Essential List of expansions?

[hedfulofspidrs]

Hello All.

First, let me express my delight at discovering Oolite earlier today. I still fondly recall trading heaps of computers in Elite on my old C64. I'm looking forward to starting all over again.

I've installed Oolite, but am interested in opinions on an 'Essential List' of Oolite eXpansion Packs. I already sniffed around the wiki, but am having trouble deciding where to start. I suppose I'm particularly interested in deeper gameplay content - missions, dockables, equipment, gemeral diversity etc. rather than visual bells and whistles.

So, any suggestions for all-important OXPs?
Is my question entirely pointless, given the vast variety of expansions?
Might a poll be a good idea?

Thanks in advance (also, apologies if this question has already been addressed elsewhere).

[Disembodied]

Hi, hedfulofspidrs, welcome to the boards! Friendliest place this side of Riedquat, or your money back ...

Yours is a fairly common question – see this thread, for instance – but given the vast variety and range of effect of the various OXPs it's pretty much unanswerable.

My first off-the-cuff stab at recommendations for deeper gameplay content, offering greater employment options and more involving economics, would include the following highlights:

[wiki]UPS Courier[/wiki]
[wiki]Random Hits OXP[/wiki]
[wiki]Galactic Navy OXP[/wiki]
[wiki]New Cargoes[/wiki]

There are lots more, and others will have their favourites – including specific missions rather than mission-generators – but these are non-specific to location (i.e. you don't have to be in a specific galaxy for them to work).

[Smivs]

Hi hedfulofspidrs, and welcome to the friendliest Board this side of Riedquat.
This is a question often asked by new members The fact is there is no 'recommended' list. People will use the OXPs they want and like and everybody's ideas are different.
Good general advice is to start small. Go for eye-candy first - new ships and stations etc and planets. What you use may depend on your tastes and computer. If you have shaders, many people like Griff's ships, and there are some excellent non-shader sets as well, mine (see link in my sig) being just one of many. Put simply you are spoilt for choice
It is usually best to add OXPs slowly, one at a time so you can get used to them and see what they do before adding the next. Many people make the mistake of grabbing everything in sight, then wondering what OXP does this and which does that.
Check out the OXP table on the wiki. It is a full list of all current OXPs and is sortable, so you can view 'ambience' OXPs together, or 'Missions' etc. This should make it easier to find what you are looking for.
Enjoy!

[SandJ]

Install Explorers' Club ASAP. It records where you've been so the sooner you get it running, the better.

[hedfulofspidrs]

Hello again, and thank you for the advice - much appreciated.

Since my post I've been practising docking; amazing how quickly it all comes back following a 20+ year absence from the Elite scene. I still recall the adrenalin rush when a) I figured out that the huge thing in front of me was a space station and b) I succeeded to dock without exploding c) finding that sweet system (Onrira I think) that sold the cheapest computers this side of the event horizon.

I will certainly follow your suggestion on a piecemeal approach to installing OXPs (I'm thinking of hours wasted trying to get a heavily modded Fallout 3 to run properly).

As you say, I'm spoilt for choice with expansions (always a good indicator of a classic game). I will also trawl through the supplied thread and see if anything catches my fancy, especially the non-location specific stuff...

FYI - I intend to write a blog post on Elite / Oolite on my blog (I'm a fan of open-ended games). Will post a link here when it's ready.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[Cmd. Cheyd]

I would agree with Smivs - Start with eye-candy only. Then slowly add more to see how it affects your Ooniverse.

If you have a reasonably capable machine and video card, Griff's Ship Set is wonderful. Also, a shameless bit of self promotion, but my Nav Buoy I think is a nice addition to his ship set, although not up to the same level.

There are numerous planetary texture OXPs - System Redux, System Demux, PoV Planets, and my own Deep Horizon - Systems.

Other than that - Start slow, and think "This is a cool OXP, but does it 'fit' my view of how the Ooniverse should be?"

[Cody]

my Nav Buoy I think is a nice addition to his ship set

Cheyd's Nav Buoy is vital in a Griff-ed Ooniverse... and it's very decorative!

[Commander McLane]

I would agree with Smivs - Start with eye-candy only.

That's kind of an odd advice for someone who has explicitly stated that they don't care for eye-candy, but for deeper gameplay content.

I suppose I'm particularly interested in deeper gameplay content - missions, dockables, equipment, gemeral diversity etc.

Most of these have their own general pages or categories on the Wiki, so those would be a good start:

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Catego ... e_stations
and
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Stations

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Catego ... pment_OXPs

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Category:Missions_OXPs
and
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Missions
or
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Missions_Old (outdated)

You may also be interested in OXPs that change certain aspects of the game mechanics:

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Catego ... anics_OXPs

[hedfulofspidrs]

Starting with small changes (even visual) is probably better - given that I'll need some time to familiarise myself with the basic game mechanics again (long weekend coming up, thank goodness).

A slightly off-topic question. Would you consider the original Elite as the first real 'open universe' and / or sandbox game? I can't think of any other candidates.

Thanks for all the advice.

[Duggan]

I thought I should add.

Jamesons can get fed up real quick of crashing into stations when trying to dock and repeatedly having to start over from their last save point. To this end I heartily reccomend Delightful Docking ;


http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Delightful_Docking


This will slow the stations down and make docking a good deal easier until you can afford some Docking Computers

[cim]

To this end I heartily reccomend Delightful Docking ;

Seconded. [wiki]Traffic Control OXP[/wiki] is also useful for docking practice, or [wiki]Lave Academy OXP[/wiki] has a pretty good docking training course.

If you're still near Lave, then [wiki]Tionisla Reporter[/wiki] makes a nice initial mission (I'd recommend, for spoilerish reasons, that as a new pilot you complete this mission before you install many other OXPs. There are a few other content OXPs that as a result of what they do make this mission quite a bit harder)

[hedfulofspidrs]

I think I got the docking right now; the process is easier in Oolite compared to the days I sweated it out on the C64. Must be due to that handily placed beacon.

I like the idea of Tionisla Reporter for an initial mission to get me started, prior to faffing with other mission-based OXPs.

Many thanks to all for the recommendations. A most civilised and helpful forum indeed...

[Eric Walch]

I agree that you should start with eye-candy. That only enhances the game and generally does not makes the game easier or more difficult. One that is both eye candy and a mission that starts very close to Lave is [wiki]Asteroid_Storm[/wiki]. To find out were the mission takes place you can read all system descriptions of nearby systems on the F7 screen, or let you surprise when you are in that system.

I would stay away from equipment oxps as those spoil things for a starting player.

[Smivs]

If visiting Tionisla, you really should check out the Tionisla Chronicle Array and the Orbital Graveyard

[Disembodied]

A slightly off-topic question. Would you consider the original Elite as the first real 'open universe' and / or sandbox game? I can't think of any other candidates.

I think so ... there were other earlier games which allowed the player to move "off the rails" (Time Pilot, for example), but they were still arcade-oriented, fixed-objective games. I can't think of any earlier games which provided the players with a universe and just let them get on with roaming about in it.

One small OXP which I feel makes a big difference to the game's immersion is the [wiki]Randomshipnames OXP[/wiki]. No effect on gameplay, except the continued compulsion to stop and check out what all the ships are called ...