New to Oolite - Absolutely fabulous

Ragz · Post by **Ragz** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:31 am

Well, i stumbled on this remake of my all time favourite game just a couple of days ago.
I was in one of those moods where i was thinking of the old days of gaming on my zx spectrum and a friends bbc micro.
Elite was the one game my mind returned to almost immediately.

So i decided to try and obtain a copy, but didn't want an old dos version anymore.
Well, long story short, i ended up finding Oolite.
And to the coders and writers of this outstanding remake - You made my day. Thank you.

All the memories flooded back as i loaded the game for the first time.
A few little extras in this one, and i love the whole idea of the addons. That is just a superb idea.

Joystick/gamepad use is decent, although not as good as keyboard movement. You dive and climb faster using the keyboard than with a gamepad/joystick i noticed. But otherwise, i can't fault this game one single iota.

Thanks for giving and old Elite player a chance to relive his days in space again.

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:51 am

Welcome back to an old addiction, Raqz!

Even those who didn't know Elite quickly become immersed on Oolite. The old guard spacers like us get it even better - the nostalgia of an old lost love plus the excitement of a new find.

Yes, Oolite is expandable, so besides the original Elite missions there are lots more to do and some more goodies coming out all the time. In fact, there are so many OXPs that most people's machines can't run half of them at once...

Ragz · Post by **Ragz** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:12 am

Well, i will be honest. i never even completed the original mission in Elite that you got when you had finally outfitted your ship with the mil. lasers and a galactic h.drive.
I usually lost my save games by that point (tape drives. gotta love them

)

If there were missions before that, i never knew about them. hehe.
Mind you, i didn't travel much, i stuck to a small set of planets and just did some trading with a bit of combat here and there.

One thing i've always wanted to see is a database of every single planet in the game. With a clickable image map of each galaxy.

Does that happen to exist anywhere? As if not, then that's my next project. (will need some assistance from everyone, but would love to get an 8 galaxy database of every planet and their descriptions). Would be akin to accessing a nav computer so that you could set up a route to trade along and get to see the galaxy at the same time.

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:31 am

Ragz wrote:
Well, i will be honest. i never even completed the original mission in Elite that you got when you had finally outfitted your ship with the mil. lasers and a galactic h.drive.
If there were missions before that, i never knew about them. hehe.
Mind you, i didn't travel much, i stuck to a small set of planets and just did some trading with a bit of combat here and there.

In the Elite Wiki you can look at the equipament, ships, missions, OXPs, etc. Dig in!

One thing i've always wanted to see is a database of every single planet in the game. With a clickable image map of each galaxy.
Does that happen to exist anywhere?

Yes, there you'll also find the descriptions and maps of the eight galaxies.

Ragz · Post by **Ragz** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:39 am

Lots of information to digest. Looks like there's a whole lot more to this game than i first imagined.
And you just saved me a whole heap of work on the galaxy mapping. Thank you. (although it looks like it's missing the type of world (Agr. / Ind.))

Now i wish i could code, and i'd volunteer as much time as i could to help with this project.

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:49 am

Ragz wrote:
Lots of information to digest. Looks like there's a whole lot more to this game than i first imagined.
And you just saved me a whole heap of work on the galaxy mapping. Thank you.

This board takes pride on being the friendliest BBS this side of Riedquat... as long as you're not a spammer or a troll!
Ask away and people will race to be the first to give you an awswer.

Now i wish i could code, and i'd volunteer as much time as i could to help with this project.

I can't really code either, but just by analyzing and C&Ping the existing OXPs and asking for help I'm making 'My First OXP'(TM).
Remember, whatever you create for Oolite must have open licenses so anyone can C&P it too for their own purposes.

Ragz · Post by **Ragz** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:03 am

i just saw a little thread (well quite a large one as it goes), about my bane of my old Speccy days.

Trumbles
Never again will i buy these blasted things. Although the fond memory of my ever expanding cargo still makes me laugh.

So nice to see so much of the original game in Oolite.

Perhaps it's time i made my own mission pack. I've got a thousand story lines i could make. Just need to learn how to make these oxp things.
I will figure it out,

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:19 am

Ragz wrote:
i just say a little thread (well quite a large one as it goes), about my bane of my old Speccy days.

Trumbles
Never again will i buy these blasted things. Although the fond memory of my ever expanding cargo still makes me laugh.
So nice to see so much of the original game in Oolite.

Then you might have a laugh with this thread...

Perhaps it's time i made my own mission pack. I've got a thousand story lines i could make. Just need to learn how to make these oxp things.
I will figure it out,

Please go ahead, but be advised that it might give you a bit more work than I said. Play the missions first, then try to understand the code.

Ragz · Post by **Ragz** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:33 am

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:
Ragz wrote:
i just say a little thread (well quite a large one as it goes), about my bane of my old Speccy days.

Trumbles
Never again will i buy these blasted things. Although the fond memory of my ever expanding cargo still makes me laugh.
So nice to see so much of the original game in Oolite.
Then you might have a laugh with this thread (had to remove link)...

Perhaps it's time i made my own mission pack. I've got a thousand story lines i could make. Just need to learn how to make these oxp things.
I will figure it out,
Please go ahead, but be advised that it might give you a bit more work than I said. Play the missions first, then try to understand the code.

that's the thread i saw. already reading through it, laughing. Although the OP said he never saw them in the speccy version. But i can assure him they were there. And i was never warned back then. I thought i was buying into a great bargain and then my pain began until i had to get myself destroyed to get rid of them. I had no idea and not sure if the sun skimming "how to cook a trumble" was a part of the original game.

classic reading though.

gives me something to do while i wait for our development team to give us (QA) the latest build of software to test so we can get it out the door for RC3 candidate and go home. (so i can play some more Oolite, hehe)

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:10 am

not sure if the sun skimming "how to cook a trumble" was a part of the original game

There was no hint - at least in the boxed Spectrum game - of how to get rid of Trumbles.

However lots of people were upset and one of the magazines gave out a hint.

Ragz · Post by **Ragz** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:25 am

davcefai wrote:
not sure if the sun skimming "how to cook a trumble" was a part of the original game
There was no hint - at least in the boxed Spectrum game - of how to get rid of Trumbles.

However lots of people were upset and one of the magazines gave out a hint.

Sounds like something Crash magazine would do

Ragz · Post by **Ragz** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:18 am

Question:

The comm log. Is this purely for show? I see the occasional "help me" style message pop up there and when i assist the ship under fire, they never seem to be thankful or anything. Is there a way to assist and acknowledge the mayday message?

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:37 am

That's odd. In my experience, ships often thank me for helping out. Probably purely coincidental.

Ragz · Post by **Ragz** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:52 am

Rxke wrote:
That's odd. In my experience, ships often thank me for helping out. Probably purely coincidental.

Maybe i'm shooting the wrong ship

Could be the problem. As i'm never sure which ship sent the mayday to be honest (is there a way to tell?)

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 9:23 am

Ragz wrote:
One thing i've always wanted to see is a database of every single planet in the game. With a clickable image map of each galaxy.

Funny you should mention that, since I created a database of them all yesterday. I'm currently building a web site around the database so it can be searchable. As for clickable image maps, I'm trying to work out a way to export the database information to a dynamic image map so that people can just click on it to go to a particular planet's information.

I should have a simple search script done by some time today, so I'll keep you posted.