YouTube playthroughs

[Cholmondely]

When you eventually conclude your second series, I'd be interested in a single session on what you think of Oolite (where it scores, where it could be improved etc.) and how you have set up your joystick.... Even if it were only 5 minutes long...

And then, if you are still with us in 6 months time (hopefully!), I'd be interested in what you had to say a second time around.

[arquebus]

When you eventually conclude your second series, I'd be interested in a single session on what you think of Oolite (where it scores, where it could be improved etc.) and how you have set up your joystick.... Even if it were only 5 minutes long...

I was thinking the same thing! After I finish the unmodded series, I'm going to do at least one video about my setup and my experience with modded vs. unmodded, with recommendations about a "better" starting setup for the game, since I definitely don't think unmodded Oolite is the way to go, and no one other than me should be insane and load up with over 400 OXPs.

[Cholmondely]

When you eventually conclude your second series, I'd be interested in a single session on what you think of Oolite (where it scores, where it could be improved etc.) and how you have set up your joystick.... Even if it were only 5 minutes long...

I was thinking the same thing! After I finish the unmodded series, I'm going to do at least one video about my setup and my experience with modded vs. unmodded, with recommendations about a "better" starting setup for the game, since I definitely don't think unmodded Oolite is the way to go, and no one other than me should be insane and load up with over 400 OXPs.

Why do you call it insane? I've got 250. If I played with lots of ships in the same way that you and so many others do, I'd easily have 300-400 too.

Oh, by the way, why not pester Phkb for a log-in so that you can put your new music oxp on the Expansions Manager? If not, it will get lost. You need a good name for it (maybe one which will place it besides the other music oxp's).

[arquebus]

Oh, by the way, why not pester Phkb for a log-in so that you can put your new music oxp on the Expansions Manager? If not, it will get lost. You need a good name for it (maybe one which will place it besides the other music oxp's).

It's still a moving target, but I definitely will once I'm confident it's in a stable state. I plan to add and remove some things in the near future, and at 115MB it's a big boy.

[arquebus]

Why do you call it insane? I've got 250. If I played with lots of ships in the same way that you and so many others do, I'd easily have 300-400 too.

I still need to thread the needle and limit my OXP load just enough to avoid frame rate issues. After the unmodded series I'm going to do some tests to try to build back up my mod list, and keep track of which ones reduce frame rate smoothness and which ones don't. And then I'll report my findings (and make a video).

[Cholmondely]

1) You still have not bought an EEU which massively improves your shield recharge.

2) The fine for speeding is an .oxp. In Vanilla, you can even dock at top speed with injectors if you want to (or even dock with a Rock Hermit with your Torus drive blazing... ask Cody for the details...)

3) And you can disable the docking clearance protocol under the F2 game options screen... Then you dock whenever you want (watch out for leaving ships...) and do not get fined. Or use your docking computers...



The fight: Vanilla tells you nothing... it does not give you any information at all..

You fought 3? 4? pirates. (20:35 on your video).

As the number of pirates increases, the chance that at least one of them will have ECM also increases. The sound was their ECM. Yours makes the same sound if you operate it (e key on keyboard for ECM - or right hand column of your Touch Portal with bright blue thingymabobs). ECM destroys all normal 30₢ missiles. And usually has no effect on 350₢ ECM-hardened missiles.

21:05 or so: you fired your lasers. The clue whether you are hitting is the sound. Next time try shooting an asteroid and telling from the laser sound whether you hit it or not.

You could have witchspaced away -and only the fastest would have followed. And then when you were far enough from the rest, turned back and proceeded to transmogrify the one follower into minced meat. And he may very well not have had ECM.



And Docking Computers: press 'c' for musically elongated docking. Press 'C' for instantaneous docking (can be done anywhere inside the 50km aegis radius with the big green S showing on your HUD). Docking Computers on instantaneous (well - actually 20 mins of game time) docking allow you to ignore the docking queues.

Wormhole scanner - great for long 6.8ly distances - wait for somebody jumping in the same direction, and lose none of your fuel in the jump.

[arquebus]

You fought 3? 4? pirates. (20:35 on your video).

Did I? I thought I was fighting only one. Tunnel vision on my part.

You could have witchspaced away -and only the fastest would have followed.

I have tried that in the past, but it was in the modded version - which had the oxp that orients the ship, which meant I had to be a sitting duck for 15 seconds. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't have that problem in vanilla.

And Docking Computers: press 'c' for musically elongated docking. Press 'C' for instantaneous docking (can be done anywhere inside the 50km aegis radius with the big green S showing on your HUD). Docking Computers on instantaneous (well - actually 20 mins of game time) docking allow you to ignore the docking queues.

I generally don't like automation of that sort. Not sure why - it's much more realistic to have an autopilot.

[Cholmondely]

You could have witchspaced away -and only the fastest would have followed.

I have tried that in the past, but it was in the modded version - which had the oxp that orients the ship, which meant I had to be a sitting duck for 15 seconds. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't have that problem in vanilla.

Old age and galloping senility. Sorry - used your injectors and whizzed away. Usually only one will follow unless there is a larger group of 6 or so (then a second may have injectors too). As a matter of interest, it is rumoured that Ebortsa's lucky charm can be efficacious in this regard. But orthodox followers of the Church of St Giles, disdain such demonic accoutrements... pah!

Hyperspace/witchspace would also work - except that they may just follow you through if they can get to the tunnel in time.

[arquebus]

Old age and galloping senility. Sorry - used your injectors and whizzed away.

I usually do that, but it takes my brain a few seconds to engage the option, once I realize I'm outgunned. In that particular fight I was dead too quickly, I think!

[Cholmondely]

Note on buying lasers.

Pulse laser costs 400₢ (range: 12.5km)
Beam laser costs 1000₢ (range: 15km) - heats up more quickly
Military laser costs 6000₢ (range: 30km) - heats up much more quickly

BUT you get the cost of your old laser back if you are replacing it.

You have a beam laser in front. To replace it with a military will only cost 5,000₢ (you get refunded the 1,000₢).
To put a new military in the back will cost the full 6,000₢ though, unless you also sell the beam laser in front.

Your docking computers. You could use them the next time you are 17th in the docking queue (press "C" not "c").

Your brand new Wormhole Scanner: target a nice blue circular wormhole and read what the scanner tells you about it (it takes several seconds to get the entire information - it comes in drips and drabs).

Shield enhancers:
EEU improves rate for recharge. You have now bought it.
Shield Boosters (14,750₢) almost double the strength of your shields
Military Shield Enhancement (47,550₢) almost doubles strength yet again - and improves rate of recharge yet again.

[arquebus]

Note on buying lasers.

I keep forgetting vanilla doesn't have the triple cost for the front!

As to the rest... I probably won't get to use any of it, as I'm nearly to the corner of the map. But I'll bank that in memory for the next run.

[Cholmondely]

Congratulations on finishing your second series.

(you never sun skimmed... and you never bought the heat shields for it!)

As regards your summary session, here are one or two ideas (personally speaking I only play Oolite. There's not much else one can play on the August & Admirable AppleMac... )

What I would find useful would be a placing of Oolite into context with the other games which are out there: E:D and the rest. Where does Oolite win out? Where do the others trump it?

What oxp's could be written for Oolite which would enable it to keep abreast of the rest of the field?

Oolite 2.0 seems to be off the list of possibilities, but it is so easy to improve things through oxp's - and now that Phkb has joined the admiralty (ie is one of our developers), he might be able to tweak the vanilla game to broaden the oxp possibilities. What would you suggest?

[arquebus]

Oolite 2.0 seems to be off the list of possibilities, but it is so easy to improve things through oxp's - and now that Phkb has joined the admiralty (ie is one of our developers), he might be able to tweak the vanilla game to broaden the oxp possibilities. What would you suggest?

I'll be honest, I don't think OXPs are the way to go to "update" the game to keep abreast. They can only go so far, and reliance on them means an increase in reliance on even more devs with even less stable scheduling. I'm of the opinion that a rising tide lifts all boats and there really should be some changes to the base game, mainly involving the UI and sound.

Purely by way of example, if BGS were "folded into" the base game (in terms of feature set, not an exact copy in), future development of the base game would presume/require compatibility with those features, and future players would not have to rely on TWO dev streams in order to achieve what I consider to be a basic level of functionality for a game in 2021. Elements like the backgrounds that provide hotkey information, and the commodity market improvements that show galactic average differential, are also the sorts of things that would be considered bare minimum for a game made in 2021.

My feeling is that Oolite 1.X is a faithful adaptation of the games from the mid-80s, and for those purposes it's just fine. But that's a limited audience, and it deserves a bigger one, because it's so good. But you're not going to get that bigger audience without a minimal amount of updating to game UX conventions that developed over the last 35 years. And that absolutely should not be put on the shoulders of modders. If Oolite 2.0 is off the table, that's unfortunate, because I honestly think that's where it needs to go.

[arquebus]

So I'll posit my own question. And I realize that it's an "unfair" question that deliberately ignores both the original intent of the game and the long history of its development to this point.

If Oolite were dropped into Early Access today, on Steam, in its current form, what would be the top 5 complaints by new players who have never experienced this game or its predecessors?

Here's my list:

1) Not enough sound.
2) The interfaces are clunky.
3) The trading system requires pen-and-paper to use effectively.
4) The suns are too close/too big.
5) If it's going to take this much time to get from A to B, there needs to be a speed toggle. <- this only matters until you get injectors, but imagine being a new player without them, and having to go get them.

[arquebus]

And for some perspective here: I tried playing Oolite a long while back, maybe 1.75, whatever version was right before the expansion manager got put in.

I lasted 10 minutes, and quit.

When I started again just a couple months ago, the expansion manager was there, and I went absolutely nuts. It was the OXPs that got me hooked. So I worry about relying on them to hook other players. Not everyone starts with 400. Not everyone even starts with 1.

They are the salvation of the game at this point, and that's frightening. Not, you know, existentially frightening. But it does make me worry. You won't always be here; the current crop of OXP makers won't always be here. Most of them, indeed, are long gone.