Oolite Bulletins

Hi, I'm new here.

Coming from Hungary, a mainly agricultural democracy.

I haven't been on forums, but Oolite is worth joining in. For now, I just want to see if this message appears.

Hi, Darth Trader, your message has been received ... welcome to the forum!

Hi and welcome.

Darth Trader wrote:

Coming from Hungary

Hi neigbour, have fun with this game! / Szia szomszéd, jó játékot!

G'day Darth Trader, and welcome aboard!

(love your handle, btw.. )

Great! Nice to be with you folks.

And I'm also surprised to see someone else from my home system (Szervusz Norby! Úgy látom, oszlopos tag vagy itt... OXP-ket is készítesz?)

About myself and Elite: I as born in the same year as the first Elite version appeared, and though in my teenage years I played many DOS games on my brothers PC, I never heard about Elite up to my twenties. When I heard that there was something in the nineties called Elite Frontier, which was a realistic physics-based space sim with Newtonian flight dynamics, I knew that this thing was missing from my life. Then last year I managed to install Frontier on my laptop through DOSBox, and it just blew me away: the realism, the procedural generation, the details, the "complex simplicity" of the program... only after a few months later did I begin to feel that Frontier could be better in the aspects of gameplay (In the beginning I was more interested in gravitational slingshot maneuvers than fighting with space pirates). The coming Elite Dangerous seems to fill the gap in terms of gameplay, but these days I only watch other people playing that game on Youtube.

So I began looking for a good Elite remake on the web, but for me somehow all seemed to miss the "charm" that Frontier had... some kind of essential "Elite-ness" so to say. Then last month I installed Oolite 1.80, and though the realism was missing, that essential charm was there! I first played it in strict mode to feel the core of the game, then tried the OXPs.

Congratulations to all the contributors to this great gemstone of game!

If someone asked about Oolite, I would say: Though this is a freeware game, man, you have to pay a price if you want to play it... I've been playing 1.80 for days and still being Harmless (0). "How can it be so freaking hard? What were they thinking?" - I said to myself many times. Then, after so many failures, losses and "Press space commander"s it suddenly became very satisfying: the kill cont began to rise together with the numbers on my Credit balance... Man, that was a steep learning curve I say!

So, I restarted it with the Hauler start (the deadbeat Python start with 100 Cr. and no waeapons), and now I fly a Veloce Sport-version. (OK, I bought id for a mere 650 Cr. at a scrapyard, but I really earned it.)

A question to you guys: as Elite Dangerious is coming soon, and it seems to be great, do you think that Oolite has a future, and would not fade away slowly as a gap-filler between the old Elite game and the latest one?

I intend to be a bit provocative here, but personally I think that Oolite remains to be alive for the following reasons:

- Its great capability of customization;
- the possibility to contribute to the game by writing OXPs;
- the original 1984 Elite gaming world in its core;
- and its difficulty.

That's all folks for now, greetings,

Cmdr. Edward Ravens, Competent combateer (323), Apprentice explorer, Level 3 poor salvager, a feeble beginner parcel deliverer, a good, but not top ranking passenger ferryer and the most renowned cargo contractor in the galaxy (that last one was easy to achive imo.)

Darth Trader wrote:

I think that Oolite remains to be alive

I agree due to the same reasons, together with others who answered your question long before in the topic of this question.

no gapfiller for me... IIrc there's no plans for E:D for Linux so far, so I'll stay docked here this side of Riedquat

Welcome and right on commander, btw.

Hi all - I'm Andy and I'm completely lost in here.

I'm a long term player of Elite (I had a BBC A upgraged to a B way back) - and it's weird that in many respects the gameplay is the same as it was 30 odd years ago...
Except that the game doesn't come to a grinding halt when you're attacked by a fleet of ships anymore...

OK - so I've finally cracked and joined this forum (is that the right term?) because I've earned enough money to upgrade to a new ship.
So - I've got questions to ask...

But where do I ask them?
None of the areas seem quite right.

andyGSheffUK wrote:

I've got questions to ask...

But where do I ask them?
None of the areas seem quite right.

Hi, andyGSheffUK, and welcome
Normally questions would be posted here in the Discussion forum, but any regarding specific OXPs/OXZs should be posted in the thread for the OXP in Expansion Packs.
Ask away, and don't worry too much - nobody sticks to the rules round here anyway

Hey Andy and welcome to The Friendliest Forum This Side Of ReidquatTM.

As the Friendly gourd says ask away. Don't worry about asking even simple questions about the game as we all have to start somewhere. You could start a new thread in this section and label it with something like "A few questions".

G'day Andy, and welcome aboard!

andyGSheffUK wrote:

it's weird that in many respects the gameplay is the same as it was 30 odd years ago...

Giles will be pleased to hear that.. that was, after all, his intention, when he first started writing Oolite all those years ago..

Greetings Earthlings. I was an avid fan of Elite on the old squidgy keyboarded ZX Spectrum back in my youth. I was hoping to buy Elite Dangerous but after reading the system requirements, it soon became obvious that my old PC just isn't up to the job. After a week or two of despair I remembered reading online years ago about Oolite. I decided to hunt down a download of it and have been hooked since.

Welcome aboard, Commander!

Hi Imaginos, and welcome.