Oolite Bulletins

I guess this might have been done to death already, but I hide behind my newbie status and rant away.

As I am on the lookout for a new ship to replace the trusty, stylish and canon Mk.III, I was looking for other options, Cobras and Boas and Pythons. It seems there a lot of different versions of the "basic" serpent available. Some of them I can stomach, but, for example, the SuperCobra looks at least on paper as being just so goddamn overkill it's not even funny. Okay, so the price of the beast is awful (which alone, I think, makes the thing unbalanced and not fit for the Ooniverse), but the overall destructive capability of the SuperCobra is the last straw. It is like a teenager's wet power dream come true. It feels like it doesn't belong.

Am I the only one who feels this way? And is the SuperCobra the only one of the overkill OXP school? After some browsing I feel the OXPs of Aegidian are good additions, but some guys have gone a bit too far and crazy with their designs. Nothing wrong there if you like those, but I for one wouldn't feel right using the ultra-powerful breed.

Yes it's totally ridiculous, and far too cheap.

It's a matter of personal taste, really, both in terms of stats (for various extreme-end ships) and appearance. But that's the great advantage of the OXPs: you can choose the mix that suits your personal version of the ooniverse. Personally I choose a blend of Elite and Elite-esque (convex and generally geometric) ships, with nothing too ultra-powerful. I've got some fast ships, and some powerful ships, and some ships with big cargo holds, but nothing that's got all three in the one package. But different snakes for different folks...

Is now a good time to admit that I fly a SuperCobra?

Probably not.....

No shame in it! It also means you have to fight Supercobras...

Disembodied wrote:

No shame in it! It also means you have to fight Supercobras...

Is it just me?... or is NPC supercobra AI a bit crap? They just don't seem to put up much of a fight. Often find a fugitive supercobra just hanging around outside the station... doesn't even fight back whilst I laser him up.

I fly a Supercobra as probably do many others, and if you compare it with the classic elite ships then yes it could be regarded as a bit over the top. However Oolite is very different in that you have the ability to have much stronger defensive and offensive equipment, likewise the npc's, so as technology has improved so has performance. In earthly terms it's a bit like the original Volkswagen beetle vs the new one, and if you consider the current VW/Audi manufactured cars you can go right up to the Bentley Continental.

The two main issues with the sc have been it's wimpy AI as an opponent, and it's price, the latter has been fixed by Lestraedes basic RS, so apart from the AI, IMHO it fits in very well in Oolite which has retained the Elite ethos, but with improved technology has raised the performance of the ships without effecting basic feel of the game.

Commander Mysenses wrote:

Disembodied wrote:

No shame in it! It also means you have to fight Supercobras...

Is it just me?... or is NPC supercobra AI a bit crap? They just don't seem to put up much of a fight. Often find a fugitive supercobra just hanging around outside the station... doesn't even fight back whilst I laser him up.

(Okay, this is the third post in three days that simply hasn't shown up after a Submit. I'm getting paranoid!)

I've seen the same thing with the Fugitive SuperCobra. Even mentioned it in my very first post here on the forums, it was so unusual. Death wish, I guess.

Anyway, I hate you rvlvr! I simply cannot see the world from the perspective of those folks who say "Oh, this is just toooo easy!" One of my commanders finally hauled enough gold and platinum to afford an SC of his own, and he still gets his ass shot off regularly.

[Walks off grumbling, attempting to extinguish his still-smoking tailfeathers.]

(Yeah yeah, I know, 90% of an "iron ass" is the steel fist at the controls, and the iron heart that drives it. No substitute for experience.)

caracal wrote:

Anyway, I hate you rvlvr! I simply cannot see the world from the perspective of those folks who say "Oh, this is just toooo easy!"

I've no experience flying the thing, so no idea how over the top it is in "real life". As of yesterday, I've amassed a grand total of three (3) kills with my Mk.III hauling furs and computers and trying to save credits for a new ship.

Might well be that at some points I'll take the super serpent out for a spin, but now, as a green as peas rookie, I, for some reason, abhor the thing (and look for Pythons and Boas to iron ass and to haul valuables).

TGHC wrote:

The two main issues with the sc have been it's wimpy AI as an opponent, and it's price, the latter has been fixed by Lestraedes basic RS...

Where can I get the basic Realistic Shipyards? The only one I see is the latest version with every ship imaginable crammed in. And there's no way I will suffer an X-Wing in Oolite

Hmmm not sure, I've got RS versions 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.06, and 1.07, along with 3.02 which is the latest.

rvlvr wrote:

TGHC wrote:

The two main issues with the sc have been it's wimpy AI as an opponent, and it's price, the latter has been fixed by Lestraedes basic RS...

Where can I get the basic Realistic Shipyards? The only one I see is the latest version with every ship imaginable crammed in. And there's no way I will suffer an X-Wing in Oolite

As far as I know, the "basic version", that is with the ships separated out, is not out yet but is coming up "soonish", maybe. Lestradae has somebody interested in creating some subset versions of it, each with fewer ships, and I've been interested in creating an installer for RS, which will let you select which ships (or groups of ships) you want to install, individually.

Lestradae is the authoritative source for this info, though, so don't mind me.

Controversy on the uber-ships is a recurring topic here and I've started a couple of them myself. Namely, I think that they make the game too easy by far and destroy the excitement of battles against most ship types (even if battles against other uber-ships still provide it).

To me, using a ship like SC equals to editing the savefile and adding a few dozen kills to yourself every now and then (that's the easy kills that you get from non-uber-ships).

Commander Mysenses wrote:

Disembodied wrote:

No shame in it! It also means you have to fight Supercobras...

Is it just me?... or is NPC supercobra AI a bit crap? They just don't seem to put up much of a fight. Often find a fugitive supercobra just hanging around outside the station... doesn't even fight back whilst I laser him up.

WOOT! Yehaw! I was waiting for someone to say that, all Scobras piloted near a station appear to have fugitive pilots in their 90's with leather driving gloves on. You fly up behind them, they don't react. You lock on missiles, they don't react. You literally "drop" the missile onto their roof rack, ninen spreckenze react. You line up your laser 0.2 of a click away from their exaust, nil rectarum. You cap off your entire front laser, right up their jackze, they react by exploding.

it's hysterical, a blind, deaf, quadraplegic asp pilot, smacking his head on the keyboard randomly could take one of these "bad boys" out. Million monkies in a room with a million keyboards? The space lanes would be littered with supercobra wreckage. Buying a supercobra sir? Certainly sir! We'll just need to replace your brain with this sprout, and your good to go.

Of course in the hands of someone non-computer controlled, these beasts are pretty little hate machines.

Rannnnt over.