Oolite Bulletins

Hello,

I always thought it a bit tedious to handle all OXPs separate - so I chose this issue to learn how to build (simple) RPMs. I ended up assembling three OXPs-RPMs for Oolite and wondered, if they are of interest for other people around:

• Base - 128MB (including BGS-A1.4, FighterHud 1.2, Snoopers2.2.1, Cabal_Common_Library1.5, Cargo_wrecks_teaser 1.6.5, griff_shipset_all_in_1.oxp, OXPXonfig2.0.7, Your_Ad_Here_4.0 with update 4.1.7)
• Flavours - 39MB (including Anarchies2.5, Commies 2.11, Dictators v1.5, The_Feudal_States_v13, RandomHits1.4.10, Galactic_Navy 5.4.3, Planetfall 1.41, behemoth 2.6, Missionaries)
• Equipment - 451Kb (including bounty scanner(2.0), extra fuel tanks (2.2), the ore processor(1.58), shield equalizer and capacitors (1.3), the talkative compass (1.0.3), target autolock plus (1.12) and target reticle (1.2.1) and sell_equipment)

Only the last RPM was small enough to fit on box.net (http://www.box.com/s/iyy8hok625c5yl6rr18x) due to file size limitations, so if anyone has a better place to put the three of them, I would be happy to get a PM.

The selection is based right now purely on my taste and my -limited- knowledge about the OXPs present. (And of course, I am aware, that my taste is only one out of millions, so it can only be a start - but for beginners it might be the easiest way to get the first impression about the vibrant OXP community out here - for me, the first whitchspace jump with BGS was awesome).

I only focused on 1.76. As it is my 1.0-Version, I did not include sophisticated dependency-procedures but assembled the RPMs as needed (say: planetfall is included with feudal states, etc). If I missed a dependency, please let me know. (Remark: I had a funny experience: installing the Base- RPM in the default "global" AddOns-Folder (/opt/Oolite/AddOns) instead in the home-directory (~/.Oolite/AddOns) let disappear the fighter-HUD. Is there an issue with the global-AddOns Folder?)

(Installing the rpm locally is of course possible: sudo rpm -ivh --prefix ~/.Oolite/AddOns ./OoliteAddOnsEquipment-1.0-1.noarch.rpm)

Greetings and feedback is welcome,
Crommy

Hi, Crommy, and first of all welcome to the Friendliest Boards This Side Of Riedquat™!

The question about recommended OXPs is a very common one, so I guess there will certainly be people interested in your choice and compilations.

One problem with bundling OXPs is of course keeping them up to date. In principle, you'd have to release a completely new package whenever one of the contained OXPs is updated. This may become rather unpractical and tiresome after a while. For instance, your Flavours package is no longer up to date. Anarchies 2.5 has a minor issue with Oolite 1.76, and the current and improved version is Anarchies 2.6. I don't know about the other OXPs mentioned, but they could also be outdated.

...and of course do take care and be aware of the various licencing issues. A read here is recommended.

Smivs wrote:

...and of course do take care and be aware of the various licencing issues. A read here is recommended.

Thanks for your recommendations,

while I was aware of the first (updates of oxp) and I think that it might be worth a try, I was unaware of the licensing issues. So, to avoid problems I removed the rpm and I'll check this issue first one by one and put it back online afterward or post the results of it here.

Greetings,
Crommy

Hej Grommy,

Also with combopacks, to me the "problem" remains the same : a player better read what each of the oxps contained will do, to make an informed decision if they want it or not.

I'm afraid there really is no easy way out.

Other than licensing issues and being nice enough to respect authors wishes, combo packs mean I do not have any feedback as to how many people are downloading my oxps. And if an oxp of mine is not popular(it may be but how would I know )then I probably will not waste time improving it. Something to think about before you take away the players choice to individually customize the set of oxps they want and the authors choice to have the information he needs as feedback.

Bet you didn't even think about the download feedback as something that the author would want.

If it ain't broke then don't fix it. Stop meddling please. And thank you.

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

if an oxp of mine is not popular(it may be but how would I know )then I probably will not waste time improving it.

Suggestion: don't tinker with the ones being downloaded - they are popular. Fix the ones that aren't!

In the 2nd World War, there was a unit that specialised in improving warfare by counter-intuitive means - I'm damned if I remember what they were called. Anyway one of their successes went like this:

When bombers returned with shrapnel or gunfire damage, the practice was to add armour to those parts of all the other aircraft of that type. E.g. if lots come back with wingtip damage, add wingtip armour.

This bunch of boffins came along and said: "No! DON'T armour those parts since the aircraft made it home despite being damaged. Instead, identify those parts that never come back damaged - those aircraft never make it home. Add armour where you never see damage."

As a result, more aircraft started coming back from bombing raids.

Don't 'fix' the popular OXPs.

SandJ wrote:

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

if an oxp of mine is not popular(it may be but how would I know )then I probably will not waste time improving it.

Suggestion: don't tinker with the ones being downloaded - they are popular. Fix the ones that aren't!

A nice analogy, and a very interesting anecdote as well, Sand.

But... the download info is more a gauge on how interested people are in the idea behind an OXP, rather than how successfully it delivers the author's vision. So CSOTB's rationale "this OXP concept is proving popular - is it doing everything I hoped for it" makes sense. An OXP to have the player attacked by 50 Thargoids every time they launch probably wouldn't see many downloads, no matter how well executed (in both senses) it is