Greetings,

Commander Groove here:

Status: Doing Passenger runs in Galaxy 3.

Started out ages ago (in real life about 3 years ago) with a Cobbie Mk3 at Lave but soon downgraded to an MK1. While the extras you could buy where tempting the way trading up back to a Cobra M3 proved a length affair and in fact I could buy the MK3 back when in Galaxy 2.

Recently did some navy missions but the cost of the damaged equipment is high every time. Damn those Thargoid incursions seem to get heavier each time.

Now ranking up some kills to get more experience for doing the mission of Thargoid Plans and Thargoid's Galaxy 3 OXP mission. Then on to Galaxy 4 for Xeoptatl's Sword.OXP. But it's a long way up. My dreamship I'm aiming for is probably one of the Isis Intellar line.

I am on/off with Oolite, so I am still in Galaxy 1 and just trying to get by. Was doing well until I met that damned flying Dutchman! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//shok.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':O' />

So anyway, here is my stats.

Ship, old beatup Cobbie MkIII (J Miner's Revenge)

Commander, GERI

Elite Rating, Competent

Making a name in the courier/passenger business

Legal rating, Clean

Best achievement so far, surviving an attack by 3 Thargoid warships, destroyed two and legged it from the thrid one. Ship was in a right mess though after that hairball <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_redface.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Commander Cody is somewhat of a veteran, having accumulated over 3,000 shipdays in space... and counting! He is a complete freelance, doing no contracts or OXP missions, and is currently plying his 'trade' as a contrabandista amongst a cluster of systems near Maraus in G7. The seventh is an interesting octant, and has the Rift Worlds to visit... crossing the Great Rift was not previously possible without an OXP to 'assist', but can now be done with the 'help' of an NPC ship.

Ship: Griff Cobra Mk III

Rolling Thunder

Rating: Elite (8105)*

Legal status: Fugitive/Offender/Clean*

(*these change hourly)

Hey folks!

After my computer died, I decided to start a new commander. I first tried playing in strict mode, but.. well. I like eye-candy. My goal has been to install eye-candy only mods with a few other mods that I like. I have shipnames, Old-ships (Staer9 version) and NPC shields.. and thats it. The rest are eyecandy mods.

After playing on Strict Mode for a spell, I realized I could buy a new ship. My new Commander Wey is currently doing a trade run near Lave, and is trying to accrue enough credits to afford a Chameleon. The Chameleon is basically a cobra III with less speed, but 5 more cargo. My overall goal will probably be to get one of the Python varients. (The ET or Cruiser.) From there the sky is the limit, although I have a very soft spot for the Fer-De-Lance, and I may pick one up (despite its utterly inferior stats.)

Hah, I'll look back on this thread in a few weeks and laugh I bet. Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there! The 'goids are getting more numerous every time I take off!

Currently returning with some creds some feudal lord type wanted me to shake down from some backwater about a billion parsecs away from his own grubby little planet.

Flying the old reliable Cobra mk3.

Main source of income is escorts, passengers and some smart trading thanks to my TraderNet subscription.

Looking to buy a chopped cobra eventually (so hot), then ply my trade as a bounty hunter/general vigilante.

Before the choppy cobby however, I'm looking to first get a decent cargo hauler and make a LOT of credits.

The plan is to get a nice python or even a boa, load her up and make a fortune, then use that fortune to purchase and fully outfit a chopped cobby to be a hunter killer.

Figure by then I'll have the experience to use the ship well.

Not in any rush, I'm hoping to have enough creds together by the release of 1.77, then I'm hoping the oxp for owning and running multiple ships on one pilot is up and working (made by Capt Murphy I believe), I'm pretty sentimental about my old cobby 3 so I'd like to keep her (without multiple save shenanigans) and still be able to own and run a hauler and a fighter alongside it.

Since you like eye-candy, you have got to try out CSOTB's new CustomShields.. it adds lots of visual shield effects, both to NPCs and your own ship. Colours change depending on how much damage they're taking, and hits on your shields cause flare on your viewscreen.

A few examples:

Scoring a hit on a Moray's aft shield.

A glancing shot to my forward shield flares blue on the left of my screen. A direct hit front on will flare so bright you'll be almost blinded for a second.

Another nice touch from CustomShields.. scoopable fuel leaks in combat.

And, when their shields are gone, you get to see sparks and panels being blown off.

That custom sheilds oxp is a must, great screen shots DizietSma, thanks for highlighting it <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//gamer4.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

I love custom shields, I couldn't go back to not having it now.

I can't wait for 0.9, I'm dying to know what these "damage routines" will entail.

It's nice to see some action in the Oolite Embassy - don't see much of the Oolite Ambassador lately.

He's probably off on some cruise above a famous planet - hey-ho!

Well I've been doing Oolite stuff all day today, I can see config folders when I close my eyes.

So now I'm having a coffee and a smoke and I'll tell you all about it. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Today has been the day of tweaking space itself and getting system stations finally the way I want.

I'm sort of grouping up OXPs that fit well together atm (been at it all day, actually played for only around 20 minutes total and that was just booting it up, testing, closing it down etc etc, I digress).

I was lurking about in some threads on the BB reading words of wisdom from more experienced Commanders (and snatching the odd fragment of useful code). Seeing a brief discussion about star counts and nebulae I was inspired to up my star count and drop nebula to very rare and BIG.

When a nebula does appear now it's usually singular and very large and diffuse which feels more natural.

Increased star count is the most dramatic change.

I'm very happy with the result and feel, the screenshots don't do it justice, feeling of depth is somehow greatly increased.

Nebula are more notable and majestic and this one looked a LOT bigger ingame than it appears here.

I have yet to check out what effect this has on Tianve (which looked like an explosion at a skittles factory last time).

After that I began to sort out my stations which were getting messy.

A kind Commander showed me how to finally get PA Groove stations rotation to slow to a more stately speed (again that magic feeling of bigger scale kicks in) and I dropped all ambient light to zero.

Too dark? This is a station on the dark side of a planet, it makes all the lights look quite pretty but I'm wondering does anyone know what value a "realistic" (fuzzy enough definition) light level would be for this situation or is this it?

All of this ended up teaching me a lot about the planetinfo plist so I was pretty happy (also got my sun corona stuff looking more to my taste).

Of the short amount of actual playing I did today most of it was hopping escort jobs doing the "long way around" backpedal on my way back to Tionisla (heard about some journalistic job going), plus I like doing escorts, do them for free often enough... if it's on my way and I'm in no rush.

To that end I've found Escort Contracts and Hired Guns have good synergy, haven't checked how they mesh with the Escort Formations oxp (will your wingmen form up using that oxp, how will they react to your formation with Mother?) but if they do there's potential there for a sort of 3 OXP box set for peeps into that side of things (personally I love escort jobs and flying with AI wingmen in Oolite is quite charming in a strange soulless way).

Final job of the day was to stop the Hawksound computer from saying "choose your target" for Ident scan.

I'd prefer if she said "scanning" because she says "scan cancelled" when you hit U but I didn't want a different voice popping up for a single function...

Thanks to two other sound files in that oxp (ident cancel and something "activated"), a handy free converter and a decent audio editor she now says "scan active" smoothly and cleanly in her own voice... I'm pretty proud of that one.

So that's what I'm up to in Oolite today, now I'm going to actually fly my ship for a while, I'm in the mood for trolling pirates.

Looking good, mate.. although your stars have only a couple of colours.

If you want to make things look more realistic, try this setting devised by Knotty.

In the universal section of your planetinfo.plist, add the following line:

"sky_rgb_colors" = "0.6 0.7 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.4";

Also, I don't know if you are doing so or not, but it's best not to edit the default files in Oolite/oolite.app/Resources/Config/ directly. What you should do instead is create a folder called "Config" in your AddOns folder, copy the file you wish to edit into it, and then edit the copy. Anything in AddOns/Config/ will over-ride the default settings. It's also a good idea to put a copy of keyconfig.plist in there, so you can easily make changes to your keyboard mapping.

"sky_rgb_colors" = "0.6 0.7 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.4";

Also, I don't know if you are doing so or not, but it's best not to edit the default files in Oolite/oolite.app/Resources/Config/ directly. What you should do instead is create a folder called "Config" in your AddOns folder, copy the file you wish to edit into it, and then edit the copy. Anything in AddOns/Config/ will over-ride the default settings. It's also a good idea to put a copy of keyconfig.plist in there, so you can easily make changes to your keyboard mapping.

<nods at Diz> Except for the equipment.plist, it seems - I have to edit the core plist for that to take effect.

Hi Cody. Yes it's good to see the Oolite Hub here on Spacesim Central come to life. Reason for my absence due to ReaLife (RL tm) troubles. I always look first on the boards of Oolite.org and then here. Plus I'm being sidetracked by other games. But I'm always reading the discussions here.

The screenshots of the customshields are great. This OXP is already a must-have.

Hi PAG - I hope RL clears a little for you soon (I know all about RL troubles). Always good to see you around, Mr Ambassador!

I have actually been editing the Lights Down oxp planetinfo, which I may as well throw into it's own folder now, it's been chopped and expanded so much, it honestly never crossed my mind to keep a custom folder in addons, good tip.

I was actually wondering about star color this morning, so that's what sky rgb does, awesome, I'll try out those numbers straight away, thanks Diz.

Yes, I'm pretty stoked with that result.

/salutes. Ambassador, word up, sir. *gang signs*

Cool.. you're welcome, mate..

Today I'm retiring my current (first and only) pilot, Commander Cain.

He has amassed a total of 146 kills, while not a massive amount the issue is perhaps only maybe the first 20 feel legit.

I have piled on so many OXPs that give me an edge in combat over npcs who are already not much of a threat they don't stand a chance.

It's not just fancy missiles etc, npcs can have a lot of those enhancements too. It's also scanners, targeting upgrades, I was a little shocked when I actually had a good look.

They don't stand a chance, I know who and where they are at all times, they're padlocked no matter what they do.

If you're a fan of this genre you understand the desire to feel like you've earned these things properly.

I can't pinpoint exactly when the downward spiral into shooting fish in a barrel began so I'm just going to restart from scratch.

It's not the individual OXPs, it's the amount of them I piled onto one Commander without helping the npcs to keep up.

Truth is I won't be losing very much genuine progress and I'll be starting with experience under my belt this time around.

The big upside to all this is I'll start playing the nightly builds more.

I'll also be shaking up my oxp selection, There are combat upgrades I'll keep but I want a fair fight, so shields for npcs, the fair cobra 3 oxp, things like that are in.

If I can have something, I want them to be able to have it too. If they can't have something, I don't want it either.

The AI in this game can often surprise and charm you with it's decisions in combat, those pilots deserve a fair crack at the player.

I want engaging in combat to be a genuine risk again, Oolite makes me want a level field for player and AI... sign of a great sim imo.

And so Commander Prime's career begins and I'm harmless again, this time it's going to be hardcore. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_biggrin.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

<nods sagely at SBP> When you get the game-balance right, Oolite can run and run.

Too many ordnance OXPs just turn it into an arms race - keep it simple (and eye-candied up to the gunwales)!

You mentioned in your post about the Green Gecko OXP that the fight lasted like an hour, I know that ship was a special case but that really made me think.

Like if I sign up for a Random Hit or Tough Guys drops some brigand in my lap and I get a fight like that, I'll be over the moon.

It was a real old-fashioned, up-close dogfight - but I was only using my fore laser.

Hello everyone! Just signed up to find the best list of OXPs. Just completed the Constrictor mission and off to G5 to get my cloaking device.

Riccardo

Welcome to SSC, and to the Oolite Embassy - see our Oolite forum here for the main thing.

Cheers Cody. I'll have a look for some cool OXPs!!!

The Wiki OXP list is pretty comprehensive - enjoy!