Oolite Bulletins

Last week, I bought my wife a Nintendo 3DS XL. A 20-something guy I know online said I should get the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for it, claiming it was "the best game ever."

I said, "No; the best game ever was Elite -- the only game I ever played continuously from the time I woke up in the morning until the time I went back to bed that night." I proceeded to look for videos online of the C64 and Amiga versions which I played, to show him what I was talking about (not that a 20-something kid would be thrilled by graphics from over a quarter century ago). In the related videos, I saw an Oolite video.

Well, holy crap.

I've had it for a few days now, but have hardly played it because I spend all my time tweaking things in it -- from editing textures (I did a lot of that in the racing simulator rFactor, even making an alpha channel tutorial video because I was so tired of continually trying to explain to people how to fix their reflection maps), to editing sounds, to editing an OXP to remove bits that were superseded (the Z_GrOovy_System_Stations seemed to undo the latest Griff stations, but it did have the new Octohedron and Tetrahedron designs, so I edited it to make it only include those), and even designing a new store parody sign and (default thus far) Sidewinder security ship for the Constores add-on.

Eventually I'll stop tweaking things and get around to playing! Unfortunately my old joystick's Z axis is very noisy so I'm constantly having to correct my yaw (using DXTweak, which only helps DirectX readings so doesn't help with the raw data Oolite reads, I'd have to set the value to a whopping 15 percent on that axis before it stops jittering), but I can deal with that, except when I try to pitch over 180 degrees and discover I had turned 90 degrees in the mean time!

My wife has already complained to her friends that I get home from work and go straight to fiddling with Oolite, then go to bed later than I should.

Welcome aboard, Keeper!

Keeper wrote:

Well, holy crap.

I've had it for a few days now, but have hardly played it because I spend all my time tweaking things in it -- from editing textures (I did a lot of that in the racing simulator rFactor, even making an alpha channel tutorial video because I was so tired of continually trying to explain to people how to fix their reflection maps), to editing sounds, to editing an OXP to remove bits that were superseded (the Z_GrOovy_System_Stations seemed to undo the latest Griff stations, but it did have the new Octohedron and Tetrahedron designs, so I edited it to make it only include those), and even designing a new store parody sign and (default thus far) Sidewinder security ship for the Constores add-on.

Eventually I'll stop tweaking things and get around to playing! Unfortunately my old joystick's Z axis is very noisy so I'm constantly having to correct my yaw (using DXTweak, which only helps DirectX readings so doesn't help with the raw data Oolite reads, I'd have to set the value to a whopping 15 percent on that axis before it stops jittering), but I can deal with that, except when I try to pitch over 180 degrees and discover I had turned 90 degrees in the mean time!

My wife has already complained to her friends that I get home from work and go straight to fiddling with Oolite, then go to bed later than I should.

Good to see you got stuck straight into what we around here refer to as The Dark Side of Oolite!

... and welcome to the friendliest board this side of Riedquat

Welcome. Nice to see someone directly going into the 'Dark Side'
On a controller note: I play with keyboard. Somehow this is (for me) the original feeling and it is not as difficult as you think.

Welcome Keeper, it's good to have you here ( and well done for being corrupted so soon ).

Well, when I've first saw Oolite (I can't remember, how I can find it), I was simply shocked. My first thought was "Oh my God, finally!". Finally a "modern" Elite, with so many add-ons (I'm a big fan of games, which can be "add-oned", and I'm collector such add-ons, for example for Orbiter I have over 3000 add-ons), and then I've tried to make Polish version of Oolite. Unfortunately, I have to break my work on it, because my professional translations were very time consumed, but...it is only paused, and I will continue it in the nea..far future.
I love Oolite, but It is very hard for me to fight with pirates, because, it is hard for me to see it from distance. In Elite everything was...brighter? Stars and ships were more visible and it was much easier to hit it from distance. I have very weak eyes, and this is a little bit frustrating for me.

Keeper, better don't angry your wife

Keeper wrote:

My wife has already complained to her friends that I get home from work and go straight to fiddling with Oolite, then go to bed later than I should.

It happens...

Welcome to the boards btw!

Keeper wrote:

My wife has already complained to her friends that I get home from work and go straight to fiddling with Oolite, then go to bed later than I should.

Welcome!

I too have found my bedtimes rolling into the wee hours of 2 AM in the morning for the past couple of months.
This game simply has SO much to offer in terms of developer intentions and randomized events that seem to make you want to stay up for just one additional milk run...

I have started making a space lane diary every time I play so I write a bit in it while jumping for sunskimming. Of course multitasking to the desktop does not always have the best consequences when suddenly attacked by a band of pirates on your way to the Legrees' Sun...

Firstly OSH, congratulations on your ongoing efforts to translate Oolite for the benefit of more victims players!

As for this:

OSH wrote:

I love Oolite, but It is very hard for me to fight with pirates, because, it is hard for me to see it from distance. In Elite everything was...brighter? Stars and ships were more visible and it was much easier to hit it from distance. I have very weak eyes, and this is a little bit frustrating for me.

Do you know that in 1.77, in settings, you can now adjust the gamma control for your monitor? turning it up to 1.1 or 1.2 (or more) can make a big difference.

pagroove wrote:

Welcome. Nice to see someone directly going into the 'Dark Side'

It's been my way for a while. I get a new game, first thing I do is open up everything that can be opened. Look at every texture; listen to every sound; what calls what?

With rFactor I would spend an entire night after downloading a new mod just adjusting car textures, specular and cube maps, and especially shadowing, tail lights and dashboard objects, so that they were done right, before I'd start driving the darn things...

On a controller note: I play with keyboard. Somehow this is (for me) the original feeling and it is not as difficult as you think.

I originally used a joystick on the C64, so a stick is more natural to me. Of course, on the C64 it was a digital stick and there was no yaw control, so now even with my old Sidewinder Precision Pro stick having a couple shaky axes, it's still a lot easier with analog control and being able to yaw. I can fly full speed into the docking bays from any angle. Who needs a docking computer? Luckily GalCop doesn't ticket people for speeding...!

Long time ago, in a world without internet, I played Elite on my Amstrad CPC 464 (the German version sold by Schneider). It was great. Finally Elite was my first game on my Atari ST, followed by Elite II Frontier. Frontier was the one and only game taking advantage of the accelerator-board (28 MHz). Over the years I discovered some other space-games, Escape Velocity, the X-Series, EVE online, Evochron, Dark Star One, freelancer etc.

Last week I read an article in the German magazine GameStar about Chris Roberts and David Braben, nine pages for Roberts, three for Braben. The article ends with a list of games you can find in the internet free of charge. Oolite was mentioned, so I followed the link. Now I try to find out my personal set of "must have" OXPs. Todays number: 38.

It's a fantastic game!

Unlike Keeper I've just been getting on and playing rather than muck around with OXPs which look like they'll keep me busy for ages. I heard about it two-three weeks ago on another message board, and well, here I am, it's 1985 all over again but I'm not faced with a 5-minute tape reload every time it crashes like I had on my old CPC464. Retraining my reflexes is happening slowly, I'm twice the age I was then plus change, and I've not even tried a joystick yet (the one I had on the old Amstrad was dire.

I don't know if the Constrictor quest wasn't implemented on the Amstrad edition or if I'd always got a galaxy or two ahead of myself before hitting Competent back in the day. Whether or not, I finally found it this time around, and it only took me until the second evening of duelling him before I finally sank him. (Too bad I rammed his escape capsule, but eh, accidents happen.)

But dear God, if anything Asps and Fer-de-lances have got meaner than they used to be...!

Hi Malacandra, welcome to the boards! If you can find a friendlier BB this side of Riedquat, we'll refund the registration fee. Asps are tough, right enough, and Ferdies are thin and hard to hit ... and thanks to the devs they're all getting smarter at about the same rate as I'm getting dumber. C'est la vie.

Hi Malacandra, and welcome.
Yes it's the same (good) old game we remember, plus!
You're probably wise to stick to playing - going over to the Dark Side (dabbling with OXPs) can become a bit of an obsession, and leads to loss of wife/kids/job etc But the Cookies are good!