Oolite Bulletins

Here's a draft redesign for the Oolite website - http://addons.oolite.org/

• This is a temporary location for testing only. At some point, if people are happy, it will replace the current one at the real URL, and disappear from here. To avoid confusion, please don't advertise the new URLs outside this thread.
• The gallery is extremely unfinished and almost all the images are placeholders: nominations of screenshots taken with and without OXPs in recent-ish 1.79 builds will be extremely useful. It really needs at least six of each - if there's a few more then it'll select at random.
• The OXZ addon list is now "live" - PM me if you need an account to add your own entries. Once you have an account you can manage all your OXZs yourself. OXZ entries you add will work in the nightly builds - and you won't need to re-enter them later. It's pretty quick to repackage an OXP as an OXZ - as you can see I've been going through several of mine... - and it would be nice to have a lot more author diversity in the download list.
• A few more Oofic extracts would also be useful - as I said previously, I'm looking for "... ones that not only serve as an advert for the story but also as an introduction to the ambience of the Ooniverse and the situations which might turn up in a game of Oolite"
• Any other comments on style, content, etc. welcome

Nice one!

I think the list in the Expansion Packs page can be wider if the info in the right column is placed over or under the list, to make room to the Author column (as in the [wiki]OXP_List[/wiki]) what I would like to see and use as another order function.

The date in the "released" column currently show the last update of the manifest so I suggest to name it to "updated". For example I changed a mistype today in the manifest (after I realized that the identifier field is case sensitive and a capital letter denied the in-game download of my oxz) and the date is updated automatically.

Looking good so far, Admiral...

It can carry three missiles, each of which if used carefully might save your life.

... that should be four missiles (three supplied) on a Cobra III, yes?
Anything in particular you'd like a pic of, btw? I see you've already got my own favourite as a placeholder. <grins>

Norby wrote:

I think the list in the Expansion Packs page can be wider if the info in the right column is placed over or under the list

Agreed - moved, and author column added.

Cody wrote:

that should be four missiles

Fixed. Thanks.

Cody wrote:

Anything in particular you'd like a pic of, btw? I see you've already got my own favourite as a placeholder.

That one's the only one which isn't a placeholder.

As far as other pictures go, some things I'd like to include for the core gallery:
- some sort of fight showing off the new explosions and the new-ish laser/engine graphics, as well as the new shipset
- a big trade convoy on the spacelane
- a good shot of the new Coriolis, maybe with some ships docking/launching?
- a good shot of a new normal-mapped planet at full graphics settings
There are a couple of other core gallery ones which are easy for me to get.

For the OXP gallery ... there's always room for general pretty pictures of both combat and peaceful scenes. Thinking about other visually-obvious OXP changes ... a couple of OXP stations, mission screens, maybe a BGS launch sequence, or a HUD OXP? Some of those can probably be combined into one screenshot, of course.

cim wrote:

As far as other pictures go, some things I'd like to include for the core gallery: [...]

What file format do you want? The standard PNG from the screenshot, or should we convert it to a JPEG? Also, should they have the HUD on them, or not, and should I take out the build information?

SirArian wrote:

cim wrote:

As far as other pictures go, some things I'd like to include for the core gallery: [...]

What file format do you want? The standard PNG from the screenshot, or should we convert it to a JPEG? Also, should they have the HUD on them, or not, and should I take out the build information?

I'll probably convert to JPEG for the web, but I'd prefer to receive them as PNG.

HUD ... whichever works better for that picture - I expect most of the "core" ones will have the HUD, and some of the "OXP" ones too. Build information probably should be cropped out either way, though.

cim wrote:

... a good shot of a new normal-mapped planet at full graphics settings.

That would be core planets in the most recent trunk nightly, such as Maraus, yes? That isn't lit quite right, btw - I still had farsun and adjusted star-colour active.

Yes, those are the ones. Don't worry too much about the star colour/distance - so long as it's not in the frame it'll not be too obvious. If you can find a good one, somewhere the terminator is crossing land would be good, and maybe from a bit closer in?

cim wrote:

Don't worry too much about the star colour/distance...

This is good - I've used farsun for so long now, switching back to Oolite's core sun distance (and its ambient light level) breaks my immersion.

I like the manifest editor.. but since OXZ authors need to create a manifest.plist as part of the OXZ packaging process anyway, perhaps an option to upload a manifest could be included as well, to avoid the need to do a lot of copy and pasting?

Diziet Sma wrote:

I like the manifest editor.. but since OXZ authors need to create a manifest.plist as part of the OXZ packaging process anyway, perhaps an option to upload a manifest could be included as well, to avoid the need to do a lot of copy and pasting?

It's on my list, but to get that to work I'd need to write a plist parser, which isn't difficult as such but will be time-consuming. In the meantime, I'd advise authors to work the other way: start by creating the manifest in the editor (as a Draft), copy it into the OXZ, then when it's ready fill in the download URL and filesize (which don't need to be in the copy inside the OXZ) and set it to Active.

Cool.. I realised it would take a while to implement.. was just tossing it out there as a suggestion. I like your idea of using the editor to build manifests for new OXZs, too.

cim wrote:

• A few more Oofic extracts would also be useful - as I said previously, I'm looking for "... ones that not only serve as an advert for the story but also as an introduction to the ambience of the Ooniverse and the situations which might turn up in a game of Oolite"

Sorry, I put together a few suggestions from Coyote and Inside Straight some time ago, but forgot to post them up! Here they are here:

Twelve jumps out from Zaquesso found him sitting in the spacer bar on Bizaar station. Not a very wholesome place … or system for that matter. Apart from a ferocious firefight in Anisat system the run so far had been fairly uneventful, but he had been expecting some hassle here. This was a gateway system … if you wanted to get from Spaceway Five to the Extrinsic Reach you had to pass through here. Most anarchy systems were dangerous but Bizaar was doubly so.
— from Coyote by El Viejo

They were right on top of him and he was taking hits, lots of hits … the shields were dropping fast. Maxing the speed and pulling the Dark Star around he launched a missile at the first bandit, a Mamba, then rolled out aligning and firing on the second, a Fer-de-Lance. The Mamba bugged-out but the Fer-de-Lance came on, its mil laser scoring heavy hits … the fore shields failed and the energy banks started to drop fast.
— from Coyote by El Viejo

Ortema … first system in the Steel Halo … another gateway system, a choke point. All traffic to and from the Halo had to pass through here. When the Dark Star emerged local space was busy, very busy with lots of Vipers about.
— from Coyote by El Viejo

Main stations handle all the official trade to and from the planets which they serve, and though they operate round-the-clock – local time means little to starfarers – they do have quiet periods in the early hours, periods when incoming traffic slows to a trickle, few ships launch, and the malls become deserted. Even the bars empty out, and Gravity’s Rainbow on Raleor main was no exception …
— from Inside Straight by Cody

Hitting the injectors briefly, she sent Essence of Now hurtling in amongst the Vipers, looping and spinning, alternating between fore and aft lasers, scoring heavy, precise hits, while disdainfully ignoring what few hits they managed to land. It was a masterful display of combat flying – a fast and furious onslaught that caught the Viper pilots completely by surprise.
— from Inside Straight by Cody

I'd also suggest the following:

Spacer morality is different. There was a mass murder in the Southern Ocean Corporation a few years back. You probably remember the news. Ninety-five dead, over four hundred wounded. The most serious single incident for twenty years. My combat rating is less than a stone's throw from Deadly. I don't know exactly how many people I've killed, but it's probably about fifty times as many.
— from Extracts from the Tre Clan Addresses on Interplanetary Life by cim

There are just over two thousand worlds in Cooperative space. With the communication delays, deliberate isolation, natural insularity, species differences (though they're less important than many people think), the variety in cultures goes beyond what almost any of you can comprehend.
— from Extracts from the Tre Clan Addresses on Interplanetary Life by cim

Do not mess with the Cooperative's peacekeeping duties, is what I'm saying. Every single other rule – officially or not – is subordinate to “no intersystem wars”. If that looks unethical, then they'll ask you how ethical having millions die in an avoidable war is. It's a tough decision, how far to go in harming a few individuals to prevent a war. Make sure it's not you they're deciding it about.
— from Extracts from the Tre Clan Addresses on Interplanetary Life by cim

Ah good, I was going to suggest a Tre Clan extract ot two. Hmm... you been messin' with my ellipses, Big D?