Oolite Bulletins

spara wrote:

Cody wrote:

I see it says for Oolite 1.80 - does this work okay with trunk nightlies?

Apart from market it should be ok.

Cool - I have no interest in the market!

Liking the poker - and I won! Only Smuggler's Run has a background image - the other two games could do with that.
Suggestions: move it further from the main station (unless that is the final intention), and give it some rotation.

I would be okay with there being a market, but it should be limited, for sure. They would need Liquor and food, and you could probably sell plat/gold/gems (because they would want people to have more cash for the games!) but not as high as at a good rich ind main station, nor as low as a poor ag. Just about average. And then probably you would not be able to buy anything, or make any profit selling anything else.

I was able to make a few credits playing poker. (Even though I don't really know how to play it...) I would love to see a BlackJack game, though that might be harder to actually do. Also, there was a discussion about maybe putting in a stock market. Maybe that could be added as a game in the casino? You buy "stocks" and then move on to the next "day" and see if you make a profit. Then there is a chance of the "stocks" failing all together and you loose all your money that you "invested." If anyone else is interested I have an algorithm that does just that. (It is written in C++, but it could probably be translated to JavaScript.)

Cody wrote:

Liking the poker - and I won!

Nice.

Cody wrote:

Only Smuggler's Run has a background image - the other two games could do with that.

Smuggler's Run is currently the only game with a theme story, hence the backgrounds. Poker could do some nice scenery just for color. I'll scavenge the screenshots thread sometime. I'm naturally open for background suggestions . Hoops is in it's original form and would also benefit from some nice scenery. I'll but than onto todo too.

Cody wrote:

Suggestions: move it further from the main station (unless that is the final intention), and give it some rotation.

SirArian wrote:

I would be okay with there being a market, but it should be limited, for sure. They would need Liquor and food, and you could probably sell plat/gold/gems (because they would want people to have more cash for the games!) but not as high as at a good rich ind main station, nor as low as a poor ag. Just about average. And then probably you would not be able to buy anything, or make any profit selling anything else.

A proper limited market is really only doable with the trunk, so that will have to wait. And as long as Hoopy's is located near the main station, I don't think it should have any market at all.

What I've been pondering a bit is a Vegas style Casino centrer thing that would be located away from main lanes. It would have a beacon and all, but you would need to travel a bit to reach it. It would need a heavy defence in a form of laser turrets / mines. Something like that is around Black Monks stations, altough I don't think it's presently functioning correctly. Easy to make it work though . A would also be tempted to use Zieman Habitat station as this kind of Casino. It already look's like Vegas to me. Saving at the station would naturally be prohibited as it would make it too easy to exploit the games.

SirArian wrote:

I was able to make a few credits playing poker. (Even though I don't really know how to play it...) I would love to see a BlackJack game, though that might be harder to actually do.

Nearly done . The next version will have it. Then you will be able to make a career out of gambling as I'll be making the house edge negative. Play good and you will win in the long run.

SirArian wrote:

Also, there was a discussion about maybe putting in a stock market. Maybe that could be added as a game in the casino? You buy "stocks" and then move on to the next "day" and see if you make a profit. Then there is a chance of the "stocks" failing all together and you loose all your money that you "invested." If anyone else is interested I have an algorithm that does just that. (It is written in C++, but it could probably be translated to JavaScript.)

A gambling game themed around stock markets? Not a bad idea. Inventing new gambling games is quite hard work to make them interesting though, so I would like to see some already working game. Any reference? Gambling games should be simple to learn, fast to play and difficult to master. To make the game addictive, the player needs to be able to control/master the game (like blackjack), should have big prices (like video poker) or some risk/greed ladder (like smuggler's run).

spara wrote:

What I've been pondering a bit is a Vegas style Casino centrer thing that would be located away from main lanes. It would have a beacon and all, but you would need to travel a bit to reach it. It would need a heavy defence in a form of laser turrets / mines. Something like that is around Black Monks stations, altough I don't think it's presently functioning correctly. Easy to make it work though. A would also be tempted to use Zieman Habitat station as this kind of Casino. It already look's like Vegas to me. Saving at the station would naturally be prohibited as it would make it too easy to exploit the games.

Sounds good to me! As regards a background for the poker - got any idea what kind of image you'd like?

spara wrote:

A gambling game themed around stock markets? .

I thought that's what Stock Markets are, anyway!

Smivs wrote:

spara wrote:

A gambling game themed around stock markets? .

I thought that's what Stock Markets are, anyway!

Indeed. That would be some other oxp to implement Stock Markets into the game and make them interesting. Let's play some Excel .

A new version for all you gamblers. This time you're invited to play some Blackjack. Hope you enjoy it. I have actually never played blackjack so this was quite a learning experience for me. If something is terribly wrong please report. I have chosen the rules so that the house edge is slightly negative with good play. You can actually make some money on the long run. Naturally requires a skilled player. I also made a nice background to the card games. Card model & card graphics by CaptSolo.

Markets, repositioning etc. have to wait a bit longer, this version is for getting the new game to test.

A couple of screenies to showoff the games a bit.




Download version 1.3.1: https://app.box.com/s/lkyrga11ufu2lhz339u6

spara wrote:

A gambling game themed around stock markets? Not a bad idea. Inventing new gambling games is quite hard work to make them interesting though, so I would like to see some already working game. Any reference? Gambling games should be simple to learn, fast to play and difficult to master. To make the game addictive, the player needs to be able to control/master the game (like blackjack), should have big prices (like video poker) or some risk/greed ladder (like smuggler's run).

The version that I wrote (mostly to play with coding) is a text based game, and I'm not sure if it would work if I compiled it and sent you the binary, but I can probably send you the source code if you are interested, and you can compile it yourself. (Actually, it's been a while since I looked at it... Let me make sure I still have it... *A few minutes later* Oh good, I still have it. )

I'm downloading the new version now, and I will see if I can find a Casino to try out the Blackjack!

spara wrote:

That would be some other oxp to implement Stock Markets into the game and make them interesting. Let's play some Excel .

The first thing you need is a list of stocks. I don't know the names of any businesses in Oolite apart from Coachwhio (the owner of HoOpy Casinos). Are there any others?

[edit: deleted ideas for additional casino features.]

http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/&p ... n&sin=d548

I remember playing this in my highschool library back in 1974. after a quick search there is an ipad version too....

http://www.1888freeonlinegames.com/ipad ... -4690.html

fun game but not sure how it would be implimented in a Hoopy Casino......

Wildeblood wrote:

Are there any others?

There are a few, but if it is just a game I don't think we need to have real names. I think something like "Stock #1" would be fine. And a real stock market (in Ooniverse) was already discussed and it was decided that it would change the game too much. But a game that is "30 days in the stock market" that is done at the casino could be done without much unbalancing. (I think... Of course, I have been wrong once or twice... )

If we do want to find the real names of Oolite companies we can check the wiki pages for equipment and ships, and if we need more we can always look at the YAH billboards.

EDIT: I also wanted to say well done on the Blackjack! I do have one request, though: If it would be practical to implement, I would love to be able to bet more than just 100 Cr. I can so imagine a rich commander betting 1000, 5000, or even 10,000 Cr on a hand of Poker/Blackjack/etc. If those three could be added, that would be great. And, maybe something ridiculously large, like 100,000 Cr. (Or, if you are feeling really lucky there could be an option to bet everything that you have -- even your ship -- on a round of cards. If you win, you double your wealth. If you loose, you have an Adder with nothing but a pulse laser, and hopefully better luck than you had with that game of cards...
And if you win, you could end up being chased all over the galaxy by "friends" of whoever lost...

SirArian wrote:

I also wanted to say well done on the Blackjack! I do have one request, though: If it would be practical to implement, I would love to be able to bet more than just 100 Cr.....

Thanks. There is a simple reason for not putting in high stakes: too easy to exploit. The probability to win a hand in blackjack is actually quite high and win doubles your bet. If you were allowed to put in let's say 1 000 Cr, you could easily save at the main station, fly to a casino, play a hand, and if it fails, load again, rinse and repeat. I don't think it's tedious enough when compared to the probability of getting 2 000 Cr. I'll rather keep the stake low and let the skill show in the long rung . If you want big wins then Poker might be your game . The main prize is 40 000 after all.

If the station gets moved farther away from the main station, upping the bet could be a possibility. Maybe not over 1 000 credits though. The choices could then be 10, 100, 500 and 1 000. 10 for beginning players and the rest would be for rich/experienced commanders.

Wildeblood wrote:

The first thing you need is a list of stocks. I don't know the names of any businesses in Oolite apart from Coachwhio (the owner of HoOpy Casinos). Are there any others?

Long ago when I wrote the now obsoleted Technical Reference Library oxp, I dug out some ship building companies from the wiki to be used to colour the oxp and came up with this:



There are more invented companies in YAH, so coming up with a list of companies is not a problem really.

Making it a sensible oxp would be a challenge though. I think it should be something like New Cargoes. When you dock, you can visit the Stock interface, see some gossip/rumours and deal with stocks. Stocks would need to follow some ever changing formula so that a good stock player can make some money when paying close attention to the stocks, but an average investor should lose in the long run. And stocks should change only when jumping from system to system to prevent outright exploiting.

spara wrote:

Thanks. There is a simple reason for not putting in high stakes: too easy to exploit. The probability to win a hand in blackjack is actually quite high and win doubles your bet. If you were allowed to put in let's say 1 000 Cr, you could easily save at the main station, fly to a casino, play a hand, and if it fails, load again, rinse and repeat. I don't think it's tedious enough when compared to the probability of getting 2 000 Cr. I'll rather keep the stake low and let the skill show in the long rung .

That makes sense. I was going to suggest that the likelihood of failure increased with the bid, but that wouldn't really solve the problem of saving to eliminate the risk... Maybe it could only be available if you have played a certain number of times?

Hoopy Casino wrote:

"Congratulations, Commander Jameson, you have played 10,000 games at the Coachwhio Hoopy Casino! You are now qualified for the exclusive Hoopy VIP membership. For only 1000 Cr a month, you can increase your odds of winning BIG*, plus get a VIP discount card, saving you 20% at the Hoopy Bar!
*The odds of an actual win are not increased by this membership. You are simply allowed to stake more on your games, which means that a win is more profitable. Coachwhio is not responsible for credits lost in the game. Membership fees are non-refundable.

(Or something like that.)

spara wrote:

If you want big wins then Poker might be your game . The main prize is 40 000 after all.

I actually have no clue how to play Poker, so... I lost money on that one already. The only reason I know how to play Blackjack is because I could put it on my Kindle and I played it on that pretty regularly for a few months.