Oolite Bulletins

Hi. I tried Elite - the New Kind (the discontinued one) some years ago. Played it until I destroyed the Constrictor, but I didn't really bother it with afterwards. Years ago, I enjoyed the Wing Commander series. And the Star Wars sims - X-wing, TF and XWA, they were great [snip 30 pages of nostalgia].

Anyway, I just got Oolite v1.72.2 for Windows. I've been playing it with a number of OXPs now, namely Dictatorships, Commies, Hyperradio, Random hits, UPS Courier, Rock Hermit locator (yeah!), and some smaller features / extra ships. I have some questions / observations / stale data... feel free to comment.

-1. Custom avatar doesn't work, but then again, somebody already reported it...
0. The Oolite BB confirmation mail went right into my Yahoo spam folder! Yahoo! :/
1. Not all OXPs packages contain author names in their documentation, or complete contact info. Just an observation.
2. I'm not sure what caused this, but sometimes leaving space stations / rock hermits, the game crashed (to desktop) without any message. The log sez this several times...

[files.notFound]: GLSL ERROR: failed to find fragment program stingray.fragment.

Stingray? Is this caused by the Stingray ship OXP, or is it some Oolite internal function? I've removed the OXP for now.
3. Thargoids have appeared near the Seedy Bars of Random Hits OXP a couple of times! Heh, heh. This made the battle easier. Funny thing that I apparently got destroyed by a cascade mine (or something) while chasing a lone hoodlum once.
4. Autodock for Seedy Bars doesn't seem to work. Must investigate further. What's kind of unsettling, it feels like you almost have to touch the back wall of the hangar to dock. Manual docking with e.g. coriolis feels safer!
5. Btw, the documentation of Random Hits has version number 1.2, despite the download link reading V1.3.275 Beta.
6. I'm still using the Cobra Mk3. My current moneymaking scheme is that I fly around, doing random hits, and visiting the rock hermits a lot. Looking at the cargo contracts, some of the cargo amounts are high, several hundred tonnes. Is this some OXP at work? (I have Python Class Cruiser & SuperCobra OXPs installed right now.) Can a big ship have multiple cargo hold expansions? What am I missing here? So far I've managed to perform one 30 ton machinery run, 10 days, min. 3 jumps; it's hard to find similiar contracts.
7. If Cobby performs a full circle with pitch in Y amount of time, and full circle with yaw at X amount of time, then how much time does a full circle using both pitch and yaw take? This was one "trick" that worked in X-wing Alliance, even with different "yaw" system, which was compensated by rolling in the opposite direction in relation to the turn, resulting in the turn being faster. So by that logic...
...
In any case, the addition of yaw makes things so much easier.
8. On this very forum, I found an example keyconfig posted, in a very elegant form (I am a windows user), which I copied and congifured. The reason was that with this particular keyboard, ^ is hard to find (the default for adv hyperspace chart). I set Q and E as yaw, so R is ECM, F is target system and so on. Arrow keys are roll/pitch.
9. Did some joker destroy some space station nav buyos?
10. I tried Star Wars ships OXP earlier, but removed it. I did notice that some shuttles got destroyed while trying to dock.

I think that this is a good game.

Welcome to the forum. Glad you're enjoying Oolite.

Welcome to this board Zanasj,

A quick comment on some of your remarks:

- 2. the game crashed (to desktop) without any message. The log sez this several times... [files.notFound]: GLSL ERROR: failed to find fragment program stingray.fragment. Stingray? Is this caused by the Stingray ship OXP, or is it some Oolite internal function? I've removed the OXP for now.

The game should not crash on a buggy oxp. I just downloaded the oxp myself and it does indeed contain a bug. It uses a shader file that is not included in the package itself. This shader file is however contained in a lot of other shaderified oxps like griffs kraits. Installing that oxp simultaneously should solve the problem. At least the file not found error. About the crash I don't know if this is related.

- 4. Autodock for Seedy Bars doesn't seem to work. Must investigate further.

Docking computer should work on all stations. The fast autodock only works at the main station.

- 6. some of the cargo amounts are high, several hundred tonnes. Is this some OXP at work?

No that's normal Oolite. The Anaconda has a hold of 700 ton. For those contracts this ship is a must. (or a similar oxp ship)

- 9. Did some joker destroy some space station nav buyos?

You can hire a repair team. e.g. buoyRepair.oxp. (see my sign)

I think that this is a good game.

I won't argue.

Zanasj wrote:

3. [...] Funny thing that I apparently got destroyed by a cascade mine (or something) while chasing a lone hoodlum once.

Hi Zanasj. These things do happen. Criminal scumbags are untrustworthy!

Zanasj wrote:

6. I'm still using the Cobra Mk3. My current moneymaking scheme is that I fly around, doing random hits, and visiting the rock hermits a lot. Looking at the cargo contracts, some of the cargo amounts are high, several hundred tonnes. Is this some OXP at work? (I have Python Class Cruiser & SuperCobra OXPs installed right now.) Can a big ship have multiple cargo hold expansions? What am I missing here? So far I've managed to perform one 30 ton machinery run, 10 days, min. 3 jumps; it's hard to find similiar contracts.

Like Eric says, the big cargo contracts are normal. If you want to take them on, you'll need a bigger ship. It does get worth it, once you prove your reliability. And you'll start getting better contracts that don't take up quite so much space ...

3. [...] Funny thing that I apparently got destroyed by a cascade mine (or something) while chasing a lone hoodlum once.

that happened to me 4 times ebfore i realised what was happening..!

welcome to the boards!

B

Regarding your shaders crash issue. As Eric says, Oolite should not crash with OXPs that contain errors. Unfortunately, in the particular case of the shader errors, unpredictable things can happen, at least I have seen that in Windows and probably happens with other systems, too. I just do what you did: error OXPs are removed until fixed. Please give a go at Eric's proposal and see if the problem gets resolved.

As for the other observation about buoys missing, sometimes it just happens that due to some unusual AI conditions, ships seem to do a suicide run to the buoy and take it down together with themselves. It is a rare situation and should not affect the gameplay experience. If it does, we will need any information you can provide to reproduce the situation.

another_commander wrote:

As for the other observation about buoys missing, sometimes it just happens that due to some unusual AI conditions, ships seem to do a suicide run to the buoy and take it down together with themselves. It is a rare situation and should not affect the gameplay experience. If it does, we will need any information you can provide to reproduce the situation.

Sometimes the buoys are also witchspaced out...when a big ship jumps too close to the buoy (which players cannot do), the buoy ends up in the bubble and is gone. Sometimes it takes other launching ships to hit and thus enlarge the bubble before this happens, but I've seen that a few times now. In that case, use the bubble as nav beacon

Screet

Screet wrote:

Sometimes the buoys are also witchspaced out...when a big ship jumps too close to the buoy (which players cannot do), the buoy ends up in the bubble and is gone. Sometimes it takes other launching ships to hit and thus enlarge the bubble before this happens, but I've seen that a few times now. In that case, use the bubble as nav beacon ;)

What kind of ship is it that jumps out? It smells like a AI problem and should be fixed.

Svengali wrote:

What kind of ship is it that jumps out? It smells like a AI problem and should be fixed.

I don't actually know that It's jumping between the station and the buoy...I usually notice it when the "N" is removed from my compass during approach and replaced by that sparkling blue bubble...and when I get close enough, I can see launching ships hit the bubble and thus witchspace out, too. Maybe that's the reason why it is "permanent" although I understand it that witchspace bubbles should decay after some time.

Screet

Screet wrote:

I don't actually know that It's jumping between the station and the buoy...I usually notice it when the "N" is removed from my compass during approach and replaced by that sparkling blue bubble...and when I get close enough, I can see launching ships hit the bubble and thus witchspace out, too. Maybe that's the reason why it is "permanent" although I understand it that witchspace bubbles should decay after some time.

sounds like an AI bug as Svengali writes. The normal exiting traders always make a 90 degree turn after launch, than go straight ahead and make a jump. None of the internal AI's is programmed to let ships jump near the N-buoy. And when it creates a witchspace cloud neer the N-buoy, that buoy should reappear at the witchspace point on the other side of the wormhole.

I remember one of the first wip versions of buoyRepair were the Armadillo jumped to soon after buoy release and took the just placed buoy with him to the other side of the wormhole. When the player followed through that hole he found that N-buoy there, together with the normal W-buoy.

I must say that I also notice the occasionally missing N-buoys. I just regret I never witnessed the disappearing itself. So I have no clue what caused it. In most cases I only notice it in my log when I see buoyRepair has delivered a new N-buoy. Those repair guys stay quite busy and still have more to do than was anticipated for, when scripting of the oxp started.

Cheers everyone, for your responses!

The game should not crash on a buggy oxp. I just downloaded the oxp myself and it does indeed contain a bug. It uses a shader file that is not included in the package itself. This shader file is however contained in a lot of other shaderified oxps like griffs kraits. Installing that oxp simultaneously should solve the problem.

Will try that! And the buoy repair team too...

Sometimes the buoys are also witchspaced out...when a big ship jumps too close to the buoy (which players cannot do), the buoy ends up in the bubble and is gone.

Amazing! A quirk that kind of adds to the realism of the game... (despite the AI bug behind it.)

I destroyed the constrictor, and my combat rating increased a lot - I had something like 335, the next thing I notice I was dangerous. The constrictor escaped me the first time (grrr), so I made a couple of trade runs, and re-encountered it. This time I used energy bomb (I had to go to sleep). Oh well...

Screet wrote:

Svengali wrote:

What kind of ship is it that jumps out? It smells like a AI problem and should be fixed.

I don't actually know that :( It's jumping between the station and the buoy...I usually notice it when the "N" is removed from my compass during approach and replaced by that sparkling blue bubble...and when I get close enough, I can see launching ships hit the bubble and thus witchspace out, too. Maybe that's the reason why it is "permanent" although I understand it that witchspace bubbles should decay after some time.

Usually? So it does happen more often? Then you can find it out. Follow it. And the bubbles are not permanent. The mass of the ship that jumps out must be sooooo big (and then we don't have so much possibilities what kind of ship it is). I've noticed it with my carrier in LH. If this ship jumps out the bubble stays for a long time. So I really think that big ships shouldn't jump at the usual places (Aegis or at the W-Buoy) at all.

Eric Walch wrote:

I must say that I also notice the occasionally missing N-buoys. I just regret I never witnessed the disappearing itself. So I have no clue what caused it. In most cases I only notice it in my log when I see buoyRepair has delivered a new N-buoy. Those repair guys stay quite busy and still have more to do than was anticipated for, when scripting of the oxp started.

Eric, I've found a nice star system to buy - what do you think, should we occu ...errr... buy it? Counting all day long our money is too much hard work :-)

I just noticed that adding griffs krait is not enough. One shader will still be missing. In shipData.plist I find: But the oxp contains no shader folder. stingray.fragment will be in no other oxp. Only ahruman-generic.vertex is. (and probably should be renamed to: oolite-standard-vertex.vertex) That missing stingray.fragment means that this ship is not behaving as intended with everybody using shaders.

I have noticed that sometimes it's there (on compass) (when I'm at W beacon), but disappears before I get to N beacon location. I have certainly shot beacons during battle conditions, and assume that NPC also do so from time to time, but don't think I've actually seen it happen.

When leaving space station I sometimes use Rear View, and see NPC ships leaving on very erratic flight paths -- seemingly quite similar to erratics I'd adopted a couple of games earlier (for fun) (spirals, for example). If the game remembers my occasional odd flying and reproduces it as a "local colour" around the station, using NPC ships, then it might similarly re-enact my behaviour in shooting beacons?

Some ships launch and U-turn crashing into the station. I watch with interest - rear view - until I crash into the W beacon

But I don't know whether that is why some beacons disappear.

Yes, have now seen a Nav Buoy get shot by NPC ship (as well as crashing into it)