Oolite Bulletins

Hey there!

It is so nice to see that elite has been resurrected in a much more updated engine like OpenGL. This made my week being in the hospital while my wife is recovering from her kidney/pancreas transplant.

My father, brother and myself used to play Elite 2: Frontier constantly when I was very young. The game was extremely complex but that did not bother us. In fact my brother being the younger one was far more into the game than I was at the time.

I wanted to ask a question that has been bugging me all week though since it seems like a huge break from the original games.

Why is trajectory not constant in this game? When I throttle down, the ship apparently comes to a full stop and this is further confirmed by the fact that the HUD does not a have a second set of cross-hairs to show which direction the ship is moving while not providing any thrust. This is a space simulation is it not? Mimicking the physics of space flight seems like a pretty important goal of a space sim, Plus, it was a feature in Elite and I am under the impression that remakes typically try to mirror the basic mechanics of said game.

Anyways, I am not bitching or complaining I just wanted to ask the question since it seems like there is such a vibrant and active community supporting this remake.

-Commander SMAKDY

Hi and welcome aboard... Oolite does not use 'Newtonian' physics (just as the original Elite did not), unlike Frontier.
Oolite is more of a space game, rather than a space-sim.

Understood. Yeah after I posted the topic and awaited for it to be approved I did some perusing of the results on Google for Frontier Elite 2 remakes and found pioneer and infinity in the works. There is another one out but, it looks like crap and I would have to do all those Himem86 modifications to my Win7 system to partake in it. So, that is off the table for the time being since I do not want to do that to my desktop.

Pioneer looks like the closest thing to a finished product in regards to FE2 remakes. Infinity looks way way better but I have had my eye on that for a couple years now because of its similarities to EVE and even though the dev is making progress he is a one man army it would seem and is probably never going to get it off the ground =(

Thanks for the response, I did not realize that newtonian physics was not included in the first game. It was just slightly before my time hehe

Hi SMAKDY and welcome to the forum.

As El Viejo says Oolite is a reworking of the original Elite which did not use Newtonian style flight (Frontier Elite 2 that you are thinking of did however use Newtonian flight).

Everyone has there own view on this but I was lucky enough to play both as I was growing up and certainly found the style of flight used in Elite, (and recreated in Oolite), to be much better with regard to the game play.

Me and my brother used to land and dock ships manually in FE2 =)

I fall into the newtonian category as you may well have already guessed. It has been one of my major gripes with EVE in my years playing that.

If you're a Frontier freak, then Pioneer is for you... though it's still in alpha phase. See the Pioneer sub-forum here.

Hi SMAKDY, and welcome.
As somebody who only played the original Elite 'back in the day', and now Oolite, I've never played an iteration with Newtonian mechanics, so I can't really comment on the relative merits. What I would say, though, is that the best bit of Elite/Oolite is the ability to enjoy some close-contact dog-fighting, something I understand just doesn't work with Newtonian physics.
It's a case of whatever floats your boat, I guess.

it actually did work out pretty well in dogfights because I could cut power to the engines and use the maneuvering thrusters as a means of aiming the forward laser. this means the entire ship acted as a turret if need be. This is something that can be extremely beneficial if your target overshoots and has to whip back around to get a shot or vice versa.

I look forward to giving that pioneer alpha a test when I get home!

It is very refreshing to see that y'all are so active on your boards!

Hi SMAKDY

Firstly, welcome to the Oolite board and yes as you have found out Oolite does not use Newtonian Physics. Pioneer does and even has a little "outpost" on this forum here https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8415

I have also recently updated Pioneer's ModDB page with Alpha 25 here,

http://www.moddb.com/games/pioneer

Also, you should drop by my little thread on the PC Gamer forum as it has handy links to the other Elite re-make First Encounters Elite III, known as FFE3D as well as lots of other goodies .

http://www.pcgamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12778

This is being worked on again by it's Russian devs, details here http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/topic/ ... t-or-dead/

I have to be honest though and say I love all the re-makes both Newtonian and non-Newtonian

Finally, I hope your wife makes a speedy recovery

Speaking of the Newtonian environment. Does any one know what happened to 'Black Angel'. This was 'fully' NP and missions were promised for later.

http://www.retrogames.co.uk/more/on/details/012161

Thanks to this thread, I'm now playing pioneer ... and I find it amazing.
I play oolite for the fun of trading and fighting. Exploring the galaxy with pioneer is fascinating.
Now, with oolite and pioneer, my social life is over!

SMAKDY wrote:

Me and my brother used to land and dock ships manually in FE2 =)

I fall into the newtonian category as you may well have already guessed. It has been one of my major gripes with EVE in my years playing that.

LAND? i wish we could do that in Oolite.. o.o

commanderxairon wrote:

SMAKDY wrote:

Me and my brother used to land and dock ships manually in FE2 =)

I fall into the newtonian category as you may well have already guessed. It has been one of my major gripes with EVE in my years playing that.

LAND? i wish we could do that in Oolite.. o.o

We can. Check out the [wiki]Planetfall OXP[/wiki].

JazHaz wrote:

commanderxairon wrote:

SMAKDY wrote:

Me and my brother used to land and dock ships manually in FE2 =)

I fall into the newtonian category as you may well have already guessed. It has been one of my major gripes with EVE in my years playing that.

LAND? i wish we could do that in Oolite.. o.o

We can. Check out the [wiki]Planetfall OXP[/wiki].

We can't. Planets are off-limits to interstellar space ships. If you want to visit a planet, you have to book a flight on a shuttle from the main station (it's not very expensive; and depending on which planets you visit, you can try to win your fare back in a hoopy casino ).