Oolite Bulletins

I am a new pilot in Oolite and within an hour of playing the game I noticed flashes on the far horizon (which I now know are explosions). I went in to investigate and saw the flashes were coming from the navigational buoy. As I came in I slowed down to see what was going on. I watched as a Cobra Mk1 came up to the buoy at maximum speed and crashed into it, another one following. I assumed that they had been escort to another ship, possibly a python. Any ideas?! Oh, and a question. No it's not in the FAQ! Can you only learn an attacking (or being attacked ) ships legal status if you have the scanner enhancement?

Thanks if you can answer!

stanley1100 wrote:

I watched as a Cobra Mk1 came up to the buoy at maximum speed and crashed into it, another one following. I assumed that they had been escort to another ship, possibly a python. Any ideas?!

Welcome to the board!

This sounds interesting, would have liked to see it! There is a way to get additional info, maybe you would like to try it if something similar interesting is happening again:

1) Get a lock on the ship of interest
2) hit shift-h

Then the ships status should be written to the oolite log (latest.log) and you can have a look at what the AI was trying to do. Such a report could also help to find out if some bug was happening.

There's one thing I once saw which probably could explain what you did see: Sometimes a ship does not manage to dock properly and explodes - with it's cargo spreading around the area. Stations can launch ships with a "scavenger" AI which makes them attempt to clear up the area by scooping in the goods. On rare occasions I saw cargo pods in areas so difficult to reach (directly at the nav buoy or at the station) which then resulted in a few crashes from ships attempting to reach those, but there's only a limited amount of scavengers and not all appear to be that stupid to fall for such a trap. I tried to set one up myself once - and failed.

As to the question with the legal status: I'm not sure, but I think it's true that you require some enhancement for this, I've been flying fully equipped for too long a time now. However, I can say that you do not need the bounty scanner, as that one is only good to find out how much money you would get for shooting that ship. The legal status is usually written as (Clean) (Offender) or (Fugitive) added to the ship you locked on. You do need a target lock to get that info on a ship, non-targeted ships just won't provide that info by themselves.

Screet

stanley1100 wrote:

Can you only learn an attacking (or being attacked ) ships legal status if you have the scanner enhancement?

Hi Stanley1100, and welcome to the boards! Yes, you need the Scanner Targeting Enhancement to see a target's legal status. Although you can usually take an informed guess, based on behaviour: if you're Clean, then the only ships which should give you a hard time are Offenders and Fugitives. If your legal status has ... er ... fallen below the societal optimum, then things get a bit trickier. You will still be attacked, unprovoked, by other criminal types, but most traders won't fire on you unless provoked. Maybe the twitchier escort ships of a large freighter might decide to get proactive on you, but generally speaking if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone. Bounty hunters, police and Navy ships, though, are liable to go straight for you: the higher your criminal rating, the more likely they are to open fire.

Some ships are almost exclusively flown by pirates: the Black Dog Python, for example. In fact, any Python with a collection of smaller ships in attendance – Mambas, Kraits, Sidewiders etc. – should be viewed with suspicion.

Police, Navy and other official System ships show up as purple on the scanner. Telling the difference between a bounty hunter and a trader, though, is more a matter of judgement. Traders are almost invariably flying inbound from the witchpoint to the main station. Of course, some bounty hunters are, too, but others will be cruising on an outbound patrol. Bounty hunters tend towards the more aggressive ships, too: Asps, FDLs, and so on. There aren't many bounty hunters flying Anacondas, put it that way...

welcome aboard stanley 1100

I watched as a Cobra Mk1 came up to the buoy at maximum speed and crashed into it, another one following. I assumed that they had been escort to another ship, possibly a python. Any ideas?!

Which Oolite are you using. In pre 1.72 versions, the escorts flew straight ahead after launch until they found a mother. They were told to stop as a 2000 meter distance of the buoy when finding no leader ship. But, when not finding a leader they piled up on that spot and ships pushed each other in the direction of the buoy.

Actually this was an advised launching protocol approved by the GRS board. GRS earned good money by it, special when fast escort ships were installed.

Since 1.72 escorts make a 90 degree turn shortly after launch to clear the launch path. When they still fly straight ahead they somehow missed a message to clear the launch path. Should be rare however. I have not yet seen it happen with 1.72 but did have had occasions were the buoy did get destroyed.

Can you only learn an attacking (or being attacked ) ships legal status if you have the scanner enhancement?

Disembodied told already. I can only add that two of the internal ships have a scull painted on their hull. (The black dog python and one of the morays) Those are always pirates. And also one of the smaller ships that never escorts other ships is only flown by pirates. Figure out yourself which ship I mean.

Eric Walch wrote:

Since 1.72 escorts make a 90 degree turn shortly after launch to clear the launch path. When they still fly straight ahead they somehow missed a message to clear the launch path. Should be rare however. I have not yet seen it happen with 1.72 but did have had occasions were the buoy did get destroyed.

Hmmm...I've seen the stacking of ships under one condition with 1.72.2 - it was when I encountered a pirate cove, did fight a little till my cargo hold was full (there were normal pirates around) and docked at the pirate outpost to sell the goods. They did launch a few pirate ships which did stack in the path while I was docked. Once I launched, I had a little target practice with them, they began to move away, but were too slow for my laser

Screet

I think I have vesion 1.65 but am not sure. Another thing is that I seem to be a magnet to Offending Pythons with escorts of Cobra Mk1's! Every pirate who attacks me is in one Another question: I know (yes KNOW not think) this has been asked before but what is the FIRST thing you would recommend to buy? I have a lot of noobish questions!!!

stanley1100 wrote:

I think I have vesion 1.65 but am not sure. Another thing is that I seem to be a magnet to Offending Pythons with escorts of Cobra Mk1's! Every pirate who attacks me is in one

That's funny...with 1.72.2 without RS/OSE I do also encounter a pirate group regularly. It's a stolen battleship with roughly 20 ships around...they usually all turn hostile on me, but when I use the cloak, they stop fighting me, even when I switch the cloak off again...they just split the group and often do not care about being shot down. The group even looks the same all the time on the scanner, the ship spacing is distinctive from any other encounters. Maybe some weird luck with random numbers?

For most oxp's you will need 1.72.2 and that version also appears to be far superior to me...it's not like running a beta test version but the next release, really!

stanley1100 wrote:

Another question: I know (yes KNOW not think) this has been asked before but what is the FIRST thing you would recommend to buy? I have a lot of noobish questions!!!

Hm. Fuel Scoops for 100% profit, paired with a beam laser or better if you are that type of person.

Cargo Bay Expansion allows to make more profit quickly, also very nice and repays easily.

Fuel Injectors in order to be able to flee from combat or race down the lane instead of having to leave it.

If you don't have real big problems, I suggest to wait with the docking computer until you really have that money as spare. It's nice to be able to use shift-d for instant docking, but being able to dock manually is a vital skill that cannot be trained often enough, and it's much quicker than using the docking computer on slow approach, as is required for anything aside from systems stations.

Scanner enhancement...that's very useful if you go for fights, but good lasers and scoops are more important to begin with!

Funny thing is that I only had 4 kills when I had earned enough money to buy almost every upgrade available (including two military lasers)! Therefore, it's most leading to the question wether you want to fight pirates for cargo, bounty and fun or if you prefer to do a few more milk runs for money and even better equipment - that's where the cargo hold and injectors are a must-have!

When upgrading your ship, remember to do it when your cargo hold is filled enough so that you can continue to make money!

Screet

Thanks a lot Screet! I think I'll start with a cargo bay expansion. Also a great big thanks to anyone who is involved in making Oolite as I love the scope of the game and the way things happen without the player there.

Literally just now I was cruising along to Lave then a large group of ships appeared on my scanner and subsequently attacked and killed me. There must have been at least 8 so I only managed to loose of 1 missile and then the inevitible "space moment" happened. I tried to get a screenshot but just got a face full of explosion: on the subject of screenshots, has anyone got any tips on taking them?

stanley1100 wrote:

on the subject of screenshots, has anyone got any tips on taking them?

- Shift + 8 to take a screenshot. Saved inside oolite-saves.
- "p" to pause game, then "o" to switch hud off, then "p" again to continue, if the hud gets in your way. Pause again, then "n" to make the hud reappear.
- Try to choose interesting systems for taking shots in. A screenshot inside a system with some scenery nebulae/stars looks generally better than the same shot taken in empty space.
- Load one of the planet texturing OXPs (System Redux, Famous Planets etc.). Planets look much better with them.

stanley1100 wrote:

I tried to get a screenshot but just got a face full of explosion: on the subject of screenshots, has anyone got any tips on taking them?

If it's something that happens quickly, I try to pause the game before taking a screenshot. Don't manage all the times, and sometimes I just do it in-flight when I know that there's enough time.

Concerning your combat: Even with a fully equipped Caduceus, which has some turrets, this happens to me from time to time, especially when a fighter ship on injectors or some Thargoid ship rams me, but also with lasers destroying too much valuable equipment to continue. Maybe I should use the cloak more often, but I just don't like to play that way, I prefer normal fights and let simple equipment be repaired by cheap navy technicians as soon as I stumble over the next of their bases I guess that's what makes things interesting, that it's no "you are invincible" thing...

Screet

Thanks both of you, I'll try to use those hints. Regarding something Screet said, will I need any OXP's or a newer version to see all the textures ( I only have version 1.65 )

stanley1100 wrote:

will I need any OXP's or a newer version to see all the textures ( I only have version 1.65 )

Yes. Many OXPs require 1.72.2 - and really I don't see much sense in using the old one. IIRC it doesn't even have shaders! another commander did name some nice OXPs for planets.

For the ship optics, I can recommend the works of Griff (GriffBoa, GriffKrait, the new CM3 variant,...). I also cannot imagine playing without neolite oxp anymore as it does change the built-in ships into much better looking models!

The GriffBoa might also be a cheap upgrade from the CM3 if you want to make money as a trader, but it's weak in some combat situations. For the built-in ships, I do like the Boa Class Cruiser the most, it's both good for trading and combat. It helps to fly such a ship for some time to make enough money for the costly ship of your dreams...but that surely all has to wait. Upgrade your CM3 and have fun with that one, it's a really good ship!

Screet

Ok, now another question (sorry!) Will my old commander be transfered over if I get the new version?

Yep. Saved Games work on all versions of Oolite. If you install the new version to a separate directory, though you'll need to copy your saved games and any OXPs installed to the new location.

Thanks a lot! I'm going to get mashed by some pirates, see you guys later!