Oolite Bulletins

Hey - i have recently started playing oolite - so much fun - its been about 22 years i reckon. I'm still tooling about in the 2nd galaxy. So i have installed a bunch of oxp's and have some questions if anyone has a moment...

- I have installed the fueltank oxp but never seem to see it for sale anywhere i thought it had a low tech level
- i have installed the nuke missle oxp but never see it anywhere
- i can't seem to set off my energy bomb - have tried changing keys but nothing seems to work
- do i honestly have to keep doing milions of cargo runs to get enough cash to buy a new ship? it seems excessive - what are some fast cash making tactics - i'm currently forced to deal drugs
- anyone else dying to see some culture of the Iain M Banks kind making its way into an oxp?

cheers and salutations for any answers!!

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

First to your questions:

- I have installed the fueltank oxp but never seem to see it for sale anywhere i thought it had a low tech level
- i have installed the nuke missle oxp but never see it anywhere

Both require a free missile slot on your ship, the nuke missile obviously, but also the extra fuel tank is mounted on a missile mount. If you have already four of four missiles installed, you won't get any other missile stuff offered, because you can't carry it anyway. Fortunately there is the option as well to sell your missiles first (for a small price). Once you do that, you will get offered all kinds of things for your missile mounts.

- i can't seem to set off my energy bomb - have tried changing keys but nothing seems to work

Would be helpful to know which system you're on and which version of Oolite you are running. There is a bug in Mac-versions pre 1.69, which places the trigger for the energy bomb on the "9"-key instead of TAB. And of course you have to have an energy bomb first.

- do i honestly have to keep doing milions of cargo runs to get enough cash to buy a new ship? it seems excessive - what are some fast cash making tactics - i'm currently forced to deal drugs

Forced to deal drugs? Why do all of you bad guys make up excuses all the time?!? - "No, Your Honour, I honestly did not want to let the sun go nova and destroy all life in this system. I was forced to by my poor upbringing."

But seriously: Indeed: Selling commodities is the key to making money. The stress is on selling. I am not implying that you have to buy them first. It tends to reduce your profit. I am sure, if you think hard enough, you will come up with some..., errm..., alternative ways to obtain the commodities you are going to sell. Just use your imagination!

Apart from that you can of course do some bounty-hunting. There are people who make their living from that. Of course, as a prerogative, you need some decent weaponry for that (although, the same applies to the aforementioned option ).

- anyone else dying to see some culture of the Iain M Banks kind making its way into an oxp?

Don't know that guy, so I skip the question.

*****

Generally, you're welcome to ask more of your questions here! Most of the time you will find some guy(s) willing to answer.

Alternatively (or on top of that) I suggest you visit the Oolite-section of the Elite-Wiki. There's the Instruction Manual, a FAQ-section that should already answer many of your questions, everything you wanted to know about OXPs, and tons of other stuff.

So have fun! And of course:

Right On, Commander!

Hello, autoclave, and welcome to the Friendliest Board This Side Of Riedquat!

Sorry, but:
-milk runs are a reliable source of cash and drugs make good money, but either way you'll have to earn a lot, over a long time before you can have your fully kitted-out dream ship... and ELITEness will still be a loooong stretch away. So are the ways of the Ooniverse...
-Try C&Ping other OXPs to make a Frankenstein, asking for specialist help on the board, then finally admitting defeat and letting it slip into the unfinished projects bin - that's what I did with my ideas...

Hi Autoclave, and welcome to the Boards (it's a two-drink minimum, by the way...). To answer (some of) your questions: the Fuel Tank and the Nuclear Missile both fit into your missile slots. If you're currently carrying a full component of missiles then you won't be offered any fuel tanks or nukes for sale. If you want a fuel tank and/or a nuke, first of all you'll need to sell all your pylon-mounted weapons. Then you can buy a fuel tank and a nuke and top it off again with a couple of ordinary misiles (hardheads -- ECM hardened missiles -- for preference). To use the fuel tank, you have to select it as the active missile/bomb (the Y key I think cycles between your current missiles: it does for me anyway but I can't remember if this is the default), arm it and then "fire" it.

Not sure about the Energy Bomb problem... I don't mean to be rude but have you bought one? (Confusingly, the Energy Bomb does NOT show up as a bomb on your missile rack...)

Hard graft is the only true path to wealth and success... sweat, toil, labour, and so on and so forth... it's supposed to be morally beneficial too, although I've always wondered why, if hard work is so great, the rich don't keep more of it to themselves... but I digress.

Some general trade tips: the main station doesn't always offer the best prices. You can find some good deals, both for selling and buying, in other dockable locations, e.g. Rock Hermits, Convenience Stores (available through the Your Ad Here OXP), Imperial AstroFactories (Dictatorships OXP) etc. Gold, Platinum and Gemstones are always good to trade in, since you can carry them in your cockpit safe and don't take up any space in your cargo hold. The ultimate profit you'll make is maybe only between 5-10 Cr per kilo or gram on average but over time it adds up!

The F8/F8 contracts screen has some juicier deals (ignore passenger transport, though -- it ain't worth it!). If you can get hold of a ship with a big cargo space, you can rack up the credits pretty quickly on Rich Industrial - Poor Agricultural milk runs. Mind you, a bigger ship is a slower ship, generally, and is easier for pirates to hit, but every silver lining has a cloud! Pick your trade routes carefully! If you take on a few of the F8/F8 timed delivery runs, and prove your worth as a reliable transporter, the deals do get better, in more ways than one!

Tsk... Commanders Maegil and McLane got there before me...

Re. Iain M Banks, though (Commander McLane, you really need to read these: start with Consider Phlebas or maybe even the novella The State of the Art and work your way up through Use of Weapons, The Player of Games, Excession, etc.) ... I'd love to see some Banks-inspired OXPs, although how they'd fit in with Oolite I don't know! An Orbital would be just too overwhelmingly vast, and the ships would be too terrifyingly powerful. Maybe it would be possible to fit in someone like the Affront, though. There's also an Algebraist-style Disconnect in Galaxy 7, with who-knows-what going on inside...

Disembodied wrote:

Tsk... Commanders Maegil and McLane got there before me...

Yeah, on this board you have to be fast to be the first.

autoclave wrote:

- anyone else dying to see some culture of the Iain M Banks kind making its way into an oxp?

Heresy! Blasphemy!

The only culture we have in this universe is that given to the Master and Commander Giles by the Holy Founders, Bell and Braben. It has since passed down Ahruman, our Supreme Grand Admiral to uphold the spiritual purity our Eight Galaxies.

By adding lots of shiny stuff. And enabling OXP plots and missions.. And new ships... And ... .. .

<flies off to bury the Holy Manual on some forgotten asteroid>

ovvldc wrote:

autoclave wrote:

- anyone else dying to see some culture of the Iain M Banks kind making its way into an oxp?

Heresy! Blasphemy!

The only culture we have in this universe is that given to the Master and Commander Giles by the Holy Founders, Bell and Braben. It has since passed down Ahruman, our Supreme Grand Admiral to uphold the spiritual purity our Eight Galaxies.

By adding lots of shiny stuff. And enabling OXP plots and missions.. And new ships... And ... .. .

<flies off to bury the Holy Manual on some forgotten asteroid>

Preach it, Brother!

BTW, I happen to have a copy of the Holy Manual in storage. It's yours for the measly donation of Cr500, to cover the costs of my vast diocese....

Captain Hesperus

cheers everyone for info and welcomes!

Captain Hesperus wrote:

BTW, I happen to have a copy of the Holy Manual in storage. It's yours for the measly donation of Cr500, to cover the costs of my vast diocese....

And growing by the day, I'll bet

-Oscar