Oolite Bulletins

Ok, before I start with the Qs I just want to say this is absolutely brilliant, wish I'd found it before. I want to say a really big thanks to everyone who has put their time and effort into this.

Now I have a couple of questions to ask-

Firstly, I've been flying back and forth and trading, a bit of mining and killing stuff in my MkIII and want to change my ship, but the next upgrade cargo wise that I can find is the Python with 100 tonnes of space. Cost wise this seems a very long way off, and quite a jump in cargo space, is there a cheaper 'bridge' ship I should be looking for?

I also seem to be having a bit of a problem with my Ore Processor, it seems to work fine for a while, then at some point I get the message that I've collected a splinter but no processing happens. Occasionally I will fly off and 2 or 3 minutes later I see the drain on my energy banks and get a message telling me what has processed, sometimes this just doesn't seem to happen at all. I find if I shut down Oolite and reload it the processor starts working again.

Sorry if these questions have been raised before, I had a bit of a look about but couldn't find anything. Next time the processor stops working I will get a log.

Thanks

Welcome to the friendliest forum on this side of Riedquat!™

Like you I wanted to get a bigger ship than the Cobra, but as standard there isn't a bridge ship.

The Ghavial could be an ideal ship with a capacity of 50t but at 490,000 credits, is way more expensive than a standard Python at 210,000 credits.

Suggest you look at this page, which is a table of the ships on the Wiki, listed in order of cargo capacity.

In the end I went from Cobra to Python by doing lots of passenger runs. You can make lots of money in a short time with these. It helps though if you install the Fuel Tank OXP.

I recently went onto my 3rd ship, a Python Class Cruiser.

Excellent, thanks for the reply.

I haven't really been looking at passenger runs as I have been reluctant to sacrifice those 5t of cargo space, will give it a try though.

Wouble wrote:

I haven't really been looking at passenger runs as I have been reluctant to sacrifice those 5t of cargo space, will give it a try though.

Once you have done a few runs (in time helps lol), you will start getting high value ones.

I usually have 3 or 4 cabins installed and always look to the passenger & cargo screen to see if I can add passengers in the same direction that I am heading in. Try to only take those missions that have a few days left to launch in. Otherwise its probably not worth taking as you may not be able to make it, even using fuel tanks to shorten the time (jump into a system, refuel and jump to the next system, saves the time flying to the planet).

The Pelamis with its 60t capacity could be the bridge ship you are looking for?

Not tried one though.

If you're going to start on passenger or cargo contracts the key to making the deadline is to keep your jumps as short as possible.
To clarify a jump of seven light years takes longer than two jumps of 3.5.
Real life time spent in system is actually a fairly minor component of the game clock deadline you need to hit.
It's perfectly possible to take a long haul contract with hours to spare and arrive days ahead of schedule. You'll find that purchasing the advanced navigation array will help with planning a suitable route.

Edited for spelling

Loxley wrote:

If you're going to start on passenger of cargo contracts the key to making the deadline is to keep your jumps as short as possible.
To clarify a jump of seven light years takes longer than two jumps of 3.5.
Real life time spent in system is actually a fairly minor component of the game clock deadline you need to hit.
It's perfectly possible to take a long haul contract with hours to spare and arrive days ahead of schedule. You'll find that purchasing the advanced navigation array will help with planning a suitable route.

Yep, my usual technique on cargo/passenger contracts is not to dock at planetary orbital stations enroute unless necessary. I'll use fuel stations/satellites, fuel tanks, sunskim, (time acceleration helps here, because I also use Farsun) to top up after arrival and jump out again immediately. I always take the shortest jumps possible (except one time when I had fugitive status most of the way across the chart, so I had to avoid Naval Base systems - that run was a hard slog, let me tell you) and I regularly arrive at my destination almost a week ahead of schedule.

When 1.74 is released it will be a little easier, because the Advanced Navigation Array will be able to display the fastest route as well as the least-number-of-jumps route.

Wouble wrote:

Excellent, thanks for the reply.

I haven't really been looking at passenger runs as I have been reluctant to sacrifice those 5t of cargo space, will give it a try though.

I am a beginner myself (above avaerage now ) and calculated this; let's say a trip needs 20 jumps minimum.

If a trip needs 20 jumps those five tons cargo space with simple trading would give me ~20c each for each jump (very rough estimate).
5tons x 20 credits x 20 jumps = 2000 credits.
With a high payment passenger I get up to 20,000 credits for those 20 jumps.

Downside seems to be, I have almost no time left to teach some pilots out there some manners.

And it's more difficult if you are not using OXPs (fuel tank, yah, whatever "helps")

Loxley wrote:

If you're going to start on passenger of cargo contracts the key to making the deadline is to keep your jumps as short as possible.
To clarify a jump of seven light years takes longer than two jumps of 3.5.
Real life time spent in system is actually a fairly minor component of the game clock deadline you need to hit.
It's perfectly possible to take a long haul contract with hours to spare and arrive days ahead of schedule. You'll find that purchasing the advanced navigation array will help with planning a suitable route.

Thank you for clarifying this, I have been wondering.

Docking with docking computer takes 20 minutes too, so if you are really really tight on schedule, dock manually.
(if you do not do so anyway)

snork wrote:

Wouble wrote:

Excellent, thanks for the reply.
Docking with docking computer takes 20 minutes too, so if you are really really tight on schedule, dock manually.
(if you do not do so anyway)

Docking with the computer using Shift-D is instant, which speeds things up a lot compared to manual docking.

If you are on a tight schedule, you may not be planning your trip right.
Keep in mind that father trips take much longer than several shorter trips of the same length. If going on two 3.5 ly trips may take 12 hrs, then one 7 ly trip will take 47 hrs (numbers are just for example, but scale is about right).

hej,

autodocking (shift+d) is instant in real-life, but adds 20 minutes on the in-game clock.

Now In have to go learning about that time-distance relationship. I have the impression it is not linear. Well, I shall find out.

snork wrote:

Now In have to go learning about that time-distance relationship. I have the impression it is not linear. Well, I shall find out.

I believe this to be the case but don't know exactly how it's calculated, perhaps someone in the know could post a clarification.

It's also worth bearing in mind that ship repairs and modifications take a considerable amount of game time (a military shield enhancement takes days) so you may want to put these off until you've completed your current contract (unless it's something critical).

Time and distance relationship in Oolite is not linear and is calculated as follows:

Travel Time in hours = Distance in Light Years * Distance in Light Years

Loxley wrote:

It's also worth bearing in mind that ship repairs and modifications take a considerable amount of game time (a military shield enhancement takes days)

It sound as if you were surprised, but it is still fast when you consider that all the hull plating has to be removed first to install the enhancement. Then the whole ship needs a repaint and that paint has to dry first. A few days is still fast for such a job

Eric Walch wrote:

Loxley wrote:

It's also worth bearing in mind that ship repairs and modifications take a considerable amount of game time (a military shield enhancement takes days)

It sound as if you were surprised, but it is still fast when you consider that all the hull plating has to be removed first to install the enhancement. Then the whole ship needs a repaint and that paint has to dry first. A few days is still fast for such a job

Fair enough, I thought I'd mention it as I managed to instafail the Taranis mission by getting this done at the HQ before setting off.

Thank goodness for savegames.

Edited to add: Thanks for the clarification another_commander

Loxley wrote:

... instafail ...