Oolite Shipyards Extension V1.0 Development

[CmdrLUke]

My main point is that it is basically impossible in native to get into freight hauling early in the game, or to choose hauling as a "career". The contracts are pretty much never in the range of what an extended cobra can handle. While on the other hand it's straightforward to ease yourself into fighting by choosing your systems carefully.

Sure, hacking the files can let you do anything, but that's not fun....

I understand about "cachet" -- I'm sure some way of adding in a "luxury" factor could allow for that. Those ships are always just more expensive than "plain" ones in every way. I just think the pricing structure should consistently reflect the tradeoffs of the particular ship in question, so that there's no problem with "uber" ships, you just pay through the nose for them, and simple workhorse ships should be relatively cheap.

[Cmdr James]

There might be a space in the market for a low cost freighter, but I normally pick up a Hamadryad pretty early in the game, so I am not totally convinced.

Your point about hacking the files not being fun is kind of the same as a point I was trying to make. I think ships should cost what their designers thought, and someone else Lestradae in this case, changing it to fit their view seems exactly like hacking the files. I know that this has been done in RS "systematically" but still, it is re-pricing the ships, and you are specifically planning on using this to make freighters affordable -- it just feels wrong to me.

[Lestradae]

Hey Cmdr James!

You are of course perfectly entitled to your opinion, and I can see where you`re coming from.

My counter-argument about the systematic rewrite of the ship prices would be, that all said and done, Oolite is still a game. And it contains strategic decisions concerning ships.

Sure it`s nice to imagine (and things like that are part of Oolite as well) to fly a really luxurious ship with five bathtubs and a specially handcrafted nanopaint Lerelace hull - for which you paid lots more than for the specs.

But, ships are the most expensive commodity in the game. At the time when reaching Dangerous rank, most players will be able to buy all available equipment back and forth over and over again. So, earning money basically becomes something purely for the imagination again that does not have a lot to do with the strategic elements of the game. It`s just a number that gets bigger.

The systematic pricing (and not only my take on it, any fitting model would do) makes upgrading to new ships an endlessly interesting process in game terms, as the strategic decisions continue well on to Elite & beyond, and ships actually become a strategic commodity which they are not if I just paid 200.000Cr for the bathtub.

Well, at least that`s my POV.



L

[teabag]

...I was a fan of the original Elite, many moons ago on the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, rubber-keyboard Spectrum et al...
...oh, those were the days, jumpers for goalposts, sticky back plastic...
...but I digress...

...I'd just like to say to all the contributors of Realistic Shipyards, that this is the best add-on to Oolite, since sliced Trumbles.

...a new level of realism/randomness and difficulty!

[Lestradae]

Hi teabag, and welcome to this great game!

...I'd just like to say to all the contributors of Realistic Shipyards, that this is the best add-on to Oolite, since sliced Trumbles.

Thanks, good to hear

And, as you point out quite correctly: I just put Realistic Shipyards together. Actually, it was really done by merging the creativity and work of about a hundred people within a common framework.

There has been a lot of criticism leveled at this "insane oxp that goes too far", but the download numbers of 750 downloads in 2 1/2 months speak for themselves.

Have fun

L

PS: If you are using RS, by all means apply the following patch:

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=5007

[teabag]

Hi Lestradae, I've been playing Oolite on my laptop ever since I stumbled-upon it, looking for "Elite" as something to play on my laptop, that didn't require a mega graphics card. The 1.71.2 Oolite has proven to be absolutely stable so-far, and I'm glad to say that Realistic Shipyards hasn't pushed it over-the edge.

I am currently flying a Merlin through Galaxy 8, with Cr.2m and a score of 5485 kills
Thanks for the tip on the Constrictor patch - I've just applied that edit

I've even managed to load and successfully run Oolite on my newly-aquired netbook (minus R.S. so-far, though I may try it) and it runs reasonably well on that too! (Advent 4211 running an Atom processor + 2mb RAM)

[Lestradae]

I've been playing Oolite on my laptop ever since I stumbled-upon it, looking for "Elite" as something to play on my laptop, that didn't require a mega graphics card. The 1.71.2 Oolite has proven to be absolutely stable so-far, and I'm glad to say that Realistic Shipyards hasn't pushed it over-the edge.

I am currently flying a Merlin through Galaxy 8, with Cr.2m and a score of 5485 kills
Thanks for the tip on the Constrictor patch - I've just applied that edit

I've even managed to load and successfully run Oolite on my newly-aquired netbook (minus R.S. so-far, though I may try it) and it runs reasonably well on that too! (Advent 4211 running an Atom processor + 2mb RAM)

Hi teabag,

just found your posting, happy that you like Oolite and Realistic Shipyards!

Hopefully, everything continues to run fine

And now an announcement:

After a bit more than a quarter year, Realistic Shipyards V3.02 has broken through the one thousand downloads barrier!

In numbers, again: 1.000 downloads!

For the techies: Leeway has been given to this number, as there are actually closer to 1100 downloads, but box.net counts download attempts as downloads also.

Concerning that (unstable connectionwise), greetings to a certain RL Commander in his RL ship, hope you are no longer marooned and have been able to continue your journey over the oceans

Cheer(ing)s

L

PS: Just for a small measure of how successful this oxp has become, the forum itself has grown to have 1.425 registered members in four and a half years. So there

[chomann]

so in 1.7 are the shipyards dockable or not... I might be having a bug, but i cannot dock with the shipyards...

[teabag]

Just a note to say that I have managed to load and run Realistic Shipyards v3.02b on Oolite v1.71.2 on my netbook
(Advent 4211 / 2Mb RAM / Atom Processor)...and it looks good!

...one thought that occured to me while doing a mini re-config to get my fave MedusaHud to work with my Merlin was...(and I wasn't quite sure where to post this)...
...why aren't the Hud's classed as "equipment" that can be added at a cost of X amt. of Credits, rather than just as "freebie" download OXP's?
(I realise it may be a bit late for this thought)... ...that way, Commanders can earn a better Hud or one that matches their taste for walnut/kevlar/trumble-fur as their earnings come in?

[Commander McLane]

...one thought that occured to me while doing a mini re-config to get my fave MedusaHud to work with my Merlin was...(and I wasn't quite sure where to post this)...
...why aren't the Hud's classed as "equipment" that can be added at a cost of X amt. of Credits, rather than just as "freebie" download OXP's?
(I realise it may be a bit late for this thought)... ...that way, Commanders can earn a better Hud or one that matches their taste for walnut/kevlar/trumble-fur as their earnings come in?

I think the basic reason is that "installing" a new HUD requires you to change something in a script manually. Either you have to specify the HUD in the shipdata.plist of your player ship, or you have to rename the HUD of your choice to the default name. Both actions require you to close and reload the game. A 'mini re-config', as you call it correctly, is not doable in-game.

[Lestradae]

Betatesters wanted!

I have started work on the successor to Realistic Shipyards - Oolite Shipyards Extension V1.0!

I need someone who likes my oxp, has a MacOSX system and can help find bugs unintended features before a full release.

Oolite Shipyards Extension V1.0 will feature all and any bugs repaired I found or will find, many, many more ships, some more built-in equipment, and last but not least an ongoing, (hopefully) epic missions story that will explain the horrible truth where all the new and strange ships and equipment are coming from - even the ones modeled after antique sagas.

The missions will introduce the mysterious Shipyards Magnate Lestradae Duval, who, as will become apparent over the course of the missions, has rather lofty career plans ...

Keep in mind, though, that the version(s) you would be getting would be wild and incomplete Betas, it would be good to make savegame backups often, and you would be required that, while playing, you keep an eye on specific things I will ask you about and anything else that doesn`t work as intended or not at all. Also keeping an eye on the stderr reports would be part of the package.

The beta versions would be not for distribution also. Other players will only get them when done.

Anyone interested in the ongoing sneak peek possibility? Windows and Linux users can also jump on, but I have the suspicion that I already have betatesters for those ... well, four eyes see more than two eyes.

Cheers to all fellow Oolite enthusiasts,

L

[Thargoid]

I must admit the first reaction to that proposal from me is it's rather dubious. No problem with new missions etc, and no problem with a "macro OXP" to add new ships to the system (to install one OXP instead of loads), but one OXP to do both for me isn't so cool.

Personally I'd prefer them as separate OXPs, that way once the missions are done they can be removed again to save CPU hit (or even not installed if they're not your thing). RS is useful for the role it serves (give or take the needed bug-fixes), but adding missions into it when it's essentially just a collection of ships from other OXPs doesn't work for me, it seems a strange merger.

[Lestradae]

Hi Thargoid!

Personally I'd prefer them as separate OXPs, that way once the missions are done they can be removed again to save CPU hit (or even not installed if they're not your thing).

Actually, this gives me the idea to do both ... have missions & shipyards as seperate entities and as a complete pack of both.

That way, the cake can be eaten and kept at the same time.

I have a ... sort of ... attack on you anyways, Thargoid. I would love to ... borrow ... some of your ingenious equipment items and merge them into the "Oolite Shipyards Expansion" to use them for player and NPC ships alike. Perhaps it is important to add to this request that OSE will be much easier to be updated with a new version of any oxp (ship or equipment or else) that was merged with it - that`s one of my goals for it.

Would that be OK with you?

And ... you don`t happen to have a Mac and a gusto for playtesting or compiling; or do you?



L

[Thargoid]

No probs for the equipment, although some may well need modifying to work with NPC ships (although some already do). Also feel free to plunder the Aquatics ships too if you want them (although they're currently under expansion to include some mega ships in a revised version, haulers and other craft).

And no, I'm a WinXP laptop kid, no Macs here (except in the wardrobe for when it rains).

[Lestradae]

Hi again Thargoid!

No probs for the equipment, although some may well need modifying to work with NPC ships (although some already do). Also feel free to plunder the Aquatics ships too if you want them (although they're currently under expansion to include some mega ships in a revised version, haulers and other craft).

Great about the equipment, thanks!

The one sort of equipment I`m not sure about if NPCs can use is the Energy equipment. That one would be useful because some ships might survive an energy bomb with it if they could use it. Can they?

And no, I'm a WinXP laptop kid, no Macs here (except in the wardrobe for when it rains).

No prob. About the Aquatics, I had already hoped to include them also, if you are expanding them and it happens in the next few months or so, I might wait until your expansion is ready

Concerning the mega ships, mega docking bays might be in order too ... and with the save anywhere oxp, carriers wouldn`t even have to fit into a "normal" docking bay any more.

Looking forward to your expansion,

L