Oolite Bulletins

Gimbal Locke wrote:

since you seem to intend to replace the GN OXP by the HIMSN OXP.

This has been mentioned before. There is no intention to replace GN OXP! The idea is to develop an alternative OXP that adheres closer to Elite canon (yes, I know that 'canon' means many different things). Again, there is no intention to replace, or indeed to alter, GN OXP!

El Viejo wrote:

Gimbal Locke wrote:

since you seem to intend to replace the GN OXP by the HIMSN OXP.

This has been mentioned before. There is no intention to replace GN OXP! The idea is to develop an alternative OXP that adheres closer to Elite canon (yes, I know that 'canon' means many different things). Again, there is no intention to replace, or indeed to alter, GN OXP!

I thought I understood that the HIMSN OXP was not intended to be used in combination with GN OXP, so by "replace" I intended to say: "offer an alternative to install in stead of GN OXP".

Gimbal Locke wrote:

By "replace" I intended to say: "offer an alternative to install in stead of GN OXP".

Indeed, that would be how I see it. There are alternative shipsets and systems OXPs... hopefully, there will an alternative Navy OXP, which is something quite a few of us would like... more than I expected, judging by the interest in this thread. Whether the two OXPs could co-exist in one AddOns folder is beyond my ken.

<puts on his pompous hat... again>

My personal viewpoint on Elite canon is this: I know what that amazing game showed me - that is all. Core Oolite shows me exactly the same, pretty much. The main source of 'official' Elite canon is the manual, which I never had/read with the game therefore I am not steeped in its lore. I believe that like the novella, the manual was dreamt-up and written by Holdstock, and all that B&B contributed was ship, species, and planet names. In my fevered immersion mode, the Galactic Navy does not, and never has, existed... but in-game, HIMSN most certainly does exist.

As regards this embryonic OXP, my opinions matter little. All I can contribute are some ideas, any texts, and my services as a test-pilot – I cannot do code or suchlike, and I certainly can't organise things the way others are able to. I'd like to see it carry on where the native missions finished, in some way, and in the same style. HIMSN as a framework on which to hang some very carefully crafted missions, but without massive space battles.

Man, what a thread to have grown out of a discussion about tax! Brilliant!

Smivs wrote:

The Elite manual says

and throughout the 8 galaxies there are at least 50 war zones between humanity and Thargoid

Perhaps we should agree on where a few of these are.

For me there's a very simple and elegant answer to that: the war zones are constantly floating; one of them is wherever you happen to run into a battle between navy and Thargoids through an accidental misjump.

Voilà.

El Viejo wrote:

El Viejo wrote:

I think one of McLane's OXPs revives old Curruthers.

Yes, it's  Cataclysm_OXP. Fortesque and Blake are also mentioned there.

Cataclysm is very explicitly intended as the third part of the two native navy missions. Therefore of course all the main characters from these two missions are included as well.

Lestradae wrote:

Any idea when this is going to be upgraded to the 1.76/77 version? I am nearing the 5000 score mark ...

Which gives me another 120 kills time to do it...

But seriously, I have basically finished the find-and-replace exchange for deprecated stuff in the script. What's still missing is an overhaul of things that can be done better (or at all) in 1.76 that they could back in the day. This needs a thorough revision of the script, for which I don't have enough resources currently. This will hopefully change towards autumn.

Commander McLane wrote:

This needs a thorough revision of the script, for which I don't have enough resources currently. This will hopefully change towards autumn.

Definitely looking forwards to that!

Answering here to avoid derailment.

Shipbuilder wrote:

Gimi - I may be able to help with the 3D model and possbily some texturing.

Absolutely. You may not know it yet, but you are on my list for one or all of the the following designs.

HIMSN HQ station
HIMSN Shipyard
HIMSN Outpost
Two classes of capital ships.

For standard ships, the plan was to use variations of Griff's and Smivs shipset for shader/non shader versions.
As far as possible, I would want the bulk of the ships to be variations of the standard shipsets.

As for colouring/texturing I'm currently thinking about something like my Cobra III below for the regular navy ships (imperial white), and a blackish variant for SPECOPS.

There is also a short video.


That may sound like a lot, and one of the things I'm very wary of, is overdoing the OXP. I have discussed this back and forth with EV and Smivs, and I'm still not sure just how much and how many of everything and anything there should be. I have also looked at doing this in two or more steps. But as I said, this is all still a bunch of ideas with bits and bobs all over tha place.

Gimi wrote:

As for colouring/texturing I'm currently thinking about something like my Cobra III below for the regular navy ships (imperial white), and a blackish variant for SPECOPS.

I think if you're going to make a black version for SPECOPS, you have to assume it's for when they want to be noticed as a SPECOPS ship (otherwise ... ). So rather than make it blackish, make it midnight black with a great red stripe down the middle and a really menacing decal or two. For public display you'd want something that says "DO NOT MESS WITH". For actual secret missions, a bog-standard outward design should conceal all manner of high-tech gizmos underneath (like a rustbucket Python that suddenly sheds its outer layers to reveal a Constrictor).

nice work, that silver/white paint scheme looks lovely on the cobraIII

Well... if you do get this ball rolling, Gimi, my incredible scripting skills are at your disposal. Agree with Griff about the paintjob, btw.

Hi guys. I'd like to offer a 3d model I've been working on for a new HIMSN carrier, the Komodo Class.

Ooh! Very snazzy ... are those two separate fighter bays?

Yep, thought I'd try something able to use 1.77's ability to utilize multiple docks

Oooo, I like that...very nice