Greetings, The Early Days and Thanks

Massively Locked · Post by **Massively Locked** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:39 pm

Hi Everyone

So I discovered & downloaded Oolite a few weeks ago. Now unlike many of you here, I didn't have the pleasure of playing the original Elite even though my first machine was the C-64 waaaay back in the day. Through the years, I would hear of Elite's legendary genre-starting reputation and regret having missed out on it. So when I stumbled upon Oolite, I thought, "great- now I get to see what they're all raving about!" I downloaded it, installed it and dove right in.

Well, it almost didn't happen.

After taking a quick admiring look over my brand-spanking new Cobra Mk III, I jumped right into the cockpit. The dock master said, "uh, you might want to RTFM."

"Manual? I don't need no stinkin' manual!"

The dock master shrugged his shoulders and made a call. "Fire up numbers 6 & 7. Yeah, clean-up in aisle 1"

I threw the throttle forward and jetted out of Lave Station into the wide, wide Ooniverse. Wow- very cool. But then I remembered that I just left with an empty cargo hold. No problem, I thought. Being the master trader that I imagined myself to be, I'll go back, load up with 100 tons of food, fly over to the next system- probably Diso- and sell it all for a cool million. Easy as pie. I should make 'Elite' in no time.

So I swung my Cobra around. No wait, that's right roll. Hmmm, I wonder if this bird can actually turn left & right. Anyway, I'll just climb, climb, climb and there's the dock entrance. Hey- the station's rotating. I wonder if I have to match its rotaton? Nah, probably not. The entrance looks taller than even my ship's width. Oops- I'm off center- just need to go left a bit. Oh yeah, this ship can't turn left. That's OK- I'll just roll & climb. There we go.

The last thing I remember hearing was the dock master on the comm to a GalCop Viper. "C'mon, just this once? I can make it look like he opened up on us. Damnit- we just repainted, too..."

That little scene replayed itself over and over. I was on the verge of deleting the program and declaring to one and all that "Oolite Sucks Space Balls!!" However, something kept me coming back to pound my head against this brick wall. It might have been the little voice saying, "I can't friggin' believe that I can't dock this tin can!"

One day finally, instead of seeing the usual "Press Space, Commander," I was greeted with my ship's status screen. I sat back with stunned amazement. I don't think I would have been more surprised had I parted the Red (or any other) Sea. While I would hardly say that I mastered manual docking, I was starting to get better at not decorating the station's decks and bulkheads with twisted metal fragments of what was my ship.

Overcoming this hurdle lead right into another. I travelled to the next system... and couldn't find the damned station! Great, just great. I can dock now (sorta), but I just can't find what I'm supposed to dock with. Fortunately, that was another problem that I was able to work out.

Nowadays, I'm cruising around Galaxy 2 still in my original Coby III (although far more souped-up than those early days). I'm rated "Dangerous" and haven't done anything too stupid to cause my ship to be turned into a floating debris field. I'm doing Random Hits (which probably makes me a bad person) and also running Rescue, Recovery & Salvage missions (which probably makes me a good person) so I guess that my cosmic karma eventually balances out.

Anyway, the point of this long-winded initial post is to add my voice to the chorus of others by saying a big, sincere "THANK YOU" to all the devs- be it the main program or OXPs. You guys have done an amazing job, and I hope to see Oolte continue to grow and develop. I now know why Elite and Oolite have the following that they do. I'd love to contribute by creating an OXP but for one minor reason that currently prevents that: I have no skills or talent necessary for it.

On that note: Happy space trails & always watch yer 6!

Diziet Sma · Post by **Diziet Sma** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:07 pm

Welcome aboard, Massively Locked!

That was quite an entertaining introduction.. you had me chuckling several times..

Don't worry about the lack of coding skill, we all have ways of contributing something.. yours may well turn out to be great stories in Tales from the spacelanes.

(and I presume by now you've figured out how to turn left or right?

)

Commander Smivs · Post by **Smivs** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:16 pm

Hi Massively Locked, and welcome.
Great first post - had me chuckling a bit

and I think half the regulars here probably had a similar experience. I'm glad to hear you seem to be settling in well, and having a blast!

Website · Post by **Cody** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 3:06 pm

A good way to start your game, in my opinion... it's how I started on Elite so long ago. No manual, no novella... I just jumped into my Cobra III and learnt stuff.
Disembodied's phrase sums it up: there's your ship, there's the universe... off you go! Welcome aboard, Massively Locked!

Kasero · Post by **Kasero** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 3:43 pm

Welcome aboard, Massively Locked!

Funny and (not) surprizing to see that we all started at the same point, in the same manner (although not all at the same time perhaps)

Massively Locked · Post by **Massively Locked** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:51 am

Thanks for the welcome, guys!

I do have a question for you long-time Ooliters: have the saved games generally been (or not been) forward compatible with newer versions of the program? I ask because I was playing another game a while back and had built up my entity quite a bit. Then a new version was released with Bug Fixes! Great New Features!! And Complete Incompatibility with Previous Saved Games!!! Arrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Wiki pages · Post by **Thargoid** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:52 am

Yes, they are normally fully compatible.

and more · Post by **cim** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:55 am

You'll always be able to load a save game from an older release in a newer release.

Commander Smivs · Post by **Smivs** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:04 am

Massively Locked wrote:
And Complete Incompatibility with Previous Saved Games!!! Arrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

This should not be the case. Can you give us some details such as how you upgraded, what O/S you are using and the precise nature of the problem eg are the saves there but just not working or are they not showing up as available etc.

maik · Post by **maik** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:07 am

Smivs wrote:
Massively Locked wrote:
And Complete Incompatibility with Previous Saved Games!!! Arrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
This should not be the case. Can you give us some details such as how you upgraded, what O/S you are using and the precise nature of the problem eg are the saves there but just not working or are they not showing up as available etc.

Massively Locked wrote:
I was playing another game a while back

I don't think he was talking about oolite...

Massively Locked · Post by **Massively Locked** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:13 am

Wow- thanks for the quick replies. And good to hear it.

Smivs- sorry, I should have made it clearer that it wasn't Oolite but an entirely different game (UFO: Alien Invasion).

Commander Smivs · Post by **Smivs** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:58 am

Massively Locked wrote:
Smivs- sorry, I should have made it clearer that it wasn't Oolite but an entirely different game (UFO: Alien Invasion).

Heh, no worries, I've just got up and the brain-haze hasn't dissipated yet

NEED MORE COFFEE!!!

maik · Post by **maik** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 9:29 am

Smivs wrote:
Massively Locked wrote:
Smivs- sorry, I should have made it clearer that it wasn't Oolite but an entirely different game (UFO: Alien Invasion).
Heh, no worries, I've just got up and the brain-haze hasn't dissipated yet NEED MORE COFFEE!!!

Just spilled one in the car on my way to work, the lid didn't seal the cup. Have to keep my jacket closed the rest of the day now

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