Oolite Bulletins

I just watched three Cobras and an Adder launch from a station. One by one the three Cobras looped around and crashed themselves into the station. The Adder seemed a bit confused for a while, then it proceeded to re-dock.

Very odd!

they were probably scavs looking to scoop some cargo, scav AI has always been weird for me, eg: the scavs at constores crashing into a constore when trying to dock.

El Viejo wrote:

I just watched three Cobras and an Adder launch from a station. One by one the three Cobras looped around and crashed themselves into the station. The Adder seemed a bit confused for a while, then it proceeded to re-dock.

Very odd!

I've seen this as well...very strange behavior!

It gets stranger… do npc’s skim at the sun?

Watched a Boa and it’s escort of three Mambas and a Sidewinder launch from a station, expecting a wormhole and a free passage to somewhere. Instead, they headed for the sun… slowly. About halfway to the sun, they get jumped by a lone Fer-de-Lance… I splashed it for them. Even closer in they get jumped by three Fer-de-Lances and the Mamba escorts go into panic mode… again I help them out, adding another three to my kill count. They continue on to the sun and at the last moment assume a skimming attitude. That was already too close for me, my Cobra was glowing like a red hot coal, and I had to do a one-eighty and get the hell out of there. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see if they skimmed or died.

I tracked them for forty-five minutes from the station to the sun… most curious. What a game!

That's right, some npcs are indeed sunskimmers, even though there's a few that do seem to still die trying... The ones you helped out probably didn't die, their explosion from overheating would have been fairly visible, even from a distance!

Yep, what a game! And it's getting better too!

Kaks wrote:

That's right, some npcs are indeed sunskimmers

Cool!

Kaks wrote:

And it's getting better too!

Oh yes indeed!

Kaks wrote:

The ones you helped out probably didn't die, their explosion from overheating would have been fairly visible, even from a distance!

Now with improved cargo popcorn effect!™

El Viejo wrote:

It gets stranger… do npc’s skim at the sun? ...... my Cobra was glowing like a red hot coal, and I had to do a one-eighty and get the hell out of there. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see if they skimmed or died.

I tracked them for forty-five minutes from the station to the sun… most curious. What a game!

Yep, I even followed such a sunskimmer through their wormhole! (But I must admit that I cheated by constantly reducing my own temperature in the console )
Never tested, but the best tactic would probably be to wait at a safe distance until you see the wormhole appearing and than head for it at full speed. But as said is this untested and I have no idea if the wormhole will be visible at all from outside the corona. When you want to be the first player doing it without cheating, you should use the just released Oolite 1.74 as I have a strong feeling that a lot of sunskimmers in older oolite versions don't make it.

Since recent there is a new course on Lave academy for npc ships: "how to sunskim safely". A well spend training.

Eric Walch wrote:

...you should use the just released Oolite 1.74...

Has 1.74 now been released? I thought it was still under test. Also as I currently use Ubuntu Karmic, what's the current state of play regarding Lucid which I think had a few hiccups?

Released yesterday! And as long as you use the autopackage version, you'll have no problems in Lucid!

Kaks wrote:

Released yesterday! And as long as you use the autopackage version, you'll have no problems in Lucid!

That's great news. I've been putting off installing Lucid until I was sure Oolite would be OK. Got to get your priorities right

Eric Walch wrote:

Since recent there is a new course on Lave academy for npc ships: "how to sunskim safely". A well spend training.

I'd vowed to take a break from OXPs for a few days, then you give me ideas!

That said I'd need some way to spawn a small sun for the test

You can always simulate it with a planet shaped ship & right illumination map, as per Ahruman's test 'planet' he made a few months ago...

It never ends, does it?