Thanks for all the responses!
First off I'm not trying to minimize Oolite, it's a fantastic achievement based on an equally fantastic original.
@Commander McLane
I basically agree with you, except to say that as it stands today, I think that aside from any minor bugs, it would be fair to classify Oolite as "complete". I don't think there's such a thing as a perfect game but both Elite and Oolite come close. I think Oolite has enough depth to merit being considered an end product. That's not to say it couldn't be improved, of course it could, but it doesn't
need to be improved.
@another_commander
I think this is more than reasonable, there's little point in adding features for the sake of adding features. I'd hate for Oolite to lose its standing as a wonderful homage to Elite. My understanding of the original goals were that they were not meant to take Elite in a different direction, but merely expand upon some areas where game-play and player-immersion could be improved and extended (and I think Oolite does that wonderfully).
@Kaks
I think even some of the things you mention are, IMHO out of the scope of Oolite to be quite honest, but either way they would undoubtedly add value and depth to the game-play. An artist is never happy with his work.
@Smivs
These are the types of things that I have in mind, and you could certainly make an argument (canon?) that these things should
not be addressed. I think things like the fact that the original Elite didn't allow for or expect players to be able to fly other ships has hurt Oolite. There's a lot of redundancy in being able to choose ships without any consequences and the goal simply becomes to have the best ship money can buy. As for stuff like being able to jump more than 7 light years, this is where you're definitely entering the territory of requiring a different approach, a new way of thinking... a different game engine.
Another "gripe" for want of a better word is the seemingly isolated and distinct nature of each system (again stemming from the original Elite). Although things like missions stand to give the illusion of a persistent Ooniverse, in general there is an underlying feeling that each system is like a separate sub-game within itself.
@SiriusCG
I think you might be falling into the first trap. Conceiving of an "Oolite 2" seems like that would inherently constrain one's ideas to the foundation laid down by Elite. However, I think you're on the right track with a generic space sim engine.
@Anyone who cares to listen...
I'm not proposing that we fork Oolite, or we all run off and immediately start to write a new game. Nor do I, as I stated above want to minimize the achievements of Oolite. Overall, I appreciate all of the developers' and contributors' time to Oolite and I certainly wouldn't want to take that for granted and tell them how they should be spending their time. My purpose was really to see or get a feel for the thoughts others have had about a game that breaks away from Elite/Oolite but while still drawing on some of the experiences those games gave us.
Ever since Elite, I've dreamed of how it could be bettered, what could be done differently if starting from scratch. I thought Frontier Elite 2 would be that new direction, but although the game was fascinating to explore, it was terrible to play, in particular the combat and that totally killed it for me (no pun intended).
Anyway, there's nothing to say something has to come of this discussion, merely that we the ideas are there and someday they may give birth to something wonderful and unexpected.
