Oolite Bulletins

This OXP supercedes and obsoletes the earlier releases, and uses new features introduced in Oolite 1.72. Therefore it may not work correctly in earlier versions of Oolite.

All three ships use MilHUD by default, included in this zip archive. .OBJ model files and auv textures are included, in case you'd like to make a customized Dragon ship for yourself.

Two of the ships sport the new player-ship turrets. The turrets automatically track and open fire at hostile craft within their range and firing arc, with no intervention on the player's part; the player need not worry too much about his turrets.
The player's turrets are nonfrangible, while the NPC's turrets can be shot off with a bit of substained fire. The turret's firepower is slightly less than a military laser per shot; this has proven enough in testing to force hostiles to back off or eject, and persistant hostiles, with enough pummeling from the turrets, will eventually be destroyed.

UPDATE: Performance figures tweaked. NPC turrets made harder to snipe off. Equipment carried by NPCs tweaked reflecting their roles and abilities.
Appearances of the three models tweaked; the different groups prefer different models. Texture sizes reduced.

There's three Dragon variants in this OXP:

Dragon AN - The Classic
This is a nod to the origional Dragon, with changes to the specs to make it more usable to cargo jockeys.
The Dragon AN is a superb upgrade from the Cobra mk 3.

- Speed: 370
- Thrust: 30
- Pitch: 1.0
- Yaw: 1.0
- Roll: 2.0
- Cargo: 20 (upgradable to 35)
- Energy Banks: 4
- Recharge: 6
- Ordinance: 8
- Witchspace countdown: 10 sec
- Gun Mounts:
Fore (Military Laser fitted as standard)
Aft (Empty. Military Laser highly recommended for this mount)
- Equipment Extras:
Cargo bay extension
ECM
Escape pod
Fuel Injectors
Fuel Scoop (fitted as standard)
Energy bomb
Energy unit
Docking computer
Scanner Targeting Enhancement
Multible Targeting systems
Galactic Wichspace Drive
Adv. Compass
Shield boosters
Military shields
Heat shields
NPCs: Traders, hunters, pirates
Combateer's note: Most owners kit the AN as a fighting trader, with fore and aft mil lasers and a full missile loadout, an energy unit, and sometimes a q-bomb. Otherwise expect the same as fighting a Cobra mk 3.
Traders prefer the AN, but it's sometimes seen as a pirate, and rarely as a hunter.

Dragon SE - The Tailgater Hater
This variant replaces the aft gun mount with a powerful aft plasma turret, and upgrades the engines, but loses the cargo bay upgrade in the bargian. It's exellent as a blockade runner and/or sensetive cargo courier.

- Speed: 375
- Thrust: 35
- Pitch: 1.2
- Yaw: 1.2
- Roll: 2.2
- Cargo: 20
- Energy Banks: 4
- Recharge: 6.5
- Ordinance: 8
- Witchspace countdown: 10 sec
- Gun Mounts:
Fore (Military Laser fitted as standard)
Aft Plasma Turret
- Equipment Extras:
ECM
Escape pod
Fuel Injectors
Fuel Scoop (fitted as standard)
Energy bomb
Energy unit
Docking computer
Scanner Targeting Enhancement
Multible Targeting systems
Galactic Wichspace Drive
Adv. Compass
Shield boosters
Military shields
Heat shields
NPCs: Traders, hunters, pirates, escorts
Combateer's note: The Dragon SE is often kitted to enhance it's one great tactical advantage - speed. Expect it to be used as an injector-burning interceptor or fast hit and run ship, with a high chance of dropping a q-bomb.
Pirates prefer the SE for it's speed. It's sometimes flown by hunters and traders, and the occasional freelance escort.

Dragon M - The Centurion
As the designation suggests, this variant is favored by bounty hunters, assassins, and gun-for-hire mercs, and both feared and envied by pirates. A throughbred brawler, the Dragon M loads up to 12 missiles and sports three turrets, but downsizes cargo capacity, and due to it's heavy inertia, loses some manuverability as a tradeoff. It's turrets more than make up for it's lack of agility in a turning fight, and it's tame turn rate makes it an exellent sniping platform.

- Speed: 370
- Thrust: 28
- Pitch: 0.9
- Yaw: 0.9
- Roll: 1.9
- Cargo: 15
- Energy Banks: 4


- Recharge: 6.5
- Ordinance: 12
- Witchspace countdown: 10 sec
- Gun Mounts:
Fore (Military Laser fitted as standard)
Aft Plasma Turret
Top Plasma Turret
Bottom Plasma Turret
- Equipment Extras:
ECM
Escape pod
Fuel Injectors
Fuel Scoop (fitted as standard)
Energy bomb
Energy unit
Docking computer
Scanner Targeting Enhancement
Multible Targeting systems
Galactic Wichspace Drive
Adv. Compass
Shield boosters
Military shields
Heat shields
NPCs: Hunters, pirates, escorts
Combateer's note: Anyone who can afford to buy and fly this bruiser is going to kit it out to absorb as much punishment as it can dish out. Expect a full missile load, military shielding and an energy unit at the very least. Also expect the pilot to have better than average gunnery skills.
As can be expected, the M model is flown by hunters and escort pilots almost exclusively, while being shunned by traders. Due to the security systems installed on this gunship, it's rarely seen in pirate hands.

Download

I love the smell of burning pirates in the morning.

Creative

Love the player turrets ...



L

Looks like a good killer ship!

pagroove wrote:

Looks like a good killer ship!

I'm flying a Dragon M as my personal ride, and within certain caveats "a good killer" is hitting the nail on the head.

Since player turrets are a totally new feature and outside the experience of most Oolite pilots so far, what follows is a simple strategy guide based on what I've learned while playtesting and tweaking these ships.

Firstly, plasma turrets are short ranged and have a slow rate of fire. Their range and rof is hardly better than a pulse laser. But they track targets well and can throw a lot of blast behind each shot. Also, they don't seem to heat up or run out of energy.

We know NPCs can use plasma turrets offensively, right? If you've watched a Navy cruiser in combat or got punked by a renegade pirate, you'll know what I mean.

However, player turrets are all completely automatic, and only operate defensively. In my observations, when you're attacked, the turrets go into action, training on the nearest hostile within their range and firing arc, and pummeling him into submission. They seem quite content to let a target go as soon as he ejects or flees out of range, and only bash him to bits if he persists in being a threat. Like a riot cop with a beanbag gun, eh? And a con: For some reason, player turrets don't see missiles as a threat and refuse to fire at incoming missiles, so you'll still need countermeasures and other missile evasion tricks.

On the good side, turrets can help defeat the old pirate tricks of hanging on your six, and buzzing you repeatedly on injectors. Speaking of injectors, if you decide to run for it, an aft mounted turret can get in some parting shots, and assist in shaking off tailgaters who attempt to pursue.

So, can you use turrets offensively, in case your primary offensive weapon overheats, and you're out of missiles? In a roundabout way, yes.
Know where your turret(s) are mounted, and try to keep your target within the range and firing arc of your turret(s). By the time the turrets are done beating the daylights out of him, your laser should've cooled enough to deliver the finishing blow.
My Dragon's top and bottom turrets have given a hard time to duck & weave dogfighters as well.

And for enemy ships that have turrets of their own? Easy enough: Stay out of range of their turrets and burn them with a military laser, or shove a hardhead up their exhaust manifold.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

We know NPCs can use plasma turrets offensively, right? If you've watched a Navy cruiser in combat or got punked by a renegade pirate, you'll know what I mean.

However, player turrets are all completely automatic, and only operate defensively. In my observations, when you're attacked, the turrets go into action, training on the nearest hostile within their range and firing arc, and pummeling him into submission. They seem quite content to let a target go as soon as he ejects or flees out of range, and only bash him to bits if he persists in being a threat. Like a riot cop with a beanbag gun, eh? And a con: For some reason, player turrets don't see missiles as a threat and refuse to fire at incoming missiles, so you'll still need countermeasures and other missile evasion tricks.

Turrets are also offensive weapons. They don't target the nearest hostile, they target the player's selected target, if and only if this target exhibits offensive behaviour and is within turret firing range. You can use them as an assault weapon by selecting a target and firing on it. The target will immediately turn hostile to respond and at that point the turret starts firing. If you target an incoming missile, the turrets will try to kill it as well.

another_commander wrote:

If you target an incoming missile, the turrets will try to kill it as well.

Only that in most cases it isn't so easy to target a spinning incoming missile... (At least for myself hitting the ECM is much more reliable and effective.)

Commander McLane wrote:

(At least for myself hitting the ECM is much more reliable and effective.)

Or you can cloak when the damn thing's ECM-resistant...

another_commander wrote:

Turrets are also offensive weapons. They don't target the nearest hostile, they target the player's selected target, if and only if this target exhibits offensive behaviour and is within turret firing range. You can use them as an assault weapon by selecting a target and firing on it. The target will immediately turn hostile to respond and at that point the turret starts firing. If you target an incoming missile, the turrets will try to kill it as well.

I had noticed that. I've also noticed that the turrets are happy to look for other targets as soon as their current target bails, disengages, or passes out of their firing arc.

Turrets may try to shoot missiles down, but hitting a missile is another matter entirely. I hadn't really noticed the turrets trying to nail incoming missiles; I'm too busy running through the checklist of countermeasures, ie slapping the ecm, running away, hitting the cloak, hoping the AMS shoots it down, ect.

I'm not going to rely on the turret to nail the missile before it nails me.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

I've also noticed that the turrets are happy to look for other targets as soon as their current target bails, disengages, or passes out of their firing arc.

Just to clarify: Thet turrets will not fire if there is no target selected, even if you are in the middle of a wolfpack with military lasers digging your hull. No target -> no party.

@A_C :
Out of curiosity, what AI do the player turrets run on?
I set the AI's for the Dragon's turrets to nullAI.plist, the default setting for turrets on NPCs. Logically, they shouldn't work at all on player ships with nullAI, and player ships don't use AIs anyway. (except for the docking computer)
Nonetheless the turrets work.

And a related Q, is it possible to write up custom AI plists for player turrets?

The AI of the turrets for the player is hard coded and is the very same one used for NPCs. Player ship turrets have always been capable of tracking targets, but were never firing. The reason for that was that they did not recognize the enemy as a hostile target. Very small tweaks at key points in the code made it possible for the turrets to recognize enemies with hostile behaviour. To do so, said enemies must be targteted first. That's all about their AI, really. For those interested, hostile behaviour is defined in the code as any behaviour with values between 100 and 120 as found in OOTypes.h, i.e.: As for the related Q, I am not sure, really. I have never tried it, but I don't think it will work.

I made a few small fixes to the performance stats & NPC kitups. See first post above.

bump

Appearances of the MPCs tweaked, further slight tweaks to NPC kitup, and textures reduxed.

I'm sticking a fork in it and calling it done... At least till Oolite 1.73.

Ooo do you mind if I eyeball your code? I might slap one of those fine new items on my Caducious.