Oolite Bulletins

kinda gland i stublmed on this little relic

I remeber elite back on the Commodore 64 though at the age os about 6-7 I dident have a clue what it was about or how to play.

Then in years to come I had an Amiga 500 & 1200 where I aquired Frontier Elite II..

Frontier Elite II I am holding soley responsable for loseing my social life through middle school. My mate and I spent countless hours playing that. In the summer holidays we would stay at each others houses staying up till dawn playing it. In the end we knew all the best trade routes had a pather clipper loads of credits and a fairly high rateing..

I have recentaly installed the pc version on dosbox..
Good times are so dearly remembered.

Today by looking at the elite realms of the interwebz I discovered Oolite..
I instealled it and gave it a try...
Now I am addicted.
A fan made remake that honors the original games feel..
I cant play the true BBC micro original those old line graphics mess my eyes up bad.

So after a few hours of doing a few runs between Lave - Zaonce I have died a fair few times, Only once to a pirate though. I can normally hold my own even in a Cobra Mk III with a pulse lazer. last bugger I took down launched an escape pod, So i blew up his ship and his little pod.

its a cruel harsh envrioment isint it...

Anyway what kills me most is docking i come in about 1/3 speed and somtimes it looks like i am bang on but what happens is a bang >_<
Anyone have any tips for manual docking?

no fuel sccops yet?

anyway docking.......... usuing a keyboard or a joystick?

keyboard..

go to the beacon and line up as best you can youll have to make ALOT of minor corrections make sure your speed is about halfway in the green or less when the station is filling your entire screen and rotate clock wise with the station and head in its kinda hard with the keyboard

(old school gamer pilot here like my wingcommander joystick) so i havent missed a manual dock yet

get docking computers asap they help alot

Welcome to the Oolite BB, Pappy55! We're the nicest online gaming community this side of the Tianve Pulsar, just as long as you don't start selling Propecia or Viagra (those Spam Assassins are *really* getting itchy trigger fingers....). Put your ship's engines on 'standby', grab a seat, pour yourself an alcoholic beverage and join the party. Don't mind the Commander over there eating deep-fried Trumbles, he's always that surly and the chap with the sword is alright as long as you have a nice thing to say about his sailing ship and how much you hate slavers!

As for docking....I'm probably not the best to ask (I do have a reputation to uphold), but I agree with Wolfspirit that the Nav Beacon 'is your friend'. On a positive note, ships in Oolite can actually stop dead, unlike FE2 and FFE, so if you don't feel happy about your approach slow to full stop and try to line up while stationary. Can't line up? Then do a 180 turn, go out and stop, 180 again and try lining up again while slowly drifting forwards. Once you get the hang of it, you can take docking at speed.

And when you're *really* good, you can dock while injecting!

Captain Hesperus

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Welcome to the Oolite BB, Pappy55!

Yes, welcome. And don't let him scare you.

We're the nicest online gaming community this side of the Tianve Pulsar,

Not that we can play online, but if you read the FAQ you know that already...

just as long as you don't start selling Propecia or Viagra (those Spam Assassins are *really* getting itchy trigger fingers....).

As can be seen here, here and here!

Put your ship's engines on 'standby', grab a seat, pour yourself an alcoholic beverage

That, of course, if you're of legal age or with parental guidance (if underage), or if you're at an anarchic system. Whatever the case, kids shouldn't drink. (and I speak about dinos. Ha!)

and join the party. Don't mind the Commander over there eating deep-fried Trumbles, he's always that surly

He's the dinossaur I was talking about. He, however, has nothing against kids drinking AFAIK...

and the chap with the sword is alright as long as you have a nice thing to say about his sailing ship and how much you hate slavers!

There certainly are good things about my boat, but I'm just about to punch a hole on the hull and sink the blasted thing to the bottom of the bay...
As for slavery, a good slaver is a dead slaver. Not a nice death, either; the last one I shot on the gut and watched him squirm and wail for almost two hours before he quit twitching.

Are you one of them?

As for docking....I'm probably not the best to ask (I do have a reputation to uphold)

Captain Hesperus, docking?! I have to agree, don't ask him.

Hi, Pappy55, and welcome to the boards and of course to this great game!

The other fellows already gave some basic informations. As far as their internal feuds are concerned: Never mind! Usually (usually!!!) they don't bite (at least not anymore if you're already laying on the ground and bleeding to death, that is).

As far as manual docking is concerned: Yes, it's the beacon. Place yourself between beacon and station and line up as exactly as possible. Then go.

And as far as using the keyboard is concerned: I have never used anything else than the keyboard since the days of C64-Elite. It's really just a question of a little bit of training: Don't press the right arrow (or whatever key you are using for rolling) continuously, as that will let you rotate too fast. Just take it on and off and on and off to keep the docking slit horizontal in your view.

And don't be shy with your speed. You can dock on full throttle. This minimizes the risk that the station continues to turn while you are already in the docking bay and don't see it anymore.

Right On, Commander!

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:

Not that we can play online

Just recently, another_commander and I played the first online game of Oolite. I was the dungeon master, he was the victim player. This basically consisted of me summoning ten pirates around him. ;-)

Captain Hesperus

Ahruman wrote:

Just recently, another_commander and I played the first online game of Oolite. I was the dungeon master, he was the victim player. This basically consisted of me summoning ten pirates around him.

Yep, that was some quality fun we had outside Lave station. Battle was a bit on the bad guys' side though, ten pirates appearing out of the blue on Ahruman's command, with me having just a tiny pulse laser? Unfair, gentlemen, unfair!

Hi Pappy55.

You need to get practiced with docking, it's very easy in the Cobra using the help in this thread. The only extra advice I can give is to watch your speed don't go in too fast or too slow, find a comfortable speed that lets you line up the docking port and keep it as horizontal a syou can , and when you are fairly close and the port is horizontal hit the accelerator hard and it will zip you in!

Hi Pappy55 & welcome to the board & as you now know, this very addictive game. Manually docking is a pain in the proverbial but there's a nice expansion pack called M-Pack (Rusties) which allows you to trade in your Cobra MkIII for a second hand ship & you can use the cash you make to buy a Docking Computer and other goodies like Military Lasers!

In fact there's loads of great expansion packs (OXPs) here

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/OXP

They're simple to install too!

Ahruman wrote:

Just recently, another_commander and I played the first online game of Oolite. I was the dungeon master, he was the victim player. This basically consisted of me summoning ten pirates around him.

YAY!!! A dream coming true!

another_commander wrote:

Yep, that was some quality fun we had outside Lave station. Battle was a bit on the bad guys' side though, ten pirates appearing out of the blue on Ahruman's command, with me having just a tiny pulse laser? Unfair, gentlemen, unfair!

It may even be (and who ever said the Ooniverse was a fair place?), but at least you can say you've played online...

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:

Ahruman wrote:

Just recently, another_commander and I played the first online game of Oolite. I was the dungeon master, he was the victim player. This basically consisted of me summoning ten pirates around him. ;-)

YAY!!! A dream coming true!

Just so we’re absolutely clear on this, and I’m not accused of leading anyone on, this is not in any way a step towards multiplayer Oolite in the normal sense. Not even a tiny one. At all.

On Sunday our Prime Minister stated categorically that the Budget would not alter the Tax bands.

On Monday, during the Budget Speech the tax bands were altered - in the taxpayers' favour

Ahruman, do you subscribe to this school of thought?