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Essential List of expansions?

Discussion and information relevant to creating special missions, new ships, skins etc.

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SandJ
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by SandJ »

hedfulofspidrs wrote:
A slightly off-topic question. Would you consider the original Elite as the first real 'open universe' and / or sandbox game? I can't think of any other candidates.
Valhalla was released in 1983, Elite in 1984.

Valhalla is a game that warrants being re-written. I did a multi-user version in Pascal that ran at the BBC for a while; it grew out of a 4GL development test environment I built. Because it used a proprietary database, I couldn't put it in the Public Domain Software Library. Hey ho.

In Valhalla, you're dead. You wander around as a dead Viking either helping good or evil characters. The NPCs just wandered around and did their own thing, which was amazing at the time. You could pick up objects (weapons mostly) and lock spares away in chests and take the key with you.

When you 'died' you reappeared somewhere else but with no items. (So you ran off to where you died to see if you could get there in time to retrieve the key to the chest containing your spare items...)

You could call on NPC characters to help you and they might, if they felt like it, wander over to where you are. You would then use this gang of chums to go and duff up some stronger character and pinch their items.

The purpose of the game? To keep playing.

At least ... that's how I remember it.
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Disembodied »

SandJ wrote:
Valhalla is a game that warrants being re-written. I did a multi-user version in Pascal that ran at the BBC for a while; it grew out of a 4GL development test environment I built. Because it used a proprietary database, I couldn't put it in the Public Domain Software Library. Hey ho.

In Valhalla, you're dead. You wander around as a dead Viking either helping good or evil characters. The NPCs just wandered around and did their own thing, which was amazing at the time. You could pick up objects (weapons mostly) and lock spares away in chests and take the key with you.

When you 'died' you reappeared somewhere else but with no items. (So you ran off to where you died to see if you could get there in time to retrieve the key to the chest containing your spare items...)

You could call on NPC characters to help you and they might, if they felt like it, wander over to where you are. You would then use this gang of chums to go and duff up some stronger character and pinch their items.

The purpose of the game? To keep playing.

At least ... that's how I remember it.
I'd forgotten about Valhalla. According to Wikipedia though there was an objective: you had to collect six mythical objects. But it was open-ended to the extent that it was up to the player how they went about doing it.
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Diziet Sma »

G'day, hedfulofspidrs (nicely disturbing avatar, btw :twisted: ) and welcome aboard!

Something which you may not be aware of, since it wasn't in Elite, is the passenger and cargo-contracts screen.. (F8-F8 when docked)

If you buy one or more passenger berths, you can transport passengers as well as, or instead of, cargo. Or, you can purchase a cargo contract, which will pay a premium if you deliver the goods before the deadline. Passengers also must arrive at their destination before a set time if you are to receive the full payment. (One of the nice things about passengers is that they pay part of the fare in advance, which can be handy when you're low on funds..)

To begin with, you may be struggling to cover your costs, but as your reputation for on-time deliveries improves, you will be offered more lucrative contracts. The easiest way to track your reputation (which will fade over time, if you don't continue to do contract-runs) is by installing the Display Reputation OXP. (Missing a deadline will also hurt your reputation, of course)

You'll need to buy an Advanced Navigation Array and make good use of the long-range chart to be sure of making your deliveries on time, especially when you reach the point of being able to take 2-3 (or more) contracts on at the same time. (See Navigation Controls on the Oolite Reference Sheet that installed with the game for more details) Also, keep in mind that, because of the way witch-jumps work, the least number of jumps isn't the fastest route. Several short hops are much faster than one big jump; something which you can sometimes take advantage of when bounty-hunting..

A fuel scoop & heatshield are essential for sun-skimming fuel when contract-hauling, and I highly recommend installing the Fuel Station OXP as well, so that you can refuel relatively close to the witchpoint beacon and jump straight out again, rather than spending time heading in-system to top off your tanks at the Main Station every jump.. (okay, so the fuel is more expensive, but hey, time is money, right?) Buying the Advanced Space Compass will make it a lot easier to locate fuel stations/satellites on those occasions when they are not situated close to the witchpoint beacon. Another nice bit of gear to have is the Fuel Collector OXP, which will slowly gather small amounts of quirium fuel from the solar wind as you fly through it. It has a couple of other uses, too..

The Talkative Space Compass OXP is a very worthwhile piece of kit, as it is much easier than deciphering what the letters and icons on the ASC are referring to.

Having said all that, from looking at the cargo contracts screen, you might get the feeling that cargo contracts require a ship with 50+TC capacity.. it's certainly easier, but it can be done in a Cobra MkIII with a cargo extension.. the 30-35TC contracts are harder to find, but they do exist, in enough quantity that you can get to the highest possible reputation with just your Cobby, and once you hit that point, you get the really juicy contracts for gold, platinum and gems, which will only require a few TC of space, leaving you room for other cargo or some passengers as well.. At that point, a well-planned run from one side of the chart to the other, with a couple of cargo contracts and 2-3 high-paying passengers may net you well over 100,000 Cr in profit.. :mrgreen:


Another exciting way to earn some money, once you have an Iron Ass and are combat-hardened, is the Escort Contracts OXP. With this installed, you will often be offered contracts escorting a Python or similar cargo hauler to their destination, always only one jump away. The destination is generally an Anarchy system or some other dangerous location, and you'll get lots of opportunities to bump up your combat rating as you shepherd your charge along the spacelane to the safety of the Main Station Aegis.. This is yet another contract situation where your profits will improve as your reputation does..

The Random Hits OXP will let you try your hand at bounty-hunting, or you can take a crack at the Assassin's Guild, if you think you have what it takes.. :twisted: Once again, with both of these OXPs, the better your reputation, the greater the rewards.. (and the challenges!)

Also:
Check out the Equipment OXP section of the Wiki for some other useful gear. The HUDs section is worth a look, (I especially like the latest Numerical Hud) and I'd also suggest you take a look at some of the System OXPs, which greatly enhance the Anarchy, Communist, Dictatorship and Feudal systems, amongst others, and provide a much richer gameplay environment.

Lastly, the Background Set OXP updates all the screens you can see whilst docked, giving Oolite a much more up-to-date look, as well as adding a number of sound effects, both whilst docked, and in-game. (And an absolutely awesome new witchspace jump effect, if your graphics card is shader-capable.. - which most modern cards are)
Last edited by Diziet Sma on Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Okti »

Spamming the thread :D

Galaxy Info gives some usefull information to the player about the galaxy the player is in. And just bought a round for the 500 th download of this oxp at the IRC channel.
My OXP's
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by hedfulofspidrs »

Randomshipnames OXP installed - loving it. Thanks for the tip.
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by onno256 »

Totally off-topic;

Diziet Sma? You read Banks?

Greetz,
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Diziet Sma »

onno256 wrote:
Totally off-topic;

Diziet Sma? You read Banks?
How'd ya guess? You psychic or something? :mrgreen:

Big fan.. huge even..
Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by onno256 »

@ diziet sma;

Banks has some really nice books published, if You like Banks, You may even want to check out Gregory Benford (Hard SF)
Culture novels rock!

Greetz,
onno.
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Cody »

Image Image
I would advise stilts for the quagmires, and camels for the snowy hills
And any survivors, their debts I will certainly pay. There's always a way!
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Diziet Sma »

Thanks Onno.. will do that!

@ EV: :shock: very cool! didn't know that was in RandomShipNames! Living up to his name in the second shot, I see!
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Cody »

Diziet Sma wrote:
Living up to his name in the second shot, I see!
Yeah! Just as well he was only carrying three missiles... a fourth might have done for me!
I would advise stilts for the quagmires, and camels for the snowy hills
And any survivors, their debts I will certainly pay. There's always a way!
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Talisker »

I can see it now (and maybe a candidate for My First OXP(tm)):

Gravitas.oxp, an add-on for Random Ship Names :)
What were the skies like when you were young?

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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Diziet Sma »

Talisker wrote:
I can see it now (and maybe a candidate for My First OXP(tm)):

Gravitas.oxp, an add-on for Random Ship Names :)
I LOL'd.. literally! :mrgreen: 8)
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Commander McLane »

Talisker wrote:
I can see it now (and maybe a candidate for My First OXP(tm)):

Gravitas.oxp, an add-on for Random Ship Names :)
You'll discover that there are quite a few culture ship names in randomshipnames.oxp. However, I refrained from including the gravitas-related stuff. An in-joke inside an in-joke seemed just a little over the top.

By the way: I only copied the names from Wikipedia because they're funny and witty. I have never read a single line of Banks in my life.
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Re: Essential List of expansions?

Post by Talisker »

Commander McLane wrote:
An in-joke inside an in-joke seemed just a little over the top
You know, that thought never occurred to me :shock:
What were the skies like when you were young?

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