Oolite Bulletins

Hmm... when i see Griffs Boa, i have to think of the "Sulaco" in "Aliens". The style is very similar. I like it.

But... shipdesigns... jo. Oolite gets so much influence from "Star Wars", "Star Trek", "Babylon 5", and i don't know what else. I have to live with the fact, that Oolite is not Elite and there are cultures (ans shipbuilders) from all the eight galaxies comig together and mixing up there designs.

Maybe Oolite will be the "Next Generation"?

That's OK for me...

Athropod trivia!
Did you know that beetles are a third of all life (excluding plants and fungi and such like I think) which is bloody amazing really. The majority of them are so small you just don't notice them, and mostly in the ground.

@Bluescreen, yes definately agree with you there, I don't personally have an emersion problem with different styles, especially as many ships will be designed by other species with other ideas of what is attractive/functional.
I suppose here is where we get into what attracts us to a mating partner or what causes us to feel 'warned' of another creatures dangerous abilities, surely these must have a level of subconcious influence, but then isn't beauty actually supposed to have some sort of mathmatical equation?
Heard that somewhere.

Anyways what I'm saying is that all that really needs to bond the different designs is a constant level of realism. I know some peoples machines are dated but by the time any serious reworking of the games ships is complete I doubt those machines will really still be in use for any one who plays any kind of games. It's a can of worms, maybe if the core ships do eventually all get updated some help could be there for the taking for those OXPer's who aren't so confident about their modelling, add a few more details and bump a fresh shady texture out.
Think I'm digging myself a hole there

As for my saying military when I look at Griffs masterpeices part of my reasoning is that all those bits and details look to me as if they are like that to be easily and quickly replaced, no panels to remove, chuck it away, bishbashbosh, back into battle!

Not sure if I explained that properly, just realised what the time is

Bluescreen wrote:

Hmm... when i see Griffs Boa, i have to think of the "Sulaco" in "Aliens". The style is very similar. I like it.

I think of the Firefly "Serenity" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Serenityship.jpg) form the show Firefly. I'm not sure why...

FSOneblin

FSOneblin wrote:

Bluescreen wrote:

Hmm... when i see Griffs Boa, i have to think of the "Sulaco" in "Aliens". The style is very similar. I like it.

I think of the Firefly "Serenity" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Serenityship.jpg) form the show Firefly. I'm not sure why...

FSOneblin

Naaa. Now you're kidding...

Bluescreen wrote:

FSOneblin wrote:

Bluescreen wrote:

Hmm... when i see Griffs Boa, i have to think of the "Sulaco" in "Aliens". The style is very similar. I like it.

I think of the Firefly "Serenity" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Serenityship.jpg) form the show Firefly. I'm not sure why...

FSOneblin

Naaa. Now you're kidding...

No... I'm not, I don't know why I think that... I think I'm going crazy... maby because I've only seen the ship in the dark.

FSOneblin

Arthropods are a great source - and non-english.
There's always naming ships for the beasties in Oolite.


I've been doing both - small ships, fighters, escorts, couriers etc, are all named for small stinging flying insects... named in Maori - so I get to reuse popular names if I want.

The Welsh idea sounds great. Dutch would be good too... could also draw from chinese, and arabic... there are already hindi(?) characters on some ships... but you cannot beat welsh for unfamiliar (to the non-welsh) combinations of characters.

Hmmm... wonder if we could use the click language...

I could do the Welsh names, i live there!
Maybe we could have a 'Tom Jones' class for big, manly thrusting ships!

Bluescreen wrote:

But... shipdesigns... jo. Oolite gets so much influence from "Star Wars", "Star Trek", "Babylon 5", and i don't know what else. I have to live with the fact, that Oolite is not Elite and there are cultures (ans shipbuilders) from all the eight galaxies comig together and mixing up there designs.

ZygoUgo wrote:

@Bluescreen, yes definately agree with you there, I don't personally have an emersion problem with different styles, especially as many ships will be designed by other species with other ideas of what is attractive/functional.

Just a small reminder that you don't need to install OXPs which contain ships from different universes, if you don't want to. (I for instance have no ships from Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Dune, or whatever SF-series in my Oolite.) That's the beauty of the whole OXP-thing. You make your own choices.

Simon B wrote:

Hmmm... wonder if we could use the click language...

Which one? It's a whole group of languages.

Commander McLane wrote:

Simon B wrote:

Hmmm... wonder if we could use the click language...

Which one? It's a whole group of languages.

Anything we can write an a starship hull...

click language looks pretty interesting, shame no sound currently, I would like to hear some.
I was pondering the whole 'vision' thing today and I too wouldn't add anything from another background myself (Star Wars etc), maybe I'm easily confused
Anyway, what I was thinking was that the original geometric designs do have a certain kind of beauty to them, I was browsing over Frontier Encounters taking a look at the ships (out of curiosity) and felt that the newer additions in the majority were just damn right ugly.
Maybe they should have hired themselves some OXPer's..!
Anyway what I suppose I'm saying is it shouldn't be too difficult to hark back to the true bygone era in some designs, with the odd well placed panel here and there. Here's some blah...

These panelled designs were the back bone of the first combat aware orbital vehicles, not only were they originated from the earliest space housed refineries (Quite crude considering the technical aspects of building such a self contained town, and therefore curved panels were not an option), but that their purpose was as armour. Just too thick and the process too expensive for anything other than functional, it was only after energy sheilding and weaponry surpassed a certain point that any kind of physical armour (other than that which remains out of range of the average trader) became obsolete.
Cheaper vehicles are often still built in this manner however, as any pilot with good sense ( & driving such a carriage) will stay well away from anything out of its league. When put opposite combatants in their own field such crude methods of survival may still afford a desperate few moments, especially with the gradual (lowest range) increases in alloy technologies having significantly improved over earlier vehicles.

Glory in these times belongs to Griffin refineries, the first to become closely surrounded by military forces, although at times they are known to produce skins for commercial vehicles, these are constructed from an alloy handicapped enough as to keep the military secret safe.
Production method leaks have been known to meet with 'accidents', this problem was solved in the military plants by replacing the workers with particularily dedicated squaddies, and for those who enjoy 'off-urban' tales, have all willingly had their tongues removed for the love of their masters.

Original employees who were displaced by the sudden military interest in Griffins new alloy are still seeking compensation for memory loss, supposedly caused by the combination of a freak radiation barrage and a quirrium fuel spillage.
The Griffin company remains curiously quiet on the issue, rumours being that they have no choice.

@ ZygoUgo: Sounds fairly plausible. There is only one minor factual error. The company in question is not called Griffins, but it is the well-known Griff Research Ltd.

Not too shabby - compare Chobham and more modern combat armor.

@Commander Mclane, thanks for that link I just made it up for my own amusement to be honest (don't know the game well enough yet), although I was initially posting to make a point about the early angular designs and armour.
Fink ah gots a bit excited...

@Simon B, thanks dude, I'll have look at that, taking a break at mo anyways..

@Simon B - having worked on anti-tank weapons in my previous life - Chobham is still considered "modern", we've got RHA, ERA and should we find a way of powering it efficiently Electric/Plasma Armour but they're to be used against some fairly specific weapon types - Chobham is still the great/best all-rounder.

DaddyHoggy - thanks for that. I have yanks over here telling me that Chobham is so last century, and not available in the right colors.

perhaps you have something to add in the general theme of the classic ship "angular" designs in relation to armour?