Spoilt for choice, so many OXP's but which ones?

[hangar18]

There's so many! I've downloaded a few and was basically wondering if anyone had compiled a number of these into a massive pack. Can anyone recommend which ones? Basicallyh I'm after a bit of everything...

1. a few more ships
2. a few more missions
3. a bit more gameplay (dockable pirate stations, behmoths etc).

Many thanks in advance.

[Disembodied]

Hi, hangar18 ... yours is a common query, and there's not really any good answer to it. Well, there is an answer to "if anyone had compiled a number of these into a massive pack": no. Too complicated, too many different people involved, too many different things to keep up-to-date.

Recommendations really depend on roughly what level you're at, at the moment (there are some ships you really don't want to meet in your ooniverse until you're ready for them); what sort of ooniverse you'd prefer to inhabit (just canonical Elite; broader-based but no TV or film interlopers; anything up to and including Santa; etc.); the capabilities of your computer.

Some things are common sense, e.g. there's no point installing a mission set in Galaxy 4 when you're in Galaxy 1. There's a useful breakdown of various missions on the wiki, giving rough skill levels as well as where they're set. Pick one or two and see how it goes.

A good (I think – other peoples' opinions will vary) starting ship expansion pack is Old Ships; nine new ship types, all canonical to various versions of Elite, and none of them diverge too far from the core game in terms of stats and performance.

For extra dockables, there's Your Ad Here (convenience stores) ... as a starting point this is worth looking at, as although it adds an extra trading opportunity it doesn't change the gameplay. Feudal States adds hunting lodges, and the chance to take part in tournaments, Random Hits adds Seedy Space Bars and bounty hunting missions, Galactic Navy adds navy bases, ships, and the chance to become a reservist ...

Really, the problem with making recommendations is that what one person loves another might not like at all (this is also another problem with the idea of bundling OXPs). My advice is to pick a few and see how you like them. If they don't suit you, just take them out again for no damage (unless you buy an OXP-only ship, then you're stuck with it until you either buy a core-game ship or edit your save file).

[Cody]

Hi hangar18, and welcome... as Disembodied so rightly says, everyone's taste in OXPs varies somewhat.
I'll just mention some eye-candy, such as [wiki]BGS[/wiki] for cool docked screens and ambient sounds.

[fronclynne]

Beer cooler! Beer beer beer cooler.

Good Lord, man: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Beer_Cooler

Warm beer is fine, too though, if you're one of those.

[CommonSenseOTB]

Check out this viewtopic for links to more discussion on this.

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10749

[Smivs]

I presume you've found the OXP list already. This is sortable, so if you click on the 'Catagory' (ships, missions etc) it will show a table of all the OXPs in that catagory. Also if you click on the 'bow tie' symbol under the heading for the table column it will sort them by catagory within the table for you.
This should make your searching easier.

[ClymAngus]

Before you sidle up to the oxp's dear sir; may I per chance tempt you with a little something to make those initial, worry warn trading hops a little easier?

http://www.crimsonforge.co.uk/cloister/OOmap_G1.pdf