After almost 2 years away from here, in which time I haven't read any posts, or been to the Wiki, nor even played Oolite, I'm back.
Major health hassles, major family hassles, major RL hassles, major girlfriend hassles (not her, per se, just things conspiring against us) and anything else you can name, have all combined to keep me too preoccupied to even touch my favourite game..
My time is rather more limited than before (how the hell did I manage to become a Moderator on FOUR other forums?
) but I'll participate as able.Dizzy's Oolite Downloads will be getting a makeover, I've already updated my US mirror of the Oolite Vector Maps to match the latest versions, and edited the Wiki to reflect the changes.
I was delighted with the updated version of the OXP pages on the Wiki (thanks, maik) but was a little disappointed to see that my favourite micro-OXP Far Sun didn't have an entry in the Ambience category, so I've made a page for it and updated both the main OXP page and the Ambience category accordingly.
Now to the important bit: Oolite.
Wow... wow, wow, wow and wow.. (did I mention wow?)
Maybe I should stay away more often..
seriously though.. kudos to all the developers involved, all the OXP authors, and especially all the new OXP authors..1.76 looks and runs beautifully.. 2 days ago, I loaded up my poor old laptop with more eye-candy than it had a hope of running, and went poking about. Looking GOOD, folks!
I've now, (with great reluctance, admittedly) removed enough of said eye-candy to get a passable frame-rate, and have started off a brand-new Commander Dizzy to commemorate the occasion.. I've been mostly milk-running so far, trying to finance an iron ass, after which I'll be getting back into Random Hits in a big way..
Some observations:
@ Pagroove, PhantorGorth & Svengali.. BGS looks to be everything we were hoping it could be, back when it first became possible to insert new backgrounds.. it's like a complete makeover for the game!
I love the look, I love the background sounds, and the entire atmosphere it creates.. I especially dig the comms chatter when in the Station Aegis.. so atmospheric.. (I had no idea spacers said "no worries" so much.. 
) You even got it nicely integrated with HalSis, which I very much appreciate.. (and that new witchspace jump animation.. there aren't the words to even express how frickin' awesome that looks!)Special mention to CommonSenseOTB.. some serious effort there, mate.. and some good work! I love the NumericHUD.. the logical, balanced layout, even the joystick precision mode indicator is well placed.. and I especially like the items that disappear when not actually needed.. great idea. Your Sniper Camera System is another great gadget..
I've also been making some notes of minor issues and incompatibilities that I've spotted in some OXPs that don't seem to have been mentioned anywhere, so I'll be in touch with some authors directly about those..
It's great to be back, folks! I'm looking forward to getting to know all the new faces/names, and catching up with all my old mates here!
Dizzy
