Oolite Bulletins

Selezen wrote:

The fact that the Reclamation drive met its goal in 9 days shows how much support you (and Elite) have. It would be interesting to see how much of that goal was met through pledges just from members of this forum. The sheer power of Oolite?

That's what I imagined when the campaign began, and I think that a fair amount of the initial pledges came from forum members. There is a strong faction from the E:D Kickstarter as well. But of course it's impossible at this point to link the number of pledgers (or indeed individual pledgers) to sums of money. I do sort of hope, though, that the contributions from forum members are significant.

Drew will of course get to know it all when the funding period is over. Most of the forum members are easily identifiable on Kickstarter as well. So he will be able to do cross checks.

What I find hugely satisfying about Drew's project and its success is that—through Drew as its representative—Oolite will have a certain presence in Elite: Dangerous. Not brazen or impertinent, but in all politeness and modesty confident and unabashed for who we are. Yes, I find that deeply satisfying. It's almost like an acknowledgement by David Braben that we have carried ELITE's torch for so many years.

Commander McLane wrote:

What I find hugely satisfying about Drew's project and its success is that—through Drew as its representative—Oolite will have a certain presence in Elite: Dangerous. Not brazen or impertinent, but in all politeness and modesty confident and unabashed for who we are. Yes, I find that deeply satisfying. It's almost like an acknowledgement by David Braben that we have carried ELITE's torch for so many years.

I will do my best to honour the position which has been bestowed on me. Absolutely agree.

Cheers,

Drew.

Some interesting news from the E:D comments just now. Apparently, Michael Brookes, an executive producer at Frontier developments is going to be writing the official sequel to 'The Dark Wheel.'

Now I know who I have to beat!

He's self-published it would seem based on this... I've never heard of him before.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Cult-Me-Mic ... 1479148776

Other snippets include: The Thargoids will be present in the new game and that Elite:Dangerous looks to be a sort of reboot of Elite, but with some of the Frontier history included. I'll see if I can get anymore information.

In the meantime, just £76 short of £5k now... a video teaser/trailer for Elite:Reclamation is waiting on my harddrive for that milestone!

Cheers,

Drew.

drew wrote:

...Now I know who I have to beat!...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Cult-Me-Mic ... 1479148776

Looking through the aforementioned page, sounds like stereotypical fantasy-fulfillment with a dash of homoerotic domination for kicks... but I haven't read the book.

Either way, I doubt HE can beat YOU. You've got a whole forum of Elite fans of varying backgrounds and levels of fanaticism. He's got... well, he ain't got us.

Hmm. So he's self-published a supernatural thriller. Can't say I'm very impressed. Nepotism strikes. Again Mr B is keeping it in-house as opposed to actually giving to someone with some proven, published talent.

Drew would be a better choice, given that although he's self published, he has written sci-fi novels and short stories SET IN THE SAME UNIVERSE.

I do wonder sometimes if the Rob Holdstock connection has been a sticking point for progress with Elite. Is it possible that Mr Holdstock retained the rights to the content of the manual and novella and these were released upon his passing, resulting in a recent move towards returning to Elite's roots? It could explain why there was no mention of ANYTHING that was exclusively in TDW or the manual in Frontier or First Encounters. Ian Bell reproduced the content of both on his site for free thus avoiding any copyright / profit issues, whilst Frontier could not include any of Holdstock's material in a commercial entity. It also illustrates why the content for Frontier and FFE was written by in-house authors.

Makes you think?

Anyway, I will reserve judgement on Mr Brookes' work until reading some of it. Can't say his single novel is up my street. Having said that, though, I suppose Drew's single published novel is related to sci-fi or Elite either. So maybe I'm just biased...

Selezen wrote:

Hmm. So he's self-published a supernatural thriller. Can't say I'm very impressed.

*nods in agreement*

Gimi got there first with...

Gimi wrote:

Michael: When you say Elite universe, are you including Frontier and First Encounters: E.g. Empire, Alliance, Federation, etc. or is it too early to tell/reveal.

And the answer was...

@ Gimi Yes, I'm looking to the keep Frontier and First Encounters history - however it is early days yet, so we'll have to see how it comes together.

Intriguing. Elite:Dangerous thus post 3250... Selezen, time to update that timeline!

Selezen wrote:

I do wonder sometimes if the Rob Holdstock connection has been a sticking point for progress with Elite. Is it possible that Mr Holdstock retained the rights to the content of the manual and novella and these were released upon his passing, resulting in a recent move towards returning to Elite's roots?

A good question. Having spoken to Robert's partner Sarah via email in recent weeks, I'd be surprised if this was the case. Robert apparently never thought all that highly of his work on TDW, and had very much moved on with his later books. He seemed a genuinely nice guy from the accounts I've seen and I can't really see him standing in the way of progress. There's no real need to follow on from TDW, but I think it's a pleasant sop for continuities sake.

Cheers,

Drew.

drew wrote:

Elite:Dangerous thus post 3250... Selezen, time to update that timeline!

Not necessarily - he may just be referring to the fact that elements of the history of FE2 and FFE could be present in Elite Dangerous - for example the Empire and Federation may appear alongside GalCop.

He said in the comments to "not worry too much about the reboot concept, it will still be the Elite Universe". Not the FEU. So that points to pre-Frontier. It'll be interesting to see exactly what is getting rebooted, but the initial direction and those comments made in the last hour or so seem to point to it being a reboot of the graphics and setting rather than the history and using it as a chance to combine the two concepts at last.

Fingers crossed. If he changes it all too much then I think a legion of fans will be upset, and the fanbase is (as always) balanced on a knife edge regarding how their favourite game will be treated. If he discards everything about Elite's setting then he'll end up with another Frontier on his hands as far as the "mythology" is concerned.

I wonder exactly how much exposure DB and the rest of the Frontier team have had to the fanbase and the reams of fan fiction that have sprung up... If they have any commercial sense and really want to take the temperature of the Elite fans then they should read some of that.

Anyway, if my timeline has to get rewritten then it's all good. I like canon - it was fun trying to tie everything together. Drew: seeing as you're busom buddies with them at Frontier maybe you should point them in the direction of the Timeline as a "research idea"...

David Braben wrote:

@Drew, Gimi, yes, post 3250. But the original Cobra Mk III will still be available...

- David

Just confirmed.

Cheers,

Drew.

I made a single note in my diary just before posting this message.

It simply said "bugger".



Shows what I know.

Oh well, that may not impact my timeline too much then, since it only really deals with Elite and Frontier.

drew wrote:

Robert apparently never thought all that highly of his work on TDW...

That doesn't surprise me in the least!

drew wrote:

Some interesting news from the E:D comments just now. Apparently, Michael Brookes, an executive producer at Frontier developments is going to be writing the official sequel to 'The Dark Wheel.'

He is also in charge of all the novels and stories written by Kickstarter authors:

Michael Brookes wrote:

They are indeed. I'm jumping the gun a little here, so this isn't official yet (although posting it probably does make it official!), but I will be looking after the fiction for the Elite universe, so I'll be working with all of the authors.

I probably can't help you edit directly, but I can certainly provide feedback. It's something I do for other authors already

Michael

Selezen wrote:

I do wonder sometimes if the Rob Holdstock connection has been a sticking point for progress with Elite. Is it possible that Mr Holdstock retained the rights to the content of the manual and novella and these were released upon his passing, resulting in a recent move towards returning to Elite's roots? It could explain why there was no mention of ANYTHING that was exclusively in TDW or the manual in Frontier or First Encounters. Ian Bell reproduced the content of both on his site for free thus avoiding any copyright / profit issues, whilst Frontier could not include any of Holdstock's material in a commercial entity. It also illustrates why the content for Frontier and FFE was written by in-house authors.

Makes you think?

Anyway, I will reserve judgement on Mr Brookes' work until reading some of it. Can't say his single novel is up my street. Having said that, though, I suppose Drew's single published novel is related to sci-fi or Elite either. So maybe I'm just biased...

It's highly unlikely that Robert Holdstock's death changed anything. Unless he specifically signed away the rights, then anything he wrote is still copyright to his estate, and will remain so until 70 years after his death. And making something available for free doesn't avoid any copyright issues! Ian Bell would still need to have permission (or at least a friendly understanding).

It's disappointing that Frontier Developments didn't look a bit further afield for their author, certainly - but it seems par for the course: the EVE Online novels are written by employees of CCP Games ...

Selezen wrote:

He said in the comments to "not worry too much about the reboot concept, it will still be the Elite Universe". Not the FEU.

Maybe. I'm unconvinced that they consider there to be a distinction between the two. What they've said up until now points much more towards the FEU geographically, if not necessarily politically, what with "core" and "frontier" systems, exploration, and all the rest. (EDIT: and that latest comment about post-3250 too) They might just be saying that the FFE resolution to the Thargoid plot is not necessarily canon.

(And which "Elite Universe"? The one in the manual, or the one in the game? I was going through the statistics of the F7 data a while back and it's ... not implying a universe anything like the one in the manual)

E:R just passed £5k with a £100 pledge. Video teaser goes up this evening folks. Enjoy.

Cheers,

Drew.