A question regarding the merging of OXPs

[Lestradae]

Hi,

I am shoving an idea around and wanted to ask if there is some kind of usus for that here: Merging OXPs of other people.

I have read that the Galactic Navy OXP has been merged the Behemot OXP.

I have been thinking about the creation of a Realistic Shipyards Ultimate Edition that has diverse different buyable ship OXPs merged into it. It is a matter of course for me that the creators of those OXPs and the fact that they have been merged into another OXP would feature prominently in any readme etc.

The question is, is there an usus for something like that? If I understand that alright, the condition for a creative commons license is that this kind of work can be freely used, does this also stretch to OXPs? I would ask OXP-owners if at all possible, but if it`s not possible, could I still use another OXP because of the CCL

My idea was to create three future versions of the Realistic Shipyards:

* A Strict Version: A version for those who want the total Elite-ishness, with no additional ships, stripped down to a purely ship pricing & tech level balance OXP

* A Standard Version: The above plus a few ships I created/remodelled (like the Condor Flagship etc.)

* An Ultimate Edition Version, including many merged ship OXPs and thereby adding loads of ships to the game without having to find & install everything seperately

Perhaps I should add that I would not change anything about those ships except the obvious - price & tech level, and that I would react to it as fast as possible if a ship OXP was reworked/upgraded and change that merged OXP or take it out again in such a case.

Is this possible? Is this OK to make without steppping on fifty toes? Is this even something anyone reading here would be interested in?



Lestradae

[LittleBear]

I doubt people will mind, but its a question of download size. I included the Cobra Njx textures in Assassins (with the authors permission), as the rebel harmless birds fly a squad of these ships. This only pushes the OXPs size up by about 300K. If you included all ship OXPs in one, you'd have about 200 Megs of textures! . I'd vote for the way you have it now. Ship choice is quite personal (and also depends of your system specs!), so having one small OXP like Reasistic Shipyards that sets prices of any OXP ships the player happens to have installed, works really well. Personally I like the pick n mix approach. My System is just too old to run with every ship OXP insatlled, so I play with about 20 in.

The other problem is bug fixing. Bugs always come to light and its a lot easier to download the new version of the fixed OXP rather than one 200 Meg monster, to correct one problem in one OXP.

[Dr. Nil]

I agree with LB

The monster OXP would be a monster to manage because it would have to be updated every time one of the featured OXP was updated. Also it's much better to let players make their own mix of OXPs since tastes differ.

I bet there are a lot of other cool projects waiting for you after solving the über ship problem.

[Lestradae]

Hi Little Bear,

thanks for your feedback!

I doubt people will mind

Important information! Thanks ...

I'd vote for the way you have it now. Ship choice is quite personal ... Personally I like the pick n mix approach.

Well, I would not replace the Realistic Shipyards - I would put all three versions (Strict, Standard & Ultimate Edition) up for download, so the pick & mix element would definitely stay

The other problem is bug fixing. Bugs always come to light and its a lot easier to download the new version of the fixed OXP rather than one 200 Meg monster, to correct one problem in one OXP.

This is perhaps the real problem with the whole "Ultimate" idea. Less the bug-fixing - I could do that, the original OXPs would still be marked internally so as to be easy to find and be changed again, but someone using the Ultimate Edition would then have to re-download the whole monster

I also don`t know if the wiki would even feature such a monster download

Have fun

L

[Commander McLane]

I also don`t know if the wiki would even feature such a monster download

Of course not. The wiki features uploads up to 2 megs. Which means that even now none of the bigger OXPs can be hosted on the wiki.

If you, however, happen to have a webhost who allows you to upload the odd 200 megs at least twice a month (because I suppose this the average rate new ship OXPs are added or the old ones revised; and every time would require a new upload of a revised monster.oxp), I am sure all of us would like to use him as well.

[Cmdr. Maegil]

I also don`t know if the wiki would even feature such a monster download

Of course not. The wiki features uploads up to 2 megs. Which means that even now none of the bigger OXPs can be hosted on the wiki.

If you, however, happen to have a webhost who allows you to upload the odd 200 megs at least twice a month (because I suppose this the average rate new ship OXPs are added or the old ones revised; and every time would require a new upload of a revised monster.oxp), I am sure all of us would like to use him as well.

How about YAH's example of a basic pack plus modules? Could work with ships too, it"d also allow to split them into difficulty levels and types.

[Lestradae]

Hi,

I have already decided against an "Ultimate Edition". The two reasons are a) that this would take choice away from Oolite players (to use the Realistic Shipyards with as many or few ships as they want) and b) as Cmdr. Maegil & McLane pointed out, the problems with upgrading a 100MB+ file regularly, re-download it as a user and finding a provider for that much space

What I will do will be perhaps add a few new ships that make sense now with the Shipyards OXP balancing out differences via prices & TLs, and make the additional ships optional by providing a "Strict" and an "Additional Ships" version of the OXP. That enhances choice for players and if someone wants to play exclusively with the strict ships but Realistic Shipyards - like priced they can also do so.

Thanks again for your feedback

L

Oh, and PS:

How about YAH's example of a basic pack plus modules? Could work with ships too, it"d also allow to split them into difficulty levels and types.

I think that would be a good idea anyways, just I`m not going to be the one who does it