Oolite Bulletins

I remember that something was done to enable Weapon Laws not to confiscate your equipment when using Laser Arrangement/Laser Mount Switching System in a system where one of one's lasers was prohibited.

timer wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 7:59 am

reworked the code of all HTML pages of the "whatsnew" section, brought it to a unified style using CSS, fixed some problems with HTML tags. Added information from @phkb to the page for 1.91. It would be great to add some items to the "Expansion Pack Development - Scripting" section...

Any correction - welcome!

The three main categories in the What's New page are General Enhancements, Expansion Pack Development - Scripting and Bug Fixes. phkb's stuff all falls under General Enhancements IMO and should be bulleted inside that section together with the renderer, HDR and accessibility stuff. I don't think that each should be a separate category.

This is a quick mock-up of what I mean:


Some screenshots of the keyboard setup screens can be added too to break up the text wall a bit.

another_commander wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 8:12 am

phkb's stuff all falls under General Enhancements IMO and should be bulleted inside that section together with the renderer, HDR and accessibility stuff. I don't think that each should be a separate category.

got better?

another_commander wrote:

Some screenshots of the keyboard setup screens can be added too to break up the text wall a bit.

screenshots needed )

timer wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 9:34 am

another_commander wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 8:12 am

phkb's stuff all falls under General Enhancements IMO and should be bulleted inside that section together with the renderer, HDR and accessibility stuff. I don't think that each should be a separate category.

got better?

Perfect!

screenshots needed )

I'll upload a couple a bit later today. We don't need anything fancy, just the keyboard configuration screen of the unmodified core game would do just fine.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 8:11 am

I remember that something was done to enable Weapon Laws not to confiscate your equipment when using Laser Arrangement/Laser Mount Switching System in a system where one of one's lasers was prohibited.

I notice under Category:Oolite JavaScript Reference that there is no subcategory for "Updated JavaScript features in Oolite 1.91" - despite there being earlier ones for Oolite 1.77 - 1.89

The site is definitely getting better!

While we are discussing such stuff, it occurs to me that Getting Started starts off in the beginning of the game. But should such a chapter not start with the download, cover installation, startup, game menu and starting the actual game? After that the Getting Started page is absolutely valuable.

hiran wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 10:22 pm

But should such a chapter not start with the download, cover installation, startup, game menu and starting the actual game? After that the Getting Started page is absolutely valuable.

I'd suggest a completely separate page for that, as you'd need 3 sections (Windows, Linux, Mac), which would seriously complicate the page. And I'd link to the page from the Downloads page, rather than "Getting started".

Friendly reminder that new players are still running into this issue and there is no immediately obvious place to look for the solution.

I can confirm this. The usage numbers of OoliteStarter have dropped considerably, and so have the Oolite download numbers.

Something must have changed on the website I guess.

We really, really, really need versions of v.1.90 with the "new" (coming up to one year old - one year. One entire year.) address for the Expansions Manager.

Is there any point whatsoever in coming up with any of these improvements for v.1.92? Will anybody be joining us to bother with it?

Those of us on AppleMac won't be able to use it. Will many Linuxians be able to? So it looks as though it won't get properly tested.

v.1.90 might well end up being the last published stable version of Oolite - and as things stand you need to be a geek to get it to access the 750+ OXZ's. Or read lots and lots of small print.

hiran wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:41 pm

I can confirm this. The usage numbers of OoliteStarter have dropped considerably, and so have the Oolite download numbers.
Something must have changed on the website I guess.

And here I can see that something changed. There was a sentence and a link to OoliteStarter with all the offered releases.
Now that it's gone users are not aware in the same sense as before.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 7:30 pm

We really, really, really need versions of v.1.90 with the "new" (coming up to one year old - one year. One entire year.) address for the Expansions Manager.

So I see several ways of getting out of that dilemma. Open for discussion:

1. We release a 1.92 version with all the latest development so the effort is finally usable. It contains the download url fix.
2. We promote OoliteStarter as the official interface to run Oolite. It downloads the expansions from the correct URL, and it could also inform users about new Oolite releases and prereleases as it does the same for itself already.
3. We repackage existing 1.90 releases so they would use the correct download url.

Option 1 would not be available for the Apple Mac, yet the other two can be. What are your thoughts?

hiran wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 7:30 am

hiran wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:41 pm

I can confirm this. The usage numbers of OoliteStarter have dropped considerably, and so have the Oolite download numbers.
Something must have changed on the website I guess.

And here I can see that something changed. There was a sentence and a link to OoliteStarter with all the offered releases.
Now that it's gone users are not aware in the same sense as before.

Any clue why it's gone?
Site redesign and/or due to URL changes? (for similar reasons why v1.90 releases don't use the correct download url expansions?)

So I see several ways of getting out of that dilemma. Open for discussion:

1. We release a 1.92 version with all the latest development so the effort is finally usable. It contains the download url fix.
2. We promote OoliteStarter as the official interface to run Oolite. It downloads the expansions from the correct URL, and it could also inform users about new Oolite releases and prereleases as it does the same for itself already.
3. We repackage existing 1.90 releases so they would use the correct download url.

Option 1 would not be available for the Apple Mac, yet the other two can be. What are your thoughts?

Whichever can be done soon seems best.

But only 1 (releasing a 1.92 version) will keep Oolite moving forwards.

(While we may encourage new players to come to the forums, it shouldn't be near-mandatory to get expansions working at all.)

Switeck wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 12:53 pm

Any clue why it's gone?

It's not gone. It's still there:


The only difference is, rather than having 3 boxes with three identical links to the same app, we've now got a bigger section for it with one link.

phkb wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 2:01 pm

Switeck wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 12:53 pm

Any clue why it's gone?

It's not gone. It's still there:


The only difference is, rather than having 3 boxes with three identical links to the same app, we've now got a bigger section for it with one link.

There was a short section about it on the right hand side before. That is now central. But it does no longer get the attention the links in the download box received, and thus the whole story repeats. Would you suggest we leave it as it is?