Oolite Bulletins

Hi there,

I'm a newbie who's just decloaked & I was wondering what I need to download to play Oolite. Pretty stupis question I know but there seems to be so many versions & OXPs & I was wondering which ones were stable.

Thanks for any advice.

Hi GothStag, welcome to the bb! The current stable release of Oolite is version 1.65, which you can get here. The OXPs are all extras, i.e. you don't need them to run the main game, but they do add to the experience. The best thing to do is pick a selection and see how you get on: they can all be plugged and unplugged without causing any great upset (unless you go and buy a ship from an OXP, and then remove the OXP it came from...).

There's a list of OXPs on the Oolite wiki, here. Pick a few and see how you get on! Although it's probably best not to download any real uberships until you've got a decent ship of your own to face them with.

Some personal favourite OXPs are, in no particular order:

Commies
Dictatorships
Behemoth
Fuel Tank
Ore Processor
Old Ships
Your Ad Here
M-Pack (rusties) -- useful if you want to downgrade your ship early on in order to afford some decent equipment!

And a couple of good mission OXPs for new Commanders:
Asteroid Storm
Long Way Round

OXP stability is a trickier matter... but all of the above have been around for a long while and have gone through several iterations, so they should be OK: I've never had any problems, anyway!

Many thanks Disembodied!

Happy hunting/trading!

Hi and welcome GothStag

I also like the Hoopy Casinos, Transports, Thargoid Wars and Thorgorn Threat.

And when you make it to Galaxy 7, Assassins should be the OXP to install.

Hi Gothstag and welcome.

There is a table of OXP's here which gives brief descriptions of what they do. When you download an OXP there should be a readme file for you to glean more info. I would suggest downloading the "eye candy" OXp's that give better visual effects eg "your ad here", you can also download Custom sounds and various huds.

Beware of some of the ships though some are pretyy powerful and if you meet them in your Cobra MkIII and you're still harmless, you are likely to be blown away.

Just want to add my own welcome to the above. Yes, Oolite 1.65 is the most stable release, although there are numerous bugs (i.e. 'ghost' ships and cargo pods, sticky HUD messages). Additionally, there is the FAQ wherein you'll find a wealth of knowledge regarding the Oolite experience.

Happy Trails,

Captain Hesperus
"See I can greet a new member without lining up a rifle on them! The threapy's working!"

Version 1.68 seemed actually to be more stable than 1.65, at least for some people, which is why it’s still available from GURPO.

One of my favourite "eye-candy" OXP's is Gritty Coriolis. Even after all this time I sometimes dock manually, just to get a good look.

installing OXPs in oolite is really foolproof, so just experiment a little with various packs.
Just copy the SOME_OXP.oxp folder into your oolite\Addons folder, no editing of files or special procedures required. Delete it when you want it out. simple.

The only thing to loo out for when removing OXP's is: don't remove an OXP from which YOU are flying a ship. You won't be able to load your save (untill you reinstall the relevant OXP)
Being docked to a station that is specific to an OXP could cause the same problem.
(having equipment coded for in an OXP? ie oreprocessor etc...I haven't had problems IIRC)

In addition to rusties I al;ways add Murgh's liners, tugships, My paintjobs, Wrex-teaser and Thargorn Threat, Aegidian's X-ships and Behemoth Griff's gritty coriolis. Griff specifically has very nice models and textures.

There's a german dude (on his private forums) who has made a whole set of texture replacements. I myself never bothered to install them, but you may find them interesting nonetheless.

Many thanks for all the advice chaps. When my work back-log is over I'll get downloading

All of your suggestions downloaded chaps!

Just got my 1st kill. A krait. 1 missile up the tail pipe then bang bang bang with the old pulse laser!

Score one for the good guys! When it comes to kitting out your ship, when you're short of cash it can be worthwhile visiting high-tech industrial Communist or Dictatorship systems. The Dictatorship Astrofactory and the Collective ZGF -- both marked "F" on the indispensible Advanced Space Compass -- offer upgrades at reduced prices. IIRC the Commies are slightly cheaper. Of course, by shopping there you'd be implicitly condoning repressive regimes... I sold MY morals for a 10% reduction on a military laser.

Cheers for the advice Disembodied!

Traded the Mk3 Cobra for a 2nd hand Mk2-X which now has basically everything! Bring 'em on!