So I got thinking about Freelancer, Freespace 2 etc...

[Cholmondely]

I suppose I'm trying to turn oolite into a freelancer / freespace type game - and obviously it would be a massive and probably impossible undertaking..
but i think it would go down very well with youngsters / new players if there was an overarching 'purpose'

One can presumably do this sort of thing by using Cim's scenarios.plist.

I've little idea about freelancer/freespace, but there are several missions OXPs which do have such an overarching purpose. Xeptatl's Sword springs most readily to mind, and I suspect that Cataclysm is another. One needs to be pretty much Elite to take on either, so the hard grind of getting to Elite is presumed, but those OXPs do exist. It is the gap between starting as a green Jameson and attaining Elite status which is unscripted...

How much does it matter?

[RobsterLeal]

To us people who live and breathe and love Oolite? It matters not at all.

For someone new to the genre / game / scenarios? Possibly a lot - i think a measured introduction to OXPs in the form of a storyline would be a good way to introduce someone to it.

I could even see some 'tutorial' OXPs with someone talking you through docking, MFPs etc etc..

But - looking at the Oolite demographic (and I'm guessing somewhat here, so sue me) - the vast majority all know and love Elite as a game already, so would have no use for such an introduction to the Ooniverse.

I think it goes down as something that would be nice to see, but limited appeal i guess. I would definitely play a structured lengthy storyline from green Jameson onwards. It definitely would be an immense undertaking to build...

[Cholmondely]

Have you tried the in-game Tutorial?

[Cholmondely]

But, yes, I agree with you. The in-game tutorial does not help with MFDs, for example. It is only for the vanilla game.

And over the past 5 years we’ve attracted many younger people who never knew Elite (and who presumably drifted away again). And who seem to load up their game with a zillion-and-one oxps from the outset!

I was hoping to structure the “Hints” oxp to cover other oxps, but am not a programmer and was also defeated by how to best balance vanilla game hints with oxp hints.

What, other than MFDs, is needed for OXP help?

[RobsterLeal]

there you go - every day is a school day - I never even knew the tutorial existed

[Cholmondely]

..and I got to thinking how Oolite could be adapted to include a singleplayer 'adventure' much the same as these..

Now this has probably been thought of before, would entail a whole shed load of work (possible understatement there), that I personally have no clue how to go about, and definitely flies in the face of Oolites 'go anywhere , do anything' freedom, but hear me out....

imagine an Oolite that opens up in stages - governed by the money you have earned, much the same as Freelancer. Perhaps you would start the game with a short tutorial mission, in-system only. Then for a short while be unable to jump to another planet, with ,say , the in-system cargo and taxi expansions loaded so you could still do things and make some money.

Once you hit that threshold you get 'given' a jumpdrive and can start to move between planets. be given a mission or two to take you to specific planets in the galaxy. and so on and so on, building up , introducing expansion things like bounty hunters guild, feudal states etc as you go..

I see several reasons why its not easy - can you have a game that introduces expansions as you play it? Is that possible - some sort of auto download?

obviously my tiny brain can't come up with any sort of ongoing mission thread, apart from perhaps the starter.

I suppose im trying to turn oolite into a freelancer / freespace type game - and obviously it would be a massive and probably impossible undertaking..
but i think it would go down very well with youngsters / new players if there was an overarching 'purpose'

Thoughts anyone?

Coming back to this, I can see no reason why one could not start with a graduated introduction to Oolite.

We have SOTL as a start scenario choice at the beginning of the game.

Somebody with the skills could create a scenario with eg. Paddling Pool to create a softer start as well as simple missions with some banter involved, thus teaching some of the game realities. One could be equipped with a better HUD and with an MFD with instructions as to how to use it - as well as an equipment piece needing selection, with instructions there too.

One could start, for example, with destroying some asteroids. Then be moved on to confronting a lone pirate assailing the asteroid miners, then more pirates and eventually tackle the pirate den (perhaps with some help).

[Cholmondely]

oolite does not allow loading/unloading OXPs from inside another OXP.

Might there be another approach?

Could one use condition scripts inside the OXPs to remove them operating inside a region such as the 30 systems beyond the Great Rift in G7?

One could start off in a simplistic version of Oolite beyond the Great Rift as one slowly worked one's way up the ladder doing missions.

1) A 4+ stage game.
i) One starts off at a (hand-crafted) system in a sidewinder or some such without the hyperdrive engine.
ii) Having completed some simple missions one is then instructed to follow another ship through a wormhole to another (hand crafted) system.
iii) At the next appropriate stage one either follows another through another wormhole - or one is awarded the ability to add a hyperdrive to one's ship.
iv) At the final stage one is given the trick of jumping the Great Rift and unleashed on a fully-oxp-ed remainder of G7

2) Strategy
i) A Scenario oxp which only downloads variant versions of Bounty Hunter/Feudal States etc. with the desired condition scripts added. And which starts the player off in a suitably modified ship.
ii) Tailoring the Rift Worlds to be a suitable paddling pool - but also retaining compatibility with whatever Littlebear's Assassin's Guild may have added for any possible missions there. (G7 is one of our more developed/interesting galaxies thanks to the Assassin's Guild oxp).
iii) Sorting out Vanilla game missions presupposing a G1 start
iv) Sorting out OXPs presupposing a G1 start (eg. The Galactic Almanac - I'm not sure that there are any others)
v) Creating a new Tutorial flavour on Hiran's Oolite Starter to download the scenario oxp which then downloads the modified oxps and prevents all other unwanted OXPs operating inside the scenario.

3) Notes
i) The vanilla game Tutorial could be incorporated into this scenario (if I understand correctly, it is only another scenario, anyway!). The material there could also be added to - a more focused introduction on how to operate MFDs, how to prime special equipment, etc.
ii) Keeping this all separate from the regular OXPs: Tweaking Oolite starter, it might be possible to download the modified OXPs separately (from other "sources") and also not add them to the Expansions Manager list. And perhaps to include in their conditions scripts that they only operate if the Scenario oxp is running.

4) Summary
As a dumb pilot, I know not of pitfalls which would undermine the enterprise. And it would be a heck of a lot of work: the scenario oxp. Reworking the region's systems. The tweaking of all the other oxps. Tweaking the Oolite Starter. And not discussed above are the missions themselves. Or other OXPs which might be added (XenonUI, HUDs, etc.).


(Or one could choose the two Prodigal Suns in G3: only the two systems - and one would need to award a Galactic Hyperdrive at the end of it all. But no need to rejig the 30 worlds in G7. But would this provide enough scope for it all? But one then jumps to G4 which only has half the political governments of the rest of The Eight, so again, a gentler introduction to the complexities. And less need to tamper with other OXPs)


Captain Solo's Map of G7 has the Great Rift clearly marked (but his own regions/trade routes).