Recommended Add-Ons for Beginners

[Wildeblood]

So the only alternatives for Oolite expansion pack management are (1) Windows 8 style accessibility (or, one might think, would-be accessibility) or (2) the status quo exactly as it is? Surely that is a false dichotomy.

I don't understand that comment at all. An allusion too far, perhaps.

Moreover, I don't see why my proposed change would be rendered useless by lying. Some expansion packs clearly use quite a few resources and I imagine that at least many of the authors of such packs would label them accordingly.

"Rendered useless" is a gross overstatement, but all co-operative activity is corrupted by lying.

Firstly, liars aren't all ensconced in underground lairs, stroking white cats, and laughing in a deranged manner*. It's the effect, not any malicious intent, that matters, and "A man who would lie to himself would lie to anyone". In the case of graphics such categorization can be fairly obvious; given Griff's Stations Full-size Textures & Griff's Stations Half-size Textures you know (a) which one belongs in which category & (b) the creator actually gives a damn, so even the larger is unlikely to contain unnecessary bloat. In other cases it's not so easy; there are a lot of OXPs containing useless faff. If the authors of those bad OXPs knew or cared surely they'd improve them, so I can only conclude they either over-estimate their abilities or just don't care.

Secondly, because of the way lying works to corrupt usable information and increase uncertainty, the most damage is done when 50% of people lie, not when 100% do. It's one of those statistical thingamies. If you think people who will knowingly lie + people who don't care + people who over-estimate their own ability < 50%, then you're more generous than I am.

Thirdly, I was not disparaging the suggestion, just trying to point out that like everything that includes a human factor, the result would be worse than the ideal.

* "in a deranged manner": a squiggly, red line appeared under "derangedly", which seemed like a perfectly good adverb to me...?

[UK_Eliter]

@Wildeblood

In short: you may well be right.

Here's a longer version.

Your reply makes me realise that I should have been more precise. I apologise. Let me be clearer, here, about what I meant.

Some things that you, and perhaps Amah, said, seemed to be suggesting that any making of the Oolite AddOns interface more accessible (i.e. making it easier for neophytes, and perhaps others, to use) would be a dumbing down, i.e. (in this context) a making of that interface worse (less functional or worse in some other way). Perhaps that what was not what was intended. If it was not, I am sorry. At any rate, let's not have a row.

As to lying, here is what I meant. Even if some OXZ makers would misrepresent their OXZs in various ways, some useful information would be provided by having OXZs avow the things - system load, player difficulty - that I mentioned. Still, perhaps I am wrong about that. Certainly you (Wildeblood*) and perhaps also other contributors to this thread have suggested reasons for thinking the contrary.

Anyhow, happy Christmas!

* To wit: 'If you think people who will knowingly lie + people who don't care + people who over-estimate their own ability < 50%, then you're more generous than I am.'

[Amah]

Hi UK_Eliter,

sorry if I might have hurt your feelings with my light hearted remark. On contrary I think there's room for improvement for the expansion manager, like restructuring in sections to avoid the clutter.

About the light weight/heavy weight labeling/game changer... I maintain some packages that some would call lightweight or at least better for older machines, but I am not sure about some of it either. Is a packages that doesn't use shaders but high resolution textures lighter or not... Same for some ships, I am not always entirely sure what it means introducing them to the over all balance of the game.

btw. Coming from Linux since the beginning, we had something like app stores for ages called e.g. repositories, then the fruit company started to advertise it as the next best thing, twisting the idea and fencing it all in, and giving it a smashy new label. So, don't take it personally if I get too ironic/sarcastic on anything that smells only vaguely like this. Apart from that English is not my first language, so I might have put things more rude than intended. So, my deepest apoligies.

a merry christmas to you too

Michael

[UK_Eliter]

a merry christmas to you too

Thanks! It wasn't bad.