Oolite Manual

[Selezen]

Hi everyone. Following a conversation with winston, I am going to endeavour to put together a manual for Oolite.

I will be trying to keep a lot of the spirit of Rob Holdstock's original Elite manual to keep in with Oolite's homage to Elite, but I will be expanding a lot on it.

Winston's main suggestions were:

- a real world 'Running the game' section - right at the start. This one would be a short Getting Started section. It would include basic instructions on where plists go, where new OXPs go, an admonishment not to touch things in oolite.app etc. A bit like the current PLAYING.TXT file.
A separate one would be needed for Mac OS X and Linux - it'd be mostly the same but there are differences.

So, I will be putting together installation guides for all versions. I can do the PC one myself and will troll the forum for the Mac and Linux installation instructions (unless some kind person would PM them to me!).

It will also contain instructions on how to find the debug reports and little tools that Oolite has in it (like the dump of the planet list and star map).

- A guide to the Oolite universe - trading, bounty hunters, pirates and all the back story. Written purely as a work of fiction, but useful to playing Oolite.

This will be the most familiar part, as I will be using the same sort of format that Mr. Holdstock used, but with an Oolite flavour to it.

- A Cobra Mk 3 Pilot's Operating Handbook. My intention was to write this in exactly the same format as the current GAMA-style aircraft Pilot's Operating Handbooks - so it looks like an information manual for a real spacecraft. Again, mostly fictional but strongly relating to the game - such as checklists (which include the default key designations), but some things that are purely fanciful (such as loading graphs etc.)

My initial thoughts on this were to follow the format of and SR-71 flight manual I have, but that is just too dry and boring. Instead, I will be using examples of military aircraft reviews and test reports to put togethe the document, as well as my exposure to things like Aircraft magazine and Jane's aircraft books, which should keep it entertaining enough whilst still looking official!

- And of course - the story. A short story set specifically in the Oolite universe, just as every version of Elite from the 8-bits (The Dark Wheel) to Frontier: First Encounters have contained at least one short story.

This one should, in my opinion, be opened to the forum, cos I know there are a lot of damn good writers in the Elite community - Winston not least...

I was thinking that a few short stories could either be scattered through the manuals or collected in one volume.

In addition, before starting, would anyone mind me using some of the theories I have developed myself for the Elite universe? Some of them can be seen at my site. One of the things I would like to use is my timeline information, setting Oolite as a sort of semi-sequel to Elite, with the advance in technology (Q-bombs and stuff) being explained by a time advancement of about 10 years? Would this be OK?

Also, a quick question: I have always used the term GalCop to refer to the Galactic Co-operative or Worlds, but I know all of the ole Arc Elite players use GalCop to refer to the Galactic Police. Which is preferred?

Finally, thanks for letting me do this (obviously pending the big OK from Giles). I will try to do a damn good job.

[Murgh]

you seem very inspired. you should run with it.

on the GalCop issue, you have an oportunity to set the record straight.

looking forward to see how you'll merge some of the theories from your site. in the unlikely event that you go too far, I'm sure you'll hear about it

[Wiggy]

Would this be using:

http://riters.com/OoliteManual/

?

I've also been thinking that Oolite needs a manual, and I'm going to put some stuff together for this site, as soon as I get the chance.

I very much like the idea of keeping the manual as part of the Ooniverse, i.e. "press H on your Cobra's control panel to activate the Hyperdrive".

Your Faulcon de Lacy Military Lasers should give you years of happy annihilating...

[Selezen]

The manual will be kept as part of the Ooniverse, don't you worry about that.

Given that the Wiki site has very little on it, I am not intending to refer to it much. The only thing listed there is some thargoid stuff and some witchspace stuff and some mission stuff alongside some instructions on plists.

The manual is not going to go into a lot of depth about those subjects really, and will really be based on showing the reader how to play the game. I will, of course, try to expand somewhat on things like how hyperspace works and what is going on with the Thargoids, but not in too much detail.

I will be using terminology like 'open the cover and press the key labelled H on your console to initiate hyperspace' as instead of 'press H on your keyboard'. I like immersing myself in a universe, and I've been immersed in this one for far too long to miss an opportunity like that!!!

[Murgh]

I was wondering, and am sure you've thought about this..

will you touch upon/go into detail about the greater galaxy (galaxies) issue, or rather avoid it?
I've seen names given to the zones covered by each galactic chart, (Santaari, Colesque, Lara'tan, Angiana, Proximus, Sol, Jaftra, Xrata) but don't know about the source validity of this. do you?

[AndyC_772]

Those names were present in Archimedes Elite.

[Rxke]

Bit of a tangent maybe, but in the manual, when you describe equipment, will there be pics? (yessss please)

... and when those pics are done, could they come into Oolite's shipyard?

[Selezen]

I wasn't planning on including the galaxy names, primarily because there's a galaxy named Sol, especially given that the Sol system isn't actually in that galaxy...

My wandering mind has settled on the idea that the galaxies are distant areas of our single galaxy separated by about 600LY, and that they are reachable by wormhole connection between them in a kind of loop. The IGH locates the wormhole and creates a hyperspace tunnel between your current location and the nearest entry point to that wormhole, then allows you to travel through the wormhole to the destination.

This also (for me, anyway) answers the question that someone asked on another topic about why the galaxies can't be navigated at will - the wormholes only connect the galaxies in a particular order.

As far as the pictures of equipment is concerned: I ain't that great an artist. I generally do some fairly good blueprint type drawings, and can do some pretty good stuff in 3D, but when it comes to drawing equipment my imagination runs out of steam on occasion. As a result I will probably do a few illustrations, but not many and definitely not anything special. I'll do my best though. If they are going to be included in the game, then I will make a special effort.

[aegidian]

So, I will be putting together installation guides for all versions. I can do the PC one myself and will troll the forum for the Mac and Linux installation instructions (unless some kind person would PM them to me!).

Here are the Mac installation instructions:

Drag the 'Oolite' folder (containing Oolite, this ReadMe, the License and the 'AddOns' folder) to any convenient place on your hard drive.
If you are upgrading from a previous version of Oolite then drag the Oolite application from this disk's Oolite folder to your own Oolite folder.

er, that's it.

[Selezen]

Goddamn it. How the hell am I going to stretch that to a page?

PC: About 2 pages
Mac: 4 lines.

Selezen: I hate PCs.
Rest of forum: Yeah yeah, heard it all before.

Seriously though, thanks Giles.

[BlunderBuss Carrotcat II]

Mac users are intelligent enough to work out how to do things with only a tiny amount of direction.

[Rubinstein]

Mac users are intelligent enough to work out how to do things with only a tiny amount of direction.

Yeah, and a single dot would be quite sufficient for Linux users...

[BlunderBuss Carrotcat II]

Is that because they are illiterate and words would only confuse them???

[Rubinstein]

Exactly, you got it.
But Linux is fortunately sophisticated enough to serve them quite well.

[Selezen]

Please don't spam me topic, guys... . Need some feedback...