Oolite Bulletins

Hi Pilots.
I signed up for the Navy Reserves and I go about on the missions they give me. The thing is, it seems that I am the only guy shooting at the baddies while everyone else is calling for help.

I don't see the point of being the hero of the day when the navy is supposed to be a team. Come on, I can't go shooting bazillions of Thargoids while they just sit back and spew SOS messages!

Is the Navy mission supposed to be like that?

What happens is the reservist fighter squads want to jet ahead of the big cruisers, then they find themselves getting chewed up by the Bugs, far away from the cruisers and their heavy firepower. A stupid tactic on their part.

My tactic has been to carry a fuel tank and an e-bomb, and have injectors installed. I light the injectors, getting well away from the Navy boys and into the middle of the Bug invasion swarm, then touch off the e-bomb. Most of the Bugs get blasted, and I then lure the surviving Bugs back towards the Navy guys for mopping up.

Piece of cake.

Perfect use of an e-bomb.

what if there are no "big ships" around? Some missions only had the reserve pilots around.

Commander Learner wrote:

Hi Pilots.
I signed up for the Navy Reserves and I go about on the missions they give me. The thing is, it seems that I am the only guy shooting at the baddies while everyone else is calling for help.

I don't see the point of being the hero of the day when the navy is supposed to be a team. Come on, I can't go shooting bazillions of Thargoids while they just sit back and spew SOS messages!

Is the Navy mission supposed to be like that?

I signed up for reserve duty after installing Galactic Navy and Thargoid Threat (OXP's). These OXP's are a wonderfully high quotient of fun for the amount of money I paid for them.


After Acton Evaluation(s):

The Galactic Navy tactics could stand some serious improvement (example: they need to run away from Q-mines). Trying to go toe to toe with the Thargons is costing the Navy heavily in crews, ships and materiel. Fighter groups launching waves of hardhead missiles at distant enemy capitol ships would be an improvement.

The Thargoids are certainly a threat now. And their tactics of closing with and mixing it up with whatever they percieve as an enemy are effective (and possibly keeping the navy from dropping Q-mines and Energy Bombs indiscriminately).

I've not installed the missile OXP's. Perhaps the navy is handicapped with what they're allocated now on my system (Q-missiles could help them considerably). But I'm reluctant to install OXP's that could allow pirates to make my life miserable or unbalance the game in other ways.

Which brings us to the navy reserve pirate hunting missions. The navy reserve ships (mostly Cobra Mk-III's/Mk-I's and Asps) seem under-equipped. I rarely see them using witch-fuel injectors or hardhead missiles. The pirates are equipped with Fer-de-Lances, Cobras, Vipers, Kraits, Asps, Pythons and plasma spewing Frigates.
That's all okay.
But the pansy-arsed reserve group leaders can't seem to fly or shoot well enough to avoid sending various "help me" messages over the comm's.

It would help me to see different or bigger blips on my scanner when capitol ships are present. But, since Anaconda's don't get larger blips, I suppose battleships won't either.

Still, a bad day of playing Oolite is better than a good day at work.

Yeah they look good. Now I've managed to legally earn one of the ships I designed I'm looking forward to actually testing it's metal.

does that mean i wait for the baddies with the big navy guns?

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

touch off the e-bomb

I don't have this mission available, but if you Q-mine instead of e-bomb, you score double killcount (or something -- I haven't actually done the maths, but it's more) and it's much more picturesque, a bit like pouring petrol into an anthill to get rid of it (and then igniting it) and similarly dangerous (i.e. not very, but much more dangerous than the e-bomb; I never e-bomb ants!)

Commander Learner wrote:

does that mean i wait for the baddies with the big navy guns?

No. I've found that deploying a Q-mine amidst the thickest concentration of enemy ships or next to a pirate's capitol ship is effective.

The downside? If friendly ships are caught in the explosion or cascade of explosions then I'll be awarded FUGITIVE status.

The upside? I'll survive and the fugitive status wears off after a number of jumps.

Also, it would be nice if messages from the Galactic Navy (and Thargons?)remained in the communications log for later review.