Oolite Bulletins

Why doesn't the escape pod work in interstellar space? (which you engine has malfunctioned)
It would seem that stuck between systems with no fuel to get you back and besieged by Thargons, would be an ideal time to use one. It puts you in suspended animation, and hey it worked for Disembodied!

Stations do not exist in witchspace in the core game, therefore there is nowhere for an escape pod to dock with. OXPs might add stations and then it would be possible, but we cannot rely on OXPs to define core game behaviour.

Chrisfs wrote:

Why doesn't the escape pod work in interstellar space? (which you engine has malfunctioned)
It would seem that stuck between systems with no fuel to get you back and besieged by Thargons, would be an ideal time to use one. It puts you in suspended animation, and hey it worked for Disembodied!

"Worked" is a subjective term there ... it did take me a couple of decades to come in and I was missing a few bits and pieces by the time I was hauled out. And my pod wasn't in interstellar space: it was in an eccentric stellar orbit, way off the plane of the ecliptic. Basically it's the difference between being a few light-minutes from home, with occasional passing traffic, to being a few light-years out, with nothing but the Bugs for company.

Disembodied wrote:

Chrisfs wrote:

Why doesn't the escape pod work in interstellar space? (which you engine has malfunctioned)
It would seem that stuck between systems with no fuel to get you back and besieged by Thargons, would be an ideal time to use one. It puts you in suspended animation, and hey it worked for Disembodied!

"Worked" is a subjective term there ... it did take me a couple of decades to come in and I was missing a few bits and pieces by the time I was hauled out. And my pod wasn't in interstellar space: it was in an eccentric stellar orbit, way off the plane of the ecliptic. Basically it's the difference between being a few light-minutes from home, with occasional passing traffic, to being a few light-years out, with nothing but the Bugs for company.

The Bugs don't take prisoners, either. Which is probably a good thing; I would expect far less than humane treatment. As in arcane experiments :shiver: that I really don't want to think about.

another_commander wrote:

Stations do not exist in witchspace in the core game, therefore there is nowhere for an escape pod to dock with. OXPs might add stations and then it would be possible, but we cannot rely on OXPs to define core game behaviour.

I misunderstood the game mechanic then.
Are you saying that the fight between the thargons takes place in witchspace ?

I had always thought, the engines malfunctioned, so you dropped out of witchspace and fought them in normal space. Similar to your hyperspace drive dropping out when it hit sufficent local mass.

Ok, ok, please read 'interstellar space' instead of witchspace! :p

When your Witch engine malfunctions, you wind up in interstellar space, somewhere between the system you Witched out of and your destination system, often surrounded by a Thargoid Swarm who aren't happy to see you. And sometimes without the fuel to make it to a reasonably civilized system; That depends on what you call civilized, though.

There are of course oxp solutions to help with this disturbing situation. But your eject handle still won't work.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:

And sometimes without the fuel to make it to a reasonably civilized system; That depends on what you call civilized, though.

When I'm low on fuel, any system where it's available counts as civilised... -sort of an "any port in a storm" kind of thing-

Well, realistically there is no way you would ever arrive in any system with an escape pod from interstellar space.

And that's precisely the reason why your pod doesn't launch in the first place.

Commander McLane wrote:

Well, realistically there is no way you would ever arrive in any system with an escape pod from interstellar space.

And that's precisely the reason why your pod doesn't launch in the first place.

Well yeah, ten thousands years later from now, as a frozen and maybe aged corpse if we got that replicator thing from star trek. nasty thought though, however, an escape pod would probably be scooped by Thargoids and the body feasted upon..

Frame wrote:

nasty thought though, however, an escape pod would probably be scooped by Thargoids and the body feasted upon..

It's worse than that...

Cheers,

Drew.

Commander McLane wrote:

Well, realistically…

Always a good starting point around here. ;-)

Ahruman wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

Well, realistically…

Always a good starting point around here.

Of course, but in this case it's actually true. Because in the reality of Oolite (unlike at least some versions of Elite) you can fly as long as you want from interstellar space 0 0 0, you'll never get any closer to any system.

drew wrote:

Frame wrote:

nasty thought though, however, an escape pod would probably be scooped by Thargoids and the body feasted upon..

It's worse than that...

Cheers,

Drew.

Wow.. you weren't kidding! <shudders>