Oolite Bulletins

How do you guys feel about a Frontier-style infinite Ooniverse, with no galactic jumps? Or perhaps an infinite number of chart sectors teselated together?

This is actually a bit of a thorny issue which has been discussed before (check out this thread). While it's technically feasible to add extra chart sectors, adding more and more systems ends up highlighting the limitations of the RNG, and all those extra planets just end up looking all the same.

However, cim has produced an expansion pack (found here) that changes the default system configuration into one big system with lots of planets, but at the same time has altered the game play into one that focuses on exploration. That might be worth checking out.

SotL is interesting stuff. If there was one thing I could transplant into Oolite, it'd be the hyperspace transit - steer it right or burn!

I think randomizing and hiding at the start of the game system types, governments and tech levels would provide something interesting to explore. But I can't find a believable justification for those information not to be common knowledge, or at least sold at an affordable price.

But. If a ninth sector were to be discovered, it could be fully randomized (it could even evolve during the game). It could be the Thargoid sector - with islands of unknown civilizations trying to survive. There, one could create a believable story that justifies the exploration (for one thing, since it's not a Galcop sector you have 0 Credits here, nobody understands your language and nobody has retail parts for your ship, so you'll might have to start with doing some profitable mining etc.). There's also one obvious big picture: be the hero and wipe out Thargoids one system at a time.

Ah yes, the mythical ninth galaxy (in Elite Plus) - did it really exist?

I like the basic idea of having eight galaxies like they have been in Elite, and adding further galaxies that can be different without making Oolite too different from Elite. We would have to think about how to go from no. 8 to no. 1 instead of no. 9, because this was possible in Elite, but this would be a minor issue.

The bigger question, for me, is what can be different from the first eight without changing the game too much (physics, ship types, trading system). Just some ideas:

- "uninhabited" systems (perhaps some rock hermits, but no Galcop station)
- alien systems (Thargoids - they must come from somewhere! - and perhaps others)
- "independent" systems without Galcop control (with different orbital stations, different police ship types, different rules, different money)
- evolving systems (this would have to include randomness and/or some kind of politics, perhaps "political missions" the player can accept)
- new core missions

Galaxy no. 9 could be more difficult as a whole, because a player who has gone through the first eight will have gathered some experience, money, and equipment.

Number 9 could be the grande finale of the game. Like in Ender's game.

Some obvious possibilities:

A chain of several systems without stations or hermits, you can only get through by scooping.
Thargoid systems.
A nebula with planet formation going on - lots of asteroids etc. - but no actual planets, and prices sky-high at the few rock hermits because of the risks of working there.
A black hole. Some bases orbiting it, the only places to refuel, but get too close and your ship is torn apart.

Perhaps the jump to galaxy nine could be random any of those possibilities, like a wormhole with one end fixed and the other moving around.
Quite the challenge to get back to galaxy 1 from this one