Oolite Bulletins

Not quite what I needed to do, but it was enough help to have gotten me there. Thanks Smivs! Much appreciated!

I am new here. I have a bad case of nostalgia and have replayed Elite a bunch of times via emulation (though usually I run out of steam once I get a military laser). I tried Oolite a couple of times, but didn't get it, somehow. But the most recent time I tried it, I have loved it. My Oolite folder is now 2 GB with the OXPs I've picked, and of course the graphics are now on a par with X3 and I have bundles of space stations and asteroids - and, it's still Elite. (I get rid of the OXPs if they break the Elite-ness). A lot of people say ArcElite was the best, but I found it too hard, because the lasers only scale power, rather than frequency. Oolite is a far more faithful version (read: easier). Also, I have never met anybody who treated Tube Elite as anything more than a tech demo, because it was impossible.

Anyway, after that ramble, I do have a question: Have Bell or Braben ever been interviewed about Oolite, or made any in-depth comments about what they think about it? A quick Google hasn't turned up anything of note.

And finally, if you haven't seen 'The making of ELITE' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpWoF5uVgbA), the nostalgia is strong in this one. And Micro Men.

Hi, and welcome aboard...

fraedrill wrote:

Have Bell or Braben ever been interviewed about Oolite, or made any in-depth comments about what they think about it?

Not to my knowledge, no... but Ian Bell is a forum member (he visited once for about an hour, having been enticed here with gifts).

G'day fraedrill, and welcome aboard!

fraedrill wrote:

Have Bell or Braben ever been interviewed about Oolite, or made any in-depth comments about what they think about it?

We kind of suspect (and hope) that they may hold some slight affection for what we're doing, and thus officially they choose to pretend Oolite doesn't exist, in order that no potentially awkward legal questions can be asked.. which is also why Oolite is strictly non-commercial in nature.. we'd rather not suffer the fate that Elite: The New Kind did.

Oolite has been referred to many times on the Elite: Dangerous forums over the last year, so David Braben is surely aware of Oolite.. since he seems happy to ignore us, we're happy to continue flying under the radar..

Welcome here fraedrill!

My strictly private opinions:

1. From commercial view, only a publishing company has interest to demand anything from Oolite but only if enough fool to ignore the fact that many player start playing games with free alternatives, then buy official products later. Technically this community put money into the company's pocket by doing marketing and support services for free.

2. From David's view, I think the story of TNK was not his fault but a must due to the license. I guess he love the gaming better than the money so he has no reason to attack Oolite, or at least he is a smart publisher, or both.

Norby wrote:

Technically this community put money into the company's pocket by doing marketing and support services for free.

Agreed.. we kept the dream alive for all the years Elite4 was considered 'vapourware'..

Norby wrote:

2. From David's view, I think the story of TNK was not his fault but a must due to the license. I guess he love the gaming better than the money so he has no reason to attack Oolite, or at least he is a smart publisher, or both.

Thanks.. I knew there was some 3rd-party EULA problem behind it, but couldn't remember where I'd read that.. it's hard to find any references online to the reason for the request being made. (considerably harder than it is to find TNK online, in fact!)

And yes, David is smart.. he's one of the very few game publishers out there who insists that piracy actually benefits the gaming industry.

I guess I imagined it was something like that -- not acknowledging so they didn't have to get all legal on everyones asses.

unless someone tries to find a way to use Oolite OXP's in the new "ELITE__DANEROUS", then there will be trouble!!

Well, Frontier do plan to make ED mod-able at some point.. so if someone did manage to port something across, I don't see how it would make for a real problem..

That's true to , once released, then Oolite mods will become a asset more than a threat to copyright!


P.S. thanks Smivs, that link worked for me too !

read ya in the chatroom! (all PC"s seem to have camera's , so See Ya sounds like G. Orwell-ish?)

Doug Stuart wrote:

read ya in the chatroom! (all PC"s seem to have camera's , so See Ya sounds like G. Orwell-ish?)

I have a piece of masking tape over the inbuilt cam on my laptop.

Me too! , I taped the camera and mic before I ever turned it on

Hi . . . My ship is an Adder with Advanced Navigational Array. I'd like to get parcel contracts, but they're always grey (unavailable). Why?

MacApple,

grey parcel contracts usually means that you need a higher kill count / more successful parcel deliveries to get them.
if you access them, it will show something like "needs a more experienced courier".

Check every main station you encounter, you will find parcel contracts available to you some time.

What Lone_Wolf says - you gotta build your courier rep up. Eventually, if you're good enough, the really lucrative contracts will appear - but beware!