Greetings, The Early Days and Thanks
Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:39 pm
Hi Everyone
So I discovered & downloaded Oolite a few weeks ago. Now unlike many of you here, I didn't have the pleasure of playing the original Elite even though my first machine was the C-64 waaaay back in the day. Through the years, I would hear of Elite's legendary genre-starting reputation and regret having missed out on it. So when I stumbled upon Oolite, I thought, "great- now I get to see what they're all raving about!" I downloaded it, installed it and dove right in.
Well, it almost didn't happen.
After taking a quick admiring look over my brand-spanking new Cobra Mk III, I jumped right into the cockpit. The dock master said, "uh, you might want to RTFM."
"Manual? I don't need no stinkin' manual!"
The dock master shrugged his shoulders and made a call. "Fire up numbers 6 & 7. Yeah, clean-up in aisle 1"
I threw the throttle forward and jetted out of Lave Station into the wide, wide Ooniverse. Wow- very cool. But then I remembered that I just left with an empty cargo hold. No problem, I thought. Being the master trader that I imagined myself to be, I'll go back, load up with 100 tons of food, fly over to the next system- probably Diso- and sell it all for a cool million. Easy as pie. I should make 'Elite' in no time.
So I swung my Cobra around. No wait, that's right roll. Hmmm, I wonder if this bird can actually turn left & right. Anyway, I'll just climb, climb, climb and there's the dock entrance. Hey- the station's rotating. I wonder if I have to match its rotaton? Nah, probably not. The entrance looks taller than even my ship's width. Oops- I'm off center- just need to go left a bit. Oh yeah, this ship can't turn left. That's OK- I'll just roll & climb. There we go.
The last thing I remember hearing was the dock master on the comm to a GalCop Viper. "C'mon, just this once? I can make it look like he opened up on us. Damnit- we just repainted, too..."
That little scene replayed itself over and over. I was on the verge of deleting the program and declaring to one and all that "Oolite Sucks Space Balls!!" However, something kept me coming back to pound my head against this brick wall. It might have been the little voice saying, "I can't friggin' believe that I can't dock this tin can!"
One day finally, instead of seeing the usual "Press Space, Commander," I was greeted with my ship's status screen. I sat back with stunned amazement. I don't think I would have been more surprised had I parted the Red (or any other) Sea. While I would hardly say that I mastered manual docking, I was starting to get better at not decorating the station's decks and bulkheads with twisted metal fragments of what was my ship.
Overcoming this hurdle lead right into another. I travelled to the next system... and couldn't find the damned station! Great, just great. I can dock now (sorta), but I just can't find what I'm supposed to dock with. Fortunately, that was another problem that I was able to work out.
Nowadays, I'm cruising around Galaxy 2 still in my original Coby III (although far more souped-up than those early days). I'm rated "Dangerous" and haven't done anything too stupid to cause my ship to be turned into a floating debris field. I'm doing Random Hits (which probably makes me a bad person) and also running Rescue, Recovery & Salvage missions (which probably makes me a good person) so I guess that my cosmic karma eventually balances out.
Anyway, the point of this long-winded initial post is to add my voice to the chorus of others by saying a big, sincere "THANK YOU" to all the devs- be it the main program or OXPs. You guys have done an amazing job, and I hope to see Oolte continue to grow and develop. I now know why Elite and Oolite have the following that they do. I'd love to contribute by creating an OXP but for one minor reason that currently prevents that: I have no skills or talent necessary for it.
On that note: Happy space trails & always watch yer 6!
So I discovered & downloaded Oolite a few weeks ago. Now unlike many of you here, I didn't have the pleasure of playing the original Elite even though my first machine was the C-64 waaaay back in the day. Through the years, I would hear of Elite's legendary genre-starting reputation and regret having missed out on it. So when I stumbled upon Oolite, I thought, "great- now I get to see what they're all raving about!" I downloaded it, installed it and dove right in.
Well, it almost didn't happen.
After taking a quick admiring look over my brand-spanking new Cobra Mk III, I jumped right into the cockpit. The dock master said, "uh, you might want to RTFM."
"Manual? I don't need no stinkin' manual!"
The dock master shrugged his shoulders and made a call. "Fire up numbers 6 & 7. Yeah, clean-up in aisle 1"
I threw the throttle forward and jetted out of Lave Station into the wide, wide Ooniverse. Wow- very cool. But then I remembered that I just left with an empty cargo hold. No problem, I thought. Being the master trader that I imagined myself to be, I'll go back, load up with 100 tons of food, fly over to the next system- probably Diso- and sell it all for a cool million. Easy as pie. I should make 'Elite' in no time.
So I swung my Cobra around. No wait, that's right roll. Hmmm, I wonder if this bird can actually turn left & right. Anyway, I'll just climb, climb, climb and there's the dock entrance. Hey- the station's rotating. I wonder if I have to match its rotaton? Nah, probably not. The entrance looks taller than even my ship's width. Oops- I'm off center- just need to go left a bit. Oh yeah, this ship can't turn left. That's OK- I'll just roll & climb. There we go.
The last thing I remember hearing was the dock master on the comm to a GalCop Viper. "C'mon, just this once? I can make it look like he opened up on us. Damnit- we just repainted, too..."
That little scene replayed itself over and over. I was on the verge of deleting the program and declaring to one and all that "Oolite Sucks Space Balls!!" However, something kept me coming back to pound my head against this brick wall. It might have been the little voice saying, "I can't friggin' believe that I can't dock this tin can!"
One day finally, instead of seeing the usual "Press Space, Commander," I was greeted with my ship's status screen. I sat back with stunned amazement. I don't think I would have been more surprised had I parted the Red (or any other) Sea. While I would hardly say that I mastered manual docking, I was starting to get better at not decorating the station's decks and bulkheads with twisted metal fragments of what was my ship.
Overcoming this hurdle lead right into another. I travelled to the next system... and couldn't find the damned station! Great, just great. I can dock now (sorta), but I just can't find what I'm supposed to dock with. Fortunately, that was another problem that I was able to work out.
Nowadays, I'm cruising around Galaxy 2 still in my original Coby III (although far more souped-up than those early days). I'm rated "Dangerous" and haven't done anything too stupid to cause my ship to be turned into a floating debris field. I'm doing Random Hits (which probably makes me a bad person) and also running Rescue, Recovery & Salvage missions (which probably makes me a good person) so I guess that my cosmic karma eventually balances out.
Anyway, the point of this long-winded initial post is to add my voice to the chorus of others by saying a big, sincere "THANK YOU" to all the devs- be it the main program or OXPs. You guys have done an amazing job, and I hope to see Oolte continue to grow and develop. I now know why Elite and Oolite have the following that they do. I'd love to contribute by creating an OXP but for one minor reason that currently prevents that: I have no skills or talent necessary for it.
On that note: Happy space trails & always watch yer 6!
)
and I think half the regulars here probably had a similar experience. I'm glad to hear you seem to be settling in well, and having a blast!