Oolite Bulletins

Commander McLane wrote:

Still every day there is something new to learn...

The levels in the sheet are the same levels as in the equipment.plist. But that one is zero based and you must add one level to get the player visible 1 based levels.

In the code there are conditions that make that all equipment is sometimes lowered 1 level to get some surprise variation in the game. It happens about in 12% of the dockings. Not random but I won't mention the conditions here. I think that this lowering made that it was listed so in the sheet. Darkbee remembered that he sometimes did get equipment on levels equal to the value in equipment.plist. But for a player this value in the list is frustrating. I often went for equipment to a just matching level to find out it was not available.

I just spotted that you don't have Shift Z for the Scanner Zoom Reset in the key listing.

Are the old Elite A ships like Naga going to standard with the next release? If not, is it wise to have them listed in the sheet? It could confuse a new comer to have ships listed that are not part of the default set.

You should include the select, buy/sell and max buy-sell keys for the Marketplace on the sheet too. Maybe include the keys for the Buy Equipment and Shipyard screens. I know its might be stating the obvious, but as former computer instructor I can tell you, never assume anything when dealing with new comers.

Otherwise the it's a pretty choice piece of work.

KZ9999 wrote:

I just spotted that you don't have Shift Z for the Scanner Zoom Reset in the key listing.

Are the old Elite A ships like Naga going to standard with the next release? If not, is it wise to have them listed in the sheet? It could confuse a new comer to have ships listed that are not part of the default set.

You should include the select, buy/sell and max buy-sell keys for the Marketplace on the sheet too. Maybe include the keys for the Buy Equipment and Shipyard screens. I know its might be stating the obvious, but as former computer instructor I can tell you, never assume anything when dealing with new comers.

Otherwise the it's a pretty choice piece of work.

Small problem: The ship charts are images. I do not have access to the source files, so there cannot be any changes to that. Sorry. And, no, the Naga and friends are not planned to be included in future distributions.
As for the rest, there is a practical problem: We are overflowing the available space pretty much as it is now. I find it terribly difficult to add just one more key there, let alone three or four. I will see what can be done, but no promises. And I don't want to go to a second page for keys, really, for ease of usability reasons.

another_commander wrote:

Small problem: The ship charts are images. I do not have access to the source files, so there cannot be any changes to that. Sorry. And, no, the Naga and friends are not planned to be included in future distributions.

In that case it's probilly the best to leave them in for now. I'm the first to admit that the manual that I'm working on is still weeks (maybe months) away from the first completed draft. When it is completed, it will have a detailed ship charts in the back, just like in the BBC original, and we can remove the ship charts from the reference sheets.

another_commander wrote:

As for the rest, there is a practical problem: We are overflowing the available space pretty much as it is now. I find it terribly difficult to add just one more key there, let alone three or four. I will see what can be done, but no promises. And I don't want to go to a second page for keys, really, for ease of usability reasons.

I hacked together my own key and reference sheet when I down loaded 1.72. I split the information over two sheets. The keys were confined to the first sheet when I was familiarising myself with the game. I sorted out the keys by functions, and still had room for the IFF and compass guides. The trading, equipment, planetary information is on the second sheet because it will still be useful long after the keys are second nature. I just updated it today with the info from the 1.73 version, I can load a PDF or the Open Office 3.0 drawing file of it on a file site if you are interested.

I've been messaging Another Commander over the last few days about them using my version of the RS.

I've just uploaded a link to him for the latest version and I though I should let you folks have a look at it too. It rates about 90% finished with a few missing images a bit of technical stuff to be ironed out. Have a look and let me know if i've stuffed anything up. Also let me know about readability issues, 'cause that's big thing for me.

You can find the PDF at: http://terrastorage.ath.cx/Marmagka/aYp ... ts_mk3.pdf

The file is 450kb in size at the moment and should be less than 0.5Mb when finished.

Very very good! A great new reference sheet

A few typos, but otherwise looking good!

Flight Controls:
* "Turn music of during docking" should be "Turn music off during docking"

’Ship, System & Status Screens:
* "Ships’ manifest" - should be "Ship’s manifest"
* Should there be an "x" after F5/5, to indicate a double key press?

Navigation Controls & Screens:
* "Typing the planets’ name while in either chart screen..." should be "Typing the planet’s name while in either chart screen..."

Carrier/Passenger Screen:
* Should there be an "x" after F8/8, to indicate a double key press?

Key & Notes:
* "Unless the cargo is selected the ships’ computer will dump..." should be "Unless the cargo is selected the ship’s computer will dump..."
* "Non powered objects include asteroids, cargo pods, ..." should be "Non-powered objects include asteroids, cargo pods, ..." (as per IFF Icons)

Space Compass Icons:
* "Refer to the individual OXPs documentation ..." should be "Refer to the individual OXPs’ documentation ..."

Commodities Guide:
* "Dealing in these commodities is illegal in most systems. Do so will result changes to your legal status." should be "Dealing in these commodities is illegal in most systems. Doing so will result in changes to your legal status." (or, if you want to be more accurate, "Dealing in these commodities is illegal in all GCW stations. Doing so will result in changes to your legal status.")
* The Commodities Guide columns look a bit off.

Career Choices:
* Trading: "Buy low priced commodities..." should be "Buy low-priced commodities..."
* Passenger Service: "Contract are available..." should be "Contracts are available..."
* "Requires a Passenger Birth. Recommend a Advanced Navigation Array to be fitted" should be "Requires a Passenger Berth. Recommend an Advanced Navigation Array to be fitted"
Carrier Service: "Recommend a Advanced Navigation Array to be fitted" should be "Recommend an Advanced Navigation Array to be fitted"
Bounty Hunting: "Recommend minimum of Beam Laser, ECM, Fuel Scoop and Shield Booster to fitted to the ship before attempting this profession" should be "Recommend minimum of Beam Laser, ECM, Fuel Scoop and Shield Booster to be fitted to the ship before attempting this profession"
Piracy: "Recommend fitting a Escape Pod" should be "Recommend fitting an Escape Pod"

Game Options:
* Volume: "Volume slider controls both in game music" should be "Volume slider controls both in-game music"
* Play in Strict Mode: "Any OXP based equipment and ships you have purchased" should be "Any OXP-based equipment and ships you have purchased"
* Play in Window: "your computers current screen resolution" should be "your computer’s current screen resolution"
* Reduce Detail: "improve game speed on slower system" should be "improve game speed on slower systems"
* Shader Effects: "Adjusts the degree of shading detail in the games graphics" should be "Adjusts the degree of shading detail in the game’s graphics"
* Joystick Configuration: "Oolite supports several styles of joysticks" should be "Oolite supports several styles of joysticks"

Other Notes:
* Special Equipment: "There is several special pieces of equipment" should be "There are several special pieces of equipment"

Ship Reference: Notes:
* "Ships which are unavailable for purchase at the GCW station shipyards for the following reasons" should be "Some ships are unavailable for purchase at GCW station shipyards"
* "Local government, GalNavy and GalPol ships can not be own by civilians" should be "Local government, GalNavy and GalPol ships cannot be own by civilians"
* "Designs which are produced in unlicensed/black-market shipyard can not be sold through GCW station shipyards" should be "Designs which are produced in unlicensed/black-market shipyards cannot be sold through GCW station shipyards"
* "Ships dimensions are width x hight x length and are measured in metres" should be "Ships’ dimensions are width x hight x length and are measured in metres"
* "Ships speed is measured as a percentage of Light Speed. 0.5-0.05 means that the crafts top speed is half the speed of light and can accelerate at the rate of 5% of light speed" should be "Ships’ speed is measured as a percentage of light speed. 0.5-0.05 means that the craft’s top speed is half the speed of light and can accelerate at the rate of 5% of light speed"
* "The ships banks and charge rate are graded on the KeZecky scale. A has the smallest energy banks, ZZ the biggest . Higher the charging number the faster the recharging rate should be "The ships’ banks and charge rates are graded on the KeZecky scale. A has the smallest energy banks, ZZ the biggest. The higher the charging number, the faster the recharging rate" (also there’s an extra space in front of the full stop after "biggest")
* "The cargo space is measured in 1 ton cargo cannisters" should be "The cargo space is measured in 1 ton cargo canisters" (as per page 1, Flight Controls: D. Or you could call them "cargo pods", as per Key & Notes)

"OOLITE Commanders Log" should be "OOLITE Commander’s Log"

On the two "Manifest" charts, "Brought" should be "Bought"


There seem to be a few double spaces: might be worth doing a find-and-replace. The name of the file should be "Reference_sheets_mk3.pdf" (not "Referance").

Thank you for all the typos corrections Disembodied.

Blame them on a combination of dyslexia and attempting to edit small type at 2am. I'll fix them over the weekend and upload the replacement to a file storage site.

When it's done, including missing art work, I'll load the pdf, the orginal Open Office file , and Word version of it on to a file storage site. The idea is that should I fall by the wayside at some point, someone else will be able to continue updating it as the game evolves.

All I can say is, isn't it just amazing what you can do with a ton of multi-cell tables and the border function.

No problem! I've spotted another one that I missed before:

Ship Reference: Notes: Ships’ dimensions
* "hight" should be "height"

KZ9999 wrote:

Blame them on a combination of dyslexia and attempting to edit small type at 2am.

Dyslectic, yet courageous enough to pick up this little project. I am impressed .

Best wishes,
Oscar

I note the government and economy icons are bitmaps. Vector versions are available here (PDF) and here (SVG).

ovvldc wrote:

KZ9999 wrote:

Blame them on a combination of dyslexia and attempting to edit small type at 2am.

Dyslectic, yet courageous enough to pick up this little project. I am impressed .

Best wishes,
Oscar

Yes, dyslexia and this game appear to go hand in hand. I do have to say that's a fantastic job though!

Ahruman wrote:

I note the government and economy icons are bitmaps. Vector versions are available

I've down loaded the two source files you sugested and have replaced the bitmaps with the vectors. There is an issue with the images being semi-incomplete, but I blame it on my current programs (Inkscape and Open Office) so I'll find something that handles the translations better.

I'll upload the new version when I sort out the graphic issue and capture the last missing items.

Interesting, I had no problem with the SVG in Inkscape (0.46).

Ahruman wrote:

Interesting, I had no problem with the SVG in Inkscape (0.46).

Inkscape reads it fine, it's exporting it to a format that Open Office understands is the issue. I'll have to find a plugin for OO that reads SVG natively.

No matter. I've uploaded the latest version of the Ref Sheet. Look in wonder at those 6 pages of multicolour glory. Gasp at the vector reconstruction of the HUD. Marvel that I'm still missing a few images. Be mildly surprised that I've manages to reduce the file size.</side show huckster voice.> It can be found at the following address:

http://terrastorage.ath.cx/Marmagka/mQD ... 1_73_0.pdf

I would really like to replace all the bitmaps of the ships with vector version, but that requires someone with more artistic skill and more free time than I've got at the moment.

Once I've got the last few images and stomped on any typos, I'll stick a fork in it and call it done. So if you guys find any post the corrections.