Oolite Bulletins

Very happy to see H working from the chart screens in 1.73. Trying out 1.73.3 has reminded me of some related issues that are different between Oolite (at least the Mac version) and the original Elite regarding when the flight controls work.

At the moment I find that speed-up/slow-down/injectors work from screens 8, 7 but not 6,5. Ditto the laser (it even works and destroys things previously lined up on screen 1 ). But roll/climb/dive dont work at all.

I remember in Elite one would ponder market prices, see someone appear on the scanner and start to swing the ship around to deal with the threat before even switching to screen 1 (the arrow keys were used for the charts whereas ship roll was ,. - I suppose the keyboard mappings people now use is one source of conflict).

Maybe fixing these issues (at least for screens 8,7) means a lot of work involving the core of the game and has been discussed before?

As a sideline it could be a more plausible way of doing time acceleration, one nods off looking at market prices and the clock runs faster and faster until something appears on the scanner (whereas those friendly craft already on the scanner can drift more quickly off the back-end of the scanner when your injectors have run out - this technique was sort of used when playing the original Elite as rendering the space graphics was not needed for a while whilst the player viewed screens 7,8 etc. so the game 'sped up'.

Hmm, speaking just for myself here, it's a bit more likely the subject never came up...

I added the h thing mainly because I personally found it counterintuitive having to leave the map screen in order to go to the system I just decided to go to. I've got a couple of other irons on the fire, but I'll have a look at this stuff too in due course. It might not be too much of a problem!

Dr Beeb wrote:

Ditto the laser (it even works and destroys things previously lined up on screen 1 :shock: ).

Well, what else would it do? :-)

Dr Beeb wrote:

As a sideline it could be a more plausible way of doing time acceleration, one nods off looking at market prices and the clock runs faster and faster until something appears on the scanner (whereas those friendly craft already on the scanner can drift more quickly off the back-end of the scanner when your injectors have run out - this technique was sort of used when playing the original Elite as rendering the space graphics was not needed for a while whilst the player viewed screens 7,8 etc. so the game 'sped up'.

Changing perceptual speed could be problematic, since the simulation would have to keep running with a reasonable time step in order for NPCs to behave sensibly. The maximum permitted time step is 0.25 seconds, which would become 0.025 seconds at a 10× speed factor, so anything running at less than 40 FPS wouldn’t be able to get up to speed, so to speak. Mind you, we already have another_commander’s Time Acceleration Factor to play with.

Yep, to be clear, I don't think there's the need to change game speed from under the player when they're looking at other screens: other people might actually prefer the game to slow down - or even freeze - when looking at maps / market prices / whatever.
For whatever reason, I didn't even notice that bit about changing game speed without user intervention...

The way in-game time is handled already - with the time accellerator - seems quite sensible to me!

I use TAF on regular basis and it's great. I just wish if speed can be reset to realtime when docked. There is no much joy in trying to hit the right option at 8x game speed.

Ahruman wrote:

Dr Beeb wrote:

Ditto the laser (it even works and destroys things previously lined up on screen 1 ).

Well, what else would it do?

At the moment under 1.74 things are a bit curious. the laser (key a) works on all screens except 6 ? The 'h' key works on all screens - a nice fix introduced previously. But roll and dive remain inactive on all non-view screens. Also noticed changes in speed work under screens 5, 7 & 8 but not 6.

Err.. if the H key works on the chart screens then how is one supposed to search for systems with H as their first (or following) letter?

...and the v key works too!

They only work on the local chart, though, where you don't need to input anything.
As the Master & Commander already said, if you're looking at the galaxy map they're used as actual keyboard keys to really mean the letters 'H' & 'V'... modern technology, the wonders never cease!

I thought there are no planets containing the letter "H"? The wiki states " ' 'LEXEGEZACEBISOUSESARMAINDIREA'ERATENBERALAVETIEDORQUANTEISRION" as the seed for the names..

However, via oxp you can always rename any planets in any galaxy, so you might conceivably even have a planet called Hhhh'vvah'hvv.
Plus you could always remap your keys so that L, or T, or R is actually used to make you jump outsystem...

Isn't it just reassuring to know that even a slightly extreme naming example/key remapping wouldn't break Oolite in any way, shape, or form?

However, to go back to the original question, if I get the time, I'll see if I can find a quick-ish (remap proof) way to add the corresponding actions to the 'missing' screens... any other dev person, feel free to step in, of course!