Oolite Bulletins

Well...

There has been a lot of discussion on this board about what to add to the game, how to do this, how to do that etc. etc. etc.

This in itself is bloody amazing..

However (and after a few glasses of wine and a 30th birthday drawing near) I just wanted to say how fantastic a game this is. (If you dislike praise, memories of the original or, indeed, waffle then skip to another thread).

I first played Elite in 1984/5 and was hooked from the first moment. Indeed I confused asteroids with the Coriolis space stations and thought I was blasting them - an easy mistake when you are 7 heh heh.

Thanks to all those involved in this amazing adapation of Elite and all it's amazing extras.

If there are any budding OXPers who have the time, can I make one, tiny, small, almost mostly harmless suggestion...

Drop some (more?) subtle Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy references to the game... (if not done already)

No offence meant if this message causes offence, and if it does cause offence then sorry but no offence was made.

Ta muchly

I was thinking if someone could construct a Vogon Space Constructor with the proper personality... Just hit me up side the head with a brick wrapped in a lemon peel please. On the rocks!

i agree 100%. i lost years of my life to this game on all different platforms, coming across Oolite by fluke was just awesome. all my high-end expensive games have been shelved! the original game, after you'd become Elite and finished the missions, was kinda over - now w/ all the cracking coders on here, there's no logical end to the game at all. even if there's no new missions, the new ships people keep providing add to the "bird watcher" syndrome - i've put in a few OXPs, and on a run to a planet if i ID a ship i've not seen i'll haul over and check her out. add to that is the ability to make your own ships. sad i know, but i'm still taken by seeing one of *my* ships in an actual game

nothing wrong about suggesting star wars, hhgg etc etc, the good thing is, people who aren't into it simply don't have to upload it.

Murgh's Hognose tugships have a pretty grunty personality.
Expand on those and you'll be halfway there.

Personally I think it's far better to come up with original, fitting ideas for the Ooniverse than to say, for example, "Wouldn't it be cool to see Star Destroyers in the game?" or "Wouldn't it be great to have the Firefly ship?" I love Star Wars and I love Firefly, but I also love Elite, and don't see why it needs to have content from other sci-fi creations shoehorned into it - it's detrimental. (Influences are fine, though - it's blatant transplantation that bugs me!) Sure, you can always choose not to install, but... well, I don't see the point.

However! Hitchhiker's is a special case, as the game already contains several references to it. And while I wouldn't particularly want to see Vogon Constructor Fleets flying around (unless in a special "theme system" and nowhere else), it would be cool to have an in-game guide giving you quirky little bits of info on various systems, species, organisations, ships etc. Could be a purchasable upgrade, giving you an extra "screen" - and certain planet descriptions on the F7 screen could link to it too.

Would have to be well written, though - concise, funny, free of spelling mistakes and grammatically correct!

*EDIT* Oh, and ideally entries should "print out", with that wonderful beeping noise the Guide makes

AHEM! I AM MAKING A FIREFLY MOD THANK YOU VERY MUCH! GO SERENITY!

seem to be drifting off into the "we shouldn't have external influences except the ones i like" territory here. i'm for people making up OXPs of whatever they want - the more we keep fresh talent around here the better, AFAIC. the game may contain HHGG refs "already" but maybe that's because no one came along and said "no external influences" at that time..? if Giles/the community had set up a "elite stuff only" rule/protocol then it wouldn't be a "special case".

"Sure, you can always choose not to install, but... well, I don't see the point. " ....huh?

I love Firefly myself - i was going to work on a Serenity (hunted out the blueprints for her!) but i'll not bother if someone else is working on that - so i'd like to see Fireflies flitting about the lanes (@ Danman - Fireflies are unarmed! won't they be sitting ducks to pirates?). I don't particularly like HHGG (specially the film, bleh), but i think dictating what ships can/should and can't/shouldn't be included is a road we shouldn't be going down. the whole point of doing OXPs is that i can ignore the hhgg and download the Firefly if i want : if you're going to tell me that i can't have the Firefly but i HAVE to have HHGG bits (as per the above quote that seems to negate the non-download option) then....well, it's becoming more of your personal version of the game than an open one anyone can chip into.

Guys, you can do whatever you like - I was just stating my opinion! Which isn't, for the record, "no external influences except the ones I like" - because, as I said, I love Star Wars and Firefly/Serenity (and lots of other stuff too). What I meant by "I don't see the point" is, I don't see the point of adding content lifted wholesale from other sci-fi franchises into Elite/Oolite, because it's awesome enough in its own right, and I find such content jarring (for the most part - the addition of a "guide" would, IMO, be an exception).

Say I went to see a new Star Wars film (or loaded up a new Star Wars game) and someone on the production team, as opposed to designing some cool new species/vessels in keeping with that universe (or rather, galaxy), had said, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we had the Space Marines from Alien?" I hope you can see what I'm driving at.

As for the issue of "rules" - I have no right to set any, and I apologise if it sounded like I thought I did... I did open with "personally", y'know

*EDIT* A ship *inspired* by Firefly I would consider a cool addition to the game. The actual Firefly ship? Not so much. But, as Kenobi once said, you must do what you feel is right, of course...

get you, i just misunderstood a bit. i understand your point totally, but the whole point of the OXPs is that they're completely optional. if someone suggested putting the Firefly in the basic Oolite game i would complain myself for exactly the reasons you say. but when it's a little add-on that i can pick if a want, cool. there are ships out there i love, and being able to have them in a game - something an official game could never do for copyright reasons - is one of the great things about Oolite. and being able to buy and fly some of them, even better.

Killer Wolf wrote:

i lost years of my life to this game on all different platforms, coming across Oolite by fluke was just awesome. all my high-end expensive games have been shelved!

Agree, Seems there is quite a few of us ageing CGA era space traders here.

CGA? You young whippersnapper, in my time...

A-h'm, I'd better stop, I'm sounding like TGHC!

CGA what the Zork I, II, III is that?

Color Graphics Adapter. It gave you crummy definition and 16 colours palette - but from those, you had to choose which four of them you were actually using... Some veeeeeery old ATMs still use them.

It came between the monochrome Hercules (think of the IBM logo, the letters made of horizontal lines and remember the green screens on movies from the '70s and '80s) and EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter, with much better definition and 256 colours) video boards.

After them, came the VGA and SVGA, but those I think you most have heard of?...

Yeah! Thus spake a dinossaur...

colour? you were lucky. i remember the ZX81, PET etc which were monochrome. i also remember WHSmith etc selling green film for you to put over your screen to make it a "proper computer" greenscreen display :-D

Jeez, you guys are old!

Although I do remember this orange "TV Games" box that offered the delights of "tennis", "football" and Pong in monochrome... Oh no - I'm old too! Nooooooooooooooo! Etc.

@Killer Wolf - Yes, I see your point too. I'd just rather see OXPs that work with the rest of the game. But if others want to be attacked by a group of pirates comprising the Satellite of Love, an Alliance cruiser and the Doctor Who Tardis... well, good luck to 'em!