Oolite Bulletins

Greetings, I'm pretty new to Oolite. I've worked my way up to competent and have 150 kills under my belt. I've got most of the upgrades now and decided to do some missions. There's a great list on the wiki and one of them I saw was to become a navy recruit - I just have to dock with a "seccom" station. I have been trading betwen Xexedi and Laenin in Galaxy 1 and according to the wiki there is a seccom station just close to me at Tibionis - great!

I can't find the station. I've gone round and round the planet for an hour and can only find the standard trading station. I'm almost certainly being an idiot so you no longer need to tell me that, but if you could explain where I can find the navy stations or if there is something else I need to do before they appear I would appreciate it.

Hi, ClassicPCGames101, welcome to the boards! Apologies if this is a stupid question, but just to check: have you installed the [wiki]Galactic Navy OXP[/wiki]?

Disembodied wrote:

Hi, ClassicPCGames101, welcome to the boards! Apologies if this is a stupid question, but just to check: have you installed the [wiki]Galactic Navy OXP[/wiki]?

No and no - not a stupid question and no I haven't downloaded anything except the game itself. Is there a list of reccomended add-ons for beginners?

Hi, and welcome aboard - the usual advice would be to stick with eye-candy at first, and add OXPs one by one. The [wiki]OXP list[/wiki] is handy, btw.

ClassicPCGames101 wrote:

Is there a list of reccomended add-ons for beginners?

Classic.

ClassicPCGames101 wrote:

Is there a list of reccomended add-ons for beginners?

There are a number of lists - it's just that nobody agrees on them.

Generally, the best advice is to add expansion packs slowly and carefully. Some of them just add a bit of ambience and/or eye-candy, while others make quite substantial changes to gameplay (like Galactic Navy).

The [wiki]OXP List[/wiki] will give you an idea of what OXP does what.

Edit: ninja'd ...

Wildeblood wrote:

ClassicPCGames101 wrote:

Is there a list of reccomended add-ons for beginners?

Classic.

Thanks for the advice, how can I tell what missions are available without additional downloads?

ClassicPCGames101 wrote:

Thanks for the advice, how can I tell what missions are available without additional downloads?

There are some in-built missions - see [wiki]Oolite Missions[/wiki] (the in-built native missions are listed first).

ClassicPCGames101 wrote:

Wildeblood wrote:

ClassicPCGames101 wrote:

Is there a list of reccomended add-ons for beginners?

Classic.

Thanks for the advice, how can I tell what missions are available without additional downloads?

I wasn't offering any advice, but you cheered me up immensely and that's good. Spreading good cheer is, well, good.

Anyway, I misunderstood your original post where you said you had most of the upgrades. I thought you meant you had been at the OXZ downloader for most of the add-ons, but you meant you had upgraded the ship equipment in game, yes?

Any-anyway, nearly all the missions are in the OXZs from the in-Oolite downloader, or OXPs you can find from the wiki. Very, very few are in the core game, and definitely not GalNavy. As for a recommendation list... start with Explorers' Club and some from the "ambience" category, add ones from the dockables, missions & systems categories one at a time, not all at once, otherwise you'll soon lose track of which OXP added which feature you like/dislike. Avoid the equipment category.

Disembodied wrote:

ClassicPCGames101 wrote:

Thanks for the advice, how can I tell what missions are available without additional downloads?

There are some in-built missions - see [wiki]Oolite Missions[/wiki] (the in-built native missions are listed first).

Excellent, thanks for your help.

Welcome to the Ooniverse

My personal favorite ist the Random Hits OXP. Though there are many more I have not tried yet.

Also the delivery of parcels or passengers adds some exceitement once you have earned a certain reputation and deliver some high profile things that attrackt some dark buddies.

To see if you are ready for more, you may want to visit some anarchy systems first.

ClassicPCGames101 wrote:

Excellent, thanks for your help.

No problem! And of course the core game also produces, via the passenger, parcel and cargo contract screens, a constant stream of mini delivery "missions". As your reputation builds, they can get quite lucrative (and quite challenging).

Hi and welcome.
There are a few in-built missions which are triggered by various factors. The first will come when you are 'ready', and you will need more kills to prove yourself worthy
There are plenty of discussions around the board about suitable expansions, but just to re-iterate the accepted wisdom is that starting with eye-candy only is wise, and adding them in slowly gives you a chance to familiarise yourself with them.

There is one OXP that I regard as a must-have:  Random Ship Names!

The Galactic Navy is a fun OXP in my opinion, but it's somewhat broken in the current versions of Oolite and only likely to get more so as the release of 1.82 is fast rushing towards us with honking horn. I've read elsewhere about the licensing issue with it and why it's never gotten a proper update, which is a shame, but, perhaps we'll get something else in that line sometime.

For recommended OXPs, I say pick a style for your game and try to stick with it. If you like Griff's ships, then look for more eye-candy in that style, like the extra stations or trade outposts. If you like the older retro look, Smivs' replacement ship sets are great. Add at least one OXP to improve the look of the systems, like Realistic Suns, and BGS (BackGround Set) will add better jump-sequences, sounds, and other things to make the core game prettier.