Oolite Bulletins

I was quietly approaching a space station in Bizalein (Gal 5) when I remarked a dredger behaving strangely. It was nearing the space station at a dangerous proximity. Next thing, a huge explosion and hundred of pieces of metal all around. I guess it got in 'close' contact with the station.
I guess these dredgers should be forbidden to fly so near the station a bit like trucks not allowed in city centers. The commander of this ship was totally irresponsible. Now... WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED IF I WAS ON BOARD ? Will I explose as well ?

I've seen one of them coming out of a station, once... it was a gruesome piece of obstetrics!
The head came out, the station twisting around it, and a few seconds later the ship became a stillborn showering metal alloys in the whole neighbourhood.

I've seen a station 'birth' an Ixian Battlecruiser. Talk about eye-watering....

Captain Hesperus

Hmm... Makandal's question of what would happen to the player if he was docked on the station while this happened intrigues me... Is there any easy way to try this out?

Makandal wrote:

I was quietly approaching a space station in Bizalein (Gal 5) when I remarked a dredger behaving strangely. It was nearing the space station at a dangerous proximity. Next thing, a huge explosion and hundred of pieces of metal all around. I guess it got in 'close' contact with the station.

That's strange. I never have seen a dredger move at all. Usually I find them somewhere in the aegis of the station, but they are marked green on my scanner like a station and are just as immobile. Perhaps I've got another version of the OXP?

Ah, and to the question of what would happen to the player it the station/ship he is docked with would explode: Ahruman has answered that in another thread: The player would be ejected and would find himself in the middle of a debris field. Whether he would be damaged or even killed by high-velocity debris depends entirely on chance, I guess.

i think they are mistaking the hognose tugship for the dredger.

a dredger is supposedly enormous, that is lager than a station which is merely huge.

the hognose is well known for it's agressive docking maneuvres, partly because of the character of the pilots, but also because of the difficulty of the combined length of hognose+towee.

When Murgh (author of transports.oxp) gets back to civilization, he should try to restrict towing hognoses to incoming ships.

as for you question on station destruction: can't be done.
most likely it has flown off to the edge of the solarsystem.
In the case of a destructable dockable, (ie rock-hermit) the player is ejected as the station is destroyed.

Arexack_Heretic wrote:

i think they are mistaking the hognose tugship for the dredger.

That would explain it then.

I saw it again but this time of very very near !
Mea Culpa, this is not a dredger but an Ixian Battle cruiser. So no problem of being on board. The ship was going out of the station and it is not that big. It then exploded in 100 of pieces. No effect at all on near ships.

yeah, many of the white blips are just for show, I think.

but I guess juicing through the cloud of an exploding ship IS still asking for a GAME OVER screen. (there is still the legit debris and wreckage-objects)

Arexack_Heretic wrote:

yeah, many of the white blips are just for show, I think.

Nope. (I think…)

you know they're not, or you think they're not?
And if the former, is that in a religious abolute or a 'I saw the code' absolute?


(I may be remembering Frontier, where there were these flashes and pips flying of kills, they were nopt real, just for show, but still caused 'static' on the scanner)

-That would be a cool addition btw:
some form of static in the scanner/gages, when a huge blast occurs nearby and/or when damage is done to the energy-banks.


white snow, horizontal scanner lines, blacking out, zigzag distortion to name a few possibilities.

could function as a cool indicator of 'maintenance overhaul due' too.

Arexack_Heretic wrote:

-That would be a cool addition btw:
some form of static in the scanner/gages, when a huge blast occurs nearby and/or when damage is done to the energy-banks.


white snow, horizontal scanner lines, blacking out, zigzag distortion to name a few possibilities.

Reminds me heavily of the Escape Velocity series again.

Yeah… we wouldn’t want to be accused of plagiarizing from other Elite clones. ;-)

never played EV, so I can't be accused of plagiarism.
It's just a generic idea.
Unless they have a patent on white noise, or the concept of electromagnetic interference, the authors of EV can bite my @$$.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Admittedly I don't know if that's ever worked as a defence in a court of law...

But I like the idea of scanner distortion, especially as an indicator of damage/wear and tear. That kind of direct sensory feedback is always cool. Or it could be caused by something else. Or rather, Something Else: a great big horrible alien boy-oh-boy-are-you-in-trouble-now ship, bending and flexing local spacetime as you slide down a gravity well towards it...