Oolite Bulletins

On second thought I think I should be more specific in my request. So let me rephrase:

Of anybody who wants to be included, I would like to get

1. his/her character name,
2. his/her ship
   1. model
   2. texture
   3. shipdata
3. a list of catch-phrases for communication with the player, ordered into
   1. popping out of witchspace
   2. chatter during flight
   3. shoutouts at your attacker
   4. and if you are the attacker (if you want to come into being as a pirate, that is)
   5. last words.

And I would prefer either PMs, or (especially in case of a special ship, or at least a special texture) emails to commander_mclane squiggle planet point ms. Sending me a download link via PM is also fine.

For 3(d), it wouldn't have to be purely piratical – some of us might reasonably intercept a player whose criminal rating had risen to our attention ...

How about escape pods? Blowing up, or even just rescuing, someone "of note" could result in a decent-sized reward if they're returned to a station. It would mean they could reappear, too. And speaking of such things, would there be a permadeath feature? If you kill the ship and, perhaps accidentally, smear the resulting escape pod over the nose of your ship in a botched rescue attempt, will that Famous Commander ever reappear in your game?

Disembodied wrote:

And speaking of such things, would there be a permadeath feature? If you kill the ship and, perhaps accidentally, smear the resulting escape pod over the nose of your ship in a botched rescue attempt, will that Famous Commander ever reappear in your game?

Well, you could always claim the existence of some sort of miraculous "Boba Fett survival plan"...

Oh, it won't be long now until the collectible figurines ...

Just a question:

Can your ship be oxp, or does it have to be part of the original set?

Cows wrote:

Just a question:

Can your ship be oxp, or does it have to be part of the original set?

If you can provide the model, texture and shipdata, it could be either. That way, even if someone doesn't have the SpiffyShip.oxp installed, there will still be one SpiffyShip out there with a forum resident inside.

Disembodied wrote:

Oh, it won't be long now until the collectible figurines ...

That might not be far outside the realms of possibility... Believe it or not I actually have a 3D model of myself as a cartoon character, and with realistic 3D person modelling techniques out there anything's possible...

Someone posted a link recently for a site that can make real models out of 3D mesh files (the link is at home and I'm not), so with a bit of work, who knows!

@McLane: oops! Is this better?

Name: Selezen
Ship: Imperial Courier (V2 model)
a. V2 standard model
b. custom texture forthcoming
c. shipdata forthcoming

CatchPhrases:
a. popping out of witchspace
- "Yay! Made it in one piece again!"
- "Woohoo! I'm not inside out!"

b. chatter during flight
- "Ooh, where did you get that ship from?"
- "Let me through, I'm far more important than you!"
- "It wasn't me! I wasn't even in the system!"
- "I'm not slow, I'm just careful!"

c. shoutouts at your attacker
- "Not in the face!"
- "You spilled my pint!"
- "You vicious bastard..."
- "I'm not angry. Just misunderstood."

d. last words.
- "Ow, my splanch!"
- "I regret that I have but one...ah crap."
- "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
- "Tell my wife I said...'hello'..."

Disembodied wrote:

Cows wrote:

Just a question:

Can your ship be oxp, or does it have to be part of the original set?

If you can provide the model, texture and shipdata, it could be either. That way, even if someone doesn't have the SpiffyShip.oxp installed, there will still be one SpiffyShip out there with a forum resident inside.

Indeed. Selezen has already chosen an OXP ship. I will include the models and textures for every ship in the OXP, because you should be able to meet e.g. Selezen (or yours truly), even if you don't have the Imperial Courier.oxp installed.

By the way: I am still figuring out what I exactly need of you, if you want to be included. Yesterday evening I realized that there also should be a characters.plist entry. So, please hold back your fire until after the weekend, until I have really figured out what you should send me.

A first proof-of-concept skeleton is already existing on my machine. I am just discovering more things that could be added. So please be just a little patient, you all. Thanks!

(PS: Those of you who already sent me something, I'll get back to your for the information still missing.)

Speaking of escape plans (Hey, I was!), is it possible to script some sort of escape plans for the characters? Such as jumping into hyperspace etc.?

I'll try to submit my Wolf Mk I (neolite version) riding pilot this weekend - or at least the stuff that is already known to be needed...

Wolfwood wrote:

Speaking of escape plans (Hey, I was!), is it possible to script some sort of escape plans for the characters? Such as jumping into hyperspace etc.?

Yes, possible. I can imagine two ways:

(1) You provide me with an AI for your character. In this case you have total control over his behaviour. I myself am going to give my own character a modified AI of his own, something between patrolAI and pirateAI.

Or (2), easier for you, more challenging for me: You provide me with a list of desired behaviours in certain cases (like: will try to jump out if energy low, or immediatly if attacked). If I'm right that there will be only a couple of desired behaviours in each situation, I am inclined to make use of the script_info-key and scriptInfo-property to make the ship-script do whatever you want. I just feel like exploring some new scripting possibilities, am using scriptInfo for the first time in this OXP. (For the record: I am intending to script a single ship-script for all the ships in this OXP, which with clever use of for instance scriptInfo will make each of the ships do anything you want. Hey, I have to set myself a challenge with each new OXP. ) In the end everybody of you will be able to select any behaviour you want from a pre-defined list by just setting a key in your shipdata.plist.

Great idea!

I kind of tried this by putting 'Rebecca' (from Status Quo and Mutabilis) into my Tianve OXP... She has a modified Vampire Mk1, 'rebecca_vampire' which has some unique logos based on the name of the ship 'Eclipse'.

Would be great to see this expanded - would love to see those characters (and ourselves) wandering around the 'Ooniverse'!!

You can find my stuff in the tianve.oxp....

The only problem I see is that the moment anyone encounters Captain Hesperus, he'll be blown to smithereens...

Cheers,

Drew.

drew wrote:

... he'll be blown to smithereens...

Who? The Captain?

Quick question: Do you need some merits in order to be included here (code, spam assassin, ooniversally renowned trumble dealer...), or can everybody become a character?

Commander McLane wrote:

Quick question: Do you need some merits in order to be included here (code, spam assassin, ooniversally renowned trumble dealer...), or can everybody become a character?

Well, you're doing the legwork, so I think you have overall editorial control, but I don't see anything wrong in principle with admitting anyone who wants to be in. It might get very bloated, very fast, though, especially if everyone wants (as I do) to put in their own ship model, texture and all the rest. Best thing to do would be to set a deadline, and possibly ask for a brief (100 words or so) background biography, to go in the ReadMe, which ill help to ensure that those with ... er ... fully rounded characters get in!

Of course, if someone isn't included, it shouldn't be that big a deal. After all, if Blaze O'Glory makes it in, I'm obviously going to remove him from the OXP before I play it. There can be only one!