Oolite Bulletins

Hi all! Commander Donna reporting for duty!

Firstly, thanks to the contributors for a great and for me unique gaming experience that I'm enjoying LOTS.

I think I'm getting the hang of things. After flying between a few systems for a few days I've progressed to having a ship with some QoL modifications and I was wondering what kind of things I might be looking to do next to move the game forwards?

Right now my Cobra III has the large cargo bay, ECM, fuel scoop, docking computer and injectors (meaning I can get station to station in a few minutes now), heat shields, upgraded scanner and compass, and a front beam laser. Carting tradeable goods back and forth is now pretty straight forward and quick, the only time it was really a problem was when i shot the station by accident (...) and had the cops chase me around for a few trips (whoops!). My rating is still a pathetic 'harmless', which is not to say i haven't seen any combat, but the few pirates that I have encountered just ran when i started lasering them back... I could pretty quickly now save up the cash for military laser and shield upgrade I think, so I was wondering what kind of thing I should be looking to try to expand from my humble beginnings?

Thanks for any tips, and happy flying!

ps. I'm not yet using any OXPs...

Hi Commander! Welcome to the Oolite boards. You'll find we're one of the friendliest bunches on the web forums, and will always do our best to help out.

I personally think you've made a good decision starting out without any oxps; it's easy to install some oxps which will make it much harder to survive long enough to get an 'iron-ass', but I'm sure there are others who wouldn't play Oolite without a whole bunch of oxps installed!

And once you start to gain confidence, there will be all sorts of new dynamics you'll be able to introduce through the oxps. Do have a look at the wiki, you'll find it a mine of useful information.

If you want to get combat experience, then any anarchic or feudal system should provide you with suitable antagonists, but be prepared to run unless you're ready for serious fighting! The higher tech (12+) planets allow you to upgrade your shielding system substantially, and that will be crucial to your survival.

Anyways, have fun, Oolite can easily become a way of life!! ...we live for the "Right On, Commander!"

Hello Commander! Let me add my welcomes to those of Star Gazer. As regards combat, don't worry about it too much. A beam laser is enough to rack up more than a few kills, so there's no need to rush off and splurge on a military model just yet. It just sounds as if the pirates you've engaged to date have been slightly better equipped than normal, i.e. possessing fuel injectors of their own which they are using to flee the scene when things get too hot (I hate that). Kraits, Asps and Fer-de-Lances, mostly, I'm guessing? Keep your beam laser for a bit and you'll soon get a chance to plug a pirate Cobra Mk 1, or a Moray, or a Python. The military laser has the advantage of sheer power and a longer range, but it heats up incredibly fast and unless you're careful you can find yourself in the middle of a fight, unable to shoot back because your weapon has overheated (in fact, this will happen even if you are careful: this is when you need to start switching your speed about, rolling and pitching and spiralling around until it's operational again). A military laser is definitely worth having, but it's not a necessity.

An Extra Energy Unit, and any other shielding reinforcement you can afford, is always worthwhile, though. The EEU boosts your shield recharge rate and helps cover you if you're having to zap off repeated bursts of ECM if someone is sufficiently rude to fire a hardened missile in your direction!

Hi, Commander, and welcome - I'm a noobie here as well (about a week), but have been playing the game since it's Elite days. Just goes to show how good a game it is that will keep you interested for a long time.

I haven't seen Right On, Commander yet

Welcome Commander Donna! Yes indeed, Stargazer's tips I support whole-heartedly. My advice is regarding in which direction you intend to take your career. If you intend sticking with trading, then I suggest getting hold of a more capacious trader ship, like a Python or a Boa. 35TC is hardly going to shoot you to the top of the 'Ooniverse's Top Ten Millionaires' list. If you can't afford a new trader, you can't go far wrong installing the M-pack rusty ships OXP from the wiki which adds all the native ships in an older, more 'lived in' style. And they're cheaper too. Once you've got the creds, you could consider upgrading to a Boa Class Cruiser or even the Python Class Cruister (oxp).

If you intend to stick with the Cobra Mk. III, a wise move is completing your Iron Ass and moving on to bounty-hunting. Strap on some headhead missiles and get into the Anarchies and Feudals!!

Or you could just buy a cute and fluffy Trumble from me. Only Cr30

Captain Hesperus

Another oft-mentioned "trick" for racking up trade runs quickly is to avoid the primary transit corridor for ships in-system. Almost all insystem traffic flows between the witchpoint beacon (where you emerge from hyperspace) and the planet's primary space station. If you fly insystem direct from the witchpoint to the station, you're bound to run into lots of traffic, which will constantly masslock your jumpdrive, forcing you to burn fuel using injectors or wait long minutes while the traffic slowly creeps out of range.

To avoid the main traffic corridor, line your ship up with the planet immediately after you emerge from hyperspace. Then, using your compass, align your ship such that the planet position indicator is at the outer edge of the compass (but still a solid green indicating you are still going towards it). If you do this right - with the planet indicator solid green at the very bottom of the compass - you'll be pointing perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. Engage your jumpdrive and fly in this attitude for about 10-12 seconds, then pitch down (or up) so you're flying directly towards the planet. If you have the Advanced Space Compass accessory, switch it to show the nav beacon (green triangle with "N" next to it, use the "\" key to cycle it) and line your ship up so you're pointing straight at the nav beacon. Odds are that you will encounter little or no traffic on your way insystem until you get close to the space station. This is a big time- and fuel-saver when doing lots of trading milk-runs.

I believe that there's a tutorial - complete with screenshots - that demonstrates this technique available off the OOlite website homepage.

Have fun playing OOlite - I certainly am!

Welcome to the boards.

As others have said, you may want to keep trading for a while and if you now have a reasonably speced ship installing some OXPs will spice things up. The Station and Feature OXPs (Torus, Commies, Dictators, Custom Paint Jobs etc) can be installed without making the game any harder. There are a lot of missions to do if you install the mission OXPs, but most of these will only trigger when you have enough kills and / or are in a particular galaxy. The Galaxy 1 missions are pretty easy (Asteroid Storm, Long Way Around, Black Baron etc), so you might want to install these now. A bit of piracy and bounty hunting will boost your profits and your elite rating. You might want to trade between an anarachy / corperate state, but with a half full cargo bay. Fill the rest with goods you *ahem* find on the way to the planet. Picking off the traders in the Corperate State and shooting down the pirates in the anarchy will boost you income and your kills. Powers will contact you when you have a respectable elite rating with missions...

To add my 10c worth:

Mount a rear laser. Then when you're up against an aggressive ship, turn and run. Get him in your rear sights and start lasering him. Once you've hurt him a lot he'll release a missile and turn away.

Now it's your turn to be aggressive - with a nice cool front laser.

Hey everyone, thanks for all the great advice

I've seen my first taste of real combat, and now I have a whopping 3 kills to my name... still harmless of course, but getting wiser. I bought it once when a pirate rammed me... I was wondering, if you see a pirate's escape pod what options do you have? I tried at first to pick it up, but that didn't work - I don't have the passenger berth so maybe that's why. So, seeing as how he lasered me first, I shot his escape pod down

I've installed a few of the oxp's - galaxy one missions, rusty ships, a different sound set, some of the different space stations.

My ship is looking pretty tasty with extras and I'm off to hang around a different part of galaxy one and see what's going on.

You can scoop escape pods (as long as you have fuel scoops - don't need a passenge birth). When the pod first leaves the ship, it may be spinning and traveling quite fast. But give it a moment to right itself with its thusters and it'll start heading for the main station fairly slowly. Can be scooped just as you'd scoop a cargo container. If the guy is insured or has a GalCop bounty, then when you dock at the station you will be paid a reward for capturing him or reascuing him. If he is not insured then you can sell him as a slave on the F8 screen.

EDIT: Oh and remeber to destroy the abandoned ship where the pod launched. You get a bounty for destroying the marked ship. If you take the criminal alive in his pod as well, you get another bounty for handing him in to the authorities at the GalCop station as well.

If you laser up an innocent tarder and scoop his pod, if the trader has insurance, you'll be paid a hansome ransom for not selling him into slavery. If he has no insurance, then he'll appear on your cargo manifist as 1t of Salves. If he was silly enough to not pay his Insurance payments, sell him as a slave on the F8 screen and pick up a few credits.

Bounties for handing peeps in requires Oolite 1.65 or higher.

And perhaps this is stating the obvious, but you need some room in the cargo bay in order to pick up an escape capsule, or anything else.

If I see an escape pod leaving a ship and have a cargo bay full of mediocre cargo, I'll jettison one of the containers to make room for the pod. Often the bounty/reward will make up for the loss.

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

Yeah, the old days, when we all started making discoveries in the Elite-Universe (and now in the Ooniverse, of course...).

Haven't really much to add except my welcome and emphasizing what already has been said. A lot of questions you will have, have been answered many times here, so in general it's a good idea to perform a quick search first (there is a 'Search'-button in the options on top of each page). Many times you will find the answer to your problem. And I'm sure you have read the Oolite FAQ - New Forum Members Please Read......-Sticky, the very first entry in this forum? It will lead you to the Oolite-Wiki (which is part of the Elite-Wiki), an invaluable source of information and trivia about the Ooniverse and every aspect of this game.

Apart from this I just have to add: Enjoy your game, Commander!