Oolite Bulletins

Greetings!
First post from an old Eliteer.
I have questions:
I’ve been flying Oolite v1.65 for a couple of weeks now (ahh – the feel of the old original at last). I’ve noticed that my save file has suddenly increased in size, and continues to grow! Any clues?
So I switched to v1.72.2 - no stars or nebulae (probably my ATI Radeon) but I can take that: space IS mostly black, and I’ve had enough of glossy X3/Darkstar types. (Although the Darkstar One is the best looking warbird I’ve seen). Main problem is the Precision Roll/Pitch toggle – all I get is a flat spin. Again, any clues? Now I’m back on v1.65 again, where I get stars, nebulae and a usable Precision Roll/Pitch toggle.

Hello and welcome to the board!

El Viejo wrote:

I’ve noticed that my save file has suddenly increased in size, and continues to grow! Any clues?

Maybe you have trumbles aboard? If so...they increase the file size massively and even if they are killed their information is still stored in the file instead of being cutted out.

El Viejo wrote:

So I switched to v1.72.2 - no stars or nebulae (probably my ATI Radeon) but I can take that: space IS mostly black, and I’ve had enough of glossy X3/Darkstar types.

That problem should go away if you update to the 9.6 drivers.

About the precision toggle problem, you might want to try the search function of the forum. I've read about that problem multiple times, but don't remember where it was exactly nor what the solution was.

Screet

Thanks Screet,
Don't remember getting trumbles, but you may be right. If so, I'll have to lose a lot of game time and start again. Hey-ho.
As for driver update! Had trouble with that.
It's a harsh universe. It's back to dear old Lave and100 c.

Hi El Viejo, welcome to the friendliest board this side of Reidquat!

The precision toggle problem has been fixed in trunk (the current development release) which should (hopefully) be available to the public soon as 1.73. If you're feeling adventurous, try compiling it to try for yourself, many here feel it's far more stable than 1.72.2, and it certainly has far more features, besides a lot of bugfixes...

Others here have had problems with getting those drivers installed, some of which have been worked around. A search of forum posts may point you in the right direction.

I may well be wrong, but from what I can tell, you don't need to actually get a trumble for your save-file to grow. Simply being offered a trumble (which I declined) resulted in my save-file getting a lot bigger. Some OXPs will increase the file size too. I wouldn't really be concerned about it if I were you, it's just one of those things that happens as you go along.

There's no need to start over if you do have a trumble infestation.. there are less drastic ways to get rid of them.

So how is the old C.A.T. since the adventures on Schar's World? Say hi to Perosteck Balveda for me...

Diziet Sma

El Viejo wrote:

I’ve noticed that my save file has suddenly increased in size, and continues to grow! Any clues?

The commsLog is stored in the savedgame and oxps are adding missionVariables and planetDescriptions. For the commsLog there is a limit, but I don't remember how many lines are stored as maximum.

How big is your savedgame?

Hi all
To Diziet Embless
The C.A.T. is getting older (like me) but still performs well (unlike me)
How is Skaffen-Amtiskaw. I'm still looking for a game of "Damage"

To Svengali
Last savedgame was 2,340KB
At that rate it will be bigger than the whole game soon

I await v1.73

El Viejo wrote:

Last savedgame was 2,340KB
At that rate it will be bigger than the whole game soon

What? Stop, stop! 2MB?!? Something realllllly weird is going on (maybe another game, eh? :-)). I think you should give us a bit more infos. What is stored in your savedgame that blows it up? What kind of OS/OS-Version plus Servicepacks and Hotpatches are you using? Can you post the Latest.log?

Hi
My system:
E6600
4 GB RAM
Radeon HD3650 512
XP Pro SP 3 (32 bit)

No hotpatches, no OXP's.
Can't post log as I've just deleted the whole game and was about to start
from scratch. Drastic maybe, but that's that. Me and Lave are old friends.

The save file was for sure an Oolite save.

The dashboard messages that won't go away are also a problem.

@ El Viejo,
Skaffen-Amtiskaw is well, as you might expect.. though it seems to be getting a bit more crotchety at times. Personally, I suspect it misses interaction with something it can regard as an equal... the AI's here are so primitive they hardly deserve the title. Also, it was none too pleased when I pointed out that if it wiped out the entire Thargoid civilisation, it could lead to awkward questions being asked.

If there are no witnesses around, I let it deal with pirates instead of fighting them myself, as that seems to help keep its' somewhat sociopathic tendencies in check. I rather think it enjoys being in a universe where violent destruction is so common... it certainly hasn't expressed any desire to try and find a way back to our own dimension.

Good luck with the hunt for a game of "Damage", as you've noticed, GalCop tends to frown on that kind of thing..

El Viejo wrote:

To Svengali
Last savedgame was 2,340KB
At that rate it will be bigger than the whole game soon

typically it should be 30 to 60 kB in size.
The last 100 to 115 commsMesages are stored. I don't know why so many are stored as the player never can scroll back.
Try open the saved game with a word processor (Don't save with it!) and see if there is something looking odd. All should be readable text.

To Eric Walch - thanks

Don't know why I didn't do that before - found 4 or 5 lines in the comms log
that were bizarre: a single character repeated ad infinitum it seemed.
Deleted the offending lines and now size is 33KB and the save game appears to work. Very strange!

Now I just need to get rid of the HUD messages that won't go away! They just lost me a one to one fight with a Krait.

To Diziet

The "Clear Air Turbulence" is listed as a pirate...Skaffen-Amtiskaw should
take care when "dealing" with pirates - we're not always what we seem!

El Viejo wrote:

To Diziet

The "Clear Air Turbulence" is listed as a pirate...Skaffen-Amtiskaw should take care when "dealing" with pirates - we're not always what we seem!

Take care then, knife-missiles go through Oolite shields (and hulls) like a mil-laser through butter.. and as for what SA can do with fields and effectors.. best not to think about it.. messy, to say the least!

Diziet

I always take care.
First lesson I learnt, many years ago, is always have a back-up.
Second lesson is always have a back-up of a back-up.

No tips on HUD messages?

El Viejo wrote:

No tips on HUD messages?

That problem was fixed after v1.65. For this version there is no patch available, So I'd say update to the current test-version (v1.72.2). It runs very 'stable', so don't worry about the 'test'-prefix. And if you have the ATI-problem try to play with the 'hidden-settings'.

Svengali

My problem with 1.72.2 is the precision roll/pitch toggle.
With my old eyes, I need it!