Science Fiction Trivia

[Nite Owl]

Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter / Barsoom series. Some Martians are hostile, some are not, a lot like Earth, which was probably Burroughs whole point.

[ffutures]

In the steampunk RPG Space: 1889, Mars is inhabited by a number of different cultures. Some - e.g. the High Martians - will often attack humans (and pretty much everyone else), but first contact with the Canal and Hill Martians was at least non-hostile.

Good - and I'm slightly amazed I didn't think of that one since I wrote articles and an adventure for the system, so have a Meaningless Bonus Point for that.

Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter / Barsoom series. Some Martians are hostile, some are not, a lot like Earth, which was probably Burroughs whole point.

Another good one, and one of the reasons I thought of this - there's currently a special offer on the newish John Carter RPG
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/JohnCarter
You also get a Meaningless Bonus Point

Two to go!

[Disembodied]

An update on the £2 HG Wells coin: as well as depicting a four-legged tripod, it also carries a quote that isn't a quote:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/ ... alse-quote

[spud42]

Artistic licence my arse, they screwed up and wont admit it. Thus begins the true art ... selling the work to some sucker...

[RockDoctor]

Artistic licence my arse, they screwed up and wont admit it. Thus begins the true art ... selling the work to some sucker...

It's either that, or they melt the print run (uh, whatever) down for scrap and make the few "errors" in circulation much more valuable. Call it a "well spotted that man, have a MBP!"

[Disembodied]

Philip K. Dick's Martian Time-Slip has "Bleekmen", the original inhabitants of Mars, who aren't hostile and are pretty much persecuted by the human colonists.

[ffutures]

Philip K. Dick's Martian Time-Slip has "Bleekmen", the original inhabitants of Mars, who aren't hostile and are pretty much persecuted by the human colonists.

Yes, that a good one, and it's one that hadn't crossed my mind at all so have a MBP (or not as you prefer)

One to go!

[Cholmondely]

Dateline: Mars by Richard Wilson has an earth journalist reporting on a fascist martian government oppressing their own people (Gutenberg short story).

[ffutures]

Dateline: Mars by Richard Wilson has an earth journalist reporting on a fascist martian government oppressing their own people (Gutenberg short story).

Okay, that's one I hadn't heard of, and it does seem to be more or less friendly first contact - just with a bunch of Martian Nazis. I think it meets the terms of the question, which means that you are the lucky inheritor of the poisoned chalice and have to set the next question! Have a meaningless bonus point to send you on your way!

Really surprised that nobody mentioned Captain Scarlet, which started out with the Martians wanting to make friendly contact, it was humans who messed things up by attacking them!

[Cholmondely]

... you are the lucky inheritor of the poisoned chalice and have to set the next question! Have a meaningless bonus point to send you on your way!

So, armed with the MBP and with an abysmal ignorance of science fiction (better to try me on the sociology of the eschatology of philosophy - or even the philosophy of the history of anthropology ...), here I go again!

I'm after any one of the following:

a) the key mapping for your joystick if you have one (comments on why you chose the set up you did qualify for MBPs)

b) the spline mapping for your joystick if you have one (ditto as above)

c) what you think the key mapping should be for your joystick if you had one (ditto, ditto)

d) something intelligent and sensible to be included on either the joystick page in the wiki when Winston/Maik/etc bring it back from limbo or a hypothetical keyboard page if it should ever achieve existence.

Here are some examples of a & b

[ffutures]

I think you may need to set another question.

[Cholmondely]

How about this:

One idea for improving our wiki!

[RockDoctor]

How about this:

One idea for improving our wiki!

Less about the Wiki, but my "mission for tonight" was to find a thread in the bulletin board here about requests/ suggestions for the next version of the game. Would that fit?

I routinely swap my laptop between Windows and Linux, and also am hooking up an old laptop to fit behind the telly and drive the big screen - not sure if that'll be Linux or Windows yet. Obviously I have Oolite running on all 3, but I keep the save-games in my "home" folder, on a network storage box. Computer fries, I need to syphon tears from a passing crocodile.
BUT ... keeping the list of add-ons straight between the thee installs of Oolite is getting to be a bit of a pain.
I think we need a function - as part of the outside-game "menu system" - to produce a list of the add-ons installed on *this* machine ; to save it in the save-games location, and to compare (highlight, blow trumpets, whatever) *this*.addonlist to loadedFromStorage.addonlist to assist people with determining which addons they've added to which installations.


If you want to get "meta", then making it simpler for joe-soap-non-developer to contribute to a WikiPage of "suggestions for the next version", so I can propose (the above) would help. That said, I've never actually tried to get permissions to edit the Wiki, so I don't know how much of a bind it actually is. How much time/week do the admins of the Wiki have to devote to "administrivia"?

[Cholmondely]

How about this:

One idea for improving our wiki!

Less about the Wiki, but my "mission for tonight" was to find a thread in the bulletin board here about requests/ suggestions for the next version of the game. Would that fit?

I routinely swap my laptop between Windows and Linux, and also am hooking up an old laptop to fit behind the telly and drive the big screen - not sure if that'll be Linux or Windows yet. Obviously I have Oolite running on all 3, but I keep the save-games in my "home" folder, on a network storage box. Computer fries, I need to syphon tears from a passing crocodile.
BUT ... keeping the list of add-ons straight between the thee installs of Oolite is getting to be a bit of a pain.
I think we need a function - as part of the outside-game "menu system" - to produce a list of the add-ons installed on *this* machine ; to save it in the save-games location, and to compare (highlight, blow trumpets, whatever) *this*.addonlist to loadedFromStorage.addonlist to assist people with determining which addons they've added to which installations.


If you want to get "meta", then making it simpler for joe-soap-non-developer to contribute to a WikiPage of "suggestions for the next version", so I can propose (the above) would help. That said, I've never actually tried to get permissions to edit the Wiki, so I don't know how much of a bind it actually is. How much time/week do the admins of the Wiki have to devote to "administrivia"?

I'm desperate for answers, so - yes! - of course it counts!

Answer: the complications to contribute were brought in back in the days of never-ending wars against spam, and if you search the wiki, you will find the detritus here and there!

Getting access is no bind at all - just ask Maik, the Guardian of the Portal. Maik is the only one (with Winston and possibly _a_c) who has access to the holy code in the entrails (and who has a chance of understanding it). I'm merely a humble editor, despite Cody's recent post on screenshots.

But I thought that suggestions for the next version were either made here on the BB or else on the GitHub site.

[RockDoctor]

Ummm, I have a horrible feeling that I've picked up a chalice - and it's full of poison?