OXZ and balance

[Norby]

ended with the outcome that there are no "safe" oxps.

I think there are many "safe" in Ambience, HUD, Retextures and Misc but there are exceptions, and there are positive exceptions in other categories like a normal ship.

[spara]

there are no "safe" oxps.

I think there are many "safe" in Ambience, HUD, Retextures and Misc but there are exceptions, and there are positive exceptions in other categories like a normal ship.

Oh, I personally think many of the oxps to be "safe", but it seems that what ever oxp you present as a "safe" one, someone will point out how it alters the game, thus not being safe.

[Cody]

... what ever oxp you present as a "safe" one, someone will point out how it alters the game, thus not being safe.

<grins> Yeah, even Random Ship Names affects game-balance!

Seriously though, trying to get everyone to agree is damn nigh impossible!

[Norby]

someone will point out how it alters the game, thus not being safe.

I think the author should be able to tell where the product in this scale in his eyes. Anybody can point out a thing what the author can consider and change his mind or not, but nobody can force it, so this field can stay in "safe" regardless of others due to show the sight of the author and do not need to everybody be satisfied with.

The goal is not to place into the (nonexistent) right state but to show something instead of nothing.

Btw thanks for all feedbacks.

[cim]

I've updated the manifest editor so that you can now fill in the 'tags' field of the manifest.

I'm not against adding extra metadata fields to the manifest format as such, but I think I'd want to see a demand for being able to record that particular information and reasonable takeup of it by OXPers. Since whatever's decided isn't usefully going to be supported by the OXZ manager in Oolite itself until 1.82, there's no rush.

So, decide on whatever tag schemes you want ... and we'll see what catches on. I'd recommend prefixing tags with the name of the tag scheme to make it easier to have overlapping schemes, personal schemes, schemes with documented standards for use, etc.

Oolite won't use the tags - yet - but I plan to include search-by-tag in 1.82, and if enough coherent schemes start to form that it looks useful, I can put a search-by-tag feature on the website list before then.

How about adding a long description field to the manifest that would allow enough text to fill one screen?

"Information URL" is the field intended for this purpose. It shouldn't be that hard to get Oolite to pass the URL of the selected OXZ to your OS default web browser, which should avoid the need for so much typing. I'd rather try to get that working than to deal with the problem that the existing text field is too restricted by adding another one that's only slightly less restricted.

[spara]

Tags would suit just fine Norby's idea, I think. If a common agreement about used tags is found though. People could just but "safe" tag or something similar, if they thing their oxz is a "safe" one or something.

How about adding a long description field to the manifest that would allow enough text to fill one screen?

"Information URL" is the field intended for this purpose. It shouldn't be that hard to get Oolite to pass the URL of the selected OXZ to your OS default web browser, which should avoid the need for so much typing. I'd rather try to get that working than to deal with the problem that the existing text field is too restricted by adding another one that's only slightly less restricted.

Sounds good . Just showing the information_url felt a bit incomplete.

[Norby]

Thanks cim for the fast making of tag field. Adapting to balance if none set then considered as "normal", and can be set to "safe" if harmless or "extra" if uber. Another tag can be set to "wip" so the autor can tell his view about balance right in wip state. I am happy.

Next I suggest to put some suggestion about usual words into the description of tag field in admin page to guide authors what should use - without this oxzs will be uploaded without cool tags and most of the uploaded ones will not be updated.
Now I started to use the "wip" and "safe" words and recommend to allocate the "extra" word instead of "Ultra Difficult Ooniverse Pack" for less typing.

The default browser is a very good solution also.

[Neelix]

I don't like 'extra' as a tag name... you've assigned your own meaning to it that makes sense to you, but it's pretty meaningless in and of itself, (All OXPs and OXZs are extras by definition) so I doubt it would be too helpful to a Jameson.

- Neelix

[Norby]

Thanks, you are right. How about "powerup"? Should tell shortly that this package is well over the perfect balance of the core game, but the "uber" word is too much imho (this can be an even higher level if needed).

[Neelix]

Thanks, you are right. How about "powerup"? Should tell shortly that this package is well over the perfect balance of the core game, but the "uber" word is too much imho (this can be an even higher level if needed).

Yeah, that works.

- Neelix

[mossfoot]

I don't like 'extra' as a tag name... you've assigned your own meaning to it that makes sense to you, but it's pretty meaningless in and of itself, (All OXPs and OXZs are extras by definition) so I doubt it would be too helpful to a Jameson.

Yeah, that's something that always needs to be asked after an idea is worked out: How will a Jameson view it?

[Diziet Sma]

Thanks, you are right. How about "powerup"? Should tell shortly that this package is well over the perfect balance of the core game, but the "uber" word is too much imho (this can be an even higher level if needed).

I don't like 'extra' as a tag name... you've assigned your own meaning to it that makes sense to you, but it's pretty meaningless in and of itself, (All OXPs and OXZs are extras by definition) so I doubt it would be too helpful to a Jameson.

Yeah, that's something that always needs to be asked after an idea is worked out: How will a Jameson view it?

And that's exactly why I don't think "powerup" is a good term either.. think about the reaction of your typical gamer to the word "powerup".. The very first thing that will go through their mind is "Hell yeah! I want that!"

[Neelix]

Thanks, you are right. How about "powerup"? Should tell shortly that this package is well over the perfect balance of the core game, but the "uber" word is too much imho (this can be an even higher level if needed).

I don't like 'extra' as a tag name... you've assigned your own meaning to it that makes sense to you, but it's pretty meaningless in and of itself, (All OXPs and OXZs are extras by definition) so I doubt it would be too helpful to a Jameson.

Yeah, that's something that always needs to be asked after an idea is worked out: How will a Jameson view it?

And that's exactly why I don't think "powerup" is a good term either.. think about the reaction of your typical gamer to the word "powerup".. The very first thing that will go through their mind is "Hell yeah! I want that!"

Good point. But I'm having trouble coming up with any better ideas... everything that's come to mind so far that would sound like more of a warning than an advertisement would also be somewhat overstating things...

- Neelix

[Diziet Sma]

But I'm having trouble coming up with any better ideas...

Don't worry.. so am I.. I tried to come up with a better suggestion myself before posting the above, but drew a blank.

[mossfoot]

Perhaps the "Affect None (Cosmetic)", "Affect All", "Affect Player", "Affect NPCs" categories would be a better place to start? Granted it gives no sense of scale of impact, but it seems that's something that will never be agreed on, but at least knowing in broad terms what is impacted is a place to start