Oolite Bulletins

Is anyone here able to run Frontier? I'm thinking of having Vequess (an Imperial system) as the main setting for my next Oolite-type fictional effort, and it would be very useful to have a screenshot of the planets in that system, as well as the in-game data for each of them. I've done a bit of searching, and haven't been able to find anything beyond a general description of the system as a whole (major imports/exports etc). Would anyone be able to help?

D.B. has made Frontier available for free (and there's a mod to make it run on Windows XP). Dowload link is on this site.

http://www.eliteclub.co.uk/

Don't know if your on Mac or PC, but if you have a look around the Elite Ring, spect there'll be a Mac front-end somewhere. Can definatley load up on PC Windows if you use the moded exe though. The orginal game won't run on a moden PC as it was written for DOS, but this mod gets round that problem.

EDIT:-

Haven't played it for years (due to Oolite), but I think I have a comander saved in the Imperial Systems. If you can't find the Windows front end, if you PM me your e-mail I can send it over. Think the whole thing is only a couple of megs.

I'm on a Mac - and unfortunately I'm not aware of any Mac version I looked for one a while back with no success.

If all else fails, I may be able to persuade a mate of mine to install it on his PC when I see him this weekend.

Would post some screenies of the Vequess System data but I don't know how to take a pic of the game running. Know how to do it with Oolite but not generlly.

In general to take a screenshot you push the Print Screen button on your keyboard and then paste the result into your image editor of choice.

Cheers UB!







9 bodies. All are numbered 1- 9 rather than having names.

3 Gas Giants. V-6 is just descriped as a "medium gas giant" and V-8 and V-9 are described as "large gas giants". The other bodies are described as rocky planets with thin atomsphese. No indiginiouse life in this system.

The only listed inhabited planet is V-1 (nearest the Star). Has one star-port on the surface ("Hooper"), where they live in a dome as there is only a thin natural atmosphere. In orbit is a trading post called "Dicken's Base". No Starports or Stations elsewhere. At least thats what the Imps claim in the entry!

Hope that helps!

Cheers, LB! That really is the express service

Just to clarify, if I may...

1. So the planet names are literally "Vequess 1", "Vequess 2", etc?
2. Is it really "Dicken's Base"? (If so, I may have to treat the apostrophe as an Imperial typo!) Also, is it indeed a "Gyro" station, as this link suggests? (And, uh, where's the entrance? At the other end, where that tiny cross - presumably a light - is?)
3. What would you say the colours of each body are? It's hard to make some of them out - grey, darker grey x2, blue/grey, red/brown, blue/white, red/brown, grey/beige x 2?
4. Is there mass and temperature info for Vequess 1?
5. I take it the blob I can see below Vequess 9 is part of the background, not a moon? (I never played First Encounters.)

Occasionally I wish I had a PC as well as a Mac - this is one of those times

*EDIT* This station-type thing is worrying me. Were there any "Gyro" stations in the original Frontier? And is "Gyro" the correct name - is it in fact an Orbital Trading Post, as this suggests?

1. Yes. (Apart from V-1, see point 4)
2. No its my typo - really Dickens Base. The "cross" is the station. The map is showing the planet and then below it the station.
3. 1,2, 3, 4 are sort of gray and createry like earth's moon in RL. "Magnificent Desolation" to qutoe one of the Appolo Astronaughts! 5 and 7 are like mars (1/3 mass of earth reddish, thin atmos). Gas Giants:- like neptune for 6 and Saturn for the other two).
4. Yep its "Biggs Hollow", "0.06 Earth Masses", "Surface Temp -69C", "Major Starports: Hooper", "Orbital Peroid : 38 days", "Orbital Radius : 0.125AU"
5. Tis a moon "V-9a" - "Barren rocky planetoid", "0.02 Earth Masses", "Surface Temp -256C", "Major Starports : None", "Orbital peroid : 7 days" "Orbital Radius : 0.005 AU".

On the type of Station. Not a Gyro here (These are at high tech places - equivilant of a Dodec or Torus in Oolite. This system is a total low tech dump!! Orbital Cities and Gyros were only found at major worlds.). This place is well low tech and I'm 99% sure its a Corollis Type. The High Tech Stations in FFE were only found near major worlds. Its decribed as "Orbital Trading Post" which is (as best I remeber without flying 70 LY there ) is the same as a Corollis in Elite / Oolite!

As an aside think FFE used a similar code to Elite to populate systems with planets in a similar "seed" way, but using planet formation therioes.

When your playing the game if you click on a planet / sun / moon or station the game gives you another screen giving the data i've quoted. But had to summeries it or would have had to post 16 odd screenies!

Roberto wrote:

Occasionally I wish I had a PC as well as a Mac - this is one of those times

You'd best put on your asbestos suit!

Well, I did used to have a PC, until... OK! *Dons suit*

Cheers for all that info, LB! I'm surprised to hear you call it a low-tech dump, though - I thought it was a mid-tech, actually-quite-important system, close to the heart of the Empire... I may see if I can have a look at it anyway this weekend on my mate's PC, just to be sure on the station.

Ah, it's been a long time! If only I still had my old commander saved somewhere...

Think its important as a mining outpost, but there's not much there except miners. As an imperial outpost the inhabitants are probabley slaves, working to produce raw materials and assembling them into some high tech stuff. But you won't want to live there!

a pretty dismal place, even as Iperial mining colonies go.
They import furs and foodstuffs and export industrial produce and slaves.
The furs are probably for fending off the cold.