Draft Oolite website redesign

[Disembodied]

Hmm... you been messin' with my ellipses, Big D?

I can't help it. At this point in my life it's purely instinctive.

[cim]

I put together a few suggestions

Thanks - I've dropped in one from each book, so we're up to six total now.

[maik]

Sorry to be a bit of a spoil-sport, but I find the start page quite text-heavy and not very inspiring for potential new players. Also, I'm not convinced that having an OXZ list there in addition to the OXP list on the wiki is a great idea, it seems redundant. Isn't there some opportunity for creating one from the other?

[cim]

Sorry to be a bit of a spoil-sport

Not at all.

I find the start page quite text-heavy and not very inspiring for potential new players.

Suggestions for rewording and/or suitable additional pictures very welcome - a lot of the content is placeholder at the moment, and the first two paragraphs of the front page especially so.

Condensing what Oolite is - for the benefit of someone who hasn't played Elite - into a few sentences is not straightforward, and I'm still not happy with that bit.

Also, I'm not convinced that having an OXZ list there in addition to the OXP list on the wiki is a great idea, it seems redundant. Isn't there some opportunity for creating one from the other?

Longer-term, almost certainly - one of the big advantages of OXZ format is that it forces a little bit of structured metadata to be included, which can then be indexed and reused (and I'm looking forward to seeing what interesting reuse people come up with).

So once most OXPs are converted to OXZ format, it should be possible to generate the OXP list on the Wiki by parsing http://addons.oolite.org/api/1.0/overview (or an alternative format, if that's easier) and adding a few extra lines for the really old OXPs.

At the moment, probably not: I can't pull items from the Wiki because the structured data isn't there yet (though there have been a few discussions about how Semantic Mediawiki might be used in future); you can't really pull items in to the Wiki because there's so few OXZs at the moment.

[Cody]

It's pretty quick to repackage an OXP as an OXZ...

Are there any simple instructions on how to do that? I have a solitary OXP that might need repackaging. <chortles>

[Thargoid]

It's pretty quick to repackage an OXP as an OXZ...

Are there any simple instructions on how to do that? I have a solitary OXP that might need repackaging. <chortles>

If you want some more I can lend you a few

[cim]

It's pretty quick to repackage an OXP as an OXZ...

Are there any simple instructions on how to do that? I have a solitary OXP that might need repackaging. <chortles>

1. Add a [wiki]manifest.plist[/wiki] next to the requires.plist, completing at least the required and mostly-required keys
2. Zip the inside of the .oxp folder up: you want to create the zip so that if you unzipped it you'd get loose Config, Scripts, etc. folders, not them inside an .oxp folder
3. Rename the file from .zip to .oxz
4. If it's to be added to the OXZ manager it'll need to be uploaded to somewhere with direct download support, and then you can add it to the OXZ listing if you have an account.

If all you're doing is repackaging it and adding the manifest.plist to the OXZ version, then it can keep the same version number; otherwise, new version number as usual.

[Cody]

If you want some more I can lend you a few

<grins> No, no - one is quite enough, especially as I can't really say I'm able to maintain/fix it.

[Norby]

Are there any simple instructions on how to do that?

Here is a manifest.plist what I generated with the admin page:

Code: Select all

{
	"identifier" = "oolite.oxp.Norby.Towbar";
	"required_oolite_version" = "1.79";
	"title" = "Towbar";
	"version" = "0.96";
	"category" = "Activities";
	"description" = "Make money from derelict ships, earn high salvager rankings.";
	"author" = "Norby";
	"information_url" = "http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Towbar";
	"license" = "CC BY-NC-SA 3";
}

After I inserted this into the .oxz version of my oxp, I uploaded the oxz into the wiki and added the following into the wiki page of this oxp to get a download counter:

Code: Select all

Download in OXZ format [[Media:Towbar_0.96.oxz|here]] for Oolite 1.79 or later (downloaded {{#downloads:Towbar_0.96.oxz}} times).

Lastly I added the "download url" and "file size" into the admin page, started the game, used the "update expansions list" menu and installed the oxz to test it.

[Cody]

Muchas gracias, cim and Norby - I'll look into it. <ponders instructions - decides to take Mercurial Amethyst out for a cruise>

[Diziet Sma]

<ponders instructions - decides to take Mercurial Amethyst out for a cruise>

As always, I'm more than happy to help out with the Wiki side of things, if you like..

[Cody]

As always, I'm more than happy to help out with the Wiki side of things, if you like..

Thankfully noted, Diz - though I do have a Wiki account these days. Yes, rather worrying that, ain't it?

[Diziet Sma]

I do have a Wiki account these days. Yes, rather worrying that, ain't it?

Strong, the pull of the Dark Side is...

[Norby]

I would like to see more OXZ in the new list, so if an author ask me then I can convert his OXPs to OXZ, upload into the wiki with a download counter and make an entry into the new list, which mean it will appear in the expansion manager in Oolite 1.79.

Cim told me he can easily transfer entries in the admin page to the real author, so if you allow me to do the conversion of your OXPs then you can save your time and handle the entries further.

I started with my favorites from missing authors, after these I will have time to the requests. I plan to leave ships to the end due to there are so many.

[pagroove]

Hi Cim Nice work.

Maybe on the getting started page we need a few screenshots

Trading..

(Screenshot of the marktet screen)


Mining

(Screenshot of mining activities)

Piracy

(Screenshot a ship attacking a convoy)

Bounty hunting

Screenshot of a ship with a bounty visible in the hud

Courier work

Screenie of the parcel contracts

Salvage / rescue

.....