A question of lore

[Cholmondely]

Oh, I'm well aware that nobody cares anymore, and I care not for who said what.
My only datum is 3205, as per the Elite manual's Ships in Service guide.

In which case, personally, I'd go for a much earlier date. Looking at cars, ships, bicycles and aeroplanes, the technology on our small planet has moved on considerably in the past century. We no longer have running boards with wind-up handles, smokestacks with coal-driven engines, pennyfarthings or biplanes.

The constant war against the Thargoids would drive space technology forwards.

I'd put the current date very close to 3205 (assuming other factors don't prevent that).

[Redspear]

The Adder - in service date 2914; the Cobra MkIII - in service date 3100 (according to the original Ships in Service guide 5th Edition pub. 3205).
Ignoring any previous timelines (and our shipclocks), any opinions on what date we in the Ooniverse are at now?

Given that the elite flight training manual was fictionally issued at the start of the game of elite itself, I took 3205 to be the latest publication of "Jane's Galactic Ships and Remote Colonial Construction". Therefore I reasoned, the date was sometime shortly after (if not exactly) 3205. Oolite might be thought of as sometime later of course but how many years would that be?

Elite published Sept 1984
Oolite released July 2004

That's nearly ten years *, so if 3205 was very nearly 'present day/year' in game then how about 3215?
Or, given that new oxps keep coming out and the game has been updated several times and you might be starting a new game...

2021 (or whenever you're reading this) - 1984 = 37 (or simillar)
3205 + 37 = 3242

I don't see why it need be any later but then that's the year in my game, anyone elses may be completely different and use a completely different logic/whimsy to acquire such. And good luck to 'em!

EDIT: The Transporter is still in use and that has an inservice date of "Unknown, but probably pre-2500 AD." suggesting plenty of old ships (and indeed old tech) remains perfectly adequate for many uses.

EDIT 2:

* Er, no it isn't... so that would be 3225, not 3215

[Cody]

The Transporter is still in use and that has an inservice date of "Unknown, but probably pre-2500 AD." suggesting plenty of old ships (and indeed old tech) remains perfectly adequate for many uses.

Good point - old tech, but still serviceable. Especially in a stagnant Ooniverse, technology-wise.

Hmm... perhaps 3223 then. A vintage ship could easily be 300 years old.

[Redspear]

If anyone wants to be faithful the the elite manual in isolation then I'd say as long as it's not pre 2305 then you're good to go and can just add handwavium to taste.

A vintage ship could easily be 300 years old

The python was over 500 years old in 3205!

[Cody]

The python was over 500 years old in 3205!

The Python class, yes - but are there any 500 year old Pythons out there, held together with string and gaffer tape?
I've got an old rustbucket Python in a hangar somewhere, as it happens - a lovely looking ship!

[Redspear]

The Python class, yes - but are there any 500 year old Pythons out there, held together with string and gaffer tape?

OK, so you're distinguishing between the design and the individual ships, right?
Well, if the point was that 500 year old designs are still serviceable then I think the distinction might be moot - either the basic design is easily updated without an overhaul or the ships themselves are similarly easy to update with modern gadgetry.

And to more directly answer your question: yes, I rather like to think that there are

I've got an old rustbucket Python in a hangar somewhere, as it happens - a lovely looking ship!

Always had a soft spot for the python, simple, elegant wireframe with a suitably massive looking engine at the back.

[Cody]

Yes... simple, elegant lines, and beautifully proportioned!


Next up, the curious case of the ship's clock!

[Cody]

When I first stumbled across Oolite (v1.65), I didn't visit the forum, and was unaware of the Wiki. I just jumped into my Cobra and hit launch. I already had the 'game in the head' from Elite, so everything was familiar. Apart from the HUD, that is - yuck! But I was flying a Cobra again, and was as happy as a pig in a trough full of truffles! I then spied a blue circle, and my eyes lit up - could it be a wormhole? Only one way to find out, so I dived into it - and found myself in another of the old worlds, but still with a tankful of fuel. Deep joy - hitching a lift was a thing!

It took a while for the ship's clock to register on me, so engrossed was I in the game. But when I began to watch it, and saw it accelerate during a jump, I had to fit it into the 'game in my head'. I soon came to the conclusion that the first four digits were the year, with each year having a thousand days. The time acceleration obviously represented wormhole transit time, and 2084 seemed entirely reasonable to me - exactly a hundred years after the release of Elite. A nice touch, thought I. Sorted!

Now of course, I'm aware of a different interpretation: the numbers are merely seconds counted from an arbitrary start date (or something like that - see here). According to Winston and Giles, that is. I'm having none of it! In my frazzled old brain, 2084 is simply too significant a date to be a coincidence, so I've stuck with my own interpretation!

My ship's clock (from my original long-running save-game) currently shows 2099923 - almost 16 years in-game (and 12 years in RL due to time dilation), which sounds about right. In conclusion, I've invented my own lore! But...



Crikey, rather too prolix methinks! <grins> A bad case of the Redspears, perhaps!

[Redspear]

I nearly surprised you with a source code conversion to a more conventional clock (displaying the year)

I don't need no conventional clock!

'Prolix' is an antonym of 'curt' you know
...far from the best one admittedly.

[Cody]

'Prolix' is an antonym of 'curt' you know

<chuckles> Short and sweet, that's me! Though I ain't as sweet as I once was!

[Redspear]

'Prolix' is an antonym of 'curt' you know

<chuckles> Short and sweet, that's me! Though I ain't as sweet as I once was!

And I'm not as as short as I once was either

[Cody]

Interstellar communications: possible? If so, how? Mailships?

[hiran]

Interstellar communications: possible? If so, how? Mailships?

Witchspace drones? Or how about firing a strong laser pulse though a wormhole?

I am also wondering about the story should I succeed with allowing pilots to exchange messages. Do we need to introduce latency?
(as a first I will not fuss too much in that direction and rather create *something* that works)

[Redspear]

Or as an alternative...

Advanced probability calculators (AI?)

Might seem a bit like a game of Cluedo but with sufficent incoming traffic (guesses) from sufficient systems (players) then it's theoretically possible to 'reliably guess' the nature of events in a given system anywhere on the map with a predictably degree of accuracy.

That might not sound like the 'communication' you perhaps had in mind but with enough data the difference might not be that significant.

[Cody]

<grins> Are you suggesting some kind of quantum computing ability?