Oolite Bulletins

drew wrote:

Recent update

@ Styggron

Yes it does mean you can play the single player offline, but I would like to reiterate that the online single player will be a richer experience. So I hope you'll at least give it a try.

Michael

FAQ clarification to follow apparently.

Cheers,

Drew.

Phew, for me at least this means Christmas is now uncancelled

I'm starting to get a really bad feeling about this. Captain Solo, back me up here...

That Q&A is ridiculous. Either they are keeping the progress and the content under their hats, in which case they are peeing all over the "open" nature of a kickstarter drive (information sharing, updates etc) or they really DON'T know what the final content will be at this stage, which is ridiculous for a COMMERCIAL game design company that wants a game to be released in a year and a half.

I know I keep doing this, but compare it to Limit Theory - three months (four now, maybe) in development and he has gameplay demos all over the place and a firm idea of where the game will be come the release date and, more importantly for a PUBLICLY FUNDED PROJECT he is OPEN about all aspects of the game content and gameplay.

Come on, David, sort your house out!!

More on Singleplayer offline.

Good morning everybody. I've had a chat with David and gained more clarity on the single player question. The intended experience with the evolving galaxt will need to sync with the server. However you will be able to have a stand alone save if you choose. Note that the offline save won't contain all of the server features (exactly how it will balance out is unknown at the moment) and it may not be possible to sync an offline save with the server state, although we'll look at how we can do this. So yes, you can haveyour own save without having to connect to the galaxy server

Cheers,

Drew.

This sounds indeed more re-assuring.

Still, the primary scope of E:D seems to be "Frontier with a shared universe between players". I don't particularly care for either of the two, preferring Elite over Frontier, and preferring to play unconnected over having the benefits of a shared universe. So it seems likely at this point that E:D won't be my game.

Commander McLane wrote:

Still, the primary scope of E:D seems to be "Frontier with a shared universe between players". I don't particularly care for either of the two, preferring Elite over Frontier, and preferring to play unconnected over having the benefits of a shared universe. So it seems likely at this point that E:D won't be my game.

I completely agree with the honourable gentleman above.

Still, a faint hope exists in that the "Braben Plays Elite" video did show a more Elite-like control system which was my big bugbear with Frontier, so I think I'd play it but can't be sure it'll be an imagination-firing mind storm like Elite was.

Multiplayer doesn't really bother me (although it would be good to organise sessions with mates and acquaintances). I'm holding on to the hope that there will be some innovation in the navigation and planetary aspects along the same lines as the marketing model and that the planets and stations will be a more open environment.

I'm not entirely convinced based on the current information, though. As the fog of disinformation undulates around the game it seems very familiar - the air of anticipation and hope that surrounded FFE and was then dashed by a very very lacklustre product. Frontier Dev blamed Gametek for that and I'm hoping that was honest...

Mummy I'm scared...

Selezen wrote:

I'm starting to get a really bad feeling about this. Captain Solo, back me up here...

I have a bad feeling too. I am not interested in Elite Dangerous. I saw the vid where they were flying about the asteroid field. Looked more like a George Lucas production. Oolite is my game, and all the talented OXP authors have made it a rich experience. My feelings, however, are different regarding Drew's new book for ED. Looking forward to that.

CaptSolo wrote:

Selezen wrote:

I'm starting to get a really bad feeling about this. Captain Solo, back me up here...

I am not interested in Elite Dangerous. I saw the vid where they were flying about the asteroid field. Looked more like a George Lucas production.

I don't really find that a good comparison, since Elite is pretty much a George Lucas production as well, if you take such a stance. Dogfights with spacecraft with lasers that have to be pretty much manually aimed. No big difference there.

It has been stated pretty clearly that they are trying to find a working and fun-to-play compromise between realistic physics and Elite and I cannot ask them to do more than that.

Wolfwood wrote:

It has been stated pretty clearly that they are trying to find a working and fun-to-play compromise between realistic physics and Elite and I cannot ask them to do more than that.

Agreed - my worry atm is that based on their plethora of "don't know" answers to so many questions I don't think they'll be able to do it...

Ah, hopefully alpha and beta testing will resolve the problems.

To be fair, they have also said that they need to leave something for the design decision forum members to decide...

But, yes, they could at least tell us what they have *thought* to do.

There should be a new gameplay dev diary this week... I'd love that to answer some of those oft-asked questions AND show us something spectacular (atmosphere entry, a black hole, Cobra Mk III in action...).

I'm a bit depressed about the lack of info too

Dev Diary 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gMbLjUjs1w&feature=plcp

I would have liked to see a Cobra Mk III in this update, but I cannot fault the coolness of what we got! Very nice to see the bigger ships NOT engage in battle with fast turns etc. that they had in FE2 and FFE.

CaptSolo wrote:

<SNIP>. Oolite is my game, and all the talented OXP authors have made it a rich experience. My feelings, however, are different regarding Drew's new book for ED. Looking forward to that.

Agreed CaptSolo, on both fronts . I'll stick with Oolite - the richness of OXPs and community make it one of the best games I've ever played. I have a feeling a new novella will be the greatest thing to come from this, although, time will tell. I also have to agree with the discussions about how multiplayer should be an option.

First of it's nice to see some influence of Oolite in ED already. Pause the video on 2:57 and you see a 'Chopped Cobra'. But that's probably just coincidence. .

What I do like is that the combat is fast paced. But at the same time this demo look too fast paced. Somehow I don't like the fx. And to be honest I'm still seeing nothing that Oolite can't do except maybe that the engine itself is more advanced.

I will probably pledge if I start seeing really revolutionary things. But as I have no money lying around I wait a bit more.

pagroove wrote:

First of it's nice to see some influence of Oolite in ED already. Pause the video on 2:57 and you see a 'Chopped Cobra'. But that's probably just coincidence. .

It is Ship-88 aka Viper Mk II

Ah!

Tthanks for the heads up. Still it looks a bit like the Chopped Cobra.
But what do you think of the combat. I miss the (beam)lasers
On the other hand this could be the pulse laser. I remember watching some vids of the original Elite and seeing that the pulse lasers fired pulses and not a beam.