Oolite Bulletins

Version 1.02.
- Fixes some bugs.
- Adds XE player ship variant.
- Includes an advanced hardhead, the Military Missile, in a seperate OXP in this download.

Find it here.

I just added the link for this on the Wiki (the previous link was broken and pointed to an upload form).

Is this the latest version, or have I missed an announcement somewhere? (and thanks, the advanced missile sounds like just what the doctor ordered. Nice to have the HUD bundled too)

hircus wrote:

I just added the link for this on the Wiki (the previous link was broken and pointed to an upload form).

Thanks for that. I tried to upload this file to the wiki, but the wiki errored out and told me it was too large. Alas, I'm still trying to figure out how the wiki works.

hircus wrote:

Is this the latest version, or have I missed an announcement somewhere? (and thanks, the advanced missile sounds like just what the doctor ordered. Nice to have the HUD bundled too)

Yes, it's the latest version. Latest version of MilHUD, too.
The Military Missile is new, one I've been playing with and getting perfected for several months; with a workaround found for the missile crash bug in Oolite 1.71.2 and added in here, the missile seems to be working perfectly.
The Dragon XE is new, and meant to be custom painted by the owner. A blank texture is included for that purpose. The XE is a Dragon upgraded slightly in performance, and packing a loadout of 12 missiles as opposed to the normal Dragon's 8 missiles; a Supercobra slayer. Fortunately for you, the XE is player only.

Happy hunting,
-- Wyvern

Speaking of the MilHUD -- how can I use it from a different ship? (haven't seen the Dragon for sale, and anyway, still need my cargo space for now). Is it sold as an equipment or do I need to edit my save file?

Thanks!

hircus wrote:

Speaking of the MilHUD -- how can I use it from a different ship? (haven't seen the Dragon for sale, and anyway, still need my cargo space for now). Is it sold as an equipment or do I need to edit my save file?

Thanks!

You'll need to edit the shipdata file.
I'll assume you're still flying the Cobra 3, so open ::oolite folder::/oolite.app/Resources/Config/shipdata.plist in a text editor, search for the cobra3-player entry, and change the <hud> key there from hud.plist to milhud.plist.
Save the file, and start Oolite with the shift key held down.

Mosquito Trader, actually, but I know where the relevant file is (had to edit it earlier to get external views working). Nice ship, though the laser's aiming is a bit off

I encountered a pirate Dragon ship just now, and .. it was almost a space bar moment. The blue ray fired by the Dragon did not make any sound when it hit my shield!

By the time I could get away, it already ate half my front shield. Ended up wasting a missile on it, since I was fighting multiple ships at the time and could not afford not noticing when I'm hit.

hircus wrote:

The blue ray fired by the Dragon did not make any sound when it hit my shield!

That's interesting, that you had no shield impact sound. Could be you encountered a bug in Oolite itself.
The NPC Dragons are armed with standard Military Lasers on the front mount and a full loadout of missiles; nothing special about the lasers except the bright cyan color. They're dangerous if you wander into their front sights, and they use custom AIs that makes them fairly bold and aggressive.
The pirate Dragons are randomly equipped, but all the NPCs sport plasma cannons on the rear. Plasma guns are fairly weak, so that makes the NPC Dragons safer to attack from the rear.

Another tip: when you encounter pirate Dragons, it's usually with two or three wingmen in smaller ships. That's nothing I did, it's something Oolite does by it's lonesome. Anyhow...Concentrate your fire on the Dragon first, he's your most dangerous opponent. Ignore his wingmen until you kill the Dragon or force him to run.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

Another tip: when you encounter pirate Dragons, it's usually with two or three wingmen in smaller ships. That's nothing I did, it's something Oolite does by it's lonesome. Anyhow...Concentrate your fire on the Dragon first, he's your most dangerous opponent. Ignore his wingmen until you kill the Dragon or force him to run.

I recalled seeing one wingman, but there might have been another that detached itself from the group (or was killed) before I encountered them. It was during a GalNav mission to destroy a pirate base, so the space was rather crowded.

That's curious, though. Some ships appear by themselves from time to time (pirate Fer-de-lances, for example). How does Oolite determine whether to give NPC ships wingmen or not?

Some of the larger native NPC ships, big cruisers like Boas and Anacondas, are deliberately set up in the shipdata to have escorts. Like these lines in the shipdata for the Anaconda:
Yet how Oolite assigns wingmen to NPCs that aren't deliberately set up to have wingmen or escorts, is beyond me. Ahruman probably knows better than I.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

You'll need to edit the shipdata file.
I'll assume you're still flying the Cobra 3, so open ::oolite folder::/oolite.app/Resources/Config/shipdata.plist in a text editor, search for the cobra3-player entry, and change the <hud> key there from hud.plist to milhud.plist.

Better is not to edit Oolite itself. Create a "Config" folder in your "AddOns" folder. When you drop a file with name "hud.plist" in this folder it will become your hud. (When the ship didn't had a special hud before, like the cobra).
In this case drop a copy of the special hud in this folder and rename it "hud.plist"

Or, probably easier, create an copy of the special hud inside the oxp containing the new hud and call this copy hud.plist. This hud will now be used by all ships that use the default hud.

The milmisile is a bit weird, every time I have encountered one, I ECM it (SOP when have incoming missile) and it turns around and attacks its launcher.

I know that this is correct behaviour, but I think perhaps the milmissile should never target its launcher, or alternatively never be carried by anyone with a crim record. It doesnt really make sense for a pirate to carry a missile that is most likely to attack himself.

it's a military conspiracy to reduce pirate numbers.... special hidden chips in the control pod of the missile and all. ^^

The Military Missile has unique smart tracking which lets it retarget on the nearest hostile when ECM'd; a good thing if you keep your nose clean, as it's an expensive warhead to carry. It does have a chance to self-destruct instead, however.

If you're not a pirate, then they're a wise investment, almost a guaranteed kill. But if you're a pirate and your intended victim has an ECM, then they're a guaranteed Darwin Award.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

The Military Missile has unique smart tracking which lets it retarget on the nearest hostile when ECM'd; a good thing if you keep your nose clean, as it's an expensive warhead to carry. It does have a chance to self-destruct instead, however.

If you're not a pirate, then they're a wise investment, almost a guaranteed kill. But if you're a pirate and your intended victim has an ECM, then they're a guaranteed Darwin Award.

Which means you should make sure that NPC-pirates will usually not fire it (because this is what happened to Cmdr James).