Oolite Bulletins

hi all!!!!

ive been playing for a bit now and have managed to get to being 'average' - but i keep running into a problem sometimes in fights - sometimes im in the middle of fighting pirates andmy ship just explodes for no reason.

i dont think its a missile as there was no warning and most of the time i have lots of energy/shields etc. On one occasion the screen went completely purple and then it was 'press space commander'

this has happened 4 times now and its getting a bit tiresome - is this a bug or am i missing something? im having to make sure I save the game every time i get to a station.

From what I can understand you have been a victim of a mine

You got hit by the effect field of a Quirium Cascade Mine, or Q-bomb in spacer parlance. Tough breaks, Commander.

Captain Hesperus

Watch out for flashing red-and-yellow blips on the scanner. You see one of those, hit the injectors and get out, out, out!

And don't forget to sign the petition:

Rebecca wrote:

I dont think its a missile as there was no warning and most of the time i have lots of energy/shields etc. On one occasion the screen went completely purple and then it was 'press space commander'

Sounds like a quirium mine, as the others already wrote. Sometimes to be seen from greated distance, they are spherical and rapidly expanding. Every ship that's reached by the bubble is causing another such explosion (that's why it's called cascade). Used against a fleet, that creates nice looking fireworks

Targets from Random Hits have quite a high chance to use these. However, they are so friendly as to say "Let there be light" and similar things. When you see such an explosion to begin, be sure to run away like hell...if you've got injectors and some fuel left, use it, otherwise you are dead if you initially were too close to the blast.

They can also be seen on scanner. Quite helpful if you are trying to run, as you then can ensure that the blast is behind you and how far behind you. If they are outside scanner range, you are safe anyway - unless the cascading feature manages to blow up enough ships to come close to you.

I've once been killed by such a weapon while aboard of a space bar. The Thargoids did attack with such a weapon and they blew up the entire bar. That lead to a force-launch of my commander - right into the sphere. Kaboom...

Screet

Screet wrote:

I've once been killed by such a weapon while aboard of a space bar. The Thargoids did attack with such a weapon and they blew up the entire bar. That lead to a force-launch of my commander - right into the sphere. Kaboom...

We boom all your bases poet

thanks guys! these q-bombs werent in the original elite were they? i do remember some flashing dots on the scanner so you must be right...

are they just lethal on impact then no matter what ship you have? nasty weapon!!!!

Rebecca wrote:

thanks guys! these q-bombs werent in the original elite were they? i do remember some flashing dots on the scanner so you must be right...

are they just lethal on impact then no matter what ship you have? nasty weapon!!!!

Yes, regardless which ship you fly...

They were not in C64 or Atari ST Elite, but they do make nice fireworks against Thargoid fleets

You should read the novel Status Quo! It's about the development of these weapons!

Screet

Screet wrote:

They were not in C64 or Atari ST Elite, but they do make nice fireworks against Thargoid fleets

And the Tionisla Orbital Grave Yard certainly makes a pretty pattern....

Captain Hesperus

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Screet wrote:

They were not in C64 or Atari ST Elite, but they do make nice fireworks against Thargoid fleets

And the Tionisla Orbital Grave Yard certainly makes a pretty pattern....

Captain Hesperus

is that one of these OXPs I've been reading about? havent tried them yet! one thing at a time!!!

can i buy a q-bomb myself or is it only enenmy ships that have them?

and am i right in thinking the wiki probably has most of these answers, but isn't working at the moment? when i click on the link from the oolite homepage it just sits there for a while and gives up?

The wiki seems to be down at the moment, but yes, most of the answers to these and many other questions can be found there!

You can buy Q-bombs too, if you've got enough money (2500Cr), are in a station with a high enough tech level (TL6+), have an empty missile pylon to fit one on, and have a reckless and/or whimsical attitude to death. Don't use one if you don't have Witchspace fuel injectors fitted, though – you'll probably not be able to outrun your own mine ...

Disembodied wrote:

Don't use one if you don't have Witchspace fuel injectors fitted, though – you'll probably not be able to outrun your own mine ...

...and don't use them if you fly a Jabberwocky! They throw the q-bombs right out of the front screen of the ship, thus the ship instantly crashes into the q-bomb it just did release!

With an oxp, there are also (even more expensive) quirium cascade missiles. They are somewhat slow, but used properly much more effective than the bomb variant as they travel away from the launching player

Screet

Captain Hesperus wrote:

You got hit by the effect field of a Quirium Cascade Mine, or Q-bomb in spacer parlance. Tough breaks, Commander.

Captain Hesperus

supercobras also drop them when they're in trouble. the other day i was chasing one and suddenly he hit the afterburners and ran. I also hit the burners and followed him, and a few seconds later i saw a q-bomb go off behind me. if i hadn't hit the burners, that would have been that.

You do get a little warning when a Q-bomb is launched. The bomb will appear on the IFF scanner as a red/yellow flashing flag for 5 seconds before detonating. If you see the flag, run away at a right angle from the ships on the scanner. This will reduce the chances of being caught in the cascade, but it is better to have injectors.

I seems to me that when launched, the bomb will well out of range of your ship when it detonates. It's the chain-reaction that kills you. Have other players noticed how NPC's only seem to use them as a dead-man-bomb. <mutters under breath>Bastards.

dead man bomb? as in "you're a dead man if you don't use it"?