Oolite Bulletins

Just in case any of you use it, I want to let you know that the Elite Timeline site (and all the gubbins alongside it) has been revamped.

The new URL for the timeline page is http://hughesd.co.uk/elite/index.php/Galactic_Timeline

Please update your links and posts.

Does the revamp include changes/recalculations, or is it just a reformatting?

And would it be a good idea to create a Wiki page about the timeline as well?

At the moment it's a reformatting of the web site (moving to php rather than ASP so I can move to another hosting company).

I'd rather the timeline wasn't duplicated anywhere. I'd prefer a link from the wiki rather than a copy of it.

I'm planning to modifiy it soon, including stuff from some of the more public fan fiction (including my own). I'll be waiting for Drew's next novel first though, since he's used the timline quite a lot in it.

Excellent. Much more readable than before. Well done.

Whilst I can see it would make sense on the wiki, it's a bit controversial as not everyone agrees with Selezen's interpretation. (I happen to!)

I'm planning to modifiy it soon, including stuff from some of the more public fan fiction (including my own). I'll be waiting for Drew's next novel first though, since he's used the timline quite a lot in it.

I hope I haven't b****red it up to much then!

Cheers,

Drew.

Interesting to note the only 'official' Elite data (from the Elite Manual) is concerning release dates of the various ship types.
The rest seems to be 'made up' (I hope that doesn't sound too rude), or taken from games which are not Elite.
Conclusion:- Elite/Oolite doesn't actually have a formal, official history in terms of politics, economics etc.
And as far as I'm concerned that doesn't matter one little bit. In fact it's a good thing, because the player can enjoy the game with whatever backdrop they want, which ultimately aids immersion. And of course it also gives OXP authors much more scope as they are not limited by having to comply with a fixed history.

Selezen wrote:

At the moment it's a reformatting of the web site (moving to php rather than ASP so I can move to another hosting company).

I'd rather the timeline wasn't duplicated anywhere. I'd prefer a link from the wiki rather than a copy of it.

I'm planning to modifiy it soon, including stuff from some of the more public fan fiction (including my own). I'll be waiting for Drew's next novel first though, since he's used the timline quite a lot in it.

That's perfectly understandable, and indeed I was more thinking about a link than a copy.

But I think a link could be useful for people who are looking for some temporal background. For them the only place to go is currently the boards, where someone will hopefully provide them with a link to your site. I think the same link on the Wiki would be more practical (for one, it stays on the page, and doesn't slowly move down the alley of forgotten threads). I was thinking about a page which just explains the basics and provides a link to your site. This wouldn't make the timeline itself any more "canonic" or "official" than all the other stuff on the Wiki is (for instance the "Powers and Organisations" page, or the fiction). My main point is easy accessibility without having to peek around the BB.

That all sounds good to me. The linking strategy you've described sounds perfect! It might be worth the effort to strip all of the conjectural stuff out of the timeline and create a bare-bones one that only references strictly canon material.

Most of the additional fluff I've referenced is from the manuals, associated novellae that were supplied with the games and some additional information from Frontier and FFE's manuals and short stories. The rest of the timeline stuff is assumption based on that referenced information (and thus subjective, as Drew points out!).

@Smivs: If you look closely you will see that the manual and the actual game are completely disparate! Nothing mentioned in the manual ever occurs in the game. The only things they have in common are the ship designs and some of their names. According to some comments made somewhere that I can't remember (thus dismissable by Wikipedia's citation rules), Rob Holdstock was given a few screenshots and some images of the ships and given completely free reign to create the manual. It might actually thus be more accurate to describe all the technology, terminology and universe as the original creation of Mr. Holdstock. Odd, huh?

Heh, yes in a sense that's what I meant. The manual as featured on Ian Bell's website doesn't contain any 'history' whatsoever, other than the release dates for the ships. The rest is just advice on game-play, use of equipment and tactics.
I take your point about the freedom Rob Holdstock was given, and to his credit he did not try to second-guess anything in terms of historic or economic history.
As I said, I view this as a good thing, because it does give both players, fiction authors and OXP authors a blank sheet of paper to work on.
While some sort of history might be seen as desirable, in fact its absence is the thing that makes Oolite work in terms of both immersion and expansion.