Oolite Bulletins

Update 27 06 2014 - Z-GrOovY BBS ShipPack

- First of all, I would like to thank Griff for creating the shader for the Adder based on his Arc Elite set. Without him, this shipset would not be so diverse in color, worse even, it would be buggy. I take my hat off to him. Also thanks to Diziet Sma for teaching me how to make Mac and Linux compatible plists, It's not rocket science, but if you don't know how, well there's bugs in the logfile, and stuff not working on all platforms. Last but not least, thank you ADCK for your Lifter model which looks as if it was meant for this set.

To make everything more simple, I decided to put all ships in one pack. Whether they are Oolite/Elite, Frontier, or not, since it's such a small download, why not download them all at once and choose which ones you want to install. This is an updated pack and resolves a few model issues for some of the ships that needed it, and some new ones were added.

Ship will work with no, half and full shaders. NPC and player versions ingame. Same values as stock as much as I could. Don't forget to read the readme:

new! All NPC's will switch on their green and red navigation lights when in the docking queue by installing this additional oxp:

Download: https://app.box.com/s/j9nurj03c1ojqa43nmsb

Ships included (in screenshot order):

-Adder
-Asp
-Cobra Mk 1
-Cobra Mk 3 (2 versions 1 with a rotating antenna and one without)
-Ferdelance
-Mamba
-Sidewinder
-Imperial Courier (with rotating nacelles)
-Anaconda
-Eagle Mk1
-Viper Defence Craft
-Police Viper (NPC)
-Orbital Shuttle (NPC and player version - for masochists ): It cannot witchspace on its own and has no weapon mounts. A challenge to say the least.
-Python
-Lifter (model By ADCK) (NPC and player version) - again, another ship for hardcore commanders who are on a shoestring budget.
-Gnat - (Yes with prongs at the front, yes )
-Moth (based on Griff's Gnat, same specs for the time being as the Gnat, just different model) + also with prongs at the front (no screenshot)
-Imperial Trader (rotating nacelles)
-Imperial Explorer (rotating nacelles)
-Boa
-Boa Class Cruiser
-Gecko
-Moray Medical Boat (in different colors, but always with a star)
-Moray Starboat (same as Mediboat, but without the star)
-Krait
-Transporter NPC and player version (no guns, no hyperdrive)
-Viper Pursuit Police craft; NPC only ! (1 exhaust)
-Viper Interceptor Police craft; NPC only (3 exhausts)
-Constrictor NPC Mission Craft - Not for sale, but see readme if you would like to fly it.
-Panther Clipper
-Griffin Mk1
-Puma Clipper
-Osprey X new!
-Worm new!
-Tiger Trader new!


- Misc:

- Escape Pod new!



screenshots:




Download: BBS Shippack includes desktop wallpapers 1920x1080: https://app.box.com/s/d68l3mc8g62qsiqsyuxp (16.6 MB)

Download: BBS Shippack- no screenshots, just the ships: https://app.box.com/s/7qeqfwcqe1a0ssnga7fy (no hi res screenshots - 4.14 MB)

Greetings and enjoy

D3RT13N

Hi 13. Good to have you back. Those designs look great!

Nice one

I especially like what you've done with the Adder and the Eagle

Hey; thanks Pagroove, it's good to be back, besides, these could look nice with your next planet pack. These 'color schemes' can be quite easily done, will find a way to have them show different scheme colors (a bit like good ol' Griff ships).

But sticking to the basics now, and peddling on.

As soon as I have a few ready, and optimized some of the textures, I'll release a first ship pack for everyone to play with.

Ta

These are absolutely fantastic dertien! Really beautifully reworkings of the original models and the paint schemes you've designed are stunning

@Redspear, and Griff; thank you for the encouraging words guys;

Looking good!

dertien wrote:

I will be adding a skinning file that anyone with a little bit of knowlodge of GIMP can alter, so you can all create your own favorite eagle Mk 1 look.
All layers have appropriate names and can be changed to reflect the skin color you want.

It's nice to see more ship creators doing this.. many thanks!

Excellent!

Courier is done and Trader too !


laterz

Beautiful

Coming up in the next few days; Puma Clipper






laterz

13

Now I'm wondering why no-one did versions of the Frontier ships before, ie Puma and Panther. Yes the Imperial Courier/Trader and Eagles have been done. It would be cool if they could all be done?

I think there are a couple of reasons for that, and I would say in no particular order that:

First, it is not an easy matter to put some soul to the more "boring" ships like the Lanner, the Tiercel, the Griffin, the Harris etc... They do not look "Elite" and personally I prefer FE2 to FFE, shipwise. The Saker Mk III, one of the starting ships that everyone seems to like so much is on hell of an ugly contraption, not to mention the Skeet Cruiser with its up and down going center section that always reminds me of a that plastic rod my grandmum uses to push carrots in a blender... The more interesting ones like the ones you mentioned, the Puma and Panther Clipper do have soul, and fit that Ooniverse in my opinion, but then comes the next issue:

Gameplay balance. The more ships you put in, the more you'll need to adjust different values of existing ships to create a valid spot for the one you added so that a player can identify himself with that ship and no other, and give it more value than just eye candy or cannon fodder. So I feel that indeed some good ships from FE2 have a place in Oolite, but I will do my best to fiddle with the specs to give it that character. It is also easier to make tactical decisions with fewer ships because after a while, you start knowing the gameplay specs, which is no easy matter if there is too much crap flying around.

Sometimes less is more. Not being overwhelmed by a multitude of choices, but still having a choice, makes that one ship of choice stand out for you so much more, and that's when you know that the game you're playing won't get boring too soon, cause you just got sucked in to that RPG gratification that Oolite can be all about.

Then comes the other question; nice to have 'em but who would fly 'em, (apart from the curiosity test run that is). Again, I don't see the Lanner becoming anyone's favorite.

And then comes the next question to which you already know the answer, once you got the choice of a few good craft that fit the fighter bill for example (Eagle, Sidewinder, Mamba), and we have a couple in Oolite now, who needs a Kestrel, a Falcon or a Hawk Airfighter ?

The Puma and the Panther are on my todo list, but after that I will need to look very hard to find one that is worthy of getting a remake. I'd rather make different versions of the existing ones (like Griff did) keeping the specs intact, but just for eye candy reasons.

Dertien

Thank you for this great oxp dertien, I am looking forward to future additions to this fleet.

These look quite original. Nice job.

Model wise that Puma Clipper looks like it could be used as a substitute ship for RSS Arafura. That nice oxp would benefit from such a facelift.