Oolite Bulletins

This OXP adds a different type of asteroid to the game,
they glow slightly and use flipped normals to appear transparent

download here: http://www.box.net/shared/afoskzpy4ztp9jcb31a9

If you find any bugs (which there shouldn't be) let me know.

The original models and textures were done by Griff,

The only change I made to them was flip the normals, and bake the normalmap onto the diffuse map (because having a normalmap and flipped normals doesn't work)

New in V2: the icesteroids now split into ice boulders

Future scripted debris near planets in intersteller space. Cool!

Bug found by m4r35n357... I had incorectly named one of the entries in shipdata.plist causing likeship errors in the log

use the link from above

Updated once again... more likeship errors

same link still works

Too bright - the effect is more phosphorescent than translucent. It doesn't matter so much if they're in the sunlight, but on the dark side of the planet, where there is no sun at all, it is particularly obvious. I thought "kryptonite" more than "ice". Also, being bright, the edges of polygons are obvious which makes them look unrealistic.

Having said that, let me say, "Good stuff! Thank you very much!" I really like these sort of OXPs which add variety to the environment. Only ever encountering two different asteroids, no matter where you travel, is something that really harms the willing suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy the game. I consider Asteroid Storm a "must have" OXP, and I'll be keeping Icesteroids too. Thank you.

I wonder if they could be made to continually, or maybe repeatedly at small intervals, throw sparks and be renamed "Comet" whether the effect would be believable or just cartoonish. Did you consider doing that?

Wildeblood wrote:

Too bright - the effect is more phosphorescent than translucent. It doesn't matter so much if they're in the sunlight, but on the dark side of the planet, where there is no sun at all, it is particularly obvious. I thought "kryptonite" more than "ice". Also, being bright, the edges of polygons are obvious which makes them look unrealistic.

Having said that, let me say, "Good stuff! Thank you very much!" I really like these sort of OXPs which add variety to the environment. Only ever encountering two different asteroids, no matter where you travel, is something that really harms the willing suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy the game. I consider Asteroid Storm a "must have" OXP, and I'll be keeping Icesteroids too. Thank you.

I wonder if they could be made to continually, or maybe repeatedly at small intervals, throw sparks and be renamed "Comet" whether the effect would be believable or just cartoonish. Did you consider doing that?

Thanks for your coments, the trouble is that oolite doesn't suport transparency (something which has had some debate before so there is no point going into detail now) because of this I had to emulate it as best as I could, which is why the normals are flipped, it is an effect not imediatly noticable by if you do notice you'll find yourself slowly getting closer and closer to the monitor. I also attempted to emulate a fractioning effect by using a glow-map... the problem with this you have pointed out, when they are on the dark side of the planet it seems unreal.

about the throughing sparks bit... they could be given an AI that makes them fly around and a fiery glow map
<lightbulb moment> maybe I might include one like that in my asteroids variety pack I'm working on </lightbulb moment>

Glad you like them

Welcome to the board Wildeblood. Anything you have questions about feel free to ask. We all help each other out here.

Why, thank you CommonSense. I've just stumbled into the IRC channel, actually. Telling them my ideas for comets and meteors and so on, and now they're all leaving... Hey guys, come back!

The IRC channel is a moveable feast - very fluid...

Cool.

What happens if I mine one? Do I get 'ice' splinters and then be able to scoop them as ????

Not so far as I've seen, lave. I shot a couple with mining lasers, wondering the same thing myself, and they were just gone. But it would be neat to see ice boulders and shards, even if the resulting cargo was worthless.

Ganelon wrote:

Not so far as I've seen, lave. I shot a couple with mining lasers, wondering the same thing myself, and they were just gone. But it would be neat to see ice boulders and shards, even if the resulting cargo was worthless.

Well I was thinking along the lines of, you mine one, scoop the splinters then get 'pure mineral waters' that could be then sold as liquers and wines maybe?

lave wrote:

.....'pure mineral waters' that could be then sold as liquers and wines maybe?

used to water them down, maybe, in the cheaper establishments. I drink at DS's so none of that nonesense there.

This was just one of my time-waster oxps that I made when I was bored, I don't know how to set it up to release ice boulders and ice shards, but if someone else wants to, feel free

Staer9 wrote:

I don't know how to set it up to release ice boulders and ice shards,....

You can add the ship-key debris_role to your asteroids. With this key you can define what stuff is released on asteroid/boulder explosion. Should work from 1.74 onwards.