Oolite Bulletins

ffutures wrote:

you can't land and buy more cargo of a type that the station has sold out of, you can't offload more goods while the price is extra high

You can, just land on the planet first and later on the main station.

Moreover there are many places on planets (and anothers on moons, thanks to Thargoid's vision) so you can land back right after you launched form the planet and arrive into another place where you can trade again. The name of the current place is displayed in F5 screen in the first line (like Capital City or Hydro Farm). You can explain this behavior for yourself with the big size of the planet or be more strict and land once only as you wish.

diagoras wrote:

Then stop hiding behind "just shipping boxes" and start checking eye colors of scared women in the boxes, because that lord from feudal hellhole offered you nice bonus for satisfying his particular tastes in the future. That's what good moral dilemma should look like, in my humble opinion.

Part of the beauty of the current system is the complete impassivity (if that's a word!) of the list. Slaves are just listed on the market screen. (Food, tick. Textiles, tick. Radioactives, tick. Slaves, er...). The game doesn't attach any morality or ethics to the situation - all that is left up to the player.

From a technical point of view we know that it's just a piece of text, with some numbers in some registry values. You could just as well change the text to "Michael Bolton Albums" (which might have a more galvanizing effect!). We know it's just a piece of text, and the numbers are just numbers. But in the context of the game, the meaning of that text and numbers gives the game world some real depth.

Giving the player a chance to make real moral/ethical decisions in the context of the game would be great. The difficulty will be keeping that passivity in the presentation of those decisions. Oolite needs to do things in a minimalist way - you don't want to beat the player over the head for making one choice over another. There might (and should) be repercussions for their choices, but those choices should be presented impassively, with no moral or ethical baggage attached.

To give an example: The player has the opportunity to blow up a slaver ship loaded with slaves. Going too far would be: pop up a screen pops after they destroy the ship that reads "You're ears are filled with the screams of the dying." A better way would be to have that event recorded and change the opportunities presented to the player.

phkb, I fully understand that. I myself wholeheartedly hate when games are trying to be moral mentors instead of just letting you deal with consequences of your actions. If I won't be able to construct impassive system that is not bullying player into "right" choices, I will drop the idea, period. Nice to meet someone on the same page, btw.

I heartily support this thread and these ideas.

- (PlanetFall) using planetary stations rather than space stations for morally challenging trades makes sense: they're less regulated by space authorities (whatever those might be), and more regulated by local powerful men ; so it's only natural they're offering a different trade flavour.

- using the "Visit station" oxp (which name I cannot remember at the moment) might be useful.

- concerning limitations, Oolite is used by children, and is international. But this is an oxp, so it is entirely voluntary to use it or not. You could think along the lines of 16-year-old, 18-year-old, etc. I personnally have no reservation whatsoever against any kind of smut/porn/offensive material, even more so if it is Oolite compatible, like porn for lobsters. I might even find myself salivating, and adding mayonnaise to the screen.

- concerning limitations from a character point of view, most communications in Oolite are (or so I think) heavily politically correct from the point of view of the local system, and of the local ideology. Yet the pilots have to be aware that reality is much more brutal, and probably have a "them-and-us" mentality: it would be ok to speak openly with other known pilots. So "slave political correct speech" wouldn't happen between pilots, even if it would on regulated communication channels.
It might be interesting to witness this duality.

phkb wrote:

From a technical point of view we know that it's just a piece of text, with some numbers in some registry values.

#@*!! What the f***!!!??? What do you do in your spare time, hang around playgrounds telling kids Santa ain't real?

Many, many points raised in this topic I'd like to respond to, but DAMN THIS DODGY KEYBOARD! So you get no useful contribution from me. (This keyboard makes every sentence into a major effort.) Why am I even posting this? (Well, I didn't as it happens. But now I'm back many hours later...)

Okay, here's a suggestion: give those 1t cargopods with slaves in cryogenic storage a limited viability time. At the time you buy one start counting the days, and if the xth day comes and they're still aboard, "The slaves you bought at x on stardate x have passed their use-by date. Eject worthless cargo pods to free space in cargo bay." How does that grab yas?

Day wrote:

- (PlanetFall) using planetary stations rather than space stations for morally challenging trades makes sense: they're less regulated by space authorities (whatever those might be), and more regulated by local powerful men ; so it's only natural they're offering a different trade flavour.

Agreed.

Day wrote:

- using the "Visit station" oxp (which name I cannot remember at the moment) might be useful.

I have no idea, what are you talking about here.

Day wrote:

- concerning limitations, Oolite is used by children, and is international. But this is an oxp, so it is entirely voluntary to use it or not. You could think along the lines of 16-year-old, 18-year-old, etc. I personnally have no reservation whatsoever against any kind of smut/porn/offensive material, even more so if it is Oolite compatible, like porn for lobsters. I might even find myself salivating, and adding mayonnaise to the screen.

Probably first versions will be pretty tame - gameplay polishing definitely goes before smut. Then we'll see where it will lead.

Day wrote:

- concerning limitations from a character point of view, most communications in Oolite are (or so I think) heavily politically correct from the point of view of the local system, and of the local ideology. Yet the pilots have to be aware that reality is much more brutal, and probably have a "them-and-us" mentality: it would be ok to speak openly with other known pilots. So "slave political correct speech" wouldn't happen between pilots, even if it would on regulated communication channels.
It might be interesting to witness this duality.

Good idea! Noted down for future use.

Wildeblood wrote:

Okay, here's a suggestion: give those 1t cargopods with slaves in cryogenic storage a limited viability time. At the time you buy one start counting the days, and if the xth day comes and they're still aboard, "The slaves you bought at x on stardate x have passed their use-by date. Eject worthless cargo pods to free space in cargo bay." How does that grab yas?

Hm... Not bad. I'll think about fitting something like this along other things I already have in mind.

Day wrote:

- using the "Visit station" oxp

[wiki]Life in the Frontier[/wiki] create a "Disembark from your ship" item into F4 interfaces.
Available in the Activites category within the in-game expansion manager.

Norby wrote:

[wiki]Life in the Frontier[/wiki], available in the Activites category.

Ah, this one! Tried it, even. Have nothing against good old "choose your own adventures", but I don't see it integrating into generic oolite gameplay seamlessly enough.