I'm Still Alive!!!

[CommonSenseOTB]

I've got about 20 pages of posts to read through before I am up to speed on the state of oolite. Question is this: Am I still needed? Looks like a lot of areas have been enhanced to make requiring a workaround in the oxp no longer necessary, which is my speciality.

The last 2 years I decided to isolate myself from the influence of others with regards to what oolite/elite should be. During this time I basically created the long awaited Oolite 2 as an OXP. About 20% remains to be finished but this works only on 1.77. I've solved the torus drive/TAF problem, the scale issues and precision issue. Ships have damageable sections of hull and scorching, engines are damageable and destroyable with effects and no exhaust on damaged engines, hit locations like hatches can be shot out when shields are down with other effects like, for instance, cargo hatches will release cargo, missile hatches release missiles which can be salvaged, etc, control interface computer to allow side and rear lasers to be aimed properly, thousands of random paint jobs per ship possible without the need for a shader capable computer, the scale of ships and stations has been adjusted along with the damage resistance based on size of ship, added some possible crew oxp tie ins for the future, for example, found a way for crew sensory ability to be used to reduce the time required for a hyperjump when the ship is going with the 'currents in hyperspace' and if used while going against the current the jump will take longer, elite manual-style lasers and missiles imagined right out of the manual including swarm micro-missiles 'anime-style', improvements to the scanner IFF system which increase situational awareness, the mts now works using the built in keys to aquire and update targets and lists one at a time with each keypress, it goes on and on and on. An average of 4 hours a day was spent for the last 2 years pursuing my artistic vision of what elite should have been.

Is this outside-the-box type of oxp even wanted? After I finish it, which will be at least a year from now, I will still need to spend countless hours to insure it works even for this latest release.

Well anyways, it's good to see there is development in the core game, although looks as if it will set back my mega oxp release at least another 6 months later than at least a year from now. Thought I'd let you all know I haven't died and still have an interest in all the oxps I originally created.

If there's anything anyone thinks is really important that I should know about related to creating oxp's for today's oolite, among other things, this viewtopic is as good a place as any to reply.

Sorry for not responding to any messages left the last 2 years, too busy creating my artistic vision for oolite 2 as an oxp.

[Smivs]

Well ....
...and welcome back

[Norby]

Am I still needed?

Of course and welcome!

I see you received my 2 years old PM about my changes in your OXPs. Now Oolite contain a feature to install packages within the game so I put my favourites of your works into this OXZ list. The wiki count downloads so you can see that your works are needed by players:

[wiki]CustomShields[/wiki] downloaded 2751 times in 14 months (since this feature is exists),
 NumericHUD downloaded 640 times since jan 2015 (after the last change),
[wiki]Q-Charger[/wiki] downloaded 1785 times,
[wiki]ShieldEqualizer[/wiki]+Capacitors downloaded 2583 times.

Your mega-oxp is absolutely me, I can imagine that already contain more works than all of my OXPs together. I would like to discuss further when you open your "box".

I think if you decide to handle your ideas in more parts instead of a mega package then some will be finished sooner and we can test and discuss one while you are working on the next.

[Redspear]

Welcome back!

I've solved the torus drive/TAF problem, the scale issues and precision issue.

the scale of ships and stations has been adjusted along with the damage resistance based on size of ship

All very interesting to me as I tried similar last year in the rescaling experiment.
Playing around with 1.82, it seems that some of the 'issues' that I tackled have since been smoothed quite a bit (I'm happy to say) but I'm due to have another root around in the source sometime soon

Is this outside-the-box type of oxp even wanted? After I finish it, which will be at least a year from now, I will still need to spend countless hours to insure it works even for this latest release.

Well speaking personally, I'd definitely be interested but I also wonder if (given the mutable nature of the game's development) you wouldn't be better releasing/showing/explaining them one at a time?

...Ah, it seems that Norby just beat me to it on that one ...

[Layne]

What-ho! A voice from beyond! Gadzooks!

We've never met-- or if we have, it was in another lifetime-- but considering I've made use of your Sniperlock oxp, the Q-Charger, snippets of code from your sniper cameras to make zoom lenses for my ship, and the Chupacabra HUD is my favorite of all the oxp HUDs, then, yes, you are very much still needed! Please, keep tinkering with your planned release, though I also agree that a series of smaller, more modular releases might be more flexible for use, and even if they're intended for 1.77 some of them may still work in the more recent releases.

[another_commander]

Hey, welcome back!

If there's anything anyone thinks is really important that I should know about related to creating oxp's for today's oolite, among other things, this viewtopic is as good a place as any to reply.

I'll just copy/paste from oolite.org what I think is one of the most important and probably less noticed features of the latest version:

Expansion packs can now be restricted to only load in their own Scenarios, which means you can make much bigger changes than before without needing to worry about compatibility with other packs, and do things which just wouldn't have worked before.

• Make a mini-series of mission OXPs which wouldn't work if the player could bring their own ship and experience, or wander off mid-mission to go and trade for a bit.
• Set the player in the middle of a major war between powers with definite front lines, regions, and battles - can they still make a living as a trader, pirate or bounty hunter when there's a full-scale Thargoid invasion on, and hundreds of systems have already completely fallen to them.
• Completely rewrite the galaxies, ships, equipment and rules to make your own new space game with the Oolite engine.

[Selezen]

Welcome back, CSOTB. Still trying to change the world, I see.

[onno256]

Welcome back! You sure have been busy!
Have been playing Oolite in its many iterations for years now and have nothing bust the utmost apreciation for the hard work that has gone into the core game and various oxp/z's.

Very interested in your take on a game i cherish!

[Ngalo]

Wow.

Sounds like you've done some of the stuff I was thinking about doing some day in the distant future (I am currently trying to do a modernised remake of CustomShields).

Ships have damageable sections of hull and scorching, engines are damageable and destroyable with effects and no exhaust on damaged engines, hit locations like hatches can be shot out when shields are down
[...]
thousands of random paint jobs per ship possible without the need for a shader capable computer

When will you release it so we can try it out?

Edit: sorry for being so excitable & impatient.

[Zireael]

CSOB, any chance of getting the version of your mega-oxp for 1.77? I'm sure I'd grab the 1.77 from somewhere just to check this beauty out!

[Cholmondely]

The last 2 years I decided to isolate myself from the influence of others with regards to what oolite/elite should be. During this time I basically created the long awaited Oolite 2 as an OXP. About 20% remains to be finished but this works only on 1.77.

*Ships have damageable sections of hull and scorching,
*engines are damageable and destroyable with effects and no exhaust on damaged engines,
*hit locations like hatches can be shot out when shields are down
*with other effects like, for instance, cargo hatches will release cargo, missile hatches release missiles which can be salvaged, etc,
*control interface computer to allow side and rear lasers to be aimed properly,
*thousands of random paint jobs per ship possible without the need for a shader capable computer,
*the scale of ships and stations has been adjusted along with the damage resistance based on size of ship,
*added some possible crew oxp tie ins for the future, for example, found a way for crew sensory ability to be used to reduce the time required for a hyperjump when the ship is going with the 'currents in hyperspace' and if used while going against the current the jump will take longer,
*elite manual-style lasers and missiles imagined right out of the manual including swarm micro-missiles 'anime-style',
*improvements to the scanner IFF system which increase situational awareness,
*the mts now works using the built in keys to acquire and update targets and lists one at a time with each keypress,
... it goes on and on and on.

An average of 4 hours a day was spent for the last 2 years pursuing my artistic vision of what elite should have been.

Is this outside-the-box type of oxp even wanted? After I finish it, which will be at least a year from now, I will still need to spend countless hours to ensure it works even for this latest release.

Well anyways, it's good to see there is development in the core game, although looks as if it will set back my mega oxp release at least another 6 months later than at least a year from now. Thought I'd let you all know I haven't died and still have an interest in all the oxps I originally created.

If there's anything anyone thinks is really important that I should know about related to creating oxp's for today's oolite, among other things, this viewtopic is as good a place as any to reply.

Sorry for not responding to any messages left the last 2 years, too busy creating my artistic vision for oolite 2 as an oxp.

CSOTB:

1) did you ever publish your Oolite v.2.0 anywhere? It sounds rather spiffing!
2) As regards your comments about showing damage above, you might care to sneak a peek at
*Z GrOovy HPC pack where eg blasting the fuel injectors off your enemy slows him down
*Ship Configuration OXP - more detail on what is inside your ship

By the way, I've updated your user page