Oolite Bulletins

There is one thing that bugs me about Oolite, and I guess its what everyone wants but me.Its the speed of the game.

For me, my Boa shouldn't turn like a London cab. My Cobra shouldn't feel like a toy when I control it. I want it to feel like I'm contolling a metal monster.

So, if I reduce the turn speed of all the ships, do you think it will have an adverse effect on gameplay? Is there something I've overlooked?

First thing that comes to mind is docking. is it just as easy to adjust a stations rotation speed?

Buy an Anaconda

Thats the problem. I AM flying Anaconda class ,and everything else now feels lightwieght.

Tried the fighter thing n they always feel like a paper one.

Azathoth wrote:

Thats the problem. I AM flying Anaconda class ,and everything else now feels lightwieght.

Tried the fighter thing n they always feel like a paper one.

Ha!
I suppose that's right though really, isn't it.
If you normally drive (in Earth terms) a 40 ton Artic, suddenly changing to a Mondeo Estate (Anaconda to Cobra 3 in Oolite terms), that Mondeo is going to seem incredibly responsive and light, and if you then had a spin in a Ferrari (an Asp, say, in Oolite terms), that would seem unbelievable.
So I think it's probably about right, overall.

Having said that, if you wanted to 'de-tune' the ships, that is very easy to do. If you are just using the default ships, make a copy of the shipdata.plist, move it into your AddOns folder (well put it in a config folder within a .oxp folder within AddOns), and change the relevant bits using a text editor (NOT Notepad!).
These would be the speed, pitch and roll figures.

Since I use the keyboard and don't always have stellar framerates...I find a slower turning ship is actually better for sniping "wiggling pixels" at >20 km range. Gives you more time to react too if they fire missile/s at you.

Azathoth wrote:

is it just as easy to adjust a stations rotation speed?

from
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Shipda ... ation_roll

[station_roll] determines the rotation speed of a station. Default value is determined by the systemwide station_roll in planetInfo.plist. If that is not defined, the default is 0.4. Negative values are also possible for a rotation in the other direction. (Key is added in Oolite 1.74.2)

I believe other direction means anticlockwise...

anyway, change planetinfo.plist to provide a generic override (either for specific systems, or for all systems) - however some OXP stations might well have their own station_roll defined, which does take precedence...

I got to drive an 38-ton Artic once on a racetrack at Bruntingthorpe (when Jonathan Palmer Promo Sport was based there) - having just driven a Golf VR6 for six quick laps a few minutes earlier I actually found the truck very easy on the steering and, given the trailer was empty, pretty nimble too - lacked the acceleration, but not much different from a Transit Van.

I think you would also need to take a look a missiles, thargons and turrets on ships if you are going to go down this line.

It could be nice to make this into an OXP, if you have the skills and time, so that people can alter that turn rates of the whole game as a percentage. I too feel things move a bit too fast, but only by about 20-30%.

If you want to see changes in station roll speed, use the TAF key and then shift C, at x16 the graphics card on my old PC struggles with it!

Hello Azathoth,
The thing about commandering a space craft in the Ooniverse, the universes laws Just do not apply!

Quote from DH.

I got to drive an 38-ton Artic once on a racetrack at Bruntingthorpe (when Jonathan Palmer Promo Sport was based there) - having just driven a Golf VR6 for six quick laps a few minutes earlier I actually found the truck very easy on the steering and, given the trailer was empty, pretty nimble too - lacked the acceleration, but not much different from a Transit Van.

Unlike a space ship Earth motors have weight. And then some mass. In space you have mass but no weight.

A wee beside; A 18 wheeler artic in UK is allowed 44 ton. Well that was 20 year ago?
Here in Oz a main puller can have 3 or maybe 4 of that size trailler. If you meet sumit like that out bush coming toward you, Get out of the way. What ever your driving out there is nothing but a bump in the track to a real road train.

Back to the Ooniverse,
I bought a Caddy omeg. Worth every farthing. Modied it at high cost. Lots of creds to gain speed at the cost of pitch and roll.. -15% pitch -10% roll for a 12% gain in acceleration and top speed.
That wasn't enought.
I sold my super cobby and talked real good engineers into 3 self tageting plasma cannons on her tail.

So if you see me in the space lanes. EJECT Then I can take you home.

Oh.. Have to go. My new target has just moved into a very close system. 8.5K C's for a wee heat in vaccum.
Wish luck for all

Alex or the race for the uber-space craft... I thought we were putting skills above all. I prefer to keep my good Mk3 with normal weapons. To be frank, this is largely enough.

On a more serious note, we are in space so no effect of air resistance. I do regret that inertia is not taken in consideration but this is not a newtonian simulator. If you do like that, try Orbiter and good luck because it is really tough. It took me almost 2 months to succeed by myself i.e. without any tutorial, a flight from earth to moon, few orbits around the moon and come back.

I kind of agree with the 'too fast' theory. I normally adjust controls so it feels heavier (and is more accurate!).
recently though, i've enjoyed slowing the TAF down during battles, which makes everything seem much larger & slower, including the enemies , and I much prefer it.
It's like doubling your own brainspeed!
the only problem is when some b******* shoots you, and the TAF speed reverts to 'normal', ruining the effect.
does anyone know if there's an easy way to disable the revert?
I don't use TAF to speed up getting to a station (or whatever), so needing to revert to normal (if you get attacked for example) automatically isn't required.
Thanks!

I suppose we're never going to have everyone happy. Some people complain about how long it takes to do stuff, others feel things move too fast.

Personally, I like things a bit slower to help the illusion of the ships being big and powerful and space being vast.. I mostly fly two ships, the Cobra MKIII and the Griff Boa proto. The GBP handles like a freighter. Early on, I tried hacking the speed since it made sense to me that a "chopper" version of a ship should be faster and/or more maneuverable than stock versions. But it didn't feel right, and it lost part of what I actually liked about the ship so I set it back to what it was originally. My current bit of handwavium on that is that the chop job was done to bring it back up to speed and etc to compensate for the plasma turrets. They're sensible on a freighter doing contract hauls and cutting through dangerous places in space. Since it seems that every two-bit little ship these days is packing at least one hardhead, turrets rock for keeping missile damage down. It's an exciting ship to fly against foes that are almost always more nimble. LOL

But for dogfighting nights, I stiil usually will use the Cobra MKIII. After flying a freighter, the Cobby is like putting reins on a bat! LOL Pure furball delight. It doesn't feel like a big ship, though. Regardless of the official specs, I usually think of it as being a small ship, maybe only a bit bigger than a BSG Colonial Viper. It's just how the Cobra *feels* when flying it in a fight. It's one of those personal conflicts in the "game in the head" for me. With how it handles in a fight, the MKIII just doesn't feel like a multideck ship with a cargo bay of 20 tons (stock without the expansion).

I've never messed with TAF. But it had never occurred to me that it could be used to slow down the game. I've only heard of people using it to speed the game up, so it was of no interest. Now something that could slow everything in the game down just a bit would be interesting! Not a lot, mind you. But if it went 20-25% slower as soon as the warning klaxon goes off and things go to red, it could add some neat feel of focus and suspense. Kind of like how time gets stretched in movies and with cut-scenes and drama, a "10 second countdown" can end up being a bit longer than that (or am I the only one that counts off the seconds when watching movies?).

All I really want is for the game to feel more meaty, and a bit less like an arcade game. I will likely keep the ratios the same from ship to ship. An Adder will still turn a lot faster than an Anaconda, just that both will turn a lot slower than they do now.

Perhaps I may even increase the top speed of all the ships. Is it possible to increase the time a ship takes to slow down?

I think that with a little bit of text editing, the ships could be a lot more challanging to fly.

I'm not after realistic, just for the game to play the way I want in my Ooniverse. Anyway, when I have time in RL, I guess I'll be able to answer my own questions.

Slowing is linked to acceleration (I believe). Have a look at 'Thrust' in the shipdata.plist.