The Oolite Thread

deej

deej
Nice thread.
Yeah, I downloaded it just a few nights ago and I too kept getting engulfed in a ball of flame until some nice people online told me to avoid the 'shipping lanes'.
Sadly, I keep accidently hitting 'D' and 'A' key every now and them. Lost a lot of cargo, and once I fire accidently while trying to dock, so now my character is hounded by vipers (even at different systems which was pretty cool)
I tried looking for a keyboard settings screen but there doesn't appear to be one, so I just have to teach myself to not touch those keys in my next game. Not a fan of that marker buoy parked out the front of stations though...
A few tweaks and a little HD and it would be a gem of a game..
 

Lazlo Woodbine

Lazlo Woodbine
I've been working my way through it since ED was announced and I had a craving for some Elite. It's a long long time since I played the original Elite but I remember it having a pretty steep learning curve. My piloting skills came back pretty quickly in Oolite and I was able to dock and fight effectively right from the start.

It does occasionally throw some pretty ridiculously difficult things at you from time to time, that Elite never did. With a couple of OXPs installed I've found myself thrown into situations where I've been up against about 20 hostiles all at the same time. Luckily, there are other OXPs that have let me buy an extra quick ship so I can now outrun situations like that, and if I find myself in them without any fuel then I only have myself to blame. The difficulty level is all about balancing the OXPs you download.

Anyhow, I've been really enjoying it, and am well on my way to 'Elite' rating. Just a few thousand more kills to go...
 

Styggron

S
Kipper said:
So all this recent talk of eliteness made me fire up Oolite.

What the hell?! Is it the most unforgiving thing ever or what? There's no way the old versions of Elite were THAT hard.

What gets me is the murderous self recharging NPCs. The pulse laser is useless against them, and they aren't scared of flying up past you and launching 3 missiles at point blank range, taking all shields, energy banks and killing you instantly.... :eek: (even if you have an ECM, I just got killed from so close I couldn't have used it).
Click to expand...

oh yes it can be. I played it on emulated C64 and sometimes POW I really cop it even in "Safe" systems. :)
 

Styggron

S
deej said:
Nice thread.
Yeah, I downloaded it just a few nights ago and I too kept getting engulfed in a ball of flame until some nice people online told me to avoid the 'shipping lanes'.
Sadly, I keep accidently hitting 'D' and 'A' key every now and them. Lost a lot of cargo, and once I fire accidently while trying to dock, so now my character is hounded by vipers (even at different systems which was pretty cool)
I tried looking for a keyboard settings screen but there doesn't appear to be one, so I just have to teach myself to not touch those keys in my next game. Not a fan of that marker buoy parked out the front of stations though...
A few tweaks and a little HD and it would be a gem of a game..
Click to expand...

Dammit I STILL do that and I've been playing it since 2004 !
 

Gimi

Gimi
deej said:
Sadly, I keep accidently hitting 'D' and 'A' key every now and them. Lost a lot of cargo, and once I fire accidently while trying to dock, so now my character is hounded by vipers (even at different systems which was pretty cool)
I tried looking for a keyboard settings screen but there doesn't appear to be one, so I just have to teach myself to not touch those keys in my next game. Not a fan of that marker buoy parked out the front of stations though...
Click to expand...
The keyboard can be configured. Have a look at the Elite Wiki where you will find extensive documentation and some tools to make it easier. There is also a keyconfig.plist file that emulates the BBC Elite keyboard layout.

deej said:
A few tweaks and a little HD and it would be a gem of a game..
Click to expand...
The people behind Oolite are a bunch of pretty die hard Elite fans, and Oolite is modelled on BBC Elite, so whether the controls are off is probably a matter of opinion. I find them more responsive than the C64 Elite I played, but the C64 version was slower anyway.

As for difficulty, yes, in Oolite combat is probably more difficult initially than in the original. To compensate, docking is easier and with OXP's earning money is much easier. The trick with avoiding space lanes is probably a must in the beginning. One important thing to relise with Oolite is that, unlike Elite, it's not player centric. Elite would throw stuff at you where you were. Oolite generates a system complete with ships etc. as you enter the system. After that the different AI's take over. This can give some unpredictable results with pirates taking on traders, massive "furball" combat situations, and encounters having finished when you get there.
The main thing about Oolite though are the OXP's. Getting that right is so important for your gaming experience. I have spent a lot of time choosing what OXP's to use in my game, and I'm now very reluctant to change that setup. Getting the right balance for your game is difficult and time consuming but worth the effort.
 
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Kipper

K
I've played a couple more runs now - the avoiding space lanes thing really works, seems a little bit cheaty; but nescessary.

I now have my Beam Lasers, ECM, energy unit, fuel scoops and docking computer (I can dock just fine but in honesty, its much quicker to just Shift+C as soon as you enter the station zone).

I'm clean again after a couple or narcotic runs (profit was irresistable).

Sadly I don't know how long I'll continue. Sometimes you get a good fight, and sometimes you get 4 or 5 ships that attack you in formation, never miss, and have killed you before you can even see them as more than a dot. No amount of moving around helps.

More than that though, the trading is one aspect that could have been completely overhauled. Nowhere near enough variation.

I understand being faithful to the original game; but in that case - why not reproduce everything exactly? They chose to make some things better (graphics, flying different ships, more equipment etc), but not improve on other things that really need improving - taking the economic model from FE2 would be a start - with imports and exports - it was imperfect, but still a vast improvement on the original game.

I'm sure in the original, there would have been more trade goods and a sounder economic system had there been enough memory to program it in...
 

Gimi

Gimi
Kipper said:
More than that though, the trading is one aspect that could have been completely overhauled. Nowhere near enough variation.

I understand being faithful to the original game; but in that case - why not reproduce everything exactly? They chose to make some things better (graphics, flying different ships, more equipment etc), but not improve on other things that really need improving - taking the economic model from FE2 would be a start - with imports and exports - it was imperfect, but still a vast improvement on the original game.

I'm sure in the original, there would have been more trade goods and a sounder economic system had there been enough memory to program it in...
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You really should bring the questions to the Oolite forum. You will get better answers than I can provide.
Anyway, regarding trade, the scope of the project was to recreate Elite, nothing more. So in there is your answer, it was a design choice by the Aegidian, the original creator of Oolite.

A few extra things were added such as buying and selling ships and expanding the game with OXP's. There are OXP's available that expand considerably on the trading aspects in Oolite.

For the really Die Hard fans, there is also "Strict Mode", which seeks to emulate BBC Elite as closely as possibly and thus disables all OXP's and more.
 
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Kipper

K
I had a look around for OXP's that looked like they would shake up the trading system, but drew a blank.

Can you recommend any?

At the moment I pretty much just installed re-textured ships and cosmetic stuff.
 

Gimi

Gimi
Kipper said:
I had a look around for OXP's that looked like they would shake up the trading system, but drew a blank.

Can you recommend any?

At the moment I pretty much just installed re-textured ships and cosmetic stuff.
Click to expand...
The obvious ones would be Bloomberg markets and New Cargoes

Make sure to read the instructions as Bloomberg Markets needs "Snoopers" (another OXP) to work and there might be other dependencies.

New Cargoes is a rather complex OXP that adds an alternative and more complex market. (It does not replace the existing market)
 

Joe nose

Joe nose
Also, I consider the fuel injectors a must. They are essential for the occasions when discretion proves the better part of valour. And there will always be those occasions in oolite ;)
 

Kipper

K
Had another go yesterday; I fought my way through about 15 ships in 3 groups of 5 in one system, before it finally trolled me with the old "fly straight at you and launch 3 missiles at point blank range" tactic that is becoming familiar.

How do you avoid fire from a group as they close? No amount of ducking and weaving seems to help. (I don't have the injectors yet but they're the next thing I'm gonna get).

How do you stop missile trolling? There's no time to use the ECM even if you try to anticipate it as they fire from literally on top of you.

It's really unforgiving about how quickly it starts destroying cargo as soon as your shields drop (about 4 or 5 hits) but that's not so bad now that I have fuel scoops - I can replace my losses with recovered cargo.
 

Geraldine

Geraldine
I believe there is an OXP for auto activation of the ECM, but I dont recall what it is called. Best hit the Oolite Wiki
 

Gimi

Gimi
Kipper said:
How do you stop missile trolling? There's no time to use the ECM even if you try to anticipate it as they fire from literally on top of you.
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Ah, yes. That one is a bit annoying. I kind of recognise when they come in on a close pass missile run and hit ECM pre-emptively. Comes with experience, but can be a bit tricky. It's quite effective when you do that yourself though. As for the Auto-ECM, you can find it here: OXP List
It's called "Auto ECM". Quick text search on that page should do it.
 

OneoftheLost

OneoftheLost
Oolite is based off of the ORIGINAL Elite

NOT Frontier/First Encounters.

The Galaxy is the Elite galaxy, which was precedurally (sp?) generated and is entirely fictitious.
 

Cosmo Bozo

Cosmo Bozo
I tried this the other day, got attacked by a lone asp.... I could hit him at will and he couldn't hit me, but the pulse laser was doing nothing and I couldn't outrun it
after a full half hour I got bored and gave up
elite wasn't that hard.
 

The Space Pirate

The Space Pirate
OneoftheLost said:
Oolite is based off of the ORIGINAL Elite

NOT Frontier/First Encounters.

The Galaxy is the Elite galaxy, which was precedurally (sp?) generated and is entirely fictitious.
Click to expand...

Procedurally. :) Oh - OK, thanks for the info. Thankfully, Elite D is to be set in our galaxy - DB virtually confirms that in the first few paragraphs on the KS. :)
Our galaxy. Its an awe inspiring, beautiful, vast place; with billions of star systems, planets, moons and asteroid fields just waiting to be explored, and exploited.
Click to expand...

Which is a good thing, because if it wasn't set in our Galaxy, that would be a bit of a deal breaker for me. That's one of the main reasons I don't like the X Games.

I tried this the other day, got attacked by a lone asp.... I could hit him at will and he couldn't hit me, but the pulse laser was doing nothing and I couldn't outrun it
after a full half hour I got bored and gave up
elite wasn't that hard.
Click to expand...

Doesn't sound like too much fun.
 
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