Oolite Bulletins

mossfoot wrote:

...covering the whole thing with a plastic sheet with holes cut out for keys...

I know a bloke who was doing that - it was almost finished when he managed to snap it in half

Smivs wrote:

mossfoot wrote:

...covering the whole thing with a plastic sheet with holes cut out for keys...

I know a bloke who was doing that - it was almost finished when he managed to snap it in half

I'm taking a different approach. I'm more of a jury-rigger than a craftsman. I'm just popping out the keys and overlaying a sheet over it. This is my first attempt, using cardboard, which I'll then transfer to plastic and then glue in place (after the keys are painted). The keyboard has velcro underneath and is on a raised and angled platform, to make it more like a control panel and easier to reach.



As you can see there aren't many keys left. Rather than sticking with the groupings recommended, I clumped them based on utility for ease of use. 1234 all do the same thing, but the bottom left cluster is for opening/closing gun ports, fuel scoop, landing gear, chaff and shield cells respectively. The spacebar is for Frame Shift Drive, and the key above is a shortcut to the galactic map. The cluster to the right I mentioned before, targeting, target last, target next, last enemy, next enemy, last subsystem, next subsystem, last weapon group, next weapon group.

Lights and QuickCom make up the backspace and enter buttons (I have a wireless keyboard for when chats are required, but hope to maybe set up voice command to print speech to text somehow). Delete is dump cargo, page up/down are radar range like before, and arrow keys work as normal.

While the numeric keyboard isn't actually used, it made aesthetic sense to keep it as is.

(Oh, the red button is a PANIC button, a gag button I glued on years ago).

The throttle (Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS) busted recently. Whatever gave it resistant gave up the ghost, so as a jury-rig fix I opened it up and glued in some strips of material to provide resistance

Oh, I tend to go for a different flight configuration, too. I use the left/right toggle on the throttle (U axis? I forget) for roll rather than making it the X-axis. I first got used to that style playing Oolite, so it made sense to keep it.

Nice setup... pics when finished ...... please

spud42 wrote:

Nice setup... pics when finished ...... please

Will do, though I doubt it'll look much better than what you see While I've been capable of impressive (for me) DIY jobs in the past (see my famous Nerd Hole: http://www.noahjdchinnbooks.com/2013/05 ... -be-right/ ), there is only so much I can do. Seriously, I only go out and buy what I absolutely can't scrounge, scavenge, jury-rig or otherwise improvise in cases like this, so it'll never be THAT impressive.

Got the colour scheme figured out and I'll paint that silver grill black. I'll probably print off tiny labels to place next to or above the relevant keys rather than trying to label the keys themselves. I might cut a groove in the base of the throttle that will allow the cord to go "up" instead of forced to the right, so I can snake it neatly under the keyboard.

A final touch might be having a base board to mount all these onto (secured by velcro or something so I can take it apart) so the HOTAS isn't shifting all over the place. It doesn't move much, being weighted, but it's not perfect either.

I'm getting a Playstation Eye to modify and use on the PC for FaceTrackNoIR. I wonder if mounting the Eye at the top of the keyboard would be too close for facial recognition? It has a pretty wide angle lens I'm told.

Ghah... the paint I'm using isn't what I hoped for. I can't afford to buy six different spray paint cans, though (that would be the ideal solution). I thought I had bought some acrylic, but I'm thinking not at this point. Oh well, wash or scrub it off and try again, I guess.

mossfoot wrote:

Ghah... the paint I'm using isn't what I hoped for. I can't afford to buy six different spray paint cans, though (that would be the ideal solution). I thought I had bought some acrylic, but I'm thinking not at this point. Oh well, wash or scrub it off and try again, I guess.

Got my hands one some black and white spraypaint for free (workshop in the building has lots of odds and ends), so I'm going with all white keys and putting color labels on them. Hopefully have it up and ready tomorrow.

Still haven't had a chance to actually play, though. Waiting for the new graphics card before going into the real online game. Do the people here tend to do Solo mode or full online or switch back and forth?

Responding to an item from the "Quote of the Week" thread regarding E:D...

SteveKing wrote:

While starting to look at some of the ‘since E:D has been released’ feedback about the game, I came across this pearl of wisdom commenting on E:D’s lack of depth.

“I just want space to feel less empty”

Not that I have any feelings one way or the other about the basic sentiment from the reddit post titled “rant_im_bored_and_its_a_shame_really” because I haven’t actually played it, but given the basic framework of a 1:1 galaxy, it made me smile.

(http://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/ ... me_really/)

Reading through the comments about how the vastness of the 400 billion star E:D universe is perceived as degenerating into slight variations of core basic themes, I'm reminded of the original Elite development story described in the book "Backroom Boys" where Bell and Braben's original "billions and billions of worlds" concept was essentially smacked-down by Acornsoft into the Elite/Oolite eight-galaxies, two-fifty-six-worlds-per-galaxy for precisely the same reason - "the edible poets would come round again and again."

Is the E:D universe just too big, and the Ooniverse is more the right size - big enough to explore, but small enough not to get completely lost in?

Disclaimer: Haven't played E:D, not likely to... but the E:D eye-candy looks awesome

Ranthe wrote:

Is the E:D universe just too big, and the Ooniverse is more the right size - big enough to explore, but small enough not to get completely lost in?

I'd say both. It can't be hard to stick to areas other players are and story events take place, but if you want to do a marathon around the galaxy nobody is stopping you

mossfoot wrote:

(Oh, the red button is a PANIC button, a gag button I glued on years ago).

A DWIM button would be more useful..

Ranthe wrote:

Is the E:D universe just too big, and the Ooniverse is more the right size - big enough to explore, but small enough not to get completely lost in?

I think 2,048 systems is fine to feel big enough for one player (though it does limit "strike off into unexplored space to see what's there", which would require even in Oolite's 2-D galaxy at least ten or twenty times as many again) but could quickly feel very cramped with tens of thousands of players flying around it.

As far as random generation goes, I think the challenge for that nowadays is not making sure that there aren't edible poets in every other system (Elite's old random number generator meant that the edible yaks, snails, slugs, wasps and ants never actually showed up) - that's just a matter of adding more data and forms to the planet description generator - but making it so that if the system description mentions edible poets that has some in-game effect beyond the text, which can be a substantial coding and modelling task.

Ahh, the few lucky 'lottery winners' will now have their billions taken away from them...

... we hear you! After initially deciding we would offer the choice to these affected commanders about whether to keep their credits or reset themselves to their pre-credit-refund state; commanders in the community questioned whether this would affect the integrity of the game and the wider galaxy. In light of this (and after much deliberation) we have decided to remove all credits, assets and gains from these commanders to balance the playing field.

I really hate to be in their positions in cases like this. No matter what they do they'll get complaints.

Here's my Elite: Dangerous keyboard - Phase Two

The covering this time is a spraypainted rubber mat, which I'll replace with harder plastic when I have access to some cheap (ie found lying around). I ended up spraypainting all the keys white because hand painting them was not going well at all (the spraypaint I got for free from the building's repair room). I added stickers printed out from my laser jet. That means they'll probably fade/wear out over time but I can print off fresh ones if needed I guess. Not bad for an improv job. It'll do till I actually have money.



See if you can figure out what all the keys bind to



And a view from the side, to show the elevated/angled platform it's on.

Looks like the Mac Beta will be in three months time

Regarding Elite: Dangerous on other platforms, as you know we have already been working on putting the native Mac version of the game together and as expected this should enter beta in about three months time. As the beta date is firmed up we’ll keep you updated.

I have myself a goal.

About 15 years ago I bought my wife a star. You know, one of those "name a star" programs various observatories do. So I figured, why not actually GO there and see what it's like? Problem was I lost the certificate long ago.

So I contacted the observatory and got my hands on the information about it again. Unfortunately it uses a different naming convention than Elite Dangerous. The star is listed as SAO 132515 Orion (SAO stands for Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory). So I asked for some help and lo and behold I was pointed in the right direction.

Google says it is also called 'HIP 27212' or 'HR 1986' according to http://cbeams.org/deep-sky-object/HIP_27212

So I have a destination, and it's over 430 light years away from me!

ROAD TRIP!