Oolite Bulletins

I know that many here have already chalked-up their 6400 kills, but what is considered the next 'milestone'? What is the next quantity of liquidations that other members consider worthy of acknowledgement?

i always thought trying to get to Raxala (or something like that) as mentioned in the Dark Wheel Novel, but alas that planet doesn't actual exist in the game.

JohnnyBoy wrote:

I know that many here have already chalked-up their 6400 kills, but what is considered the next 'milestone'? What is the next quantity of liquidations that other members consider worthy of acknowledgement?

That's it, JohnnyBoy, when you reach 'Elite' your ship is boarded by members of the Federation of Elite Pilots who present you with your gold-plated platinum Elite badge then whisk you away to Raxxla for gargleblasters and wild partying.

Or so I've been told......

Captain Hesperus

Ah, so none of the other commanders consider 10,000 or 12,800 as next goal? They think it's just a case of "once you've got 6400, you stop counting..."

Okay. Just wondered.

Maybe after 7000ish, it should just say “lots”.

I wonder how many people have ever got to elite. Clearly some have, but it is a huge effort and I cant imagine there are that many. Except perhaps by using game "features" like the famous q-bombing of that graveyard

JohnnyBoy wrote:

Ah, so none of the other commanders consider 10,000 or 12,800 as next goal? They think it's just a case of "once you've got 6400, you stop counting..."

Okay. Just wondered.

The next objetive is to get the field storing the count to overflow.

Does anyone know what the original elite did when the kills overflowed? I know a few games that should have used unsigned numbers as counters go negative when they overflow

Cmdr James wrote:

JohnnyBoy wrote:

Ah, so none of the other commanders consider 10,000 or 12,800 as next goal? They think it's just a case of "once you've got 6400, you stop counting..."

Okay. Just wondered.

The next objetive is to get the field storing the count to overflow.

Does anyone know what the original elite did when the kills overflowed? I know a few games that should have used unsigned numbers as counters go negative when they overflow

it just became 0, as this was machine code. you could´nt or cant "overflow" two addresses that is just used for storage, the formula for this is as follows

a byte in memory can maximum hold the value of 255 (256 values, because of 0)

so the formula was if they respected the order of addresses which are

(adress 2*256)+adress 1

so once address2 was 255 or hex #FF the next time you incremented, it would become 0 or hex #00

so while not having any proof to back this up, i would argue the maximum value you could have as a kill score would be 65535 256*256-1

-1 because of zero

if they used a third byte, the maximum score would become (65536*255)+(256*255)+adress 1

255 because of zero

which Equals 16,777,215.

and in all respects, i think they used 2 bytes, and 3 bytes maximum...

Cmdr James wrote:

JohnnyBoy wrote:

Ah, so none of the other commanders consider 10,000 or 12,800 as next goal? They think it's just a case of "once you've got 6400, you stop counting..."

Okay. Just wondered.

The next objetive is to get the field storing the count to overflow.

Does anyone know what the original elite did when the kills overflowed? I know a few games that should have used unsigned numbers as counters go negative when they overflow

I played it on the Atari and never managed to finish the Thargoid mission. I had to fight against thousands of them and always lost my life. I did not know that you had to type some secret key. Therefore I analyized the save file and change a byte. I then continued without the promised ECM jammer and finally reached Elite status. I left the station and the next time I docked my status was "Fuel":)

I suppose when you reach 100,000 kills the rating should change to 'Finger of Giles' or if you achieved it with lots of E- or Q-bombs, 'God of Genocide'.

Captain Hesperus

Ebi wrote:

I left the station and the next time I docked my status was "Fuel":)

Aarrgh! I remember that... My brother was playing Elite back in those days and he rolled it over and became status Fuel. He showed me, as I didn't believe it. I thought he was pulling my leg. But you did become status Fuel. We figured it was some kind of bug.

Jar wrote:

My brother was playing Elite back in those days and he rolled it over and became status Fuel.

assuming it was a signed integer of two bytes that must mean 15 bits were set. About a score of 32767 hits or 5.04 times the elite status. impressive.

In one of the Elite ports, I think it was Elite Plus, the rank of Archangel came after Elite.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

In one of the Elite ports, I think it was Elite Plus, the rank of Archangel came after Elite.

Do you remember how many kills you needed to become "Archangel"?

My memory is plenty fuzzy on it, but Elite Plus had a mission not seen in other ports. If I recall it right, the Thargoids had taken over a station in a remote corner, and it was up to you to do a little exterminating.
You had to blow up the station, and battle your way through a bunch of Tharg warships to do it, more Thargs than you ever had to deal with before. It might have been the 'big push' Agent Blake alluded to in the secret plans mission.
If you managed to survive, you achieved the rank of Archangel.