Oolite Bulletins

Hello Malacandra!

I had a break from Oolite--from about 2008 until last month I'd forgotten about it--and only ever got to play Elite once as a kid in 1985 (all the geek kids hogged the BBCs at school).

But on starting again last month, while I was still 'Harmless', I got mixed up with a pirate Ferdie. The duel ("knife fight in a phone booth") lasted a good half hour, me with my pulse laser and no injectors and no shield or energy mods, against whatever this guy had. I got him, finally, and it was the best feeling I've ever had in a computer game.

Nowadays, just 700 kills short of 'deadly' and with every legally and non-OXP upgrade credits can buy (and one it can't...) I actively hunt pirates, and grin like a maniac whenever I see a pirate Ferdie.

Inject away from me, will you? That's all right, you'll keep.

You'll keep.

I killed my Trumble!

Yeah, I know it had to be done, but I didn't know I had to listen to the poor thing bleat in protest at the heat five or six times before it finally croaked.

Now I feel like a murderer.

Malacandra wrote:

I killed my Trumble!

Yeah, I know it had to be done, but I didn't know I had to listen to the poor thing bleat in protest at the heat five or six times before it finally croaked.

Now I feel like a murderer.

Don't cry.
I hear, they make fine eating. It's not murdering when you eat it afterwards. It's just ... butchering.
Hope you'll feel better now...

Well, my grief over the poor Trumble has been tempered by OXPing like a boss today. I really like the Target Reticle and the Ore Processor, the Star Jellies are spectacular on first sight, and the opportunity to hand over illegal freight for the sake of being honest adds to the role-playing experience. I have an Engineer and a Tactical Officer on the staff although it's meant telling the computer to shut up, and it's getting so I can hardly remember when ships didn't have individual names - I especially like how they're typically tailored to their legal status, and it adds an extra level of satisfaction to rubbing out a pirate Fer-de-Lance when it's called "Noxious Troll" or something of the sort.

I discovered Oolite just over a year ago through the associated link on the Wikipedia entry for the original Elite... which in turn was found when I was doing some Google-searching to see if the Elite I remembered from years back (and rediscovered from the book "Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin") was still about.

From there it was a case of downloading the game and playing it out of curiosity - and was immediately impressed with even the vanilla OXP-less graphics standard of Oolite. The I downloaded a few OXPs... broke through to "Mostly Harmless" rating... and shortly after that was well and truly hooked

Years ago a friend tipped me off, been hooked since!

I played Elite back in the 80's
Some years ago my younger brother e-mailed me about a game he thought was Elite (Oolite 1.65) on the net, and said
"Don't get obsessed with it again!"
Silly boy... One hour was all that took.

Dear God, when does the urge to download "just one more" OXP go away? 15 mods and counting, and that's not including the HUDs I've archived.

Hehe, it's like a candystore where everything is free!

Only 15? I'd call that admirable self-restraint..

Well I've only known about Oolite for like a month...

Malacandra wrote:

Well I've only known about Oolite for like a month...

15 in a month??? I think I downloaded 100 in the first week!

Tricky wrote:

Malacandra wrote:

Well I've only known about Oolite for like a month...

15 in a month??? I think I downloaded 100 in the first week!

I think the only OXP I installed in the first few weeks was Fighter Hud - otherwise, it was Oolite (1.65, I think) straight out of the box.

I toyed around with a HUD or two before finding one that I liked, but BGS is freakin' sweet and I'm impressed by how all this stuff is completely plug and play. Well, once you read the nice clear documentation about how you also need Cabal Common Code. And the Griff shipset and stations... wow!

The sweetshop analogy is spot on. NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMAARGHSOMEONEMAKEMESTOP!!