eg Kraits, Sidewinders. Kraits are practically unkillable with Military Lasers in Oolite!!! I've estimated you need at least 20 direct hits with a Military Laser to take them out - and when they are close to dead they will flee! I've had many combat rounds where I've used 5-6 LY of witchspace injection chasing after a fleeing Krait with Military Lasers, and STILL can't kill the wretched thing.

It's certainly no longer a turkey-shoot out there, and Kraits can be slippery devils in a stern chase. But 20 hits seems a trifle extreme.

[Christos Eleutheria]

Thanks all, really appreciate the quick replies.

I tried going down the edit equipment.plist route, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.

I know this not only because I upped the power to 50.0, but I also changed the laser colour in the plist file, but it hasn't changed anything in the game.

Any ideas why this isn't working?

[Christos Eleutheria]

Re the 20 hits thing, I think it is because the Krait runs away and the code in Oolite seems to allow it to recharge energy and shields whilst running away.

I'm pretty sure it didn't do this in regular Elite.

So maybe you need like 10-12 hits to kill straight off, but with the enemy allowed to recharge energy on the run it ends up taking much more.

[Cody]

After changing something internal such as a plist, you need to restart Oolite with shift held down 'til the spinning Cobra appears.

[Christos Eleutheria]

Do I have to buy some "sky hooks" for my laptop as well, before I can hold the shift key down...

[Christos Eleutheria]

Ok, so I tried the shift thing - but then it loads without any equipment...

All I did was change one number...

[Christos Eleutheria]

Fixed it - seems I have to edit with a hex editor, not notepad.

Thanks again all.

[Nite Owl]

Notepad leaves extra white space behind that can mess a script up. Give NOTEPAD++ a try. Simple learning curve and free.

[Christos Eleutheria]

I think I've discovered what the main problem is.

I've put the Military Laser power up to the level it was on original Elite - so it can take out a Krait in 3-4 hits rather than well over 10.

But, the Laser barely ever hits from 10,000k+ distance, despite the fact ALL of the enemy lasers hit me almost every shot!

What gives with that!?

[NorthenderPNE]

I think I've discovered what the main problem is.

I've put the Military Laser power up to the level it was on original Elite - so it can take out a Krait in 3-4 hits rather than well over 10.

But, the Laser barely ever hits from 10,000k+ distance, despite the fact ALL of the enemy lasers hit me almost every shot!

What gives with that!?

Duck and dive my friend, duck and dive, and a little perseverance. I'm playing the game with extra pirates and i'm managing fine, you have to treat the game like a game of chess.

I avoided anything my ship couldn't handle and killed anything it could, If i had to run, i ran. If i was low on fuel i'd hide in a rock hermit and fuel up, upon exit i'd torus the f*ck out of there, or jump and on occasion fight.

We all started the game the same way albeit we have different oxp's, just stick with it and you'll appreciate each kill more than you would by editing the laser strengths. Take a step back and you'll appreciate Oolite more than the old Elite, which i too played back in the day. I play Elite TNK every now and then but it's too easy, Oolite as it is with your oxp's of choice wins hands down. Harder the better for me, but each to their own i guess.

[Christos Eleutheria]

Yeah, I'm getting more used to it now I've played a few hours.

Just treating it as a completely different game to Elite.