Oolite Bulletins

Because I was a bit bored tonight, I decided to see just how far into deep space I could go.
So I left Leesti and headed out into space.

After about 30 minutes (real time) I came across a lone asteroid (probably due to deep space pirates oxp).

So I did a bit of deep space asteroid mining.....


Then I traveled out again for about another 20 minutes and came across an old style rock hermit (I have Griffs new ones installed).
He was busy mining. I know rock hermits like to be alone and isolated, but this far from the space lanes?


I then headed off in another direction for about 40 minutes and still came across the odd small group of asteroids.
When I realised that I had traveled away from Leesti for about 1.5 hours I had to take a look to see just how far away Leesti was.



I was thinking of going on further until the sun looked like a normal background star, but the wife wanted the laptop, so she had to wait for an hour and a half for me to fly back to Leesti main station to dock and save.

I assume the asteroids I saw that deep in space where there due to DeepSpacePirates.oxp.
Does that oxp only place asteroids that deep in space or was I just lucky enough not to see a pirate?

WOW! That's cool!

I've been curious about something lately. Are all those objects randomly generated on the fly as you move through space, generated before entering the sector, or generated at the start of the game?

Normally they’re generated when you enter the system (or load/start the game). OXPs can add objects wherever they want, and Deep Space Pirates works that way.

Also, asteroids (or, in fact, any objects) that far out are not generated by Oolite when you enter the system. So indeed in your case there must be an OXP responsible. May be DSP, Eric will know more about it. And of course they were created right in your path, otherwise you wouldn't have found them. I mean, the odds for finding something in deep space which is not right in your path are astronomically small.

By the way, you could have speeded things up for your wife by using the Time Acceleration Factor (TAF). Pause the game and use the arrow keys to double (or half) the time. You can get between 1/16 and 16 times the normal rate. Setting the TAF to 16 while returning to Leesti would have reduced the time needed from 1.5 hours to about 12 minutes. Try it out next time, your wife will thank you! (Same goes for getting into deep space, of course. And you were guessing right: there is a point when the sun becomes just like a background star, and another one when it vanishes altogether.)

Commander McLane wrote:

By the way, you could have speeded things up for your wife by using the Time Acceleration Factor (TAF). Pause the game and use the arrow keys to double (or half) the time. You can get between 1/16 and 16 times the normal rate. Setting the TAF to 16 while returning to Leesti would have reduced the time needed from 1.5 hours to about 12 minutes.

I don't see that option when the game is paused.
I do have the TAF.oxp installed that sets it to 1.0. Would that be stopping me seeing the option.

You are also correct in that the asteroid were placed in front of me as I traveled, so DSP.oxp was responsible for that.

I just wondered why it didn't show me a pirate that deep in space.

lave wrote:

I don't see that option when the game is paused.

There is nothing to see, it’s a Secret Debugging Key™. (Well, two.) Press right arrow to increase time acceleration, left arrow to decrease it. The current TAF is shown under the object statistics if you have the FPS meter showing (shift-F in flight).

Commander McLane wrote:

Also, asteroids (or, in fact, any objects) that far out are not generated by Oolite when you enter the system. So indeed in your case there must be an OXP responsible. May be DSP, Eric will know more about it. And of course they were created right in your path, otherwise you wouldn't have found them. I mean, the odds for finding something in deep space which is not right in your path are astronomically small.

I was expecting to hear as much. Now that makes sense. I figured it was either that or a LOT of objects being generated.

So if you run into a Rock Hermit way out in the boon docks, you most likely won't run into the same one again when you reenter the system.

Ahruman wrote:

There is nothing to see, it’s a Secret Debugging Key™. (Well, two.) Press right arrow to increase time acceleration, left arrow to decrease it. The current TAF is shown under the object statistics if you have the FPS meter showing (shift-F in flight).

Got it, thanks.

Erm... this is strange.
Since flying deep into space, now whenever I target lock an object, the object's lollypop flashes light blue/grey???

Now, this is not a problem, because it's a way for me to see targeted objects on the scanner, but it has only just started to happen.

From the image below I have targeted the station which should have a green lollypop, but it is grey (blue/grey).

Any ideas?

Rock Hermits are randomly created by Deep Space Pirates OXP as well. DSP can end up making a *LOT* of them the longer you fly around.

lave wrote:

Erm... this is strange.
Since flying deep into space, now whenever I target lock an object, the object's lollypop flashes light blue/grey???

Now, this is not a problem, because it's a way for me to see targeted objects on the scanner, but it has only just started to happen.

From the image below I have targeted the station which should have a green lollypop, but it is grey (blue/grey).

Any ideas?

'Tis done by Target Autolock.oxp; presumably you've just added it?

Mauiby de Fug wrote:

'Tis done by Target Autolock.oxp; presumably you've just added it?

Well I have the oxp installed but I have not brought that piece of equipment yet.
Also, the read me for that oxp says that the lolly pops turn red/magenta when a ship attacks, mine are flashing light blue/grey, and it happens for any object, whether it is attacking me or not.

This has only started happening since I flew deep into space.

I don't mind it, but just wondered what was causing it.

The readMe in my version says it turns grey/blue, also that it works for whatever is targeted. As does the wiki page.

As for why it's happening if you haven't bought it yet, or by flying into deep space, there I have no idea...

Wow!

Heading into deepest space... Wonder if any contra-bases could be positioned, faaaar out in the opposite direction of the local star and target planet base as per usual. There's a whole deep game in there somewhere...

Intriguing post Lave.

Tokus*Maximus wrote:

Wow!

Heading into deepest space... Wonder if any contra-bases could be positioned, faaaar out in the opposite direction of the local star and target planet base as per usual. There's a whole deep game in there somewhere...

Intriguing post Lave.

There could be if somebody writes an OXP for it...

I think some experiments have been done on the accuracy of things like collision boxes when the player is out in deepest space and - from memory - things go horribly wrong back near the main station as there isn't enough accuracy for things like bounding boxes for ships to dock successfully...