Oolite Bulletins

First thing is first....Fantastic !!!

This Ooniverse is amazing.

Thanks to all who have made this game and the OXPs.

I was told of this PC version 2 weeks ago, and have played nothing else since I DLed it.

I played the BBC micro version back-in-the-day.(made deadly too)
Moved on to the Amstrad 6128 version (made ELITE)

now I'm addicted to this one, after a huge gap(I'm getting old I guess)

Anyhow, I've been trading may A** off and got some Cred's in the bank, I made several save games, then bought diferent a ship with each one, to see what the 'new' ships (inc. OXP stuff) are like.

And now I'm looking at creating my own ship.....

The question is, how do I maintain game ballance?

The boards are huge, so there may be an answer here already, just 'point me to the right post'

Otherwise, it's Size V mass V speed V pitch/roll and energy banks V recharge rate, size of Cargo space and number of plylons, ect,ect...

My preferance is the Cobra model, I would like to replace the port/starboard mountings with a turret and adjust the pitch/roll to suit my reflexes/style of play.
Also is it possible to lose cargo space and add missiles without overpowering the craft?

As it stands I believe I can do the above things, but don't want to create a ship that is not ballanced.

Finally, how do you 'price' the ship for the shipyard?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Cmdr Radan, and welcome to the friendliest board this side of Riedquat.
Glad you're enjoying this great game, and don't worry about feeling old....a lot of us get that
Balance is important as you realise, and it sounds like you're going about this in the right way already, by using a bit of common sense.
There are many threads on the forum about this, but as a general rule I'd suggest a process of off-setting. For instance if you want to make a ship faster, it should lose-out somewhere else such as cargo capacity. And avoid just adding more stuff. More weapons might equate to less space for energy banks or shields or something.
And generally most folks here would agree that top speed is important.....keep it sensible. Look at say the stripped down Viper Interceptor, and ask yourself would a freighter with 150T cargo capacity be sensible with that top speed? Well, no, of course it wouldn't.
And regarding price, look at the spec and prices of the other ships and get a 'feel' for them, and of course the more you get, the more you have to pay! Some of the OXP 'uber-ships' are well over 1 million Credits!
Finally, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. There are some Great Minds hanging around on this Board, an we are always happy to help.
Cheers,
Smivs.

Hi!

And welcome to the friendliest board this side of Riedquat (yay, I got to say this )
EDIT: ARGH, ninja'd by smivs

I think the best way to maintain balance is to use common sense.
And use the core ship set as a rough guideline - "will my new ship beat the crap out of everything twice over hands down?"
That said, many OXPs add ships that are a notch more powerful than the core set, and of course there are some überships around. If you think that the price tag justifies those übershps in your Ooniverse is of course a matter of personal taste.

As for the changes you propose:

Replacing port/starboard gun monts with a(?) turret
- a lot depends on how many and how powerful turrets you aim to get: mounts off & 1 standard (weapon_power = 25) turret => slight price increase (base price from 150000 to 180000-200000?)

Pitch/Roll/Yaw
- slight changes can be explained by advancing technology (with no other changes to any direction), anything dramatic might feel better with less cargo space etc.

Lose cargo/add missiles
- IMHO your proposal is balanced way of doing it (add something, something else has to go)

IMHO, if you add speed/energy/cargo space/turret(s) with little or none trade-offs, you create an übership or über variant of an existing one. Again, then for some (like to some extent for me) it is enough to just add a million (or half, or two) to the price tag (for example: in my Far Arm ships OXP a Tanker costs 180000, a SE model with a couple of turrets, more energy & speed and less cargo costs 720000.), and for some those ships just don't exist in their Ooniverse.

I have Caduceus and Supercobra installed, that's as far as I go with "price makes seemingly unbalanced ship stats ok" way of thinking.

If your modifications make the ship better at fighting and/or trading, think of how desirable the new ship becomes and adjust pricing accordingly (core ships' pricing is somewhat wonky in that respect, even if it can be explained with luxury etc. which don't show up in ship stats though).

Maybe your Cobra3mod could have a base price somewhere in the 250000 - 350000 range.

And I still think that Thargoid Warhips & Anacondas with full energy should be able to withstad a single Energy Bomb blast.

That said, the player Cobra mk III should (and does in my Ooniverse) have max speed of 0.300 LM.

OK - after a few disscussions with the salvage crew, I got this answer:
'the only limit to our ability is your bank account.....'

So, I made some proposals, and had to supply most of the materials myself.

What the guys (I think they are guys..hard to tell with the 'felines'...but thats another story) came up with was this :-

Based on the super Cobra (at great expence)

Size (metres, W×H×L) 131 × 26 × 61
Cargo capacity 12 TC
Cargo bay extension NO
Maximum speed 0.375 LM
Manoeuvrability Roll: 2.0
Pitch: 1.2
Energy banks 7
Energy recharge rate (Excellent) 7
Gun mounts Fore, Aft,Turret (top and bottom)
Missile slots 8
Shield boosters available Available
Military shields available Available
Hyperspace capable Yes
OXP or standard OXP(work in progress)
Available to player Yes
Base price circa:2 mill

The Combat Cobra, for when the pirates have made you see the 'press space bar' one to many times.

I loses speed from the origional and a lot of cargo space(no extra either), it handles well though not as good as the faster models.
This ship is not for making a living out of, just for making a killing out of.

What do you think, is it too over powered?

NB; I have almost all the extra/uber ships OXPs installed

Hey Cmd Radan,

Overall looks pretty good, for over 2 million Cr!
My only concern is the energy.
7 banks is on a par with the Boa, and that's a much bigger ship, so I question whether that many would physically fit. Five might be more appropriate.
And the recharge rate is MASSIVE ! I assume that's the standard. Now if you add an Extra Energy or even a Naval Energy Unit to that, this ship could be all but indestructible, and I don't think that's what you want. Again I'd go down to 4 or 5 max.
Even then you'd have one of the toughest ships around.
Truth is, as you get better at the game combat becomes easier, and it is possible to be very lethal in even a modest ship. You might find yourself in a situation where you drop into a system, take out 9,10,11 bandits with ease and think "well that was too easy....boring, even". The tougher your ship the more likely this is to happen.
There's always ToughGuys, I suppose. </plug>

I agree with Smivs. The main foray into überness territory is the energy recharge rate. 7 + Naval Energy Unit produces more energy than is used by the cloaking device, allowing the player to stay cloaked forever, and use ECM, and fire laser shots, without losing energy. (Nowadays you can at least make the ship de-cloak automatically when the laser is fired, taking away the edge of this advantage. But still...)

thanks for the reply guys, OK so 5 and 5 on the banks and recharge then.

I'll get the 'guys' to work on it, see how the test flights go

Interesting thread...I always lik e getting opinions on the workings under the hood.

I like your idea of making an uber-cobra with no cargo space. Remember that if you set a high price, you'll be setting yourself up for big maintenance costs. That means you'll have to rely on bounty hunting and non-trading to keep your ship. Personally, I like to let market forces dictate behaviours...

Even with no cargo bay you can still trade Gold/Platinum/Gems so long as their amounts stay under 500 kg each. Considering you can only sell up to 127 kg/g of them to a station at a time that shouldn't be a big issue.

well, I'm guessing, the 12 tonne cargo bay will be plenty....

I'm hoping that once I start fighting stuff, that 'free' cargo will be plentyful plus bounty fees, there is also room for a passenger cabin. From what I read there is credits to be made from 'contracts' of various types too.

With a fall back trading gold and gems, I'm (optimistically) hoping I can cover costs.

I'm thinking like this, 1 good passenger fair can be over 1000 credits, Sun skim for fuel along the route trading precious metals and gems along the way, any bounty killings and dropped cargo are a bonus.

Ofcorse I've not tried this yet, but the theory seems sound

Glad you're enjoying this great game, and don't worry about feeling old....a lot of us get that

A lot of us are old!

Cheers,

Drew.

drew wrote:

A lot of us are old!

Cheers,

Drew.

I recent that

Please define "Old"
I'm distinguished, experienced, venerable, mature, respected, august etc. but not old.
(Probably in the middle of my mid life crisis as well )

Gimi wrote:

drew wrote:

A lot of us are old!

Cheers,

Drew.

I recent that

Please define "Old"

Well, if you can ask your grandchildren to do that for you, and get a reasonable answer, chances are that you are old.

Gimi wrote:

I'm distinguished, experienced, venerable, mature, respected, august etc. but not old.
(Probably in the middle of my mid life crisis as well )

Mid-life crisis? Ah, yes now I remember that!