Oolite Bulletins

Hello,

I have a weird problem with the Nova mission - I pick up the refugees OK and get out of the station OK...I even galactic jump OK, but I end up in empty space...no planets, no suns and no flippin' fuel!

How do I get out of this one?

Thanks,

2Close2Jump

Well it didn't do that for me so sorry I can't help.

I managed to get to the sun and refuel before I docked so I didn't even have to use my Galactic Hyperdrive.

Have you tried this more than once 2Close2Jump? Sounds like you are caught in witchspace, which you would have to be very unlucky for that to happen a second time in a row.

in case you didn't know (unlikely, but just to make sure) a misjump is initialised when you pitch up or down during/at the end of the countdown, so maybe it was just a unfortunate steering that happened?

It does this every time- I've tried five times so far...

I've tried refueling from the Sun before docking twice - once I hyperspaced out of the system, the second time I galactic hyperdrived out of the system - both times I ended up in empty space with all targets on my compass dead ahead. After galactic jumping, I then tried hyperdrive jumping to another system, but ended up in empty space again...

I've left my ship in hyperspeed heading toward where my compass says the planet is for half an hour, but never reached anything. There are also graphical glitches when this happens - the streaking stars you normally get in hyperspeed only appear for a split second every two or three seconds after jumping into empty space, the main stars sort of jump closer and further away by a few pixels at the same time. There are also large blue triangles that flicker when I first jump into the new system...

I'm using v1.65 of oolite, but I wonder if this isn't some incompatibility with my computer...I regularly get Virtual Memory errors when playing oolite and the application closes itself fairly regularly, too...

Any ideas will be much appreciated - I know I can hack the save file to get around this, but that seems a bit of a shame, really...

Thanks,

2Close2Jump

Hmm, seems beyond me to give you an answer on this one, sorry.

Think its just that Oolite has "decided" your commander will go into a missjump at this point. (Misjumping is random). Install Behemoth.oxp from Oosat2. You may still end up in witchspace, but they'll be some friendly GalCop Crusiers there. Dock with one and top up your tanks to escape.

What you've described looks like a misjump. Hyperdrives can go wrong (as a feature rather than a bug) and leave the Commander stranded between stars.

Just a quick question: Is the Nova mission supposed to be this short? When I reached a solar system, I was informed that the sun is going nova and if I would be so nice to take some refugees aboard. Being the nice guy I am, I said "yes". Then I was in deep space, so I transfered some fuel from my extra tanks to the main system and initiated hyperspace. I reached another star system, landed, the refugees thanked me and went away, leaving about 50 tons of garbage behind (well, they said it was Food, but I wouldn't touch that stuff!). Is that it? I expected something a bit more heroic and demanding.

It's that simple. It's one of the original missions in Elite, so by todays standards, a bit spartan.
Of course, the original mission didn't come with extra fueltanks, so the hard part was to figure out how to jump etc.

Well, there are some more features to it: You are not allowed to refuel in the station where you take the refugees (and you arrive there with no fuel at all, as there was a fuel leak occuring when you first jumped into the system). You were launched from the station automatically and the station exploded behind you. And then you have got exactly 30 seconds to hyperspace out (that means 15 to initialize the jump and 15 for the countdown), or the sun will go Nova, which means it will inflate and literally eat you up (but you will be dead already at that point due to the radiation). Of course it's better to miss that part of the action. Finally the rescued people should award you with 100 gr of Gemstones, so that part of your story sounds like a bug.

But yes, on the other hand, that's basically it. End of the mission. Right On, Commander!

pepak wrote:

I expected something a bit more heroic and demanding.

No that all there is. But the mission is more demanding than you think. You just cheated by using extra Fuel tanks that were not part of Oolite itselfs. And remember that system with the nova in future and avoid it.

Eric Walch wrote:

And remember that system with the nova in future and avoid it.

Oh yes, I forgot that part.

I'm using v1.65 of oolite, but I wonder if this isn't some incompatibility with my computer...I regularly get Virtual Memory errors when playing oolite and the application closes itself fairly regularly, too...

I wonder if you have faulty RAM. I suggest you test it. Download memtest86 and let it run until it completes at least one full pass. This works on X86 PCs. If you have a Mac you're on your own

davcefai wrote:

This works on X86 PCs. If you have a Mac you're on your own

You're never alone with a Mac. Just use the Hardware Test CD that came with your computer.

Depending on your Mac and OS, if you go to 'System Profiler', it will do a basic check in the Memory item on 'Hardware' - it should show 'OK' under 'Status' for each memory slot filled.