Oolite Bulletins

Do you play in Strict Mode at all? I don't mean for testing purposes, do you actually play Strict Mode instead of full Oolite?

I don't (see here).

There's no 'squirrels' option - all polls should have a 'squirrels' option!

Smivs wrote:

I too wonder how many players actually use Strict Mode. Perhaps we need a poll

I was only joking!

I've never used Strict Mode, and don't ever plan to.

To me, Oolite represents what Elite would have been had current technology levels been available back then. It remains true to the "spirit" of the original - when I first played it (version 1.65, I think) I was amazed how faithfully the newer stuff had been integrated into it, making it so much more palatable to modern sensibilities without messing with the core concepts. And then you've got OXPs to tailor it to more or less exactly how you want it - and if the OXP you want doesn't exist, you can make it (or try to make it then beg for help fixing it on the forums!)

Strict Mode - at least in my mind, and I suspect in the minds of many others - should be an exact replication of Elite, maybe with a more "modern" look, complete with all the drawbacks and limitations that were inevitable at the time. They did a hell of a good job when they made Elite, but did they really finish it and thing "you know, there is nothing about what we've made here that I wouldn't change or add to, if only we had the capability"? I doubt it. Why would I want to step back to that? If I wanted a nostalgia hit, I could play the original on an emulator, or maybe even search the loft to see if the Spectrum's up there somewhere...

On a lighter (in other words, more silly) note - shouldn't Strict Mode have a feature where, once in every few attempts at starting a game, it hangs and says "Tape Loading Error"?

We seem to have one yes.

All right, own up, who did it!?

And does the person who plays in strict mode also play in wireframes?

Gimbal Locke wrote:

And does the person who plays in strict mode also play in wireframes?

Wireframe play is kinda spooky!

I did! and I do!

Or rather, did for a long time. My newest commander however, is using graphical enhancement OXP's, sooo.. I have it turned off. Even if none of the OXP's effect gameplay.

I played strict mode, because I couldn't get Elite working all that well on emulators, and when I reach Elite I want it to be as close to the original game as possible. I want to reach Elite in a fashion that Mr. Braben and Mr. Bell intended. I am too young to have played the original Elite, so this is kind of my way of achieving that.

That being said, I am not opposed to its removal.


P.s. I used Wireframe for a little bit, but it got kind of confusing trying to tell certain things apart. I'm not really sure why.