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Hello Commanders!

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 2:38 pm
by madbilly
Hi everyone, nice to meet you all.

I'm ashamed to say this is my first post to the Oolite boards, despite being an Elite fan for decades.

I first played Elite on the PC at the end of the 80s, maybe 1990. At this stage I honestly didn't really understand what the game was or what to do with it (I was still at primary school) but the name and logo stuck in my mind. I also remember seeing it on the Spectrum at about this time, but I didn't play it.

Fast forward a few years and I found Elite Plus for the PC, it was great! I know that many people don't consider it as true to the original as some versions, but it had a nice manual, nice graphics and I enjoyed it.

A couple of years later I then encountered Frontier Elite 2, which kept me occupied until I played Frontier First Encounters. I honestly can't remember if this was late 90s or early 00s, but I played those games more than the originals.

In the early 00s I became very enthusiastic about all the Elite universe, following alt.fan.elite avidly. My brother and I made a few false starts on our own remake of Elite, I had the vision of making a tribute that included everything from the previous games, but my ambition far outstripped my capabilities. Somehow, although I'd heard of Oolite at this stage I never played it and I think with hindsight this is a mistake because Oolite seemed to become what I personally wanted to achieve. So, congrats to Oolite!

The rest of my life took over, and for almost 10 years I was away from the Elite universe almost entirely.

Then in mid-2015 I discovered Elite: Dangerous! I know, you're thinking "2015! The kickstarter began in 2012, how did you miss it?!", because I'm thinking exactly the same, how did I miss it! Well, I had many things going on in my life so I probably just missed it amongst everything else. Even when I did hear about it I thought it was a cheap rip-off, not the real thing from Frontier Developments!

So, as I am repeat offender at turning up late to the Elite party, please don't be offended that I've only just got to your part of it, the part that was for many years the metaphorical kitchen of the Elite party, where all the best times are had at any party.

Now, I'm working on an ED fan-project and I'm looking for info on the ships in ArcElite, like speed, hit points, etc. I wondered if the people who made Oolite, and the OXPs with ArcElite ships in them, have this kind of information? Or are the stats in Oolite not based on the original ArcElite ship specs?

Anyway, here I am. I'll try and find time to enjoy Oolite in between my ED sessions, and probably on my Linux laptop more than my PC.

Cheers :)

EDIT: Whoops! I meant this to be a reply to the Introduce Yourself topic, hence my Elite bio - please excuse the mess up, I'll pay more attention in future.

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 4:03 pm
by another_commander
Hi and welcome, good to have you here. As for the ArcElite ships, I guess the best way to go about it is download the expansion and skim through its shipdata files. I am not fully aware if the stats therein hold true to the original ArcElite or not.

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 4:28 pm
by Redspear
Hi madbilly and welcome to the Ooniverse...

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:26 pm
by Smivs
madbilly wrote: Thu Apr 20, 2017 2:38 pm

EDIT: Whoops! I meant this to be a reply to the Introduce Yourself topic, hence my Elite bio - please excuse the mess up, I'll pay more attention in future.
Ha, no worries. Good to have you aboard.

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:02 pm
by Cody
madbilly wrote:
Even when I did hear about it I thought it was a cheap rip-off, not the real thing from Frontier Developments!
Certainly not cheap, but a rip-off? Hmm... <grins>

Welcome aboard, Commander!

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:28 pm
by ClymAngus
Your not slothful sir! Merely fashionably late. The best way to be in all the talked about social circles.

Remember to pick up a map before you exit the station:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_planet_list

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:33 pm
by madbilly
Thanks everyone, this is certainly a friendly party!

I'll start with the OXPs and probably use them as my basis unless I can find out anything else. I did actually email Clive Gringras, but as expected he hasn't replied, maybe as I took the liberty of using his work email address which is on his law company's website! I think Warren Burch is a bigwig at Xbox now, but I didn't find contact details for him yet.

And the maps, yes they're very useful and I'm sure they apply to every version of Elite, except maybe the planet descriptions since I think the goatsoup string changed a little sometimes.

Cheers :)

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:32 am
by oldelitefart
Well i only found out about Elite Dangerous last week, and that was only because i watched an elite video on youtube where they mentioned it. :roll:
But another video mentioned this, and here i am.
Biggest difference between this and the original for me, docking is a doddle here.

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:36 am
by Diziet Sma
G'day oldelitefart.. from one old elite fart to another, welcome aboard! 8)

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:22 am
by Getafix
Diziet Sma wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:36 am
G'day oldelitefart.. from one old elite fart to another, welcome aboard! 8)
From one hillbilly to another, quotes like this, make me wondering how would an Oolite Party look like... ehm... "sound like", I mean! :D
EDIT
...adding karaoke with all the lyrics posted by the Commanders! :lol:

Welcome madbilly!

Re: Hello Commanders!

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 12:57 pm
by madbilly
Getafix wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:22 am
Diziet Sma wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:36 am
G'day oldelitefart.. from one old elite fart to another, welcome aboard! 8)
From one hillbilly to another, quotes like this, make me wondering how would an Oolite Party look like... ehm... "sound like", I mean! :D
EDIT
...adding karaoke with all the lyrics posted by the Commanders! :lol:

Welcome madbilly!
Well we'd certainly have an eclectic range of music!

Looking at the OXPs, their format using PLists, I've remembered that I couldn't play Oolite at first due to it being only for Macs, and by the time a Linux version was made I'd got distracted by other life things. I assume Windows came later still.