Oolite Bulletins

Wildeblood wrote:

Wormhole is the one that grates on me: it's just such a silly sounding term.

For that, you can thank theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler, who coined the term in 1957..

When discovering Oolite two months ago, I was very confused by all these terms.

Most confusing was witchspace: what's the link with witches? Unless... it would be similar to the warp? http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warp

After a time, I acccepted it. Going with the flow is a cardinal virtue of a galactic trader, after all.

So many things to consider.

- The Dark Wheel, i.e., in-game terms found nowhere else
- Player preferences
- Commonly used and accepted terms, grating as they may be.
- New player expectations.

I agree with the original post. The game should have a respectable level of internal terminology consistency.

My vote: I never personally liked The Dark Wheel as literature. Matching terms to standard scientific/game tech terms would be preferred.

But ultimately, internal consistency.

I for one always loved the term, 'Witchspace'. I even named my ship after it; see the icon at the side of the post. It's such an evocative term. And pilots-- both modern and in the days of sail-- always used their own colorful colloquialisms for things, most of which were /not/ technical or scientific terms. Why would we assume the future was any different? That the spacers won't have loose slang for even the driest of scientific jargon?

Think of it this way. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books, television shows, movies, and games, have all used the term 'hyperspace'. It's old chapeau. Everybody has hyperspace-- but only Elite/Oolite has ~Witchspace~, a mysterious and atmospheric term.

I vote to keep Witchspace alive!