Oolite Bulletins

I think that as Thargoid proposed earlier that it's best to auto-generate as much as possible assuming it's not too difficult to do so.

Hence why a form with certain compulsory fields like OXP name, brief description, release date, author's name and Oolite version is desirable in my view. This will allow the index pages to be auto-generated from each of the above fields so we can see OXP by name, OXP by category, OXP by author etc.

This leaves nothing to be manually maintained by wiki developers. All entry is done by the OXP author using the form.

The only other point I wanted to make is that the auto-generated indexes should have not just the OXP name, but the other form fields like brief description otherwise they will be of limited use.

I don't think you can do that.

Which bit(s) do you think it is not possible to do?

1. the form
2. auto-generation index from the form
3. auto-generating more than just the OXP name in the index

Some of it may be partially possible, but not all of it. I don't want to look into it really as I don't want to get lumbered.

How do I get write access to the wiki?

mcarans wrote:

How do I get write access to the wiki?

You need to PM Winston and ask for an account.

I did that a while ago, but no reply and no access

He is around and about the place ... mind you, right now he might be on holiday somewhere! Somewhere where the sun shines, or even where the sky is more than six feet off the ground ...

Actually, Selezen and I can also create accounts.

*>!ping!<*

As if by magic, a gatekeeper appeared!

I didn't want to mess things up on the wiki so I created a page here:
http://oxps.wikkii.com/wiki/Oxps#Sortable_OXP_List

This is an example of what I had in mind with the sortable list. You can find very quickly what you want using the sorting even if the list gets long I reckon.

I was thinking of just opening up that page using a single shared login/pw for all OXP authors to add willy nilly trusting that people won't purposely screw things up - is this naive of me?

mcarans wrote:

I didn't want to mess things up on the wiki so I created a page here:
http://oxps.wikkii.com/wiki/Oxps#Sortable_OXP_List

I have updated it a bit on viewing on a different monitor (not 1920x1080)! Should look ok at standard resolutions like 1280 width.

Also some more categories.

It's a nice idea (specially as it seems to favour my OXPs ) but there is still the problem of 'How do you deal with multiple entries?'
Some OXPs influence multiple factors...higher up this thread we discussed Aquatics OXP which adds all sorts of elements and therefore could feature in almost every catagory. If this type of OXP appeared under all relevant catagories, this would make the list un-reasonably long.
That's why I suggested limiting the catagories to just four, with any given OXP to be included in only ONE catagory.
It would be up to the author to decide which catagory is most appropriate, although by adopting a simple structure (like the flow-chart I made) this should be self-evident and obvious.
Am I right in thinking that what you are suggesting is one big list (alphabetical?) which has the 'Catagory' column to guide people as to what the OXPs do, rather than a series of lists, one for each catagory?
If so, it sort of defeats the object of what we're looking for. If I understand correctly what we want is a page we can go to to quickly find what we want.
eg 'I want some eye-candy but don't want to change of affect the game in any way'. Under my simple system you'd just go straight to the Enhancements section, where you'd find all the OXPs that only do this, and all in one place. If it's just a big list you still have to scan the entire list looking for Enhancements.

Ok points all taken. I've updated:

http://oxps.wikkii.com/wiki/Oxps#Sortable_OXP_List

Aquatics is an example under Expansions.

Any comments?

Another fly in the ointment...what constitutes an addition to the game?
I previously cited Your Ad Here as an example of an Enhancement ie an OXP that doesn't add features to the game...it's eye-candy. But you could argue that the ConStores DO affect gameplay. You no longer have to go to the main station to buy/sell, refuel etc. So YAH is actually more of an Expansion.
I personally installed YAH as eye-candy and in fact have only ever docked at a ConStore once, to check it out. That's why I think of it as eye-candy, whereas in fact it probably is more than that.
What I'm saying is that defining OXPs by catagory is not straight forward, and that perhaps it should be left to the Author to put it where THEY think it should be.
Oddly, this is a good reason to keep the catagories few and simple in nature.