Oolite Bulletins

An idea for an OXP that is activated by the shift-N business.

When activated, a bunch of asteroids appear within scanner range, moving randomly. If any of them move out of scanner range, they re-appear on the opposite edge on the same vector (same direction and velocity). As the asteroids are shot into boulders, the boulders exhibit the same behaviour and ditto for the splinters.

Eventually, all the splinters are scooped or shot: then suddenly more asteroids appear but more than the first time and moving slightly faster. And when they are all wiped out, even more, faster ones appear. And so on, thereby increasing the difficulty level.

There you have it: Asteroids the video game ... as a 3D 1st person shooter!

For version 1.1 ... a little Thargoid appears at the edge of scanner range and wanders along, shooting randomly in the general direction of the player, until it witchspaces out at the far end.

A few questions: What about the fact that the scanner doesn't represent a fixed area (like in the original Asteroids) but moves together with the player?

Would a collision with an asteroid or boulder result in the immediate death of the player?

What about the various power-ups, for instance shields?

These would need some thoughts, but it all sounds eminently doable. It's really all about keeping track of the position of all these entities relative to the player ship, and then simply re-locate them to (-x,-y,-z) relative to the player ship if their distance becomes > 25600. Basically all that's needed is a ship script with a timer that does exactly this for each of the asteroids, boulders, and splinters. The objects would also need higher velocities than their standard counterparts. But that's basically it.

I like the idea.

I like the Asteroids game (always have done) - I often play it for ten minutes to chill after a heavy session along the 'lanes!

Commander McLane wrote:

What about the fact that the scanner doesn't represent a fixed area (like in the original Asteroids) but moves together with the player?

I know, it's great, innit? Whereas in the video game the ship moved around the screen, in the Oolite version the player is always in the centre. If you fly fast in a straight line, the asteroids will behave a bit like the Hired Guns wingmen and will behave a little oddly, but that will suffice as the Hyperspace function. They will be all over you again as soon as you slow down again. Docking will be fun at that point!

(You're supposed to do this in clear space, but who cares if you don't? Activating it near a Seedy Space bar would be fun!)

Commander McLane wrote:

Would a collision with an asteroid or boulder result in the immediate death of the player?

I originally thought not, although as the asteroids get faster at harder levels, eventually life will get unpleasant. I suppose there could be heavier asteroids at harder levels that do more damage.

Commander McLane wrote:

What about the various power-ups, for instance shields?

You get to play in your own ship, as it is.

Commander McLane wrote:

The objects would also need higher velocities than their standard counterparts.

They don't even need that at the very first level, just the subsequent levels.

The hardest part of it all would be making the wibbly-wibbly-wibbly-wibbly sound of the little space ship that randomly appears.

Important points: the asteroids must still pay you credits for shooting them, and the splinters can be scooped as normal.

Commander McLane wrote:

I like the idea.

Heck.. I love the idea!

We all love 'Asteroids' although the ship's motion is a bit (ahem) Newtonian

Good idea SandJ. Here's another one: instead of having the asteroids follow you, when you start the "game" have it note the position of the player and when he gets out of the defined "cube" simply change the players positon to the otherside of the "cube" of the play area and have a console message warning"Edge of screen...Caution!".

And while you're at it, actually make it a video game at the station that you activate by purchasing the "Asteroids Video Game". Doing so switches your ship to an appropriate vessel and launches you and positions you way out in space on the other side of the sun or somewhere far. The asteroids appear and while the game is playing, have the duh duh music playing in the background. As soon as you get down below a set energy level the game ends and you are transported back to dock with the station and your ship is changed back to normal and a high score is posted in mission information with a mission variable.

I like the idea.....I toyed with the idea of Oolite Space Invaders a while back....https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... 75#p149457.

If someone could make a big hollowed out Asteroid Oolite Scramble would be good.

How about combining the racing rings with scoopable "pills" and pursuing ghost ships for Pacman in Spaaaace! Power-pills could be q-bombs ...

Back to topic:

Voilà, a test case. (Link disabled, because outdated. Get the latest test version from the link below.)

Guild of test pilots, to the launch bays!

Commander McLane wrote:

Back to topic:

Voilà, a test case.

Guild of test pilots, to the launch bays!

You people are mad..., but in a very very very good way. Thank you very much McLane, and my wife is not amused.

New and improved test case (v 0.92) available through the guild of test pilots.

McLane - I can't seem to find this OXP anymore. Do you have a link for it?

I'm about to release the final version and have pulled the links to the test versions.

So I'm asking for just a little more patience.