Oolite Bulletins

OK, OK! Let's have the OXP and stop the discussion before the thread's name changes again, this time to something like "Xenopsichology and interspecies relations (was More Navy arguments(was Personalising the Oolite experience))"

OK, we'll call it a draw *Fires pistol into the air*

I wasn't really defending the Navy OXP, though! I too believe we shouldn't encounter Navy fleets very often in regular space. Matt634's reply on that issue satisfied me, but looking at it again, it could be that you always encounter a fleet in a "SecCom system", which wouldn't be right IMO.

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:

"Xenopsichology and interspecies relations (was More Navy arguments(was Personalising the Oolite experience))"

I would have tried that, but it wouldn't have fitted in the title box....
At least we can say that the discussions on the OoBBS can be almost as hot as the ones on the EBBS!

Captain Hesperus

You will absolutely encounter fleet elements in EVERY SecCom you visit - fleets have to congregate somewhere and usually during times of war its at secure Navy ports. I'm enjoying reading all the Navy commentary, and I am open to suggestions regarding further updates to my OXP. I consider these facts closed, however, in regards to my work:

Galcop is at war on a galactic scale.
It has a Navy sufficient to meet the threat.
It has an infrastructure sufficient to support the Navy in meeting the threat (secure ports, training areas, R&D, ship yards, manufacturing plants, munitions dumps, barracks, medical facilities, recruiting centers etc...).

Its just not logical to think the Navy could fight a MASSIVE WAR without these elements at a minimum. I see the SecCom stations and systems as providing a SMALL piece of the required visible infrastructure. A minute man reserve force of traders is not up to the job. My OXP just adds a small level of respectability to the idea that Galcop has a Navy fighting war, something I think we all agree on.

Seems logical that although you don't meet Navy ships in general that often (as the SecComms are only placed in about 5% of systems), you do encounter them commonaly when at a base system. In RL it might not be very common to see an aircraft carrier on the open sea, but passing a naval harbour they'd be more common even if mored up and you only get to see them at a distance. Perhaps also the SecComms are R.V. points where the Navy gather before witching out to engage the Bugs? So you see quite a few ships massing for the signal to go into battle at these systems.

I don't see any problem with that. It's also worth remembering that the IGN is a different kind of navy from any modern-day setup. Aircraft carriers, etc. are often on long-distance missions, cruising around the place at slow speeds, and are built to be as self-sufficient as possible. The IGN, meanwhile, can hop here and there via wormholes and can be much more base-dependent. Especially if their role is primarily a defensive one, IGN ships will spend more time around the SecComs than modern Earth naval ships.

matt634 wrote:

I consider these facts closed, however, in regards to my work:
It has a Navy sufficient to meet the threat.

Actually, it doesn't. If you had played FFE, you'd know that what got the bugs in the end weren't the brave IGN pilots but INRA's mycoid bioweapon. In fact, the Thargs were winning the war...

BTW, have you read Paolo Mariani's "Between the Devil and the Deep Black Space"? If you didn't, I'll tell you that for me it's the INRA bible - that good!

In fact, the Thargs were winning the war...

I didn't say defeat the threat... just meet it, which in Oolite, the Navy has done - fighting it to somewhat of standstill in interstellar space. I've tried very hard to respect the Elite/Frontier roots of Oolite with this OXP (following the Wiki as much as possible), but I think its worth noting that this isn't the Imperial Navy or Federation Navy its Galcop's Galactic Navy.

matt634 wrote:

In fact, the Thargs were winning the war...

... but I think its worth noting that this isn't the Imperial Navy or Federation Navy its Galcop's Galactic Navy.

... which in the end practically loses the war. It is going to be defeated, leaving GalCop no choice but to appeal to the other two powers, there is no way around it. And then the Feds and the Imperials swallow what pathetic rest remains of the once so proud GalCop.

A very brief account on how the Thargoids were defeated can be found on the INRA-page of the wiki. Personally I have no more information, because I never played Frontier or read any Frontier-related stories. But this piece of information is undeniable.

It is going to be defeated... there is no way around it... this piece of information is undeniable.

Only if you insist on Oolite being some sort of prequel to Frontier. I know a lot of people do and that's fine, you can make the story work if you try hard enough. I personally (and this is only how I view the game and is in no way a reflection on my perception of people who view it differently ) think that trying to pound round Oolite pegs into square Frontier holes makes for a contrived story line and ruins the experience for me. In my Oolite there are 8 Galaxies, Earth is NOT in any of them, there is NO Empire, Alliance, or Federation, and GalCop is THE force showing NO signs of decline. All that said, I'm still trying to keep the OXP "within the bounds" of the Frontier prequel viewpoint. If people want to believe the Navy eventually loses and Galcop crumbes that's fine. If you want to stick with the Elite/Oolite background and let the open-ended game go where ever your imagination takes it, the OXP still fits.

When I say sufficient to meet the threat, I mean sufficient to keep the Thargoids from completely overrunning Galcop Space and doing... well whatever they plan on doing should they win. Right now the Navy has kept the invaders at bay, for the most part, in interstellar space. That's all I mean by "meet the threat."

Captain Hesperus wrote:

I've been playing LB's Assassins OXP for some time now and just now it struck me. The player is referred to as Brother XX (where XX is the player's name). Now my one big bugbear is that you, as a player, are referred to as Commander XX (as above) which for me sounds a little peculiar, "Greetings, Commander Captain Hesperus....". I don't know why Elite/Oolite uses Commander to describe the 'rank' of someone who is essentially a lone trader/mercenary/bounty-hunter/pirate/etc. since the rank of Commander, in naval terms is second-in-command of the ship (although in my case, I think the bank has more say on my ship than I do...). A modern day analogy would be like someone who owned and ran their own business, but was continually referred to as the 'Deputy Manager'.

In the code for the mission texts, it has the phrase:

Code: Select all

Greetings Commander [commander_name].....

while in LittleBear's Assassins it's:

Code: Select all

Greetings Brother [commander_name].....

What I would like to see is a little more in the way of personalising for your commander savefiles. Would it be possible to implement a [commander_title] variable that could be added to the savefile so that rather than

Code: Select all

Greetings Commander....

you might with the code "Greetings [commander_title][commander_name]" get:

Code: Select all

Greetings Captain....

or even

Code: Select all

Greetings President-for-life....

?
What does everyone else think?

Captain (President-for-life) Hesperus

I like the idea

--

Commander Dr Nil