Adventure capabilities?

[hiran]

While I am playing an adventure some thoughts are on my mind.

In the last century I played games mainly from Sierra and Lucasarts, this time it is an offline game. You need a table, lots of cards and a storybook. In short, an analog version of what I had seen before.

While doing all that myself, I learn pretty well what an adventure takes. And it might be nice to have a game engine (let's call it Oolite or some expansion) that allows executing the gameplay.

You need to be able to different locations and get some story told. Check
Maybe you need to receive artifacts that add up in your inventory. Check
You need to be able to combine artifacts to locations.
You need to be able to combine artifacts to each other.
And you need to be able to talk to NPCs and apply artifacts.

Would that be doable on Oolite via expansions?

[Redspear]

You need to be able to combine artifacts to locations.

Conditions (e.g.  New Lasers)

You need to be able to combine artifacts to each other.

Dependencies (e.g.  Hyperdrives)

And you need to be able to talk to NPCs and apply artifacts.

Mission screens (artifacts as achievements, talk as choices e.g. nearly, sort of, kinda  Pilot Licence).

Can't guarantee I'm completely following you but they all seem relevant to me.

[Cholmondely]

...
You need to be able to combine artifacts to locations.
You need to be able to combine artifacts to each other.
And you need to be able to talk to NPCs and apply artifacts.

1) Artefacts tied to locations: Several OXPs do this:

Redspear's:
*Weapon Laws makes the political regime relevant to buying equipment (I use an older, even more restrictive version in my playing).
*New Lasers hides the purchase locations of the über lasers which you have to puzzle out from the clues on the wiki page

Since some combinable pieces of equipment have different requirements regarding TL and political regime, these leads to a unplanned version of "combining artifacts with each other" (I'm thinking here of the targeting/accuracy equipment and the better lasers).

Phkb's:
*Hermitage - he's developed an entire system for equipping your rock hermit which involves trekking to different places for various types of equipment.

Cim's
*New Cargoes - not quite the above as it involves sourcing and selling peculiar commodities rather than artefacts.



2) Some shields/defensive equipment are combinable, I believe (EEU & NEU).



3) Alas, interaction with NPCs seems currently a weak point for Oolite. Broadcast Comms is as good as it gets, and it has not been developed very far (see Murgh's failed attempt to do so with Refugee Adders - he lacked the Javascript skills to develop it properly). LitF and Feudal States v.3.0 are currently unfinished but they go some way towards addressing this. There may be more Missions out there which do more - possibly Cataclysm, and Svengali's two missions. And check out Zarafrustra's latest offering (Shrew Rights).




I do not know the better missions. Svengali's were supposed to be top notch but are only playable with Oolite v.1.77.1 or earlier. But Cody's Coyote and Cataclysm have recently had updates. Check them out!

[Cholmondely]

...
You need to be able to combine artifacts to locations.
You need to be able to combine artifacts to each other.
And you need to be able to talk to NPCs and apply artifacts.

1) Artefacts tied to locations: Several OXPs do this:

Redspear's:
*Weapon Laws makes the political regime relevant to buying equipment (I use an older, even more restrictive version in my playing).
*New Lasers hides the purchase locations of the über lasers which you have to puzzle out from the clues on the wiki page

Since some combinable pieces of equipment have different requirements regarding TL and political regime, these leads to a unplanned version of "combining artifacts with each other" (I'm thinking here of the targeting/accuracy equipment and the better lasers).

Phkb's:
*Hermitage - he's developed an entire system for equipping your rock hermit which involves trekking to different places for various types of equipment.

Cim's
*New Cargoes - not quite the above as it involves sourcing and selling peculiar commodities rather than artefacts.



2) Some shields/defensive equipment are combinable, I believe (EEU & NEU).



3) Alas, interaction with NPCs seems currently a weak point for Oolite. Broadcast Comms is as good as it gets, and it has not been developed very far (see Murgh's failed attempt to do so with Refugee Adders - he lacked the Javascript skills to develop it properly). LitF and Feudal States v.3.0 are currently unfinished but they go some way towards addressing this. There may be more Missions out there which do more - possibly Cataclysm, and Svengali's two missions. And check out Zarafrustra's latest offering (Shrew Rights).




I do not know the better missions. Svengali's were supposed to be top notch but are only playable with Oolite v.1.77.1 or earlier. But Cody's Coyote and Cataclysm have recently had updates. Check them out!

Edited to add: as he has just mentioned, Redspear's Hyperdrives does #2 very nicely.

[hiran]

I'm happy to hear chances are good my above ideas could be implemented.
Can OXPs also present arbitrary graphics and sound, if not even animations or movies? That would give a hell of freedom for adventure authors.

[Redspear]

Can OXPs also present arbitrary graphics and sound, if not even animations or movies? That would give a hell of freedom for adventure authors.

The former as mission screens (background images) and the latter almost anywhere (...I think).

[Cholmondely]

Can OXPs also present arbitrary graphics and sound, if not even animations or movies? That would give a hell of freedom for adventure authors.

Svengali created Library.oxp for just this sort of thing.

See his demos:

=== Demos ===
Designed to show how to integrate other OXP's with Library; Install like any other OXP.
* https://app.box.com/s/59vqswqh0wxiccerk7wgxerl0m0wmx20 Animator Demo (zip, 2.8 MiB): a helper for animations on mission screens
* https://app.box.com/s/xd9hnscxrjlb0p5suz8t00e7m5qo743d Lib Music Orchestral Demo: Svengali's original music .oxp (2016: 22Mb)
* https://app.box.com/s/0enjeiuyzjkyg36yxc5j04sdjhx9s7aa Starmap Demo (oxz, 2.4 KB) - see viewtopic.php?p=264969#p264969 explanation: Lib_Starmap introduces In-System-Maps in 3D (or 2.5D *sigh*). These maps can be shown on missionScreens and inflight. On missionScreens they can be animated (''eg'' through Lib_Animator). Inflight users can control them via the Advanced Space Compass. Usage for OXP's is easy.

Svengali also had a cutscene which worked with CCL (Library OXP's precursor): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sj6owZ ... sp=sharing


Apart from the demos, nothing yet uses Library's Animator & Star Map functions. Svengali was hoping to integrate his Vector mission with Library.oxp - but died before he did so.