Oolite Bulletins

My recollection of Elite on the Commodore 64 was that pulse lasers are about as lethal as a wet kipper and that without an extra energy unit the shields on a Cobra are about as effecitive as chocolate fireguards (even when being attacked with wet kippers).

As a result I spent my first couple of days (months in Oolite time) doing 'safe' trips until I'd upgraded a few things. I now have a military laser on the front, extra ensery unit, shield booster and ECM, plus a few other non-military enhancements, and am starting to take a few risks.

I've already achieved a "Poor" rating from kills that I made along the way but I'm not making a whole lot of progress in my career as a bad ass. One of two bad guys I can deal with but I tend to get shot to bits if there are four or five.

Now I know I'm not back to my old form (I still have to think about what some of the keys do) but I'm also wondering if it's to do with changes in the game?

I see for exampe that it's possible to buy military shielding, something which, IIRC, you could only win in Elite by taking on a mission to kill Thargoids.

There is also the fact that in Elite you could only fly the Cobra and it was fairly good at everything. Perhaps that has been changed in Oolite now that we can buy other ships? Perhaps the Cobra is not the thing for bounty hunting.

Am I ill equipped, or just pants?

Oolite is harder than Elite (and you probabley are under equiped!).

In Elite virtually all pirates had pulse lasers rather than Beams or Military and ECM was rare. Oolite is more "realistic" and the NCPs can (and do) buy everything (including OXP ships) that you can buy. It is fairly common for pirates to pack a beam laser and ECM as standard equipement and many will carry Shield Boosters and Navy Shields.

One soloution is to install all the OXPs. Cheap rusty ships are then available to the player. Buy a cheap rusty python and kit is out with Shield Boosters and fuel injectors. At 100 tones of cargo a run, your cash mounts up quickly and you can use the injectors to run away! Running away is a more important tatic for the young Jameson in Oolite!

Despite the advances in technology and Iron Ass Cobra III is still a powerful ship, but you cannot really consider yourself full kitted out without the Shield Boosters and Navy Shields. Most Commanders need to spend some time in a Cargo hauler to earn the cash to kit out a fighting ship.

I ran a couple hundred trips of Qutiri to Bemaera trips to buy a python. Built up a couple hundred thousand credits, then switched back to a cobra III. I did wait for one to come up with a military shield enhancement. Kitted it out with all the options.

Now I run among Xeesle (feudal)/Ensoreus (Corp/Tech 12)/Ararus (anarchy) to generate kills, fix equipment, etc.

With a couple opponents I will go head on. Around five and I run and tailgun the chasers.

grouchy wrote:

Now I run among Xeesle (feudal)/Ensoreus (Corp/Tech 12)/Ararus (anarchy) to generate kills, fix equipment, etc.

Sounds like a good route, what galaxy are those planets in?

ramon wrote:

Sounds like a good route, what galaxy are those planets in?

They're in the first galaxy.


Since starting this thread I have spent several more hours flying around the first galaxy (although mostly between Aanbiat and Riinus) and have saved up for and swapped the Cobra for a Python. I've only done about half a dozen trips in it yet but as LittleBear said: the cash is coming in much more quickly.

I've also improved my rating to "Average" with a few kills along the way.

grouchy's 'tactic' of only taking on one or two opponents and running from larger numbers sounds like the way to go although the Python is so slow that I think I'll be staying out of the shipping lanes on long jumps. It's not so bad on short jumps (like Aanbiat to Riinus) when I have plenty of fuel to use with the Injection) however I did a run from Aanbiat to Inera (because I wanted to visit a system higher tech level) and the 0.2 light years of fuel that I had left ran out pretty quickly. I ended up regretting that I'd stayed in the shipping lanes because it took ages to get the the space station.

If you have a scoop, on long jumps you can always sunskim for fuel before heading for the planet, you can if you wish return back to the witchpoint to use the space lanes. Ok it adds a little bit of time but you do have a full tank to take on the nasties. Oh yes and heat shields make it easier of course, get your craft blinged it's the only way to go!

grouchy wrote:

Now I run among Xeesle (feudal)/Ensoreus (Corp/Tech 12)/Ararus (anarchy) to generate kills, fix equipment, etc.

did that a LOT back in the Elite days. I also made the credits for my second ship in Oolite (a rusty MK-III from Murrgs M-pack equipped with some really nice gear) by running computers from Ensoreus to it's poorer neighbours.

I find that even if the combatants have faster ships, they will queue up directly behind me and chase. They also don't start evasive maneuvers until after a large number of hits.

I am finding it harder to use my fancy joystick than the old atari 2600 job that was plugged into the c64. Tried using my flight stick and rudder at first, but ended up dusting off the MS sidewinder2.

Another trick we used to use was mounting one side laser and then rolling to target and adjusting speed to keep them in the crosshairs. I don't remember the reasoning, but I do remember using it a lot. Probably something about it messing with the AI trying to intercept.