Oolite Bulletins

Although I haven't had much time for computer games in recent years I did achieve Elite status on the Commodore 64 many years ago and recently found myself wondering if anybody had updated it for modern tech.

Well that's how I found my way here and having just flown out of Lave for the first time in over two decades I've gotten a little rusty but it sure was nice to be back in the saddle.

Sad to see that the main man is "stepping away" from the project because it looks like he's done a superb job so I hope it survives, and this is really what's prompted me to post:

I know zip about Objective-C (nor do I want to) but I do know something about websites and phpBB bulletin boards because one of my hobbys is running a site and forum for folks who make wargames terrain, a site called TerraGenesis.

I'm up to my ears in other projects at the moment so getting into Oolite is something that I really should save for the new year. I wanted to say "Hi" now though because although it could be that the folks who are now looking after this project are totally happy and confident with html/php/sql and phpBB, it could also be that they are not really into that stuff and could use some help. If it's the latter, you now know where to find me so feel free to ask if you have any issues that you think I might be able to help with.

Your help would be very welcome!

I'm one of those Oolite players with a wish list from here to Zaonce with stuff I'd like to see implemented.

Spreading the word might also alert someone to the state of the Ooniverse. I still hope and believe that the Navy will come flying in their Behemoths and salvage this game soon.

Doc cut the negative waves!

I think Giles left us with a bug free (pretty much) version for all platforms. Expanding is really down to writing OXPs. Great work with Commies and Sunskimmers. Johnsmith recently joined and has produced Lovecats (a great series of missions). There is an hugh amount, even someone like me can do with the OXP code. That was always the genius of the orginal desgine.

I messed about with codeing 20 years ago when as a kid playing Elite on the BBC mirco, but that is the limit of my computer experience. OXPs are faily easy to write, its just thinking up the ideas, learning some basics and having some artisic skill (for which I called in Ramon, Griff, Wyven and Hertic - having none myself), that takes the time! Having reached Elite, my own Commander is parked at Lave, waiting for a mission, but what a ride! There are already over 40 missions in Oolite (in 11 expansion packs) and the native ones. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, the Doc gave me one...

Thanks Andy, it's good to know that Oolite stirs people so quickly to pitch in and offer help!

As Little Bear says, most of the game has been refined to a most workable state, with a pretty simple system for adding OXPs to create variation, and plenty of people raring and eager to contribute.

There are still times when the game crashes, and we could do with 'someone' who can pick up and solve any remaining bugs that are found. If that is you, welcome aboard!

Sorry guys but I think you've missed what I was suggesting.

I don't know anything about the language in which the game is written so I can't help with that side of things. What I do know about is the stuff that is used to create websites and the phpBB system that is being used for the forum. It is with those areas that I was suggesting that I might be able to lend a hand.

Perhaps the guys here already know all they need to about websites and forums but if not, I'm willing to do what I can.

LittleBear wrote:

Doc cut the negative waves!

Sorry. I just got a bit carried away with the metaphors. I didn't mean to imply that Giles left a wreck og that the game is on it's last energy bank.

I still haven't made it to Lovecats yet and I still have loads to see even in G1 since I didn't do a lot of killing back then. Plus there's Assassins and other stuff else lurking ahead of me.

But being an OXP maker yourself you will probably have reached some of the same dead ends as me - and knowing that much of the stuff is in the engine already just waiting to be released for using in scripts is making my fingers itch.

Plus there are still bugs to be ironed out (I hardly ever go anywhere without encountering sticky messages) and many enhancement that could take a great game even further.

Thanks for your offer Andy, all help is very gratefully received, particularly by non techies like me, who would love to contribute more, but cannot.

You will find that Oolite still has the main feel of Elite, but has really been enhanced with it's vastly improved graphics and new ships and mission expandability, as you get more into it be prepared for some all nighters like the good old days!!!

TGHC

Doc,

I discovered the game in Jan 06 and played through to deadly just doing missions. My job means some weeks I'll work 4am to midnight 7 days a week. And then the next week I'll have nothing at all to do 9 to 5 and then work 6pm to 4am, sleep two hours and go to Court. Hence my discovery of Oolite and OXPing!

My own contribution was meant as a thank you to all who gave me that pleasure and should mean new players should be nearly elite before they run out of "stuff to do". The sticky messages are the only annoying bug I know of in 1.65, but everything is mod-able, even new equipment and weapons can be added by an OXP!

LittleBear wrote:

I think Giles left us with a bug free (pretty much) version for all platforms.

Do you mean that he stopped working on it? Is the "main Oolite" unmaintained (except for the actively developed OXPs)? (which I don't mean in a bad way; it always ran well for me)

Well, doesn't matter though, I'm too short on time to do any development (I didn't even play Oolite for more than a week)...

Ulli wrote:

Is the "main Oolite" unmaintained

ATM, yes.

And since there's not that many people well versed in objective-C, well...

Well, if one knows C or C++, ObjC is a piece of cake, really nothing difficult about it (just so that nobody here is afraid for the wrong reasons).

For Java programmers things are a bit different, due to manual memory management.

It depends if anything needs to be done (bugfixing). If there's just something small and concrete (and people can point me at it), I might try to take a look, but I'm rather busy ATM.

I know C and C++, but ObjC syntax is still a bit weird to me. It looks like they use brackets for the "->" operator, and they decided to adapt UML to ASCII for method definitions.

Not insurmountable, and I am ranked Elite in cut-and-paste. But like everyone else, I'm busy ATM.

A method call is not the -> operator. Smalltalk syntax is much older than UML. :-)

Is that what that is? Hmm... I was learning a bit of SmallTalk, once. I may have to go back and look at that again.