Oolite Bulletins

I think a wiki page or forum thread helping newbies choose a ship would be nice.
Something along those lines:

Combat Ships (choose them if you want to fight)
+ Good manevuerability
+ High recharge values
+ Many energy banks
+ at least 4 missile slots
+ fast
+ able to fit military shields

- usually little cargo space

Examples: Cobras, Asp, Fer-de-Lance, Gecko, Krait, Moray
OXP Examples: Griffin Two, Drake Mk II, Eagles, Urutus, Vampires, Dragon, Werewolves, Firefly, Fer-de-Lance NG, Kestrel, Assasin, Cat Mk I, Ixian Gunship, Wolf Mk II, Eagle Mk II,

Trading ships (choose them if you want the biggest contracts)
+ Lots of cargo space
+ Many energy banks
+ Extra Cargo Bay to be fitted

- slow
- not very manevuerable

Examples: Anaconda, Boa
OXP Examples: Naga, Ionics Redback, Kirin, L-Crate Hauler

All-rounders (choose them if you want a bit of everything, but be aware that you won't excel at anything)
+ Fast
+ Reasonable amount of cargo space (at least 50 tonnes)
+ Above average manevuerability
+ Able to fit military shields
+ Above average recharge values

- not enough cargo space to do the biggest contracts
- usually no more than 4 missiles

Examples: Boa Class Cruiser,
OXP Examples: Falcons, Python ET Special, Python Class Cruiser, Starwolf Mk I, Imperial Courier, Boa II Clipper Class, Military Stingray
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What do you think?

Ships to run away from buying really fast!
The ones that are slow, have little cargo space and no military shields-compatibility. Not worth it.
Examples: Adder

I still argue the Cobra MkIII is the ultimate all-rounder - that's why it was created after all!

and in your first list the Eagle Mk II is an OXP ship.

So there'd be some disagreement right up front about the page!

Well, it takes a while to earn enough in the game to buy a new ship. If one is selling the "starter" Cobra MKIII to get the capital for a different ship, then the choices will be rather limited.

I would think that by the time a newbie has made enough to afford a new ship, they'd probably have a pretty good idea what they want. At least in general.

I think though it would be a nice bit of supporting fluff to have "user reviews" ... these could be written from an in-game standpoint, so could include pure background colour like e.g.

The hold is full of awkward angles and redundant corners ... while this doesn't affect overall performance, every trader knows that volume = cold hard cash: I defy any pilot to look into a "fully loaded" Boa cargo bay and not feel his ulcers clench at the sight of all that wasted space.

as well as a bit of actual, useful information (or opinion, for that matter). If we keep them short and snappy we can have a range of opinions for the ships, including BADLY SPELED ONES IN ALLCAPS LIKE HOW COME IM CRASHING ALL TEH TIME DOCKIN IN MY PCC??? WTF?!?

Disembodied wrote:

I think though it would be a nice bit of supporting fluff to have "user reviews" ... these could be written from an in-game standpoint, so could include pure background colour like e.g.

The hold is full of awkward angles and redundant corners ... while this doesn't affect overall performance, every trader knows that volume = cold hard cash: I defy any pilot to look into a "fully loaded" Boa cargo bay and not feel his ulcers clench at the sight of all that wasted space.

as well as a bit of actual, useful information (or opinion, for that matter). If we keep them short and snappy we can have a range of opinions for the ships, including BADLY SPELED ONES IN ALLCAPS LIKE HOW COME IM CRASHING ALL TEH TIME DOCKIN IN MY PCC??? WTF?!?

Now that's more like it - you could have people complaining about banging their heads getting into the cabin, or sticky launch of the third missile, aiming high because of oddly position laser, trigger happy turrets, terrible recharge rate, turns like a 3-legged arthritic tortoise, etc - that would work (for me at least)

Ganelon wrote:

Well, it takes a while to earn enough in the game to buy a new ship. If one is selling the "starter" Cobra MKIII to get the capital for a different ship, then the choices will be rather limited.

I would think that by the time a newbie has made enough to afford a new ship, they'd probably have a pretty good idea what they want. At least in general.

Well, I started by downgrading from Cobra Mk III to Moray, and then, when I earned some money, I didn't really know what I wanted... Not to mention the fact that I didn't know anything about the ships at the beginning...

Maybe we could list 3 or 5 best ships in the given price ranges and for each /let's say/ "role" too.
For example:
Below 150 CR (that is, what you can buy downgrading from Cobra Mk III).
1. Griff Boa (OXP)
2. Phoenix (OXP)
3. Cobra Mk II (OXP)
4. Cobra Mk I
5. Moray

150 Cr - 200 Cr
Trading: 1. Python 2. L-Crate Hauler (OXP)
Combat: 1. STE (OXP) 2. Terrapin (OXP) 3. Griffin Two (OXP)
All-rounder: 1. Far Arm Tanker (OXP) 2. Ghavial (OXP)

200 Cr - 300 Cr
Trading: 1. Tesoura (OXP) 2. Remorse of Conscience (OXP)
Combat: 1. Boomslang (OXP) 2. Cobra Courier (OXP) 3. Cobra III NjX (OXP)
All-rounder: 1. Python Courier (OXP) 2. Pelamis (OXP)
etc. etc.

EDIT: "User reviews" are an excellent idea, if only we keep them to the experienced Ooliteers.... eg. Commander McLane or Thargoid or...

Zireael wrote:

Ganelon wrote:

EDIT: "User reviews" are an excellent idea, if only we keep them to the experienced Ooliteers.... eg. Commander McLane or Thargoid or...

oh no no no.

as Disembodied saidish

much better if its a free-for-all like on Amazon. Nothing makes my side ache more than comments like:

" WTF!!!! I bought this CobraMKIII and it don't work in my system. Even though there has been countless millions sold, its gotta be the ship, not my system that is broken!!1!!"

or

"Anaconda my a$$. SloOoconda more like! When I had my Ferdnnonce n it was much faster than this b*tch!!111"

or my fav

"CobraMKIV is great. Havn't got it yet but would like you to know its the best eva!!!1!"

Azathoth wrote:

Zireael wrote:

Ganelon wrote:

EDIT: "User reviews" are an excellent idea, if only we keep them to the experienced Ooliteers.... eg. Commander McLane or Thargoid or...

oh no no no.

as Disembodied saidish

much better if its a free-for-all like on Amazon. Nothing makes my side ache more than comments like:

" WTF!!!! I bought this CobraMKIII and it don't work in my system. Even though there has been countless millions sold, its gotta be the ship, not my system that is broken!!1!!"

or

"Anaconda my a$$. SloOoconda more like! When I had my Ferdnnonce n it was much faster than this b*tch!!111"

or my fav

"CobraMKIV is great. Havn't got it yet but would like you to know its the best eva!!!1!"

O NO NO NO

AS!1!!11!!1 DIESMBODEID SADEISH

MUCH BTER IF ITS A FRE-FOR-AL LIEK ON MAZON!!11!!! OMG LOL NOTHNG MAEKS MAH SIED ACHE MORE THAN COMANTS LIEK

WTF!!!!!111!1!11111!1111!1!!1!1 LOL I BOUGHT THES COBRMKII AND IT DONT WORK IN MAH SYSTAM!111!!!! OMG WTF EV3N THOUGH THEIR HAS BAN COUNTLES MILIONS SOLD ITS GOTA B DA SHIP NOT MAH SYSTAM TAHT SI BROKAN!1!

OR

ANACONDA!!111!!11!111 WTF LOL MAH A$!11!! OMG SLOOCONDA MORE LIEK!!1!1!11! OMG WHEN I HAD MAH F3RDNONC3 N IT WAS MUCH FASTER THAN THES B*TCH!11

OR!1111!1!111!1!!! OMG MAH FAV

COBRMKIV SI GREAT!111!1! WTF LOL HAVNT GOT IT YAT BUT WUD LIEK U 2 KNOW ITS DA BST 3VA!1


!!11111!111!11!11!!! OMG

http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/files/ao ... lator.html

While I quite like this idea, I feel the only way it would be meaningful is if all the ships were 'test-driven' by the same person. That way genuine back to back comparisons could be made.
If it's just 'user reviews' it would be disjointed and there could never actually be a real attempt to compare the ships against each other, and that is what would be most use.

Also, half the fun is trying the ships for yourself.

Zireael wrote:

EDIT: "User reviews" are an excellent idea, if only we keep them to the experienced Ooliteers.... eg. Commander McLane or Thargoid or...

Thank you for the implicit compliment, but I'm certainly not one to review things. These days I very rarely actually play the game, aside from testing OXPs and sorting out the occasional glitch. There are many Commanders with much more flight time than I have, at least recently (when I started I got to Deadly before being seduced to the dark side of writing stuff).

And by definition, user reviews should be by any user who cares to submit them. Then you get a wide spectrum of users and viewpoints. Especially useful as one persons ideal ship is another persons heap of junk, if one is trying to be a bounty hunter and the second a miner for example.

Thanks all for the replies.

Well, if we allow anyone to review, we'll get lines like Disembodied mentioned... unless we delete stupid opinions and keep only those that make sense.

-------------
So, maybe, starting now: you can post your opinions on ships in this thread... (and I'm crossing my fingers that this makes it to the Wiki sometime in the future)

My opinions:
Moray - too little cargo space in my opinion, but otherwise, not too bad a ship for a start.
Cobra Mk III - the ship I bought after making some money in Moray. Fully kitted could withstand quite a bit of enemy fire. Cargo space enough for making trading runs, but not for contracts (in my defense, I didn't even know about the contracts back then)
Griffin Two (OXP) - 12 tonnes more than Cobra make a difference in the trading runs. More manevurable, at least in my opinion, and hard to hit... (different profile)
Military Stingray (OXP) - twice as much cargo space means twice as much money. Manevurable, excellent energy recharge and energy banks, and two missiles more. Distinctive laser color makes it easy to spot among the pirates. Has a different profile too - ever tried hitting a pirate Stingray?
Python Class Cruiser (OXP) - 145 tonnes is more than enough for trading runs, and allows to make most of the contracts too. To top it all, it's got excellent energy banks and good recharge rate. About as manevurable as a Cobby... I don't think I'll be changing ships soon.

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Your reviews?

And perhaps we should add a 'fitsin' factor....how well does it fit in with the basic game and the lore, canon and acceptability criteria.
Your example of the Python Class Cruiser for example is by many considered to be grossly under-priced. Comparing the spec to similar core and OXP ships it should be priced at least 100 000 Cr higher.

Zireael wrote:

Thanks all for the replies.

Well, if we allow anyone to review, we'll get lines like Disembodied mentioned... unless we delete stupid opinions and keep only those that make sense.

Just to clarify what I meant, I think that a page giving actual useful advice about ships, aimed at players of the game, is a good idea. Any "user comments" section would be purely for background colour. I don't think we should have (or indeed that we would get) real idiotic comments written by real idiots: we'd get pseudo-idiotic comments carefully crafted by non-idiots (or at least by people who like myself feel that we should be defined as such ... ). In fact personally I think the idiot comments should be relatively few and far between, sprinkled here and there. Not all ships should have them: less would be more here. The point of these comments would not be to give players hard, accurate information: it would be to help get them immersed into the game universe itself.

So to take the Moray, for example, the information useful to the player would be your statement that

Moray - too little cargo space in my opinion, but otherwise, not too bad a ship for a start.

along with some apposite comments on what it's actually like to fly and fight in.

For background colour, though, we could have something like e.g.:

Internal pressure doors are scattered throughout the ship, and you've got to seal off each bulkhead behind you before you open the next one. Ten out of ten for safety protocols, but a royal pain for access!

and/or

Okay, so the Moray maybe isn't the fastest or the fightiest ship available, and the cargo space is limited: but you've got to love its rivets-and-iron industrial aesthetic. It's not a ship for an accountant, I'll grant you – but it's got more than a little bit of romance in its soul.

We could do it this way:

Combat
Trading
All-rounders

----------------------------
Useful comments (being probably the largest part)
-----------------------------
Ooniverse comments (second largest)


(Lines denote some sort of a section break that could be used on Wiki - I don't know, I'm not on the Wiki and I don't have enough time to do it in entirety [meaning, I can contribute some text, but that's all])

And I think the Ooniverse comments like you just gave, Disembodied, are wonderful!

Zireael wrote:

EDIT: "User reviews" are an excellent idea, if only we keep them to the experienced Ooliteers.... eg. Commander McLane or Thargoid or...

As Thargoid, thanks for the appreciation, but I respectfully decline.

First, my own taste is probably rather eccentric and wouldn't be in any way representative. Second, I'm not really interested in test-flying ships I'm not interested in. Personally I've only ever seriously flown three ships: the Cobra III, a SuperCobra, and my Imperial Courier. And third, I think there is already a lot of information about many ships available through the Wiki, so I don't find the whole thing very urgent.