Oolite Bulletins

Rese249er wrote:

Perhaps we can reverse-engineer the multiplayer aspect for Oolite as well!

You have probably seen this thread already.
Given the effort required, regardless of inputs and ideas from E:D, I honestly don't want a multi-player Oolite.
I would much rather have the devs improving single player game.

Gimi wrote:

Rese249er wrote:

Perhaps we can reverse-engineer the multiplayer aspect for Oolite as well!

You have probably seen this thread already.
Given the effort required, regardless of inputs and ideas from E:D, I honestly don't want a multi-player Oolite.

Since that thread was written things have changed so that there is sufficient code in a test-release configuration of the current trunk to be able to produce at least a 2-player deathmatch Oolite with just an OXP and a separate server app.

Obviously, I have no intention of doing this myself, but if anyone with the programming skills and time wants to give it a go, the necessary tools are there. Hint for that hypothetical person: consider what additional input source for [wiki]OXP_Scripted_AI[/wiki] is not available in deployment builds.

cim wrote:

Since that thread was written things have changed so that there is sufficient code in a test-release configuration of the current trunk to be able to produce at least a 2-player deathmatch Oolite with just an OXP and a separate server app.

An opinion: Deathmatches may be fun, co-operative play (even if only 2-player) is a lot more fun.

Anyone have any experience with Kickstarter projects?
I found this page, and to me it looks like the pledges have slowed down a bit too fast.
Would be a real shame if it doesn't make it.

Any thoughts?

El Viejo wrote:

One wonders if there may be a Raxxla out there... somewhere!

Maybe ... if they've got any sense though they won't do what they did with Frontier - i.e. a vast procedurally generated galaxy with a tiny fraction of 1% containing anything at all. Frontier had millions of systems the player could (eventually) visit, but nearly all of them were devoid of any life beyond the odd procedurally generated tree.

Maybe alien civilisations will be procedurally generated, too, in E:D ... although a better way of doing it would, I think, have several hundred (or a few thousand) "core systems", with lots of settled planets, some places to explore, and a few neat things to find, and some handwavium about "witchspace potentials" or whatever to explain why new star systems can't be reached. That way, they can create an almost infinite number of expansions to bolt on.

In fact, I'd make exploration into a player career choice. There would be in-system exploration - discovering settlement sites and resources and maybe the odd ancient archaeological artefact or curiosity in some little-known system. There could also be the role of "Witchfinder": specially equipped ships which are able to sniff out new witchspace links (or frequencies, or whatever explanation is desired) and reach totally new star systems, that might contain anything at all ...

Gimi wrote:

Anyone have any experience with Kickstarter projects?
I found this page, and to me it looks like the pledges have slowed down a bit too fast.
Would be a real shame if it doesn't make it.

Any thoughts?

I don't have any personal experience, but I'd imagine the tendency would be for an initial surge. The site you link to says it's trending towards 350%+ of its goal, but I don't think there's enough statistics to make a prediction. Where's Nate Silver when you need him?

It will be interesting to see. I made a pessimistic prediction a while back that David Braben had left it too late to go back to Elite, as the target demographic was simply getting too old, thus 'Elite 4' would never happen.

It would appear that most of the folks that are a) Big fans of the original game and b) prepared to stump up a bit of cash in advance on the basis of nostalgia and hope are only numbered in the tens of thousands.

Compare and contrast with Ian Bell's estimate of 600,000 copies of Elite sold across the various platforms in the early 80s (150,000 on the Beeb itself). Frontier = 350,000 copies, FFE = ?.

Given that most of the gaming sites have it covered, all the appropriate forums have been talking about it and there was high profile coverage on the BBC and the Register, I fear it doesn't bode well at present.

Hope I'm wrong.

Cheers,

Drew.

Disembodied wrote:

I don't have any personal experience, but I'd imagine the tendency would be for an initial surge. The site you link to says it's trending towards 350%+ of its goal, but I don't think there's enough statistics to make a prediction. Where's Nate Silver when you need him?

I saw the trending thing, but as the site clearly states, trends are not projections or estimates. On average the project needs up towards £16000 pr day for the rest of the period to be funded. Yesterday it received £18 851. So I'm just a little concerned about where this is going.

I have a feeling that E:D will make it to release, somehow - and that it may officially be released on 20/09/14.

Looking through the other successful (spot the mis-sampling, but I can't find an easy search for large failures, and I'm not sure that there have been many anyway...) video game projects in that rough price range, the most common curve, ignoring the first and last couple of days which tend to be much higher, is approximately linear. They need ~16,000 a day from now on to hit the target, and yesterday was slightly above that. So, at the moment I'd say "makes it, but only just", but since that's from a sample size of one day (yesterday) the error bars on that estimate are huge. If they're still going along at that rate in a couple of days, it'll probably be fine.

Disembodied wrote:

and some handwavium about "witchspace potentials" or whatever to explain why new star systems can't be reached

Coincidentally, that forms part of my explanation for why Human Colonials in the Oolite universe are called that and only that.

Disembodied wrote:

if they've got any sense though they won't do what they did with Frontier - i.e. a vast procedurally generated galaxy with a tiny fraction of 1% containing anything at all. Frontier had millions of systems the player could (eventually) visit, but nearly all of them were devoid of any life beyond the odd procedurally generated tree.

Actually, that was one of the things I liked most about FFE. The worlds exist, but you can't effectively reach them. Or you could if you put resources and effort into it. Yeah, still nothing there, but still, they exist. Can't get more realistic than that.

Putting in a limited number of worlds would have the same effect, but not the same feeling of openness. And space should be about openness.

Oh, and, about limiting encounters to friends-only.

I want a realistic game.

Having douchebags is realistic. They are everywhere in real-life. And as you avoid them in real-life, you can avoid them in-game, simply stick to safer systems. Want adventure? Well, get good and find a way to defend yourself. Playing extrapolative games is all about crossing boundaries, getting out of civilized world where everything is neatly arranged. Take your destiny in your hands, not depend on the system. Yes, this means fighting and defending yourself. The more the prize when you succeed.

Erm... Sorry, me again. FAQ:

Will you have Newtonian physics in the game?

Yes. The degree of the fly-by-wire to override the feeling of skidding is something we will carefully tune.

Does anyone have any idea what this means? Because I haven't got a clue.

Corbeau wrote:

Erm... Sorry, me again. FAQ:

Will you have Newtonian physics in the game?
Yes. The degree of the fly-by-wire to override the feeling of skidding is something we will carefully tune.

Does anyone have any idea what this means? Because I haven't got a clue.

If you played both Frontier and FFE you will have some idea of what it means. FFE took some of the Newtonian out of play by "automating" the use of "thrusters" to make it feel a bit more "water tank physics" like (I like that term). So it's a way of hiding the skidding and relative motion between two moving entities and make them more "flying in an atmosphere" like where you have external factors the will influence your movements (air resistance).

Further, "fly by wire" is a term that comes from the present day air craft industry where a computer sits between the pilot and the actual aircraft controls and interprets the pilots commands. The computer than does the actual flying. A modern fighter jet is inherently unstable, and requires hundreds if not thousands of adjustments every minute just to stay up. This is all done by the computer. The pilot just tells the computer where he/she wants the plane to fly.

Gimi wrote:

Anyone have any experience with Kickstarter projects?
I found this page, and to me it looks like the pledges have slowed down a bit too fast.
Would be a real shame if it doesn't make it.

Any thoughts?

I backed Amanda Palmer's (very well known) and a few small comic ones.