Oolite Bulletins

Is it me or does the Cobra Mk III seem slower than it was in the original Elite?

I understand it may have been changed a little with the advanced version because of the other ships, but on the restricted it still seems slow.

It may be due to that, or other factors also that it seems to take a very long time to jump in some systems, with even Corp States having lots of traffic and of course then mass-locking so you cant use the 'j' key.

Your thoughts on this please ?

To avoid traffic get out of the space lanes, these are corriders running between the witchpoint beacon and the space station.

Among the old design 'snake' ships, the Cobra-3 is one of the fastest at .350 LS, which isn't bad for a medium freighter.

The newer breeds coming out (see oxps) are taking advantage of advancements in thruster technolegy, so most of those are as fast or a little faster. Some are much faster, depending on what technological tricks the manufactuers pulled out of their R&D departments, or how much risk was found acceptable in tuning the engines.

Anyway, best way to beat the masslock is simply to skirt around the space lanes; recommended maneuver until you rake together the cash to get properly kitted up.

And .35 is quite a bit faster than the original Cobra Mk III, which clocked at 0.28 (whatever the manual said).

I avoid OXPs with much faster ships, the original ones IMO are "core" ships, supposed to cover the whole range. Oolite is claimed to be set a bit later, but the original manual suggests progress doesn't happen very quickly in the Elite universe.

The manual says 3.0 on Ian Bells site, and I checked my Amstrad and PC version (which has the spectrum 48k manual) and they also say 3.0

All manuals are probably sourced from the original BBC manual, which says 0.30. However, the ship data files within the game say 0.28 for other Cobra Mk IIIs, and other ships with a value of 0.30 are able to outrun you slightly.

Hi, Commander Burton, and welcome to the boards and of course to this great game!

The best hint for fast gaming is indeed to get out of the so-called corridor (that's the direct way between the witchpoint beacon and the planet).

How do you do that? -- As soon as you have jumped into the system set a course normal to the planet (so that you could see the planet out of your side view). Or have a look at your compass and move the planet to the outer circle. Then hit the 'J'-key for some seconds (5 or 10 are sufficient). Then turn and face the planet. Now you very likely won't meet anything until you reach the station's aegis.

This is due to Oolite's different approach to universe-building. Elite was player-centered. Wherever you were, some ships were randomly created in your vicinity every now and then. In Oolite the whole system is created the very moment you jump into it, and the NPC-ships are where they are then. This system-centered approach means that NPC-ships will also interact with each other when you are somewhere else. So you can get into on-going battles.

Therefore there is also a downside to the get-away-from-the-corridor tactic: You hardly will meet and kill any opponents, so you won't move up the Elite-rank ladder.

Most frequently answered question.

(not sure if it's the most frequently asked question - that could be the one about a multi-player version).

Well, there was the suggestion a while ago to have a FAQ-section on the board, then it was suggested to put it in the wiki, but who looks at the wiki, anyway...?

So, this has come to no avail yet, I'm afraid.

Perhaps, good Dr., you would like to fish for the best answers to the most frequently answered questions in the board and smash them all together in one handy sticky? (It seems most of us have other things to do...)

I'm not really up to doing a FAQ either.

- even though it would only really have to answer the two questions:

Why does it take me so long to get to the station?

When will we see an on-line multi-player version of Oolite?

FAQ or no, us battlescarred space jocks are always willing to export our wisdom to the questioning plebes, eh?

There is an FAQ.

Well, okay, but

1. The most frequently answered question (see above) is not there!

and

2. Just to quote myself: Who reads the wiki anyway?

Commander McLane wrote:

1. The most frequently answered question (see above) is not there!

So fix it.

Commander McLane wrote:

2. Just to quote myself: Who reads the wiki anyway?

But it’s clearly linked from the forum! (Well, not actually clearly. The first post is a mess… the responsible party could well clean that up.)

Ahruman wrote:

But it’s clearly linked from the forum! (Well, not actually clearly. The first post is a mess… the responsible party could well clean that up.)

Ahem. Is this to your satisfaction?

P.S. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the fantastic new header!

Captain Hesperus