Oolite Bulletins

Again an opinion/plea about Energy Bombs in Oolite:

IMHO the bomb should be toned down.
Why:
in my recollection (Commodore 64 ELITE) Thargoid warships and Anacondas could sustain an Energy Bomb blast - this is clearly not the case in Oolite.

So, I plead the developers: please tune Energy Bomb down to damage level of 500 energy instead of the current 1000. And while at it, Thargoid warships could as well have 600 energy instead of 500.

Zieman wrote:

Again an opinion/plea about Energy Bombs in Oolite:

IMHO the bomb should be toned down.
Why:
in my recollection (Commodore 64 ELITE) Thargoid warships and Anacondas could sustain an Energy Bomb blast - this is clearly not the case in Oolite.

So, I plead the developers: please tune Energy Bomb down to damage level of 500 energy instead of the current 1000. And while at it, Thargoid warships could as well have 600 energy instead of 500.

I thought the energy bomb was going to be done-away with in a future version. Although I carry one, I sort of disagree with the whole concept of a WMD that only the player can have.

I personally resent "doing-away" of such canonical core element (ELITE -> Oolite).

At least, it should be something a player can enable if he/she so wishes, even if it is going to be disabled by default. While doing the change to the game, it would be great if the bomb could be toned down to more resemble its ELITE paragon.

I don't see why energy bombs can't be carried by non-player ships. Yes, Zieman is probably right to say that it should be toned down to 500 energy rather than a 1000.

I think that it ought to behave more like a Q mine, in that there is a delay between deployment and explosion. Perhaps then, you have a chance to get away on injectors. Perhaps you could get a warning message on your console to say that an energy bomb has been triggered and that it is building towards detonation.

JazHaz wrote:

I don't see why energy bombs can't be carried by non-player ships. Yes, Zieman is probably right to say that it should be toned down to 500 energy rather than a 1000.

I think that it ought to behave more like a Q mine, in that there is a delay between deployment and explosion. Perhaps then, you have a chance to get away on injectors. Perhaps you could get a warning message on your console to say that an energy bomb has been triggered and that it is building towards detonation.

Yup! I'd be happy with that

I'm sure the originals trader manual said the energy bomb could overload the engines on small ships, up to and including the Cobra MkIII.

I've never used an E-bomb in Oolite (that's a lie actually - in Windows I did Alt-Tab a couple of times) on purpose, so I don't know what effect it has.

I don't think it should destroy big ships and it should be instant - that's the point of it.

@JazHaz - as has been stated many times - if NPCs carry E-bombs you could be flying along, a fight breaks out between a trader and some pirates - he triggers his E-bomb - instant good bye JazHaz...

Which is why I supported Ahruman's decision to remove it - it's a hang-over from a very player-centric Elite (the only "arcadey" bit of Elite).

And, for the record, for several years now Oolite != Elite (unless you're playing in strict mode) it's way much more than that now...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

And, for the record, for several years now Oolite != Elite (unless you're playing in strict mode) it's way much more than that now...

I like the way Zieman put it a couple of posts above here:

Zieman wrote:

ELITE -> Oolite

Certainly the equation Oolite = Elite isn't true. But for me Oolite != Elite isn't true either. After all there is something Oolite strives to remain faithful to, a certain kind of Eliteishness. And I think it is exactly this faithfulness to the Eliteishness which won all our hearts over for this game in the first place.

I'd certainly concede: Elite ⊂ Oolite

Ooh, maths!

And there I was thinking Oolite > Elite!


( With Strict Mode == Elite - more or less )

What about an energy bomb compromise going like this:

Make the energy damage around 400 or such. Then ships up to and a little beyond the Cobra's 256 are destroyed. Anything big or very strong will survive but be weakened.

Let NPC's have the EB, too, but let it make only 200 damage against players and let the AI only use it as a last resort. And build an EB protection in players can buy that shields against it.

Viable?

Kaks wrote:

Ooh, maths!

And there I was thinking Oolite > Elite!


( With Strict Mode == Elite - more or less )

Which is why I think Elite is now a subset of Oolite - because you can play Elite in strict mode, Elite and then some in Vanilla Oolite (yaw, Injectors buying different ships) and then you (can) turn it in to something very un-Elite-like with a multitude of OXPs...

It occurs to me that Oolite is very much like a religion. It's canon is drawn from the mists of time, and remains fundamentally true and strong, but it is capable of evolution, adaptation and re-interpretation to become relevant to the demands of the 'followers' today.
To use a Christian analogy there is the 'Orthodox Church' of Strict Mode (Elite), and then the 'Catholicism' of vanilla Oolite, evolving into various 'Protestant' churches of the OXPs.
However, unlike a Church, the Ooniverse is also a liberal democracy, where all the 'Citizens' have the right to follow whichever path they choose.
It is only rarely that an item of canon is questioned, and even then a good old-fashioned compromise usually sorts the problem out.
Human Nature at its best...loyal to tradition, but open to change and respecting the views of the majority while accepting that a minority may also have a valid viewpoint as well.

[/philosophy]

All Hail the Prophet Smivs, for his words are noble and wise.

Lestradae wrote:

Make the energy damage around 400 or such. Then ships up to and a little beyond the Cobra's 256 are destroyed. Anything big or very strong will survive but be weakened.

Let NPC's have the EB, too, but let it make only 200 damage against players and let the AI only use it as a last resort. And build an EB protection in players can buy that shields against it.

Doesn't Shield Boosters and Military Shields make even a player's Cobra 3 theoretically capable of surviving a hypothetical 1000 damage energy bomb by an NPC? You'd have to be at or very near full shield strength...unless the damage is split between front and back shields and then only excess beyond that counts against energy banks. (NPC ships don't seem to have front and rear shields, only 1 shield overall. )

Likewise, stronger NPC ships that have Shield Boosters and/or Military Shields (like Boa 2's) should be able to survive an energy bomb if not pre-damaged. But Thargoids never have those...

I also would definitely prefer the Energy Bomb only do enough damage to destroy weaker/lighter ships and leave the big cargo haulers and Thargoids (barely?) alive. Maybe even have it do less damage to ships beyond 15km...and none beyond 30km. So ships barely on radar may survive even if weaker and a badly damaged ship that's barely off radar can still die from it. This will also mean Energy Bomb use can make you an offender/fugitive even if no friendlies are on radar, so will force more cautious use.