[Release] Addons for Beginners

[Cody]

Welcome aboard, Commander!

... particularly Camera Drones.. Which, on further investigation, no longer seems to exist/be hosted on the Wiki server.

Camera Drones - download failed:

Code: Select all

21:58:21.869 [oxz.manager.error]: Downloaded OXZ does not contain a manifest.plist, has been left in E:\Oolite-Trunk/oolite.app/GNUstep/Library/Caches/org.aegidian.oolite/Oolite-download.oxz

[Argon0]

Thanks Cody.. I can feel myself being dragged into the ooniverse...

on my wishlist would be to be able to move from machine to machine and keep progress, particularly between oolite and alite on android... but I guess thats a bit of a pipedream!!

Argon0

[Norby]

Spara's Start Advice has been added to the Addons for Beginners pack. I still think that an in-game message is the best way to give advices to new players who are not read the forum nor the wiki yet. The included mini mission is just a nice a bonus.

[Norby]

Byronarn's AutoRefuel is in the pack also.

[Alliant]

I, for one, thank you, Norby, for your great work in putting together and maintaining this valuable metapackage. I almost consider it canon.

This is coming from someone who has played on vanilla, as well as downloaded gigabytes worth of OXPs, way back when the in-game expansion pack manager didn't exist yet, and had to sift through scores of OXPs, unzipping, copy-pasting, determining dependencies and conflicts between them, etc. etc.

What drudgery!

This metapackage is a godsend for someone like me, who just wants to sit back, relax, and update a very dated, almost 90s-era game (in gameplay and graphics terms) to 21st-century levels of playability in just one press of an Enter key.

Believe it or not, there are many filthy casuals like me who cannot, or are not willing to, spare the time to go through all the trouble of forum-reading, wiki-browsing, documentation-reading and all that which building your own OXP/OXZ list entails, just to get a game of Oolite running with a decent enough amount of content to be fun and entertaining for hours on end.

In the future, when I encourage friends to install Oolite, I will probably tell them to install Addons for Beginners right after.

That said, godspeed on your travels, Commander Norby. I am looking forward to trying out your "Competent" metapackage, once you've finalized it (though for now, I'll probably install the "competent" packages you mention in your wiki page one by one*).

*Except Headlights because it looks weird hahaha (Probably won't install Aliens also (weird-looking ships ))

[Norby]

Welcome Alliant and thank you for your comment!

Just a side note that collection is a better name for this kind of packages, as we talked above.

Yes, probably shorter for many players if install this one then remove some what do not like.

The competent collection is even more player specific, this is why it exists only as a personal recommendation list in the wiki and everyone should check through and install the parts one by one.

As always, feel free to ask any questions in the forum.

[Cholmondely]

As I've said many times before, I don't favour this type of meta-package - but there you go!

... although my personal view is that these lists are not a good idea...

I'm not too hot about compilations either... For clarity, I think we should have a new category for these: "Compilations".

Just wanted to make the point that with over 750 oxp's in the in-game Expansions Manager (+400 elsewhere) a new player is unlikely to devote the necessary hours/days of research to decide what makes most sense for his/her game.

I, for one, thank you, Norby, for your great work in putting together and maintaining this valuable metapackage. I almost consider it canon.

This is coming from someone who has played on vanilla, as well as downloaded gigabytes worth of OXPs, way back when the in-game expansion pack manager didn't exist yet, and had to sift through scores of OXPs, unzipping, copy-pasting, determining dependencies and conflicts between them, etc. etc.

What drudgery!

This metapackage is a godsend for someone like me, who just wants to sit back, relax, and update a very dated, almost 90s-era game (in gameplay and graphics terms) to 21st-century levels of playability in just one press of an Enter key.

Believe it or not, there are many filthy casuals like me who cannot, or are not willing to, spare the time to go through all the trouble of forum-reading, wiki-browsing, documentation-reading and all that which building your own OXP/OXZ list entails, just to get a game of Oolite running with a decent enough amount of content to be fun and entertaining for hours on end.
...

It takes a lot of time to learn how to play - even with the in-game tutorial. Too much to learn will kill off our target audience.




We currently have six of these meta-oxp's:
Four by Norby:
Addons for Beginners
Addons for Competent Commanders
Ambience Collection
Ambiences recommended by Norby

Two by your humble servant:
Addons for Beginners (Vital Statistics)
Lore Collection (Classic Elite)


I think that we need at least another three of these:
Strangers World Collection - to download the 30-odd SW addons
Elite Trader Collection - to download the 7 ET add ons (and possibly Market Observer, Market Inquirer & Torus to Sun drive too)
Breakable equipment - to download Capt Murphy's 6 addons (HUD, shield generators, witchdrive, torus drive, engine, energy unit), Spara's Breakable Life Support System and possibly BattleDamage (hull damage from combat) too

I also think that we should remove the targeting/combat/docking oxp's from Norby's AddOns for Beginners and start two new collections:
Addons for Beginners (Help with combat) with Paddling Pool, Barrel Roll, SniperLock, SniperLock Fix, SniperLock Plus, Fast Target Selector & Target System Plugins
Addons for Beginners (Help with docking) with ILS, Autodock, Traffic Control OXP & Traffic Lights OXP

An Addons for Beginners (Help with masslock) would be a good idea - but I don't know what should go in. Redspear?

And again, a new category for the Expansions Manager: Collections (ideally with a space first, so that it is the first thing a new player sees, and a caveat about using someone else's selection based on their ooniverse)

[Redspear]

Breakable equipment - to download Capt Murphy's 6 addons (HUD, shield generators, witchdrive, torus drive, engine, energy unit), Spara's Breakable Life Support System and possibly BattleDamage (hull damage from combat) too

I think that's a bit more like it in that the player has some idea what they're actually installing without having to swot up.
"Beginner's" add ons on the other hand typically address difficulty at best or personal preference at worst.

I don't know what should go in. Redspear?

I could have at go at a few but I think these things work best when they contain the fewest idiosynchrasies.

IMHO... Make it clear what the package is addessing and how e.g. not 'better masslocking' but perhaps 'reduced masslocking'. Similarly, 'better graphics' is rather subjective compared to 'detailed models' or 'detailed textures'.

Likewise 'beginner', although seemingly useful, is rather vague. Is it about difficulty? Is it about unfamiliarity (signposting)? Tedium perhaps (losing sight of goals/rewards)? If I'm a 'beginner' then I don't necessarily want the type of start that anyone else thinks I should have but I probably would appreciate some help in navigating around my options regarding the same.