Oolite Wiki

[Selezen]

It's based on a quote from Red Dwarf. Durinbg Holly's openeing monologue to one of the series 2 episodes (I think):

The other day we found a moon shaped exactly like Felicity Kendall's bottom. We flew round that one a few times, I can tell you!"

[Dr. Nil]

Captain Hesperus has made another of his great wiki entries - this time on the Commie Astromines (Gulags) with some background material on 'justice' in commie systems. It's well worth a read.

Remember to check out the user page with the story of the Capt'n and his crew too.

[Rxke]

Remember to check out the user page with the story of the Capt'n and his crew too.

'it was my evil twin brother' had me laughing out loud

[drew]

And soon to be immortalised in print...

Ah... Captain Hesperus, the stories we could tell....

Cheers,

Drew.

[Cholmondely]

This is an potential Wiki entry of my own devising, that I'm asking the community to look over and feed back on as to whether it's good enough to enter the Wiki as a piece of 'flavour text'. Also it might be a good bit of inspiration for an OXP in the future . Have a read and let me know if you think it's good enough (it's a bit long!):

<begin text>

The 'DICKY BOW RUN'
The Trans-Gal One Endurance 1Mil race, as it is known officially is one of the most gruelling and testing races in Galaxy 1. Called the Commander Williams Enduro Cup by race fans, it is known as the 'Dicky-Bow Run' by true fanatics and the racers that compete in it because of the shape that the most direct course takes.
The race starts in the furthest most South-west at Laeden and the first leg goes diagonally across to the furthest most North-eastern world Ribilebi. Leg two goes straight to Sori at the uttermost galactic South-east before Leg three back across the galaxy to Cemave in the North-west. The final Leg is back to Laeden and the big finish. The less formal title, the Commander Williams Enduro Cup, comes from the first man to perform the incredible journey across the length and breadth of the Galaxy, Commander Giles Williams. The story goes that Commander Williams was relaxing in the Traveller's Rest tavern on Laeden's second Coriolis station, quietly celebrating his newly-acquired Elite status with his friends, when he was insulted by a pair of loud-mouthed Bounty-hunters. Knowing that killing them would result in his becoming a Fugitive, he instead challenged them to race him to the furthest reaches of the Galaxy. Not wanting to seem belittled in front of the crowds that had gathered around, they accepted and the race was set. To make sure that the competitors went to each location, they had to personally buy a souvenir item from the main stations at Ribilebi, Sori and Cemave as well as send a message to Laeden, showing them holding the souvenirs. The tale of Commander Williams' exploits became legendary as he made his run, keeping that little bit ahead of the hunters as well as the various pirates and aliens that sought to impede him. Finally, he returned to the Laeden system, his Cobra Mk. III showing all the damage of a long journey with little time for maintenance. He was just that bit ahead of the two bounty-hunters' ships and about to pass Laeden's station for the win, when the two pilots launched missiles at him. Commander Williams reacted instantly, his battle-honed skills bringing his ship around so fast that he destroyed one of the missiles with a burst of his Military Laser. GalCop Vipers responded quickly, disabling and boarding the two Bounty-hunters, but everyone could see that, even without turning back, Commander Williams was the winner and a legendary race was born.

The first Dicky-Bow Runs were often anarchic affairs, with teams of disparate racers and technicians roaring through systems, leaving trails of angry traders who had to abort their docking approaches because some hot-head cut in, irritated police trying to manage several dozen ships all clamouring to dock at the same station at exactly the same time and GalCop Magistrates and Justices of the Peace with potentially fatal migraines trying to figure out what to do with the sudden glut of Offenders that had to dock at his space station, because they all had to buy a holo-globe. But as time went on, a committee of veteran racers sat down with the GalCop authorities and hashed out a series of guidelines and promises that the racers would have to commit to. This formation of a 'governing body' gave companies who wanted to advertise a point of contact with the Trans-galactic racing community. Thus sponsorship of the race and a prize other than the fact the winner crossed the line first were established and continued to the present day. Now many independant teams petition sponsors, usually alcoholic drinks and 'recreational products' companies, for capital to start their bid to race.

All along the route of the race there are check-points, which are normally located near to the planet's primary station. These check-points are adapted racing loops with inbuilt scanners that log the time each registered racing ship passes through and issues time penalties to ships that pass through after the lead ship. If a ship fails to pass the check-point within the allotted forty-eight hour time limit after the first ship through, it is disqualified. At some check-points (usually in Corporate States where the public Pay-Per-View channels televise the race), there are a number of racing loops scattered around the system, each needing to be passed in the correct order before the check-point loop may be passed. At these systems, squadrons of converted Hatchling BoyRacer ships wait at the Witchpoint Beacon, each bearing a number of camera pods to chase the racing ships as they make the run through the racing loops and the final, often exhilarating, dash to get the best time through the check-point. It is this that has gained the race it's afficionados, since the racers are not prevented from attacking each other, even in the most lawful systems. These televised dashes are among the most hair- (or tentacle-)raising times, when pilots are pushed, and indeed push their ships, to the extreme to avoid missiles and laserfire from other ships, while still keeping their eyes on the check-point. Once a ship passes through the check-point, the stage ends and the 'clock' is stopped. At this point, the racer meets up with his support crew to rest, repair their ship and review their position and the best tactics for the up-coming stage. During these meetings, the pilot and his crew chief decide which systems he should jump to and when, if ever, he should meet up or make contact with the support ship. It's normal that the crew chief verbally tears the pilot apart for the damage that's been caused to the ship, regardless of the circumstances at this point. Once the allotted time passes, the race is re-started. The lead ship takes the green light and passes through the check-point to 'restart the clock'. Each ship that came after the leader then waits out it's time penalty before they too pass through the check-point and continue the race.

There are no restrictions as to which ship a competitor may use, and indeed, many different manufacturers' ships are regularly raced. Manufacturers even enter their own race teams with ships of their own construction, crewed by test pilots and supported by development technicians and engineers. These racers tend to be testing new propulsion units and maneouvring arrays. Even the fitting of ships is entirely up to the race crew, although race officials have deemed that escape pods and scanner targeting enhancements are required in the qualification rules and fuel scoops and Witchdrive fuel injectors are a must for any real contender. Meanwhile, the 'Torus' in-system drive is not so much banned, but those competitors who use them tend to be looked down upon by professional racers as 'only in it for fun'. Of course, in a competitor sport such as this, energy bombs and Quirium mines are devices that, if found to be fitted to a racer, will result in the team not simply suffering disqualification from the present race, but a permanent disqualification from the running of future races and any previous awards being stripped from them.

The most dangerous part of the Dicky-Bow Run is that each ship is expected to defend itself against any dangers, thus the allowance for any equipment (excepting the E-bomb and Q-bomb) that can be fitted to the ship. Many teams maintain a number two race ship, that according to the rules must have the same fittings as the number one, just in case the first racer is destroyed or damaged beyond recovery. However, most teams refuse to switch to their reserve ship, since there is a 10,000 credit bonus to the winner if they cross the finish line in the ship they left in. This, and the team's professional pride, means that any damage short of total destruction results in the identical number two ship being canabalised for replacement parts!

Pilot deaths are rare, since the competing ships are required to have escape pods as standard and all racer support ships are called upon to recover any pods they come across, but there have been fatalities. Some have been due to pilot error, such as Jad Xeclo's spectacular collision with the rotating boom of the Transhab station over Estusi while trying to overtake another racer and others were due to hostile acts, like Iz Lito's valiant death fighting a group of pirates who had attacked another team's support ship. Each loss is lamented and most racing teams will sacrifice an hour of their race time as a mark of respect to the lost racer. The new Dodec station over Laeden has a plaque on it's hull over the docking port recording the name of every racer who died while competing.

Just as there is no standard requirement for ships, there is also no standard requirement of pilot experience. As long as a pilot has passed out of the Lave Flight Academy, he is deemed fit to race. There is a fraternity of 'Rookies', young pilots whose Elite ratings are usually between 'Harmless' and 'Average', who compete in the race to raise their ratings, both in the race standings and the Elite Federation. In the years it has been run, only one rookie, 'Lighting-fast' Fas McMadden, has ever taken first place.

The 1Mil mentioned in the race's official title is actually the normal prize that the race sponsors are expected to provide to the winner, that being 1,000,000 Credits. However, this is almost never the amount that winning racers receive, since the cost of one (if there is no back up) fully-kitted ship plus a large support ship (usually either an Anaconda, Boa or Boa Class Cruiser), plus support and flight crew wages, spare parts, food and drink, replacement clothing, bail, fines and the sundry other expenses of travelling to the four corners of the Galaxy means that the winner usually ends up with a purse of around 20,000 Credits at the race end, which goes up to 30,000 if he crosses the finish line in his original ship.

The race, while still a 'marginal' sport when compared to Zero-G hockey or Hi-Grav Wrestling, it's popularity and media exposure are increasing, just as it's sponsors are becoming more influential. One of the sponsors of the winner's purse were the Pan-Galactic Credit, Checking and Loan Bank (PGCCLB Ltd.), who instituted the Williams Cup, presented to the racer who had the quickest average time at the end of the race. This prize is a gold cup and a 10,000 Credit purse to the racer who, while not necessarily the winner of the Trans-Gal One Endurance 1Mil race, accrued the fastest average time between check-points.

So each year the 'Dicky-Bow Run' gains a larger following of fans as ever greater the challenges the racers face. There are great things in store for the winners of the race, as well as ignominious ends for those who don't measure up. But for many, the rewards far outweigh the risks and the roll of registered racers grows ever longer.
<end text>

Captain Hesperus

Is there any good reason not to bung this up on our wiki?

[Cholmondely]

The above post is Question number one!


Question number two: does anybody still understand the relationship between

•Boyracer (http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/BoyRacer)

•Hatchling ?

•Hatchling Racing (a team: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Hatchling_Racing)

•Hatchling BoyRacer1 (a ship: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Hatchling_BoyRacer1)
•Hatchling BoyRacer2 (a ship: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Hatchling_BoyRacer2)
•Hatchling BoyRacer3 (a ship: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Hatchling_BoyRacer3)

[LittleBear]

I have a vauge memoray that Dr Nill did a racing teams OXP where he took ships from other OXPs and gave them a respray to give them team colours and racing numbers. In the same way that the road version of a car has a normal paint job, but when it is being raced in a rally then it has a number and various advertsing logos sprayed onto it, Dr Nill did a racing version of the boy racer and other fast ships. So the idea was that you'd see ships in their normal colours. But when his OXP scripted a race bewteen different ships they would appear in their racing colours. I think he did the paint jobs for the ships and relreased this as a test but didn't finish the full OXP they would have appeared in. So the Boy Racer is the standard "road legal" ship by Murgh. The team and the three racing versions are the same ship but with racing team paint jobs.

[Cholmondely]

I have a vauge memoray that Dr Nill did a racing teams OXP where he took ships from other OXPs and gave them a respray to give them team colours and racing numbers. In the same way that the road version of a car has a normal paint job, but when it is being raced in a rally then it has a number and various advertsing logos sprayed onto it, Dr Nill did a racing version of the boy racer and other fast ships. So the idea was that you'd see ships in their normal colours. But when his OXP scripted a race bewteen different ships they would appear in their racing colours. I think he did the paint jobs for the ships and relreased this as a test but didn't finish the full OXP they would have appeared in. So the Boy Racer is the standard "road legal" ship by Murgh. The team and the three racing versions are the same ship but with racing team paint jobs.

Thanking thee, Sir!


The Dicky-Bow race has been added to our wiki, and linked in as seems fitting.


Next question: I've rejigged the http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Missile Missile page on our wiki: Trying to link it to all relevant OXPs

Is this list exhaustive?

Links
Missile tactics - How to get best use of the missile

OXPs
New varieties of missile
I Missile
Military Missile
Nexus Missile
and see Armoury & Missiles and Bombs below

Missile information
Missile Beep Audible warning on approach of missile
Missile Analyser

Rejig of missile warfare
eg adding chaff/changing effect of ECM etc
Armoury: 6 new missiles, anti-missile darts, missile rack, missile machine, 8 new bombs & mines
Missile Booster prevents you ramming into your own missile!
Missiles modification two tweaks: ECM less effective & dying pilots take more time to launch a missile at you
Missile Combat Reimagined Total rejig of relationship between ECM & missiles, new defence missile added
Missiles and Bombs: 6 new missiles, 2 bombs, 3 defence systems including chaff

Something a little different
Weapon Laws OXP: weapons such as missiles can only be bought at the more lawless government systems

[montana05]

Is this list exhaustive?

Some ship OXP's got their own missiles included, the latest on I had in my hands was FarArms.

[Cholmondely]

Some of the New Pages on our wiki (under Lore)

Lore: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Lore with analysis of the 3 schools
History: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/History 3 schools again
Time: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Time 3 views on the HUD clock time
Law: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Law
Economics: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Economics
Species: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Species
The Eight: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/The_Eight
Religion: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Religion
‎Church of Giles the Creator: Church of Giles the Creator with some theology, applied theology & eschatology.
Amnesty InterGalactic: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Amnesty_InterGalactic

Oolite Literature: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Literature: books/mags inside the game - not about the game
The Space Traders Flight Training Manual‎‎: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/The_Sp ... ing_Manual
Tibecea (Rough Guide):‎‎ http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Tibecea_(Rough_Guide)
Rough Guide: added 7 ships pages
Edible Poets: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Edible_Poets

Combat Manoeuvers: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Combat_Manoeuvers: The Barkanion Bounce, The Wrogers Writhe, Manfred's Manoeuver, The Stellar Bake & The Ahrumian Arrest. Looking for more!
Roll vs Yaw crusades: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Roll_vs_Yaw_crusades

Aegidian Industries: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Aegidian_Industries
Lance & Ferman: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Lance_%26_Ferman
Marine Trench Co.: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Marine_Trench_Co.
Murgh Shipyards: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Murgh_Shipyards
Obnoxicorp: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Obnoxicorp
Zorgon Petterson Group: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Zorgon_Petterson_Group

Slang: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Slang

Captain Hesperus's Dicky-Bow Run‎: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Dicky-Bow_Run

Some of the Massively modified Pages on our wiki (under Lore)

Rejigs of The Dark Wheel (new controversy section) & Robert Holdstock (essay by him about Elite).
Rejig of GalCop (4 views) & Oolite timeline (2nd timeline added).
Rough Guide: Rough Guide to the Ooniverse, Isence (Rough Guide)‎‎, Qutiri (Rough Guide) and Zarece (Rough Guide)‎‎: built up the stubs
More links for the Powers and Organisations‎‎ page
Building up the Systems pages: Copied much of the planet-specific gubbins from the Powers and Organisations‎‎ page and detailed ship histories onto the relevant planets/systems pages.
Linking the better fiction to relevant pages in the wiki (eg on the new Species page).
Added in gubbins on the history of the development of the game of Oolite

[phkb]

Added in gubbins on the history of the development of the game of Oolite

My only suggestion for this page would be to link to GitHub for versions 1.77.1 to 1.90ff, rather than SourceForge, which is only an automated replica of the GitHub repository.

[another_commander]

I also see no mention of winston and dajt, who were the fathers of the Linux and Windows ports respectively.

[Cholmondely]

Added in gubbins on the history of the development of the game of Oolite

My only suggestion for this page would be to link to GitHub for versions 1.77.1 to 1.90ff, rather than SourceForge, which is only an automated replica of the GitHub repository.

I've included a link to what seems to me to be the top level of GitHub's Oolite site. If you can refine the link, please do!
I find the site utterly confusing and almost useless, not being a programmer. (I could not find anything obvious where old versions were downloadable from. Last year I downloaded a nightly which came in bits and which I've been unable to do anything with). I'd argue for keeping the Sourceforge links since it is simple and easily usable by the uninitiated such as myself. Also, who knows how long any of these sites will still be good for? The more, the better!

I also see no mention of winston and dajt, who were the fathers of the Linux and Windows ports respectively.

Aah ... that is all on the same page but above where I linked to.

[Cholmondely]

Some more New Pages on our wiki (under Gameplay, Equipment, Talking about Oolite)

Gameplay
Vanilla game: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Vanilla_game - includes the changes to Strict Play under cim
Expansions Manager: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Expansions_Manager - how to use it, what the colours mean
Tutorial: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Tutorial - list of weapons, how to jump around it
Maps: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Maps - links to all the out-game maps, ingame OXPs affecting maps, issue of completeness
Cheating: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Cheating - how can you cheat in a one-player game? How views have changed in 20 years. Cheating & anti-cheating OXPs

Equipment
Introduced definitions: Standard Equipment (Torus Jump Drive), Standard Optional Equipment (ANA), Optional Optional Equipment (OXPs)

Standard Equipment pages added:

Torus Drive: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Torus_Drive with links to relevant OXPs
Cargo Hold: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Cargo_Hold ditto
Engine: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Engine ditto but with extra added handwavium
Life Support systems: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Life_Support_Systems ditto
Shields: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Shields ditto
Ships Hull: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Ship%27s_Hull
I hope to add in relevant snippets from cim's Ship's Manual to the above

Out game Equipment pages added:

Buttonboxes: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Buttonboxes - would-be astrogation consoles
Joysticks and Gamepads: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Joysticks_and_Gamepads - rehabilitated from being a Linux redirect: Options, compatibility, configuration, precision indicator, other possibilities
Joysticks: Guide to Setting Up: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Joysti ... Setting_Up - configuration settings for 3 joysticks & 3 controllers

Talking about Oolite
This category is a bit of a mixed bag, I'm afraid!
Handwavium: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Handwavium - links to a dozen examples
Roll vs Yaw crusades: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Roll_vs_Yaw_crusades - the issues, links to the debate
Galaxy Seeds: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Galaxy_Seeds - needs someone who understands it to explain how to "do it"
Oolite 2.0 or II: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_2.0_or_II - introduction to and links to the debates


Some of the Massively modified Pages on our wiki

Rejigs of the various Help pages, with Help... & How do I ... redirect pages. Tied them all together (all the ones I could find).
Look at http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/How_do_I_....
Sprinkled around reminders to look at/print out OoliteRS (Reference Sheets) and Mr Gimlet in the game download.
Still unhappy with the Trading help pages (too confusing for neophytes?)

[Cholmondely]

Yet more New Pages on our wiki (under OXPs, People, Wiki structure)

OXPs
Tried to put all of Stranger's & Redspear's OXZs up on the wiki. Stranger was relatively easy (some 20-odd pages). Redspear has massively re-edited some of his OXZ's (just as I've massively re-edited some of my wiki pages!) and I've not been able to understand what the current version actually does. So I've added maybe 7 pages there - a couple of which are in need of a lot of work - especially http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Laser_ ... Reimagined.

•New: eg Diplomancy OXP, BPlanets, Target System Plugins, FPO Lave & FPO Zaonce
•Old: eg Extra Thargoids, Zieman's Habitat Orbital Station‎‎, Shaky Drive, Galaxy Names OXP, Distant Realms, NPC equipment damage OXP
•Mouldy: eg Her Imperial Majesty's Space Navy, Monument, BioSphere station

•Ship's Library OXP with much detail about the excellent '''Ship's Manual''', and also the Extracts from the Tre Clan
•Mining IFF Scanner Upgrade - first OXP I've come across written by a woman!
•Vimana HUD: wanted to raise awareness of (in my humble opinion) an inspiring HUD

•Guide to Unlisted OXPs - over 150 OXPs not in the Expansions Manager, some of which even still work! http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Guide_to_Unlisted_OXPs
•Guide to Ambient OXPs - sorting out the list of Sun and System modifying OXPs - new and mouldy http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Guide_to_Ambience_OXPs

People
In some cases the new page ties the OXPs together (Stranger, Redspear). In others it gives insight into their contributions to Oolite (another_commander, Dybal)
Have added User: pages for the following:
another_commander : http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Another_commander
Captain Beatnik: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Captain_Beatnik
Dizzy/Diziet Sma: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Diziet_Sma
Dybal: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Dybal
P.A. Groove: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:P.A._Groove
Redspear: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Redspear
Stranger: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Stranger - the Stranger's World wiki page
UK Eliter: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Uk_Eliter

Wiki structure
The search function on our wiki is not the greatest.
I've put up new pages linking to (what I hope) would be the first word somebody searching for something would look for: eg. Help, How, Advice
Also redirect pages for commonly used abbreviations (STME, EEU, MTS, ANA - even for RS Realistic Shipyards.oxp)

Some of the Massively modified Pages on our wiki

People
Expanded the material on Aegidian, Jens & Cim - could do with a better understanding of how Aegidian actually changed Classic Elite. I think what I wrote is poor, but I lack the developer knowledge to do a much better job. But I do think that what I wrote is an improvement, however feeble!
Ditto with the other Developers - B&B etc. Tried to add pictures where I could.
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Category:Developers

Also Robert Holdstock (The Dark Wheel) - I included a nice bit where he wrote about Classic Elite. http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Robert_Holdstock I was unable to find anything out about Andy Redman (who wrote Imprint).

Also bunged in links - for example on Captain Hesperus's page - to humour or something giving insight
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Captain_Hesperus
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Cmdr._Maegil - see link at bottom

Wiki structure
- Bunged in zillions of what I hope are relevant links!
- Stuck in a handful of disambiguation sections with links to relevant pages under the name. eg Cobra (new page) with list of 22 relevant pages (even Keyboard Cobra) & Library (disambiguation section at top of each library page)
- Tried to sort out confusing messes where different pages had been written by different people - eg the Rock Hermit morass, the ancient Racing wrecks, the Fuel Tank maze (which fuel tank does what?)
- Linking relevant OXPs to equipment or activity pages (eg the Career Options page) - especially important for nuggets tucked inside complex OXPs such as the Cargo Stopper (inside GalCop Missions OXP) which is great for mining!