Oolite Bulletins

Hi Fellow Commanders,

I have almost made it into the dark side. Here is a new mission in galaxy 2 to help the shrews there gain rights as full citizens. I would therefore ask for some testers to step forward and brave the mission.

It can be downloaded from https://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/8/ ... Rights.oxz

I have taken and abused a lot of other peoples code to bring this mission into the dark. Thank you all, and for creating and maintaining oolite.

The mission takes place in Galaxy 2 when the player has reached at least dangerous levels and finds the system with "vicious shrews". Just dock at the main station to get an initial meeting and further details. You should have GNN OXP installed, to keep up with the latest news. Also, you will get some hints about where the mission starts. As you progress through, there will be a square the colour of most shews (brown) on the galactic chart to indicate your next destination. You should dock at the main station of a system when arriving at your destination.

You will need to be capable of defending yourself to finish this mission. A few addons to help protect yourself and attack your enemies will make life less like that of a rabbit and more like that of a fox. You will be attacked, so be prepared. A fuel scoop and an advanced space compass will come in handy, but they are not necessary. But what dangerous commander does not have those already.

The bad guys will be in an Ask Mk II, Cobra Mk. III, Krait or Moray Star Boat, all of which are vanilla game ships. They will have front and possibly rear pulse lasers, which they may have upgraded to front beam lasers. Their accuracy, strength and number will be adjusted depending on how many kills you have and how well your ship is equipped. The bag guys will get slightly harder and more numerous as the mission progresses. Get ready for a fight. You are fighting on the side of the minority and against the status quo.

You will need to install the extension Galactic News Network, oolite.oxp.Svengali.GNN.oxp. This gives a bit more background to what is happening as you progress through the mission.

Optional: This OXP will add some advertisements if you have YAH installed for stations, buoys or markets.

I hope you have fun helping out the little guys.

Why the fascination with shrews? Rather than, say, Mountain Seoids or Lobsters?

...And is "Zafrusteria" some sort of nod to Zarathrustra/Zoroaster?

Why the fascination with shrews? Rather than, say, Mountain Seoids or Lobsters?

Lobsters are already give rights and Mountain Seoids are not mentioned in the planet description texts or eaten as steaks.

...And is "Zafrusteria" some sort of nod to Zarathrustra/Zoroaster?

No nothing like that, way back last millennia, early 1990's. I needed a name that was made up for a game I was playing. It needed to be reasonably long and a little annoying to type. I started with 'Zaf' which came from Zaphod Beeblebrox, sort of. I made it longer then added the 'eria' ad the end to make it female because girls used to get attacked less

Hope you are having fun helping the shrews out.

Zafrusteria wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 9:03 am

Hi Fellow Commanders,

I have almost made it into the dark side. Here is a new mission in galaxy 2 to help the shrews there gain rights as full citizens. I would therefore ask for some testers to step forward and brave the mission.

It can be downloaded from https://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/8/ ... Rights.oxz

I have taken and abused a lot of other peoples code to bring this mission into the dark. Thank you all, and for creating and maintaining oolite.

[quite long text]

Congratulations that you created something, got it finished and are brave enough to show it to others.

I have not yet read all of your post. Just wondering: if you need to give that much advice upfront I believe something is missing inside.

All the information necessaey to solve the mission should be given to the player in slices when he needs it.

hiran wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 5:15 am

... Just wondering: if you need to give that much advice upfront I believe something is missing inside.

All the information necessary to solve the mission should be given to the player in slices when he needs it.

Quite agree...

but

1) one wants to tempt people to try it out - and they usually like to know something about it first
2) the information needed is already inside the OXP

I have not yet read all of your post. Just wondering: if you need to give that much advice upfront I believe something is missing inside.

All the information necessaey to solve the mission should be given to the player in slices when he needs it.

As Cholmondely pointed out all the information to do the mission is in the oxp and given out as the player progresses in mission screens and GNN messages.

The info I gave was to warn players they will get attacked and to be prepared for it. They will only need the GNN oxp installed. Also, fuel scoops and an ASC will help.

The only part of the mission I give away is:

The mission takes place in Galaxy 2 when the player has reached at least dangerous levels and finds the system with "vicious shrews". Just dock at the main station to get an initial meeting and further details.

I could remove the paragraph that beginning with: "The bad guys will be in an"
but i believe there others are needed.

What do you think?

Zafrusteria wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 12:03 pm

I have not yet read all of your post. Just wondering: if you need to give that much advice upfront I believe something is missing inside.

All the information necessaey to solve the mission should be given to the player in slices when he needs it.

As Cholmondely pointed out all the information to do the mission is in the oxp and given out as the player progresses in mission screens and GNN messages.

The info I gave was to warn players they will get attacked and to be prepared for it. They will only need the GNN oxp installed. Also, fuel scoops and an ASC will help.

The only part of the mission I give away is:

The mission takes place in Galaxy 2 when the player has reached at least dangerous levels and finds the system with "vicious shrews". Just dock at the main station to get an initial meeting and further details.

I could remove the paragraph that beginning with: "The bad guys will be in an"
but i believe there others are needed.

What do you think?

No need to worry.

At the moment people are looking at this thread. In another month's time they will only be looking at the Wiki (if we get something up there) and at the Expansions Manager descriptions (if you post this OXP there).

What do you wish the wiki page to be called? Shrews' Rights OXP ? Or might you wish to change the name of the OXP?

Zafrusteria wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 12:03 pm

I have not yet read all of your post. Just wondering: if you need to give that much advice upfront I believe something is missing inside.

All the information necessaey to solve the mission should be given to the player in slices when he needs it.

As Cholmondely pointed out all the information to do the mission is in the oxp and given out as the player progresses in mission screens and GNN messages.

The info I gave was to warn players they will get attacked and to be prepared for it. They will only need the GNN oxp installed. Also, fuel scoops and an ASC will help.

The only part of the mission I give away is:

The mission takes place in Galaxy 2 when the player has reached at least dangerous levels and finds the system with "vicious shrews". Just dock at the main station to get an initial meeting and further details.

I could remove the paragraph that beginning with: "The bad guys will be in an"
but i believe there others are needed.

What do you think?

For testers (and maybe players alike) the entry point for the OXP mightbe interesting. If all else is served when needed it is ok. Somehow I was assuming your post contained information that might be missing otherwise.

At the moment people are looking at this thread. In another month's time they will only be looking at the Wiki (if we get something up there) and at the Expansions Manager descriptions (if you post this OXP there).

It would have been sooner but I cannot spell!

What do you wish the wiki page to be called? Shrews' Rights OXP ? Or might you wish to change the name of the OXP?

I would go with "Shrews Rights OXP", unless there are objections or suggestions. I'm not good at naming things

For the Wiki page, I assume, something similar to the three long paragraphs from the first post of this thread will go as the Introduction.
For the Credits, I already have a list of people I've communicated with and code I've used.
Requirements, again from the first post above.

The other headings that appear to get used look like they are common or very similar to all oxp's:
Difficulty rating. Dangerous and above.
Installation
Licence
Download
Updates

For a picture on the wiki, I'm open to suggestions, all i have atm is a shrew steak and chips or a shrew with a placard. I looked at using one of the many AI image creation sites but got a lot of Shoes hold placards, hehe!

Coming soon: I still have some more spelling mistakes to fix/check, some testing and I'll post a new version.

Thanks for the encouragement and your patience.

Zafrusteria wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 4:21 pm

For the Credits, I already have a list of people I've communicated with and code I've used.
Requirements, again from the first post above.

The other headings that appear to get used look like they are common or very similar to all oxp's:
Difficulty rating. Dangerous and above.
Installation
Licence
Download
Updates

Just be aware the license is one of the most important items to declare. We've seen marvellous OXPs that just lack a license and thus never get into the expansions manager.

Just be aware the license is one of the most important items to declare. We've seen marvellous OXPs that just lack a license and thus never get into the expansions manager.

I agree. I have seen a few wiki pages saying that as this OXP does not have a license it cannot be updated. Which is always a pity after all the time spent creating them.

I was going to go with:
Licence:
This OXP is released under the Creative Commons Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike 4.0 licence:
* While you are free (and encouraged) to re-use any of the scripting, models or texturing in this OXP, the usage must be distinct from that within this OXP.
* I would appreciate an IM through the Oolite forum, if you are re-using any sizeable or recognisable piece of this OXP, please let me know.

Something a long these lines is used by a number of other dark side contributors. Which seems to give a good compromise between adequate freedoms and legal complexity.

Testing is going well so far.. You're not kidding about the 'adversity'.

I've noticed two things, one of which really needs addressing.

For me, using the default Oolite fonts, some of the mission storyline texts overflow the page, so I suppose should be more than one page. The text is broken around the 'not now', and 'go for it' links, presumably missing a couple of lines.

The other things is just a niggly thing really. The death comms could do with a bit more variety. There are less death comms than ships per location, so repetition creeps in really fast.

Those aside, I'm enjoying the OXP.

Cool. That was fun!!

My eye caught a few typos and a random extra word.
Suggest you do a search through descriptions.plist and missiontext.plist for these and tweak.

squeek(ing) should be squeak(ing)
shew(s|kind) should be shrew(s|kind)
formular should be formula
cought should be caught

This one's only in missiontext.plist
\"release"; should be \""; (release, is a random extra word at end of a text after a quote.)

Wiki page now up: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Shrews_Rights

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 9:22 pm

Wiki page now up:

And typo corrected. Shrews do it with echolocation!