Oolite Bulletins

Commander McLane wrote:

Keep in mind that the engine chooses the stations based on the TechLevel of the system. The Coriolis is the very basic station and is only found in low-TL systems. It is meant to be non-sophisticated!

High TL doesn't necessarily equal sophisticated taste: the USA is one of the most high-tech countries in the world, and look at Las Vegas... Anyway, Coriolis stations are found from TL 1 all the way up to TL 10 or 11 or thereabouts, aren't they? They're not all hayseed havens by any means.

Griff wrote:

You're right, the ads do look a bit eye-popping, they were originally designed for the spacer bar which explains why all the ads have a booze/disco dancing related theme running through them!

Maybe "less is more"? Perhaps it would be best to restrict advertising to above and below the docking-bay -- after all, it's the prime site. Other faces could still have other details (as well as lighted windows), like a few yellow-and-black hazmat warning signs or "KEEP CLEAR" areas, or blinking red-and-green airlock lights. Which is not to say that the occasional Space Vegas would be a bad thing, though. They might have to be selected by hand, though. Isn't that how the Globestations OXP works?

Thanks for that Griff!

About the docking in darkness business, I seem to remember the sun always being on the side of a coriolis station. Hmmm, the docking bay always faces the planet, and for the sun to hit the bay full on, well, you'd have to have a transparent planet! Maybe there's at most a 30 degrees 'window' either side of the planet for the sun to hit even a small part of the docking bay.

On a brighter note:(groan) can you use the conditions key inside a coriolis ship definition? If you can, you can then decide which government type & which tech level gets what - with pinpoint accuracy. Then all tech level 12 could get the torus station, unless they're corporate, then they get a blinding coriolis with role dodecahedron. Something like that!

Speaking of Vegas style stations...

Maybe the Hoopy Casino ship could use some attention now that we've (not including me) got access to these beautiful shaders?

Did a bit testing with my textures on Griff's model

Another one, again made for Griff's model

LittleBear wrote:

The Station though is GalCop controlled so might well be a hive of commerce, where communists from the planet secretly purchase imperialist food blenders and other luxeries.

Ha! Not while NeuroPol is busily rooting out these traitors to the Communist ideal! Only through hard labour and unthinking compliance to the diktats shall Communism continue!! We are the Though Police, we know what you are thinking!!! Unreasoning violence is the way to Utopia!!!! Down with the corrupt Capitalist GalCop and onward all true Communists!!!!!

<background: sycophantic cheering and clapping>

Kapitan Hesperus

I really like that idea of having glowing warning signs etc on the hull that disembodied suggested. The las vegas style ads did look really out of place, but a few tasteful signs here and there would look pretty cool i reckon, i immediately thought of the yellow plastic "cleaning in progress" signs people use when they're mopping the floor in an office

@ pagroove
wow, those look really great! the green one is especially nice, looks like it's built for some sort of underwater environment!
i'll upload the station model in .obj format so you can have a mess about with it in wings3d or whatever. it would be really cool to see those textures with the shaders applied, i reckon the specular effects would work really well.

Griff wrote:

I really like that idea of having glowing warning signs etc on the hull that disembodied suggested. The las vegas style ads did look really out of place, but a few tasteful signs here and there would look pretty cool i reckon, i immediately thought of the yellow plastic "cleaning in progress" signs people use when they're mopping the floor in an office

"Warning: Station hull ion-scrubbing in progress! Keep your distance!"

Captain Hesperus

Some entertaining warning signs from the future by Anders Sandberg -- including such hazards as Nonstandard Spacetime, Stable Strangelets, Self-Replicating Devices and so on...

I think the most important sign that should be on a station's hull should be:
"If you can read this, then you are about two seconds from teminal impact. Have a happy afterlife."

Captain Hesperus

There’s nothing funny about stable strangelets, young man.

(I’m quite fond of the status lights on the shady billboards, but since no-one has ever commented on them I guess I’m the only one…)

Captain Hesperus wrote:

,,I think the most important sign that should be on a station's hull should be:
"If you can read this, then you are about two seconds from teminal impact. Have a happy afterlife."

That would be nice

Or when you are on the wrong site of the station:

,,Don't fly further unless you have a good Escape Capsule with a fat insurance on top of it''

Griff,

I do not really have the time to dive into Wings 3d. Maybe I can send you the textures I made so far so you can do with them whatever you like ?

Texturing for me is not so difficult because I'm reasonable quick with Photoshop.

Good idea?

Captain Hesperus wrote:

I think the most important sign that should be on a station's hull should be:
"If you can read this, then you are about two seconds from teminal impact. Have a happy afterlife."

Only problem with this: Too long! It could take more than two seconds to read it.

what a crazy sense of humour those station builders have