Oolite Bulletins

E:D came out at the end of 2014
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Table of Contents for this Thread (Dec 2022)

•The OXP state of affairs (p1)

•Navies (GN & HIMSN) (p1)

•Naval stations, and naval station trade (p2)

•Ideas for a revamped Lave OXP (p2)

•Managing battles (p3)

•Montana's Invasion OXP (p3)

•shiplibrary.plist (p3)

•Reval brings the discussion back to the OXP state of affairs (pp3, 4)

•keyconfig.plist (pp4, 5, 6)

•adding more hotkeys (p5)

•update on Montana's Invasion .oxp (pp5, 6)

•Problems with convoys arriving via witchspace tunnel after they have jumped together (pp5, 6)

•Missing OXPs: Systems (eg Corporates.oxp) & Dynamism in the Galaxies (systems invading each other, falling to the thargoids or to pirates, etc.) (p6)

•Exploration in Oolite and Systems oxps (pp6, 7)



_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
I'd just like to brainstorm a little about the OXP situation.

We have maybe 1000 of these knocking around.

On the Expansions List we have roughly:

24 activities
157 ambiences
24 dockables
112 equipments
38 HUDs/MFDs
80 Mechanics
24 Miscellaneous
34 Missions
58 Retextures
116 Ships
6 Systems
18 Weapons

Now these numbers are of course slightly misleading, there are some duplicates, there are some which need the second 'fix'.oxp to run, there are some meta-OXPs (Smivs, Norby ...). And the categories that some have ended up in is whimsical.


We have several separate games so to speak: the Elite Trader OXP suite, Strangers World, and Cim's two SOTL games.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I would like to propose that we also produce some new meta-OXPs.

One for rank beginners to help teach the game. Done!
One for people with lousy combat skills
One for people with top-notch combat skills
One for people who want top-notch graphics
A Lave OXP with the various Lave addon's - updated for v.1.90 graphics! Done! And Diso. And Tianve.

Several for populating the different galaxies with different ships/buoys/stations etc.


And, is there any way we can get our Navies up and running? HIMSN? Galactic Navy (which pervades the bally wiki and has been jolly well bust for yonks!)? Done!

Ideally I'd like to see some System Navies which can fight each other with the player caught in the middle. Giving some teeth to Diplomancy, so to speak.


Any thoughts? is this all pie in the sky? Reasonable? Too humdrum? A waste of time and effort?

Edited to update

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun May 30, 2021 8:52 pm

Galactic Navy which pervades the bally wiki...

<grumbles>


To resurrect HIMSN, you'd need a pretty good coder, a gfx wizard and modeller, a few dedicated test pilots - and oodles of time/effort!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun May 30, 2021 8:52 pm

And, is there any way we can get our Navies up and running? HIMSN? Galactic Navy (which pervades the bally wiki and has been jolly well bust for yonks!)?

Ideally I'd like to see some System Navies which can fight each other with the player caught in the middle. Giving some teeth to Diplomancy, so to speak.


Any thoughts? is this all pie in the sky? Reasonable? Too humdrum? A waste of time and effort?

Galactic Navy is playable, I do fly (tweaked) missions all the time. While the market is broken you hardly dock at a navy station for trading, more likely to get your next mission.

The GalNavXT modules contain several system navies, I could activate some of them in several, smaller OXP's.

montana05 wrote: ↑Sun May 30, 2021 11:40 pm

Galactic Navy is playable, I do fly (tweaked) missions all the time. While the market is broken you hardly dock at a navy station for trading, more likely to get your next mission.

The GalNavXT modules contain several system navies, I could activate some of them in several, smaller OXP's.

So ... we could maybe have a Sothis-style override for GN fixing the markets? ... Is anything else broken? I just read it was broken and never took it any further, being incapable of doing anything about it!

And could we enact a battle? A siege? An invasion? ... Would it be easy? Or a major pain in the unmentionables? Spara's Station Validator could be actually used!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun May 30, 2021 11:58 pm

So ... we could maybe have a Sothis-style override for GN fixing the markets? ... Is anything else broken? I just read it was broken and never took it any further, being incapable of doing anything about it!

Fixing the market is pretty simple, we just need an overwrite. Either by using Spara's market script or adding a complete new market it shouldn't take longer than 1 h, including tests.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun May 30, 2021 11:58 pm

And could we enact a battle? A siege? An invasion? ... Would it be easy? Or a major pain in the unmentionables? Spara's Station Validator could be actually used!

We could use navy ships from GN and/or GalNavXT for battles and invasions. The Star War Remake WIP actually got an invasion with planetary bombing and drop-ships included.

montana05 wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 12:08 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun May 30, 2021 11:58 pm

So ... we could maybe have a Sothis-style override for GN fixing the markets? ... Is anything else broken? I just read it was broken and never took it any further, being incapable of doing anything about it!

Fixing the market is pretty simple, we just need an overwrite. Either by using Spara's market script or adding a complete new market it shouldn't take longer than 1 h, including tests.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun May 30, 2021 11:58 pm

And could we enact a battle? A siege? An invasion? ... Would it be easy? Or a major pain in the unmentionables? Spara's Station Validator could be actually used!

We could use navy ships from GN and/or GalNavXT for battles and invasions. The Star War Remake WIP actually got an invasion with planetary bombing and drop-ships included.

Super! Now maybe some detritus so that the Deep Space Dredgers can finally earn their keep!


So the only thing broken with Galactic Navy all these years was the blasted market? Nothing else? It seems incredible to me!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 12:24 am

So the only thing broken with Galactic Navy all these years was the blasted market? Nothing else? It seems incredible to me!

Not exactly, there are some other issues but none I know of that would break one of the missions.

montana05 wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 12:30 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 12:24 am

So the only thing broken with Galactic Navy all these years was the blasted market? Nothing else? It seems incredible to me!

Not exactly, there are some other issues but none I know of that would break one of the missions.

What about military behaviour? I understand that Cim et al wrote AI for convoys. Do we have a sensible AI for a fleet? Fleet vs Fleet? Fleet vs Guerillas? Fleet vs Thargoid poetry? Etc. etc.

What actually happens when a fleet attacks an orbital station? Or another behemoth? Does it explode? Do we end up with lots of detritus everywhere (Deep Space Dredgers ...)? Does it 'burn'? What about all the ships inside it? It all seems dreadfully complicated...

And what about HIMSN? Contra Cody ( To resurrect HIMSN, you'd need a pretty good coder, a gfx wizard and modeller, a few dedicated test pilots - and oodles of time/effort!) I understood that the ships were pretty much complete from my read through of the old thread (if that's what he's saying). So what was lacking? AI? Deciding where to station them?

If HIMSN is also in a reasonable state, then I would argue that we are phenomenally lucky. We have a strong navy for people who prefer that, and a weaker more realistic navy for those who prefer the opposite.

It is truly incredible what people have done for this game over the years, really!

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 12:52 am

What about military behaviour? I understand that Cim et al wrote AI for convoys. Do we have a sensible AI for a fleet? Fleet vs Fleet? Fleet vs Guerillas? Fleet vs Thargoid poetry? Etc. etc.

For starters, you can pack navy ships in a group and give them a S&D AI. Not perfect but it will initiate battles.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 12:52 am

What actually happens when a fleet attacks an orbital station? Or another behemoth? Does it explode? Do we end up with lots of detritus everywhere (Deep Space Dredgers ...)? Does it 'burn'? What about all the ships inside it? It all seems dreadfully complicated...

Every station (except the main station) could explode and, depending on your OXP's will leave more or less debris.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 12:52 am

And what about HIMSN? Contra Cody ( To resurrect HIMSN, you'd need a pretty good coder, a gfx wizard and modeller, a few dedicated test pilots - and oodles of time/effort!) I understood that the ships were pretty much complete from my read through of the old thread (if that's what he's saying). So what was lacking? AI? Deciding where to station them?

I got all ships from HIMSN in the GalNavXT modules, and they are working, except the carrier who got some flaws.

montana05 wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 1:14 am

I got all ships from HIMSN in the GalNavXT modules...

Are they already existing ship types repurposed for HIMSN?

Cody wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 9:43 am

montana05 wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 1:14 am

I got all ships from HIMSN in the GalNavXT modules...

Are they already existing ship types repurposed for HIMSN?

Keeper donated/created/rewrote a bunch of ships which he then repackaged as "NVSecurity OXP" (See Guide to Unlisted OXPs on the wiki).

Cody wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 9:43 am

Are they already existing ship types repurposed for HIMSN?

Except the carrier all ships are basically re-textured core-ships with some specifications changed.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 10:28 am

Keeper donated/created/rewrote a bunch of ships which he then repackaged as "NVSecurity OXP" (See Guide to Unlisted OXPs on the wiki).

Correct but some ships like above-mentioned carrier (unfinished) and the constrictor are not incuded there.

montana05 wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 11:43 am

Except the carrier all ships are basically re-textured core-ships with some specifications changed.

If I'd been designing HIMSN (which I wasn't, of course - that would've been way beyond me), I'd have wanted it to be a small navy that punched well above its weight. For heavy fighters, I'd have used Griff's Constrictors, and for Capital ships, I'd have had Orion-class Destroyers. I once asked a shipwright to create a custom model for me, but I can't find it (I suspect it's on an old HDD which no longer spins). Untextured, it looked like this:



To give an idea of its size, those recesses near the bow would have been docking bays for Constrictors.
Along the sides would've been point-defence turrets (probably plasma cannons).

Cody wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 2:06 pm

montana05 wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 11:43 am

Except the carrier all ships are basically re-textured core-ships with some specifications changed.

If I'd been designing HIMSN (which I wasn't, of course - that would've been way beyond me), I'd have wanted it to be a small navy that punched well above its weight. For heavy fighters, I'd have used Griff's Constrictors, and for Capital ships, I'd have had Orion-class Destroyers. I once asked a shipwright to create a custom model for me, but I can't find it (I suspect it's on an old HDD which no longer spins). Untextured, it looked like this:



To give an idea of its size, those recesses near the bow would have been docking bays for Constrictors.
Along the sides would've been point-defence turrets (probably plasma cannons).

If you have a model (currently preferable as .dat) I could work with that. Textures I can do myself. My first impression, 5 mounts fore, 5 mounts rear, turrets port and starboard.

montana05 wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 2:36 pm

My first impression, 5 mounts fore, 5 mounts rear, turrets port and starboard.

An Orion-class and its 4 (or 5) Constrictors would make a formidable little squadron!