Oolite Bulletins

I am posting here as I do not want to derail this thread.
There seems to be general agreement that Commanders who are no longer with us should be recognised, and sadly as none of us are getting any younger this number will grow in time. The most common suggestion has been to add memorials to the Tionisla Orbital Graveyard (TOGY).
I mentioned this to Selezen in a recent PM. I suggested producing a model of the Oolite Starbird which could have the late Commander's name where the 'Oolite' text is. I imagined something like this.

Selezen wrote:

The TOGY may be quite crowded and it might not be immediately apparent that a memorial is for a real commander, although using the Oolite wings might be enough of a distinction. It would still mean that a visitor would have to doa fair bit of searching to find a real commander's stone.

Maybe a separate graveyard OXP would be in order for this, making it easier for the memorials to be found. A simpler, uncluttered area with special significance for players.

The Lave Solar Graveyard. Head out to the star Lave and there you will find a remote, secluded area of space with a few memorials. For those special people who made the Oolite universe what it is.

My personal view is that the Tionisla graveyard is the most appropriate place, and I am not sure about the idea of a seperate OXP for 'real' Commanders' memorials - it seems a little morbid. What do you all think?
I pictured the Starbird Memorial as being of a similar size to the existing ones, in a bright gold with the text in a respectful purple. I think these would stand out very well and anyone wanting to seek them out would find them easily.
This would of course require a new model, and also implies that the OXP would need to be updated from time to time. As this work is now Eric's responsibility, he would have to agree with this.
So is this a good idea - what do you think?

I obviously wouldn't want to burden Eric with a commitment he doesn't want, but I think TOGY would be a good choice. It seems better to me to stumble upon this sort of memorial amongst all the others, at a place lots of players like to visit anyway for its spectacle, than to have a solitary cluster of real-life memorials separate from everything else. As Smivs says, that might seem a little morbid. I think using TOGY would place a memorial more "in game".

So now I'm morbid??

If Eric can't pick up the mantle, I'm more than happy to update the TOGY - I still have a air idea how it all works. Sometimes I have nightmares about co-ordinate plotting for hundreds of monuments...

So yeah - no problem designing a suitable memorial model and a base texture and diving into the co-ordinates again...

Selezen wrote:

So now I'm morbid??

Ha, no sorry, I didn't mean you are morbid, it's just the idea that there could be an OXP that people in the future could download to see 'Who's died'.
Also, one of the great things about Oolite is how 'small' we are. A special place doesn't seem to fit in with that ethos.

If you do create a memorial, add it to TOGY... an OXP explicitly for the purpose seems daft.
For the record: when I am invited to that great gig in the sky, I do not want a memorial of any sort.

Given what Ironfist's avatar was - how about a Bell X-1 as his memorial?

But I'd say - no separate area for "real" Commanders, just slip them in and let others explore and find them, if they so desire - those who know, will know. Those who don't, it won't make any difference.

The Bell X-1 is a thing of beauty... if I was a shipwright, it'd be second on the to-do list (after the P51 Mustang).

I'm also for inclusion into the TOGY, for the reasons already mentioned.

The TOGY OXP doesn't necessarily need to be updated all the time, by the way. Personal memorials can also be added as add-on OXPs, similar to the different YAH-sets.

Cody wrote:

OXP explicitly for the purpose seems daft.

So not only am I morbid, I'm DAFT as well???



I've never been so insulted!

Nah, not really.

Commander McLane wrote:

The TOGY OXP doesn't necessarily need to be updated all the time, by the way. Personal memorials can also be added as add-on OXPs, similar to the different YAH-sets.

That there's a good idea. A separate add-on to the TOGY including specific memorials was an idea in the first place anyway, so the scope for that should be there.

It might be a little much to have individual OXPs for each person - maybe a catch-all add on that contains everyone would be less "morbid".

Selezen wrote:

So not only am I morbid, I'm DAFT as well???

<refers the master historian to his very own website>

Ah, well, you see, that's...that's... Shut up.

I'm daft, but it works.

Do we want to do this then?

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Given what Ironfist's avatar was - how about a Bell X-1 as his memorial?

But I'd say - no separate area for "real" Commanders, just slip them in and let others explore and find them, if they so desire - those who know, will know. Those who don't, it won't make any difference.

I agree - I think it would be better to have to poke around a little bit - just like a real graveyard. Having commanders' memorials look different will help in finding them amongst the others.

Cody wrote:

Selezen wrote:

So not only am I morbid, I'm DAFT as well???

<refers the master historian to his very own website>

- nothing wrong with a touch of the daftness .

Commander McLane wrote:

The TOGY OXP doesn't necessarily need to be updated all the time, by the way. Personal memorials can also be added as add-on OXPs, similar to the different YAH-sets.

I already made a separate memoriam oxp when Steve Jobs died. I put the link in a forum message back than, but it was never added to the wiki. It is probably a good idea to include it in this oxp so you only need to update the memorial oxp.

When updating the TOGY oxp I already made the change in a way that it is easy to add separate oxps with memorial items. It only needs a more general name than.

For the Steve Jobs memorial I just used the default gravestones and default textures. On this I added the logo with an illumination map to only give a subtile change to the gravestone.

Nice one, Eric! Since you've done the majority of the work already, do you want to take this on? I can design a special Oolite Wings monument if you can add the fancy shaders to it...

Agree on adding to the main TOGY, and with the Bell X-1. The TOGY needs more ships in there anyway..