Oolite Bulletins

Hi Guys,

I desperately want to get started in changing / redesigning things in Oolite but having searched for last hour cannot easily find where to begin (and am getting bloody frustrated in the process). Any help would be great in answering the following questions:

1. Basic question - how to change the starting credits from say 100 to 1,000 (changing <<Credits>> in a saved game file simply seems to invalidate that saved game as it no longer gets recognized in the load new commander screen)

2. Best place to learn about creating an the .oxp - I can see a thread called "THings I wish I knew before starting an OXP" but it isn't very helpful. What I want to do is the following (its ambitious I know but I am experienced in programming)
a) Create more than 1 planet per system.
b) allow docking on planets
c) allow wandering around on planets (like in Sundog)
d) create new ships (am familiar with wings3D and can see a few useful tutorials on this)

3. I know where all the add ons are located but is there a pack that combines some of them or is it case of downloading each an every individual one that tickles your fancy. Are there any "Giant" mod add ons

Many thanks in advance.

2a-- use: system redux.oxp
2b --- use: planetfall.oxp

others can help with the other questions as I am not a modeller.

THanks I probably posted in the wrong section.

I'm afraid there is no 'wandering around on planets' any more than you can wander around the stations. This is because the player is the ship for all intents and purposes. Think of yourself as a hard-wired-in organic flight computer
Making ships is well documented around the Wiki and on the forom here. There is a Blender tutorial thread and also much advice on using Wings3D. There is a texturing tutorial on the Wiki which I wrote a while ago (which is still current but could use an update sometime), and plenty of advice about putting an OXP together.
It can be useful to use an existing OXP as a template, but make sure you choose a recent one which is more likely to follow current conventions. For ships,my Contractor is ideal for this as it is well featured wih a a custom AI and script and fully uses the 'materials' attributes for the texture.
Health Warning
Modding and making OXPs is addictive and can seriously affect your life

3. No, there are no ComboPacks, partly because nobody can agree on a list of "must have" OXPs (everyone has different tastes, and less powerful computers struggle and/or grind to a halt with certain OXPs) and partly because of the difficulty and hassle involved in updating the pack every time an individual OXP gets updated (which can happen quite frequently)

What you mean by "Giant" mod add ons, I'm not entirely sure.. mind elaborating?

Smivs wrote:

I'm afraid there is no 'wandering around on planets' any more than you can wander around the stations.

Although great things have been done with the [wiki]Cabal Common Library[/wiki] ...

1. Changing credits from 100 to 1000 is as simple as adding one extra zero at the savefile, then loading up that file in the game. The file is recognized by the game as "tampered with" but there are no other consequences. It certainly does not get invalidated. There is one thing you can check: is your editor adding a .txt extension automatically when it saves the file after modification? Removing manually any extensions added by the editor to the filename will make the savegame visible again. Anything ending in .oolite-save is recognizable.

Disembodied wrote:

Smivs wrote:

I'm afraid there is no 'wandering around on planets' any more than you can wander around the stations.

Although great things have been done with the [wiki]Cabal Common Library[/wiki] ...

Yep. Some things are possible via missionscreens. It's a bit work though to get this up and running.

The  Vector has probably something which can be considered walking *grins* Another example can be found in Thargoids  PlanetFall. I'm not aware of any other OXP which does something along that line.

hangar18 wrote:

1. Basic question - how to change the starting credits from say 100 to 1,000 (changing <<Credits>> in a saved game file simply seems to invalidate that saved game as it no longer gets recognized in the load new commander screen)

The most probable reason for this problem is that you have used Notepad to edit your save file. The best remedy is: don't do that. Use either Wordpad or download and use Notepad++.

Commander McLane wrote:

hangar18 wrote:

1. Basic question - how to change the starting credits from say 100 to 1,000 (changing <<Credits>> in a saved game file simply seems to invalidate that saved game as it no longer gets recognized in the load new commander screen)

The most probable reason for this problem is that you have used Notepad to edit your save file. The best remedy is: don't do that. Use either Wordpad or download and use Notepad++.

This makes me wonder what I used to give myself a pay raise - I was still using Windows then, but I never lost a file. Too bad that the basic editor for windows is so funky.

Anyway Hangar, adding more funds is the easiest of the things you asked . For multiple planets I use Deep Horizon Systems. If you happen to be using POV ray planets and Distant suns, you may find the following helpful:
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f= ... 60#p190386

Brilliant! Many thanks guys this is really helpful.

Thank you!!