Oolite Bulletins

Hi all,

What I would like to be able to fly is something on the lines of the Behemoth, or Navy Frigate?

Or is the biggest player ship the standard Anaconda?

Let me know so I can get the correct OXP!!

Both Realistic Shipyards and Oolite Extended works/worked on the premise that if you have the cash and can find it, you can buy it and fly it.
Neither of those are available through the wiki atm, though.
(You might be able go get a copy of RS from Lestradae, but since he's taken it off the shelf (for now) there's no way for me to say.)


If there's a particular ship you're after, you could always create a player version yourself by editing the necessary files. I believe* all that's needed is a player version in shipdata.plist, and (if you want to be able to buy the ship as opposed to just editing your save to give you one) a shipyard.plist to govern stuff like price, availability & equipment.

*I'm sure someone who actually makes ship OXPs will correct me if I'm mistaken here.

The Generation ship if you can buy one.

I do believe that the Behemoth is considerably larger than the Anaconda, but again, I'm not sure its purchasable without RS. Also, you might have a look at the recently released Aurora.

The Navy Frigate is rather small in comparison with any of the above.

This is all based on in-game observations, so my knowledge is limited.

If size is all you want, then it should be easy to create an OXP with a superhuge ship.

There are problems with huge ships though, such as being impossible to dock (RS has some work arounds I think).

Generally oolite is based around ships sized similar to a cobra 3, you can go a few times bigger, but after that there are no guarantees that you wont have issues.

I am of the strong opinion that the player should not be able under any circumstances whatsoever to buy (and fly) a ship that is bigger than a standard docking bay.

Obviously other people have different opinions. But mine has the advantage that it makes sense from an in-game perspective. There is no way around the fact that the player routinely has to launch from a normal main station. Doing so in a ship that doesn't fit into the docking bay insults my sense of, well..., sense. Therefore for me ships too big to dock and launch are an absolute NO.

But, as I said before, you are entitled to make your personal game make as little sense as you like to.

@ OneoftheLost: You certainly cannot buy a Generation Ship. That wouldn't make sense on so many levels...

it is true that generation ships make no sense for players. They are from pre-hyperspace times and would be useless.
If you wish to make them available at a shipyard then thats ok, but it certainly does not make sense in game.

Lets take a step back here, there are several things:

Q: Why are big ships a bad idea?
A: There are some problems such as getting into docking slots. Mostly large ships should be ok, but the game was initially built around cobra sized ships, so there are no guarantees weird things wont happen if you go really big. You would expect very large ships to be extremely tough which might unbalance the game. You would also expect large ships to have large cargo capacity, and that doesnt fit very well with the commodities market in oolite which is limited in amounts you can trade.
You dont actually get much from size, you dont get to fit any more weapons, you just become easier to hit, and 200t of cargo is more than enough for any normal play.
All in all large player ships are possible, but at least in my opinion they dont fit the game well. People are free to disagree

Q: What is the largest possible ship that will work properly in the base game?
A: A ship the height and width of a normal docking slot is the biggest that you can expect to work fully and not require work-arounds (there are things like using the auto-dock of a docking computer, but thats a bit of a cludge).

Q: What is the largest ship actually available in the basic game?
A: I think its the Anaconda, and I think even this is hard to fill at the commodities market so much of the space tends to be "wasted".

Q: Whats the largest ship you could create?
A: It is essentially unlimited, but as stated before, you need work arounds for docking etc.

Q: What is the largest OXP ship?
A: I dont know, if you include RS there are some huge ships. I suspect something from Amen Brick.

Q: Why can't I fly a Behemoth or other ship?
A: When a ship OXP is created, the author decides what roles they think it should have, and if it should be available to the player. Some ships are intended to be police, military, or otherwise not available to players. This can be "fixed" by changing the OXP, or using RS/OSE but its worth understanding that if a ship isnt available, then its a deliberate choice of the OXP author. As an example Charlie created an "unknown" alien race called the Orb which are sometimes encountered, and obviously their ships are not purchasable.

kirin is a fairly chunky ship and is still dockable with a station. But it flies like a slug.

I will - if all pending licenses/permissions for used materials can be resolved during the course of the coming months - republish some or all of the stuff that was in RS/OSE/OE, as a complete version and as separate oxps with parts of the intended functionality.

If all goes well, there will be a player carrier oxp with the beyond-Anaconda-huge player ships in, Frame's and my Transfer Shuttle for ships too big for the docking slit, and the OoBay stations (DH's idea realised) that will enable trading with much bigger quantities and thereby filling the cargo hold of these ships.

I guess that might be of interest for you.

ClymAngus wrote:

kirin is a fairly chunky ship and is still dockable with a station. But it flies like a slug.

True, but it is a beauty to look at and woe to any pirate who flies into the firing solution of its plasma turrets.