Oolite Bulletins

Hi all,

Given that we currently have over 500 OXPs available, it could be very nice to be able to list them not only alphabetically by category in the in-game expansion manager but also by popularity (number of downloads). This could be particularly helpful to newcomers, as I heard from a couple of people getting into the game that they felt quite overwhelmed by the size of the OXP list. The wiki keeps track of the number of downloads of each `.oxz` file so would it be possible to use this information in the game somehow?

The only problem with that is that the download number is reset to zero if a new version is uploaded with a new identifier.
Also, worth stating that just because something is popular doesn't mean it is any good!

Smivs wrote:

The only problem with that is that the download number is reset to zero if a new version is uploaded with a new identifier.

Aye, there's the rub. Forgot about that since I always keep the same identifiers. That basically nullifies the idea.

Also, worth stating that just because something is popular doesn't mean it is any good!

Sure, I agree with you, but I still think that popularity is a kind of measure regardless of quality. It might have been interesting for newcomers to see what OXPs most people are using and that's a metric that's quite often used for this type of thing (think of plugins and extensions not only for games but also for software in general. Atom is a good example). But the identifier thing basically kills this discussion

gsagostinho wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:30 pm

The wiki keeps track of the number of downloads of each `.oxz` file...

Is this working again? Good news if it is!

Also, worth stating that just because something is popular doesn't mean it is any good!

<nods> I'll refrain from giving examples!

Cody wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:26 pm

gsagostinho wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:30 pm

The wiki keeps track of the number of downloads of each `.oxz` file...

Is this working again? Good news if it is!

I never realized if they were ever broken, but those numbers seem quite reliable to me.

Cody wrote:

Is this working again? Good news if it is!

Sorry, the counters are still not working.

You don't want to download the most popular OXZs; you want to download a set of OXZs that work well together.

Minetest - the game I'm currently playing with - has the concept of "subgames". Minetest has tons of mods like Oolite and you can download'em'all if you want. But what you'd rather do is to download a subgame, a set of mods possibly edited so that the whole thing offers a consistent gameplay, difficulty or theme.

With both Minetest and Oolite you can do whatever you want and that's a good thing of course, but there's a downside: you can be spoilt for choice.

So I'd suggest in turn to directly address the issue. One could for instance make it easy to create a pure dependency OXZ from your list of installed OXZs, so that you can share more easily your version of the Oolite game.