Oolite Bulletins

Oh dear!

I'm quite ignorant about this sort of thing.

Can I try something a tad different?

Not being an expert on Science Fiction - either for asking questions or judging answers, I’d much rather ask about people’s Oolite experiences! I'm presuming that Oolite counts as a scientific fiction!

Marks given for answers to all the following:

1) What is your highest rank in Oolite?
2) how long have you been Ooliting for?
3) what is your favourite HUD?
4) what is your favourite oxp?
5) what is your favourite combat technique?
6) what is the one thing you would most like to change about the game?

I hope that this is allowed!

1) What is your highest rank in Oolite? - Elite
2) how long have you been Ooliting for? - I think I started playing Elite Oolite circa 2012, since I joined the forums in 2013. However, I've played Elite prior to that since the 1980s, starting with the PC version, and a couple of times on BBC Micro before that.
3) what is your favourite HUD? - Coluber
4) what is your favourite oxp? - System Features Rings for the pretty ambience, DTT Cyclops or DTT Planet Express for ships, Extra Thargoids for things to fight.
5) what is your favourite combat technique? Depends on the opposition. Get in close and be prepared to ram if I have to fight, or run if the odds are too high.
6) what is the one thing you would most like to change about the game? I'd like ways to play that aren't so heavily reliant on combat.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:21 pm

Can I try something a tad different?
...
I hope that this is allowed!

It's not particularly clear what your halting state would be, but ...

1) What is your highest rank in Oolite?
I've been up at Elite before, but I re-started not long ago with the intention of working through all the galaxies and all the missions, and at this point I'm a Dangerous.

2) how long have you been Ooliting for?
I suspect almost everyone here Elited back in "the day" (I was given a copy on 5.25in floppy, with a printout of page/ line/ word codes referring to the manual. I've since found the same on one of those "10 games for a fiver" CDs you see in places. "Sold Out" ring any bells? Distinct executables for shaded versus wireframe graphics. That would have been in 1988. Before then, I didn't have a computer.

3) what is your favourite HUD?
I've experimented with a couple, but given up on it. It's a tweak which doesn't appeal to me.

4) what is your favourite oxp?
Probably UPS courier (at the moment).

5) what is your favourite combat technique?
Mostly I'm doing parcel and passenger missions at the moment and there's no mileage in unnecessary fighting. So if I "drop in" to a nest of vipers, I scuttle out of there at high speed and injectors (rear Military laser, ECM, and Military injectors matter ; auxiliary fuel tank a powerful addition). I can get away from most of the attackers on jets and/ or injectors, but normally end up with an Asp or several on my tail ; those I zap "over my shoulder". Once I've zapped the fast followers, I'll stop, flip over and run back to the Witch Point to collect the next batch of grave candidates. My shield will re-charge during that interval. I prefer to leave no pirates unkilled, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.

6) what is the one thing you would most like to change about the game?
It's mentally undemanding - which is what you want from a game. Well, it's what I want from a game. I'm nosing around various missions for a bit more challenge, but it is <i>relaxation</i>.

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 2:06 am

DTT Planet Express for ships,

Oh yeah, that one was fun. There's an "Andromeda" from ... I've forgotten the SF series. I learned to not-attack those, but it'll be interesting to find out what they're like to fly, once I've completed a run round the galaxies and finished the current set of mission, I may pick that one up again.

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 6:07 pm

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 2:06 am

DTT Planet Express for ships,

Oh yeah, that one was fun. There's an "Andromeda" from ... I've forgotten the SF series. I learned to not-attack those, but it'll be interesting to find out what they're like to fly, once I've completed a run round the galaxies and finished the current set of mission, I may pick that one up again.

They're not very challenging - they can soak up a lot of damage and have a load of extra fuel tanks which makes it very easy to complete long runs without messing around getting to a station, or run to the station with fuel injectors running whenever you get mass locked, with little or no chance of running out. If you want to fight things as your primary goal they're probably OK, but it felt a bit like cheating. I'd imagine the Star Destroyer is a bit like that too, what with the load out of robotic fighters, but it's so expensive I haven't been able to try it yet.

Oh, and in case that wasn't a joke, the TV series was Andromeda, funnily enough...

1) What is your highest rank in Oolite?

As an old 8BIT elite, current commanders are more Traders/Explorers, low rank...

2) how long have you been Ooliting for?

From about Ubuntu 6.xx

3) what is your favourite HUD?

The standard HUD, I try and enjoy others for a while but always seem to return to it...

4) what is your favourite oxp?

Most used is the Gallery option.

Smivs classics (addition) and Griffs shader'd ship oxps.

And several on an irregular base for a different travel experience

5) what is your favourite combat technique?

Leave some fuel, injector around, strategial position myself between enemies and vipers
If this doesnt work a lot of twirling and turning while flying towards the system station.
And sometimes when they piss me off, Iĺl go hunting ( regular setup I use 1 military laser upfront )

6) what is the one thing you would most like to change about the game?

- screensaver mode ( visiting and flyby's of 'random' system planets and ships)
- pip rearviewmirror
- more ambient traffic and business inside the system, minding their own business
- visiting the station ( like the oxp where you could walk and visit several places on the station, i really liked that immersion, perhaps with graphical alien interaction)
- most of the current planets look great and interesting to be visited, but walking on a planet could be a different game altogether.
- perhaps more ways to play different, example like the old basic spacetrader, a lot can achieved with an oxp but has to be programmed
- my orientation is sometimes off so perhaps a more advanced autopilot would be handy too.

+not changing the oxp/oxz system, this really adds to oolites replayability

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 6:02 pm

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:21 pm

Can I try something a tad different?
...
I hope that this is allowed!

It's not particularly clear what your halting state would be [...]

<tossing 0.02 Cr>
I'd guess looking for inspirational hints -- the best "advice" would win

Here:
1) What is your highest rank in Oolite?
Dangerous

2) how long have you been Ooliting for?
1.73.4 (2010)

3) what is your favourite HUD?
A self made "wrapper background image" around the default HUD (started initially as a font fix for DeepSpace HUD, but simplified to the extreme)

4) what is your favourite oxp?
Hawksound

5) what is your favourite combat technique?
Kill'em if less than 4, run like hell otherwise (maybe searching for Vipers if in an appropriate system).

6) what is the one thing you would most like to change about the game?
Making AI easily tweak-able (either with commented lines in the plists -- if possible -- or -- yes, you may laugh -- through the UI). I'd go for two or three pre-defined levels: current, pre 1.82 (was it, or 1.80?), and dummies (or however better named; something younger kids, and older gran'pas wouldn't mind pursuing to weed out the spacelanes).

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:21 pm

Marks given for answers to all the following:

1) What is your highest rank in Oolite?

Space Grocer (I changed the names)

2) how long have you been Ooliting for?

Since 1.76 (Linux) and 1.80 (Windows), but sporadically. Keeps drawing me back, though, It's a curse.

3) what is your favourite HUD?

Back when (1.80), it was Plagiarist (Trek graphics - very pretty). Since 1.90, standard, then Coluber.

4) what is your favourite oxp?

I have 3 Desert Island OXPs: Telescope, Habitable Main Planets, Market Observer. I wouldn't leave a dock without those.

5) what is your favourite combat technique?

Injectors (on cruise control); failing that, sniping from a long, long way off (cloaked).

6) what is the one thing you would most like to change about the game?

An easy way to change the NPC's behaviour. I'd like groggy, drunken pirates who've lost their piloting skills.

Full sets of answers:

1) Ffutures
2) Rock Doctor
3) Cbr (why 'Cbr' as a 'name'?)
4) Commander X
5) Reval

Sir Space Grocer, ... the poisoned chalice is now all yours. Enjoy!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 6:15 am

Sir Space Grocer, ... the poisoned chalice is now all yours. Enjoy!

Thanks eternal, oh Munificent Arbiter. I have set it in a glass case behind Flare of Xexe's console.

Reval wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 6:59 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 6:15 am

Sir Space Grocer, ... the poisoned chalice is now all yours. Enjoy!

Thanks eternal, oh Munificent Arbiter. I have set it in a glass case behind Flare of Xexe's console.

Err ... Oh dear ...

It's a poisoned chalice because, you (YOU! You lucky, lucky chap!!) get to set the next question!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:40 pm

It's a poisoned chalice because, you (YOU! You lucky, lucky chap!!) get to set the next question!

"You better get it up or I'm gonna have to kill ya! Unless you're alive you can't play and if you don't play..."

Without Googling, full name of character who said it.

I think maybe another question is needed.

Allow me to pass you the chalice then.

Really wasn't that hard:

Roy Batty (replicant, Nexus 6), Blade Runner, 1982.

Curses! I should have kept quiet.

OK... my brain isn't up to anything complicated tonight.

Let's have five SF works - books, films, stories, TV series, comics, whatever - that have the word "Captain" in the title. The usual rules - no two from the same creator or universe, and only one answer per reply, with a moderate interval between replies to give other people a chance. Since there are actually quite a few possibilities I'm going to rule out individual episodes of TV series, and other subdivisions - the whole thing has to contain the word Captain in the title. I'm also going to rule out titles that consist solely of a Captains name (including aliases that include the word Captain).

For example, if Harry Potter was SF and the series included a spin-off book called "The Quidditch Captain's Handbook" that would be a valid answer, but nothing else from the Potter franchise would be allowed.
If the Hornblower saga was SF "Captain Horatio Hornblower" would NOT be a valid answer, because the title consists only of the Captain's name. Ditto "Captain Blood" even though the hero isn't genuinely a Captain so it isn't quite his real name.