User:Fritz
Playing C-64 Elite since 1985 and Oolite (PC) since July 2015.
I won't watch the talk page too closely, so better contact me in the forum.
My ship
After using a Cobra Mk III for some time I decided that I didn't really like it. I didn't like its outer shape, and - even more important - its cargo capacity was to small to use for the mix of cargo, passenger, and pirate hunting business I like to play. With two or three passenger cabins fitted, the remaining space was much too small!
I had always liked the looks of the Python, even in the original Elite game, and it's definitely more beautiful than a Boa or an Anaconda. It also looks kind of badass, while the other freighters look like what they are: big, pointy containers with engines fitted. While the Anaconda does have some elegance, both Boa types are really fat and ugly.
So if I wanted a freighter, it would have to be a Python! But standard Pythons are slow - too slow, especially for picking up cargo pods and wreckage. And I lost too much real world time on the final approach to stations and during mass locks.
So, after I had earned and bought all the military equipment available, I decided to sell the Cobra and modify a Python by reducing its cargo space to 75 t. The remaining space was used to fit engines and equipment that enabled speed and energy recharge rate of a Cobra Mk III. I didn't change thrust, pitch or roll rates, so it gives a nice feeling of being heavier - it needs around 750 m to stop from full speed!
Currently I have 4 passenger cabins fitted, and the remaining cargo space of 55 t is enough in most situations.
For fairness, I have added the same ship for NPCs, mostly appearing in the role of a "heavy" assassin. And - compared to an Asp Mk II - it is really heavy and always equipped with two military lasers! I've made some texture variants too, and I'll probably release it as an OXP some day.
OXPs made, maintained or significantly modified by me
- Company Freighters (textures and naming engine for freighters, not released yet)
- Engine Sound FG (similar but significantly different to Engine Sound)
- Escort Contracts (released a new version in December 2015)
- Navigation Flashers (only a little shipdata tweak)
- Randomshipnames (strongly modified to something I call "Shortershipnames")
- Synchronised Torus
Other installed OXPs
- Aliens
- Communications Pack A
- Cylon Raider Mark 1 (modified, I made my first OXP tinkering experiments with this one)
- Display reputation (modified text)
- Griff's alloys and wreckage
- Griff's alternative Cobra Mk III
- LogEvents
- Missile Booster (because I'm flying a Python)
- ReverseControl
- Sensible Sun
- Star-Jelly
- Staer9's Shipset (no-shaders version, some role probabilities reduced)
- Station Ads
Work in progress
- Company Freighters: Includes several new textures and ship naming schemes for trading companies.
- Shortershipnames: Technically based on the Randomshipnames OXP, but with a completely different naming logic, giving shorter names that are usually more easy to memorize and don't use so much time when used with Communications Pack A and e-speak. And you can't tell the intentions of the pilot from them...
- Python Gunship: The ship I'm currently flying, a modified Python. Will include some texture variants.
- Damage handling: First it was just an idea, discussed in the forum, but now I'm actually starting to work on it.
