Oolite Bulletins

Morning,

Does this OXP idea offend anyone's sensibilities?

It came to me as really just a novelty idea, which then I thought may be useful for testing stuff, and then it hit me that it could be a little diversionary game within a game, and good combat practise. It's Arcade Oolite basically.

Basic premise is that the player uses a pre set up save file with a 0 kills moderately iron-assed ship. On launch he is teleported into the middle of the first of many scripted furballs. No docking (and hence saving) or hyperspace is allowed (disabled via scripting and shipdata respectively). Once all the scripted enemies are destroyed there is a short lull for loot collection and then the player is teleported into the middle of another furball (and fuel reset to 7) with slightly nastier & more numerous enemies.

As the player passes certain numbers of kills and/or collects certain loot, bonus equipment is awarded.

When the player eventually dies the kills and cargo/equipment net worth are recorded in a personal high score as missionVariables and written to the log.

The script would only run if the pre-set up save file was loaded so it would keep it totally separate from the players normal game.

A nice bit of fun?

yeah, sounds like a variant of the simulator your could fly in Wing Commander. Makes sense that stations might have something like this so new pilots etc could get used to combat tactics before venturing out into unsafer territories. might even be a compulsory part of the Lave Academy training.
Not sure about the loot scooping, if you don't dock, there's no use to this and your hold will fill up in due course.
how about a "hi-score" screen that people can screengrab and post in a thread for bragging rights?

Not my cup of tea, but why not.
I like the idea of it being a separate game within the game. You could even let it progress on the player side as well. As the furballs grow in size, you are docked and given better equipment, but without the possibility of saving.

Have you considered using these ships?
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Capisastra

Killer Wolf wrote:

Not sure about the loot scooping, if you don't dock, there's no use to this and your hold will fill up in due course.
how about a "hi-score" screen that people can screengrab and post in a thread for bragging rights?

You scoop the cargo pods to be awarded extra equipment. There's no way of knowing what equipment you'll get until you scoop it. There should be an award and remove version for every bit of extra equipment. If you scoop the award version first, you'll hope the next pod you scoop doesn't remove it again. If you scoop the remove version first, no harm done - you don't need to be concerned about removal once you do scoop the award.

No need for a special high-score screen, score and equipment are shown on the F5 status screen. People can screengrab that if they want.

You'll need to catch people attempting to dock, put up an arrival report or mission screen that says, "Get back out there, you coward!" and re-launch them.

Thanks for the feedback and ideas guys...OXP officially added to my todo list.....

It will be packaged as an Oolite combat simulator arcade game. The Commander will be Commander 'Player 1' for example, and in between the fights a consoleMessage will be given- "progressing to Level 2" etc,

I should be able to make the combat area an arena - by scripting a central marking bouy and then using a timer to check if the player strays more than a couple of scanner ranges away from it and teleporting him back to the combat area. No chance of docking. As far as scooping loot goes I'll script the NPC's so they only produce Gems or Gold or something, plus special pods which give the equipment upgrades (and maybe bogus pods as per Wildeblood's suggestion). No bounties. Your rank at death is in two parts - kills made and loot scooped.

Don't fancy the Capisastra myself - a bit too corny for my liking. Enemies will be core Oolite ships, either Griff models if installed or the standard models, but all with a custom role and AI and getting progressively harder (better equipment and accuracy) and more numerous as the levels progress. Special Thargoid levels will be included.

I can't see any particular barriers to scripting this - It'll just be a fairly big script, will need a bit of balancing and I will no doubt have to learn a few more techniques, so as the saying goes don't hold your breath.....I've still got to finish Escape Pod Locator and tweak the mission screens for Escort Contracts, and work 8 hours a day and keep the other half happy. And one day I'll actually manage to get across G2 without being distracted by an OXP idea and play through the Ionics mission...

Capt. Murphy wrote:

And one day I'll actually manage to get across G2 without being distracted by an OXP idea and play through the Ionics mission...

Have fun with that! It can be long enough as is. If you get distracted, well, let's just say it might take you quite a while...

Oh, and 'tis a great idea for an oxp! Could be interesting!

Capt. Murphy wrote:

And one day I'll actually manage to get across G2 without being distracted by an OXP idea and play through the Ionics mission...

When you work out how to do that, please let me know

A lot of what you describe should be similar to the various "sub-game" bits in Lave Academy with some modifications. If any of that scripting is useful for guidance, feel free to plunder it with appropriate tweaks.

Will do and thanks for permission to plunder...

Capt. Murphy, this sounds alot like my suggestion of having a flight test before you can get your pilot's license and start the oolite game. Like the opening of elite for NES. Why not give a shot at making an "Excalibur" test that is played before allowing the game to start. If it's possible that is...