Oolite Bulletins

the ship models are lovely and have immediately got me trying to think of an Oolite board game, but there's one thing worrying me - is it okay to sell those ships? aren't the designs copyrighted by B&B or whoever holds the Elite licences?

Well I'd try cutting a deal with the authors but they appear to be some what incommunicado.

verrry cool.

Especially like the wire-frame cobra on a stand.

Tempted!

When i first got my hands on elite i was doing this with a pencil and a ruler and a piece of a4.

Killer Wolf wrote:

the ship models are lovely and have immediately got me trying to think of an Oolite board game, but there's one thing worrying me - is it okay to sell those ships? aren't the designs copyrighted by B&B or whoever holds the Elite licences?

As long as Giles isn't making any profit on the purchases (i.e. charging only the price that Shapeways charges) then there shouldn't be a problem.

To be honest, I'm thoroughly amazed that Bell and/or Braben haven't tried this sort of thing themselves. They'd be rolling in PayPal transactions if they marketed official Elite t-shirts, mugs, models, minis etc.

@Giles, of course I'll take some photos - my phone cam is a good one and does nice close-ups. And of course you can use them any way you like!

I seem to recall with the original Elite, when you got to 'Elite' the game gave you a code number or something which you entered onto a form which came with the game. You could send this off (to Acornsoft?) and they would send you an 'Elite' pin badge to mark your great achievement.

An Oo/Elite boardgame could be pretty cool ... I think it would be better to go along the lines of something like Merchant of Venus – i.e. a space-trading and race game – rather than a combat game. There could be combat in it but it could be abstracted, where you lose time and/or cargo (and have to pay for repairs) rather than getting destroyed. Could be interesting to think of a good mechanism for a fluctuating market. Has anyone ever played Supremacy?

You could even just have an Oolite chess set: Coriolis stations for the rooks, Kraits for the knights, Asps for the Bishops, a Cobra III for the queen and a Python for the King. Pawns could either be Vipers or cargo barrels.

Smivs wrote:

I seem to recall with the original Elite, when you got to 'Elite' the game gave you a code number or something which you entered onto a form which came with the game. You could send this off (to Acornsoft?) and they would send you an 'Elite' pin badge to mark your great achievement.

as i recall, it was a competition to find the best player and those who had reached the rank rec'd the pin. i still have mine

Disembodied wrote:

... Pawns could either be Vipers or cargo barrels.

Or Shuttles or Worms. Or, better yet, Shuttles for black and Worms for white.

Ooh! Side diversity!
Black could be more pirate-like.

Anaconda (White King...it's as slow as the King in Chess)
Boa (White Queen?)
GalCop Viper (White Bishop)
Fer-de-Lance (White Bishop alternate?)
Cobra3 (White Knight, who better to further the cause?)
Coriolis Station (White Rook)
Sidewinder Scout Ship (White Pawns, since they usually are escorts)

Python (Black King)
Asp (Black Queen)
Gecko (Black Bishop?)
Krait (Black Knight, for how it uses witchfuel injectors so much)
Rock Hermit (Black Rook)
Mamba (Black Pawns, since they often are escorts)

Adder (These would make good pawns?)
Cobra1 (pawns maybe, because they could also be escorts)
Moray Star Boat
Orbital Shuttle
Thargoid Warship (alternate Black King? or Black Bishop?)
Transporter/Mining Transporter
Worm

Disembodied wrote:

An Oo/Elite boardgame could be pretty cool ... I think it would be better to go along the lines of something like Merchant of Venus – i.e. a space-trading and race game – rather than a combat game. There could be combat in it but it could be abstracted, where you lose time and/or cargo (and have to pay for repairs) rather than getting destroyed. Could be interesting to think of a good mechanism for a fluctuating market. Has anyone ever played.

Once again, your brain is out of its jar and in my head!

I have rules for a space board game all written up as one of my Simple Games ideas (like the Simple Sports thing in my sig). It would be really easy to adapt to an Elite/Oolite setting... The board is designed but I need to design a space background that isn't too heavy on the printer ink. Some more varied asteroid counters would be an idea too (I have one, and my game needs 15).

Basically, it's asteroid mining with a bit of pirate activity and combat thrown in. It would be easy enough to make it into a representation of the space between a hyperspace arrival point and the orbitspace of a coriolis...

If there's interest I'll make it a top priority (putting the British Civil War idea on the back burner for now).

Selezen wrote:

Once again, your brain is out of its jar and in my head!

I have rules for a space board game all written up as one of my Simple Games ideas (like the Simple Sports thing in my sig). It would be really easy to adapt to an Elite/Oolite setting... The board is designed but I need to design a space background that isn't too heavy on the printer ink. Some more varied asteroid counters would be an idea too (I have one, and my game needs 15).

Basically, it's asteroid mining with a bit of pirate activity and combat thrown in. It would be easy enough to make it into a representation of the space between a hyperspace arrival point and the orbitspace of a coriolis...

If there's interest I'll make it a top priority (putting the British Civil War idea on the back burner for now).

I'm interested, definitely! A space-background that's not too demanding ink-wise ... maybe something nebula-ey? Like the Angel Nebula? You might be able to get away with it toned down ...

"I need to design a space background that isn't too heavy on the printer ink"

buy some black paper

Killer Wolf wrote:

buy some black paper

...and a white ink printer...

Yeah, nebulae were my initial idea, plus the sun with some lens flare and so on...

I'll get on it in lieu of any further interest.

This morning I found a 3/4 page article about 3D printing in my local newspaper. The one firm that was mentioned was: Shapeways. It is situated in the Dutch town "Eindhoven". Searching with Google-Earth on "Netherlands, Eindhoven, Shapeways" brought me to their location: On the hight tech campus of the university of Eindhoven. This is one of 3 technical universities in the Netherlands.
The high tech campus is mend as starting ground for students that want to create a business with their knowledge.

According to the article uses Shapeways 10 types of plastic, glass, stainless steel and silver. Currently it delivers about 2500 items each week, all over the world. And they plan to open a office in New York soon.

The article also writes that a commercial 3D printer costs about 10 000 euro, but a technical hobbyist can build one himself for only 350 euro on materials. (RepRap-project, de Ultimaker)

The two-inch Oolite badge, rendered in Alumide (aluminium impregnated plastic.)


Oolite Badge by aegidian, on Flickr