Oolite Bulletins

Howdy old man space sailors! Just a thread for some conversation and general mingling to see where y'all are at. Too much talk of code and technical stuff and not enough of the funnnnnn we're all having! Do answer some questions!

1. What are you piloting right now?
2. What galaxy and system are you at right now?
3. What's your current account balance and how decked out is your ship? (What equipment have you got?)
4. What is your current career like? what does it currently consist of?
5. Do you have any goals or anything you are working towards? What are they?
6. what non-aesthetic mods are you running that characterize your Ooniverse the most?
7. how often do you die?
8. what's your policy on that?
9. how often do you *nearly* die?
10. how dangerous is your Ooniverse? Super badass space Eastwood or stroll through the little girls' garden?
11. what -- if anything -- are you most proud of in your current Jameson?
12. what's your all-time (read: not necessarily your current Jameson) best true story?

1. What are you piloting right now?
Cobra Mk.3

2. What galaxy and system are you at right now?
G5 - the Steel Halo. Bouncing between Lazaso & Zaenza (0.0ly) busily zapping pirates when they take potshots at me and misjumping into hyperspace to do the same with Thargoids (no Thargoid oxp's loaded except for SimonB's Uber-Thargoid), dropping in at Avernus Orbital for an occasional meal.

3. What's your current account balance and how decked out is your ship? (What equipment have you got?)
Pretty much everything other than the NEU and the Naval Grid. Even a cloaking device (no idea how I go that! It just appeared in an earlier galaxy while I was jumping around). 19,232₢

4. What is your current career like? what does it currently consist of?
No current career. Probably enlist at a Feudal at some stage (TL10 Tiuson is very close).

5. Do you have any goals or anything you are working towards? What are they?
Work up to 1,000 kills so I can start the Resistance Commander mission and see if there are any good ideas for DGill's revamp of Feudal States. Will need to add in the Vimana cheat OXP for the extra missile slots needed for RC.

6. what non-aesthetic mods are you running that characterize your Ooniverse the most?
Hard Way.
All the old systems oxp's (Anarchies, Feudal States, Commies & Dictators), Galactic Navy.
SW Economy, Risk-based Economy, Risky Business & Smugglers.
Diplomancy & Weapon Laws. I use an older more restrictive version of WL.
Dockables (Small Systems Stations, Tori, Superhub, Transhab, Sothis, Nephthys, Liners, DSD,

7. how often do you die?
Don't really seem to.

8. what's your policy on that?
Last save comes back to life!

9. how often do you *nearly* die?
Don't really seem to.

10. how dangerous is your Ooniverse? Super badass space Eastwood or stroll through the little girls' garden?
Nasty. Stranger's World means that everything costs fuel. And that the Torus Drive knocks the shields down to 25% which takes forever to recharge. So whizzing around on Torus can be quite dangerous if there are McNasties lurking at the far end...
Weapon Laws makes kitting out one's ship a nightmare. Restrictions on trade, and continually warring systems which makes travel difficult. Lots of sunskimming (which takes time with Stranger's World operating).

11. what -- if anything -- are you most proud of in your current Jameson?
The only cheating was using Oocheat to award the dosh to buy the 4 Galactic Hyperdrives to get to G5.
Lots of slaves rescued. Tried to rescue some of the Astrogulag prisoners, but they won't jump into the wormholes I open in front of them.

12. what's your all-time (read: not necessarily your current Jameson) best true story?
Going to G1 Qubeen to restore the rightful King (Long Way.oxp), got him there, and then the news came out through Diplomancy.oxp that Qubeen had signed a peace treaty with the neighbours. Pure fluke, gamewise, but rather wonderful, immersion-wise.

Trying my level best on this questionaire...

1. What are you piloting right now?
Imperial Courier. I like the fact that it constantly changes it's shape.

2. What galaxy and system are you at right now?
I tried 8 galaxy hops (one circle) I got dissappointed that they are way too similar. Since then I stayed in G1, hopping around and doing more or less the same stuff.

3. What's your current account balance and how decked out is your ship? (What equipment have you got?)
99999.....999. When I had the need to hack the game I got curious how many nines Oolite can digest - and got impressed. I still do not know the max number.

4. What is your current career like? what does it currently consist of?
I am a zero at parcel or passenger delivery. Nor trading. It's just not my bag. But it is so much easier to change the matrix (see question 3).

5. Do you have any goals or anything you are working towards? What are they?
Make it easier to install Oolite and addons. Add functionality. Remove discrepancies. All this is meant to control the matrix, not act inside.

6. what non-aesthetic mods are you running that characterize your Ooniverse the most?
Ummmm. I heard I am running some cheats. The Vimana Beam and the fuel generator save my life just so many times...

7. how often do you die?
Way too often. Just look at the 'sudden death' thread.

8. what's your policy on that?
I believe in rebirth. If not saved by the Auto Eject feature I restore a savegame.

9. how often do you *nearly* die?
Way too often. Even more than way too often. Sometimes based on strange criteria for the Auto Eject feature. Just look at the 'sudden death' thread.

10. how dangerous is your Ooniverse? Super badass space Eastwood or stroll through the little girls' garden?
It used to be dangerous in interstellar space. Now that I run Galactic Navy the thargoids come to the star systems. And since I have Second Wave, they are even more mean than before.

11. what -- if anything -- are you most proud of in your current Jameson?
He - I - that Jameson is slowly getting used to handling a ship.

12. what's your all-time (read: not necessarily your current Jameson) best true story?
Due to lack of maneuvering capability my only chance to survive was in an Imperial Star Destroyer. Huge, massively armored and heavy.
On torus drive nicely fast. But then I forgot to disengage the torus or fuel injectors to slow down before the rock hermit. And I did not get the idea of simply turning the ship. Well, that had not helped the Titanic either....
So I smashed with huge kinetic energy into the rock hermit - enough energy that it took Oolite minutes just to calculate the impact.
Of course I had died in this instance.

I quite enjoy your posts, Cholmondely. But I have a few comments, questions, and bones to pick!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:31 pm

4. What is your current career like? what does it currently consist of?
No current career. Probably enlist at a Feudal at some stage (TL10 Tiuson is very close).

I assume you mean by this that you are just flying about by the seat of your pants, without any particular purpose? Nothing wrong with being a space drifter!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:31 pm

6. what non-aesthetic mods are you running that characterize your Ooniverse the most?
Hard Way.
All the old systems oxp's (Anarchies, Feudal States, Commies & Dictators), Galactic Navy.
SW Economy, Risk-based Economy, Risky Business & Smugglers.
Diplomancy & Weapon Laws. I use an older more restrictive version of WL.
Dockables (Small Systems Stations, Tori, Superhub, Transhab, Sothis, Nephthys, Liners, DSD,

A man of good taste! I think we have similar sensible ooniverses, in terms of mechanics. Except that I hated Galactic Navy, too much presence everywhere, so I have HMISN instead.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:31 pm

10. how dangerous is your Ooniverse? Super badass space Eastwood or stroll through the little girls' garden?
Nasty. Stranger's World means that everything costs fuel. And that the Torus Drive knocks the shields down to 25% which takes forever to recharge. So whizzing around on Torus can be quite dangerous if there are McNasties lurking at the far end...
Weapon Laws makes kitting out one's ship a nightmare. Restrictions on trade, and continually warring systems which makes travel difficult. Lots of sunskimming (which takes time with Stranger's World operating).

I knew you run Stranger's World and I've never ventured into it, so I have little means of relating to this. I assume that the latter comments refer to Diplomancy? I loved the idea of that, but I forget why I uninstalled it. Balance, I think, I refuse even the greatest of mods if it superimposes equipment or shipdata overwrites that I didn't ask for. If it wasn't that, I don't remember what it was. If I can't think of a reason not to have it, I should get it back again!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:31 pm

11. what -- if anything -- are you most proud of in your current Jameson?
The only cheating was using Oocheat to award the dosh to buy the 4 Galactic Hyperdrives to get to G5.
Lots of slaves rescued. Tried to rescue some of the Astrogulag prisoners, but they won't jump into the wormholes I open in front of them.

What OXP is the slave rescue thingy again?

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:31 pm

12. what's your all-time (read: not necessarily your current Jameson) best true story?
Going to G1 Qubeen to restore the rightful King (Long Way.oxp), got him there, and then the news came out through Diplomancy.oxp that Qubeen had signed a peace treaty with the neighbours. Pure fluke, gamewise, but rather wonderful, immersion-wise.

Ha. That's kinda cool!

szaumix wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 2:43 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:31 pm

10. how dangerous is your Ooniverse? Super badass space Eastwood or stroll through the little girls' garden?
...Restrictions on trade, and continually warring systems which makes travel difficult. Lots of sunskimming (which takes time with Stranger's World operating).

...I assume that the latter comments refer to Diplomancy? I loved the idea of that, but I forget why I uninstalled it. Balance, I think, I refuse even the greatest of mods if it superimposes equipment or shipdata overwrites that I didn't ask for. If it wasn't that, I don't remember what it was. If I can't think of a reason not to have it, I should get it back again!

I see Diplomancy as an enabler - like Library.oxp - but, like Library.oxp, it is not used by the other OXPs to any great extent.

No equipment/shipdata changes.

It does 3 things

i) visas for travel to corporates, commies & dictatorships (not purchasable in enemy systems or in anarchies)

ii) citizenship & taxation (phkb wrote a Rexebe citizenship.oxp to give citizenship there if you are playing Hermitage.oxp and flying in and out of Rexebe all the time)

iii) creates wars and alliances, but does not send invading armadas into other systems, or create any sort of war other than picking on the player if he is "flying the flag" of an enemy system.

(Montana05 created an invasion OXP which does not seem to tie in with it).

And you need to be docked (and have ANA) to access the information about warring states and their histories.

Phkb has worked on a fix for the issue of lunatic swapping between war & alliance (presumably the love-hate relationship - such as the yellow line between Qubeen and Xexeti on the Diplomancy wiki page pictures):
oolite.oxp.Day.Diplomacy.oxz (Phkb 2023: v.0.19 Bugfix: Process of making peace and breaking alliances were spamming the system events and not changing anything.)

szaumix wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 2:43 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:31 pm

11. what -- if anything -- are you most proud of in your current Jameson?
The only cheating was using Oocheat to award the dosh to buy the 4 Galactic Hyperdrives to get to G5.
Lots of slaves rescued. Tried to rescue some of the Astrogulag prisoners, but they won't jump into the wormholes I open in front of them.

What OXP is the slave rescue thingy again?

Illegal Goods Tweak OXP

I should have added more questions. Like what OXP ships you all have, which ones you encounter the most and the least.

I regularly wonder what all your ooniverses look and feel like.

szaumix wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 11:38 pm

I should have added more questions. Like what OXP ships you all have, which ones you encounter the most and the least.

I regularly wonder what all your ooniverses look and feel like.

You can easily edit your top post and add in a 12 & 13.

I'm into stations, not ships.

So ship-wise I've only added in the Lore-based ones (Generation Ships & Deep Space Dredgers). And the Mining Cobra (makes sense to me) and Liners (ditto). But Galactic Navy (+ Behemoth + Spara's AddOns) and the Systems oxps (Anarchies, Feudals, Commies & Dictators) all add in ships. So too do Rescue Stations, Jaguar Company and Random Hits (added in because they affect the systems: Rescue Stations at the high end, Jaguar Company at the low end, Random Hits at anarchies). And Ionics when in G2, and the Assassins ship set when in G7. Currently trying to work out what Jaguar does - it is more subtle, just like HIMSN.

I'm thinking of taking out Random Hits because I'm not sure that I see the logic. Why are the seedy space bars not just part of the Main Orbital Station? And every anarchy? And all that easily damaged paraphenalia (GalMine Hoppers, GalMine AutoMiners and GalMine Cargo Drones) just in the anarchies which are swarming with pirates, gangsters & vandals?

I encounter the Feudals a lot - much time in the systems and I have also added in Stranger's Feudal Raiders. I also added in Redspear's Fighter-Explorers which modifies the stats of some Kraits & Mambas.

On the stations front I'm running with Stranger's World's Orbital Stations, Small Systems Stations, Tori, SuperHubs, Transhab, Mandotech Industries plus the ones from Anarchies, Commies et al. And my favourites from Killer Wolf: SothisTC, Nephthys & Hathor.

Hathor does not yet work properly, but I need a better logic for it. KW's back story was that it was a cheap agricultural goods station close to the sun. With SW running that makes no sense (too long a time to get to the sun) and anyway, it is too beautiful a station to just act as a cheap doss-house for impoverished pilots and food which costs 1₢ less than the Main Orbital Station prices. And docking with it is a real delight! But no great ideas yet!





Addendum

I can't imagine playing Oolite without the systems OXPs. With 2,500+ systems out there, they really break up the monotony. Especially dictators which distinguishes between agricultural juntas & industrial Empires. And what DGill is doing with Feudal States is truly magnificent. Truly. He is actually creating "homeworlds" which make a difference in-game, meeting Stranger's age-old critique that all the 2,500 worlds are pretty much the same, just with minor differences around the edges.

I suppose that I should add in a screen shot of SimonB's Uber-Tharg (2011):

The Space Bars are really large rock hermits but with guns. Lots of Guns. As with normal rock hermits they operate in asteroid fields and mine stuff. The Management take a dim view of any interference with their operations and any mining on their patch will be met with a broadside from the bar's plasma turrets and the launch of bounty hunters to intercept the miscreant. Gameplay wise, their presence in anarchies it so that you can pick up and turn in missions fairly easily. But I think in terms of lore, it kind of makes sense that miners of precious metals in anarchy systems would be better armed to deter robberies, which in turn led to them becoming hang outs for mercenaries.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Wed Sep 06, 2023 9:25 am

I'm thinking of taking out Random Hits because I'm not sure that I see the logic. Why are the seedy space bars not just part of the Main Orbital Station? And every anarchy? And all that easily damaged paraphenalia (GalMine Hoppers, GalMine AutoMiners and GalMine Cargo Drones) just in the anarchies which are swarming with pirates, gangsters & vandals?

Funnny you mention this because I am the opposite. SB are the most approved of all my added dockables -- they couldn't and shouldn't be galcop because they offer illegal services to bounty hunters who are bloodthirsty or avaricious enough to go beyond the legal extermination for bounty. It's an example of the private sector outshining government resources and overregulation, as is normal in the world. My only gripe with the SB is that I wish they were 50/50 pirate friendly or bounty hunter friendly. They already sell dirt-cheap slaves, I wish they sold cheap narco and/or firearms too. It's grotesquely hypocritical.

If feudal dueling stations weren't invariably such easy money, and so poorly placed, with such poor adversaries, I wouldn't hate them. As it stands, I have always hated them. I wish they were not ASC findable, between the planet and sun, and that the adversaries weren't such lame ducks. WHY do these titans of dogfighting just cruise in a straight line for you to shoot them in the butt? Bah, humbug.

I wish Multi-world hermits weren't always in exactly the same place, and they are also never worth the bounty/cost. If they had a marketplace worth docking for -- even just a shake-up of marketplace norms -- then I would bother. Actually since I run S:TGU they are often useful for Rock Hermit location purchases, but that's it.

I uninstalled Dictators years ago, I forget why. I vaguely remember something annoyed me about it. Astrofactories were too much, too much cheap money everywhere in an already saturated get-rich-quick ooniverse.
I don't have Commies either, I forget what annoyed me about it but I do know I never liked their rock hermits either.

Making money should be hard, slow, and fraught with peril. Pilots should be constantly wishing they could afford the next thing.

Planetary monotony actually doesn't bother me, because the world exists in my head. Aesthetic OXPs mean very, very little to me. Cheap kills, cheap money, and too-easy things bother me. I would rather a 100% vanilla ooniverse where every planet varied only by colour and without griff's textures and all the goodies that I have, if I could feel like I truly earned every kill to my rating and every credit to my account.

szaumix wrote: ↑Thu Sep 07, 2023 12:43 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Wed Sep 06, 2023 9:25 am

I'm thinking of taking out Random Hits because I'm not sure that I see the logic. Why are the seedy space bars not just part of the Main Orbital Station? And every anarchy? And all that easily damaged paraphenalia (GalMine Hoppers, GalMine AutoMiners and GalMine Cargo Drones) just in the anarchies which are swarming with pirates, gangsters & vandals?

Funnny you mention this because I am the opposite. SB are the most approved of all my added dockables -- they couldn't and shouldn't be galcop because they offer illegal services to bounty hunters who are bloodthirsty or avaricious enough to go beyond the legal extermination for bounty. It's an example of the private sector outshining government resources and overregulation, as is normal in the world. My only gripe with the SB is that I wish they were 50/50 pirate friendly or bounty hunter friendly. They already sell dirt-cheap slaves, I wish they sold cheap narco and/or firearms too. It's grotesquely hypocritical.

If feudal dueling stations weren't invariably such easy money, and so poorly placed, with such poor adversaries, I wouldn't hate them. As it stands, I have always hated them. I wish they were not ASC findable, between the planet and sun, and that the adversaries weren't such lame ducks. WHY do these titans of dogfighting just cruise in a straight line for you to shoot them in the butt? Bah, humbug.

I wish Multi-world hermits weren't always in exactly the same place, and they are also never worth the bounty/cost. If they had a marketplace worth docking for -- even just a shake-up of marketplace norms -- then I would bother. Actually since I run S:TGU they are often useful for Rock Hermit location purchases, but that's it.

I uninstalled Dictators years ago, I forget why. I vaguely remember something annoyed me about it. Astrofactories were too much, too much cheap money everywhere in an already saturated get-rich-quick ooniverse.
I don't have Commies either, I forget what annoyed me about it but I do know I never liked their rock hermits either.

Making money should be hard, slow, and fraught with peril. Pilots should be constantly wishing they could afford the next thing.

Planetary monotony actually doesn't bother me, because the world exists in my head. Aesthetic OXPs mean very, very little to me. Cheap kills, cheap money, and too-easy things bother me. I would rather a 100% vanilla ooniverse where every planet varied only by colour and without griff's textures and all the goodies that I have, if I could feel like I truly earned every kill to my rating and every credit to my account.

1) Have you tried phkb's rejig (v.2.1) of Feudal States? He brings down the wager amounts to something more sensible. And you could probably tweak the amounts further as he javascripted it all.

2) I would hazard a guess that the markets in the SLAPUs and the CZGFs (more extreme than the Astrofactories in their distortions) turned you against Commies.

3) But.

These three are run by political organisations with more on their minds than merely making money. The discounts are not massive - just 10-15% and presumably affordable for making a political point. The Commies are trying to undermine the Corporates/capitalist system and grab their business. The Dictators are not quite so organised but are also putting up a show. To me, it makes sense.

I suppose, with Diplomancy, one could tweak them so that the good deals only go to citizens rather than to outsiders. Good discounts at your own system, smaller discounts with "allies".

4) Not too sure what you mean by "Multi-world hermits" - can you elaborate?

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Thu Sep 07, 2023 1:08 am

1) Have you tried phkb's rejig (v.2.1) of Feudal States? He brings down the wager amounts to something more sensible. And you could probably tweak the amounts further as he javascripted it all.

I don't want it to reward less. I want them to not be easy wins. I want them to move like geckos and not like boas, I want them to fire back, I want them to weave, I want them to be military or vimana fore and aft, and to be a chance of jammer or cloak. I want a serious challenge, and I want to be a serious chance of LOSING, and if I can't have that, I at least want to earn the win.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Thu Sep 07, 2023 1:08 am

4) Not too sure what you mean by "Multi-world hermits" - can you elaborate?

Free Trade Zones