Oolite Bulletins

El Viejo wrote:

Personally, the idea is not at all to my liking....

I can certainly see the appeal, but as an alternative to Oolite, not a replacement.
The prospect of crossing swords with some of you is very tempting but it might be a bit unfair on the relative newcomers to find one of us Armageddon Vets on your six.
Also my 'Shoot-on-sight' policy towards offenders might have to change, eh, EV?

As somebody mentioned, meeting a given person would be hard, unless it was restricted somehow... i.e. you choose where you are at the start like you choose a server in MMORPG...

Smivs wrote:

Also my 'Shoot-on-sight' policy towards offenders might have to change, eh, EV?

Confession: I've been running mostly 'clean' lately, as I don't need GalCop on my radar atm.
(Although I did manage a couple of nice, lucrative runs earlier today).

Old habits die hard

Zireael wrote:

Why have multiplayer Oolite, when we can have Hired Guns and Personalities, and (hopefully) Squadron Leader, and Galactic Navy...

This is more or less my opinion as well. These are OXPs which bring sort of a multiplayer experience into a single player Ooniverse (perhaps not GalNav, but the others). Personally I don't want more than that, so I don't particularly care for a multiplayer Oolite.

All the (in)frequently popping up debates have been more or less circling around the same lines. In short: Oolite in its totality cannot be ported into multiplayer. It's simply too vast, both in size of its universe (2048 systems, which means that short of a couple of hundred players it's unlikely to meet anybody else), and in scope of its gameplay (exploring, trading, fighting, contract-delivery, missions, and whatnot). In order to make it practical for multiplayer, you have to cut down every aspect of it: restrict it to one galaxy only, even one system (or a couple of systems) only, get rid of the trading mechanism, make it into a pure arena combat environment. Which means that the final result wouldn't really resemble Oolite. Which begs the question: what's the point of a multiplayer Oolite, if it stops being Oolite? And would the resulting multiplayer game be attractive in its own right? Either that, or it wouldn't be much more than the IRC channel is right now: a mere opportunity to chat while playing.

Mostly, I like Oolite as a solo game. If I wanted to be social, I wouldn't take my virtual spaceship and head out into the big dark. LOL

But something like a "duel mode" could be fun. One system, one reasonably high tech level station, a certain amount of credits to tweak up a stock MKIII a bit and then meet at the beacon. The basics are where we all started, pretty much, so matches would boil down to skill and maybe a little luck.

I loved fencing class, back in college.

Don't get me wrong, MMORPG Oolite is a cool concept. I almost certainly would give it a try, if it ever happens. I just doubt it's something I'd stick with in the long term.

Current single player Oolite is so delightfully customisable and the ongoing developments so fascinating, that I don't see it as being something where an MMORPG could take the place of it for me.

Ganelon wrote:

Current single player Oolite is so delightfully customisable and the ongoing developments so fascinating, that I don't see it as being something where an MMORPG could take the place of it for me.

Beautifully put.

Time travel occurs regularly in Oolite, but it's always forwards. Make a 6-7 LY jump, and nearly 2 days pass "outside" your jump before you reach your destination. Even docking/launching from a station is a 10 minute affair. Longer that that passes when refueling, buying equipment, or doing damage repair. You can't handle that even remotely nicely in a multiplayer game.

Switeck wrote:

Time travel occurs regularly in Oolite, but it's always forwards. Make a 6-7 LY jump, and nearly 2 days pass "outside" your jump before you reach your destination. Even docking/launching from a station is a 10 minute affair. Longer that that passes when refueling, buying equipment, or doing damage repair. You can't handle that even remotely nicely in a multiplayer game.

This is true, and an objection that I’ve raised in the past, but it’s really the very least of our problems. The clock has very little relevance to normal gameplay; if the clock was removed and the timing rules for cargo missions changed in connection with a multiplayer version, I doubt most people would notice, let alone care much.

TGHC wrote:

Ganelon wrote:

Current single player Oolite is so delightfully customisable and the ongoing developments so fascinating, that I don't see it as being something where an MMORPG could take the place of it for me.

Beautifully put.

Nf n pnirng ba gung, jr NER nyernql cynlvat na bbyvgr ZZBECT. Gur sbehz naq gur bkcf ner ubj jr punatr rnpu bguref jbeyqf. Abg ol unatvat ba fbzrbarf 6 naq oybjvat gurz gb boyvivba. Vg vf na vagryyrpghny, VG zrpunavpny xvaq bs tnzr jvguva n tnzr. Gb fcraq gvzr gelvat gb znxr Bbyvgr vgfrys ZZBECT jbhyq gnxr gvzr njnl sebz gur vagrenpgvir tnzr gung jr ner nyernql cynlvat.

ClymAngus wrote:

TGHC wrote:

Ganelon wrote:

Current single player Oolite is so delightfully customisable and the ongoing developments so fascinating, that I don't see it as being something where an MMORPG could take the place of it for me.

Beautifully put.

Nf n pnirng ba gung, jr NER nyernql cynlvat na bbyvgr ZZBECT. Gur sbehz naq gur bkcf ner ubj jr punatr rnpu bguref jbeyqf. Abg ol unatvat ba fbzrbarf 6 naq oybjvat gurz gb boyvivba. Vg vf na vagryyrpghny, VG zrpunavpny xvaq bs tnzr jvguva n tnzr. Gb fcraq gvzr gelvat gb znxr Bbyvgr vgfrys ZZBECT jbhyq gnxr gvzr njnl sebz gur vagrenpgvir tnzr gung jr ner nyernql cynlvat..

Careful, if the wife starts to count my time on the forum as game-playing time I'm in serious trouble. Please encrypt these posts.

Gimi wrote:

Careful, if the wife starts to count my time on the forum as game-playing time I'm in serious trouble. Please encrypt these posts.

Done, but...... you've already quoted it. I can't fix that one.

Done!

El Viejo wrote:

Done!

The fun with this bb is that people take the important things seriously. They have their priorities straight.