Oolite Bulletins

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:48 pm**

The creator of the Universe must be poor as he/she seems only to be able to afford 1 star for each system!

There's plenty of binary star systems around. Do you think it would be a good idea, or even feasible, to have binary & perhaps even trinary systems in Oolite? You could perhaps then have some systems with different governments controlling each star. They could then vie for power with trade / shooting wars.

I'm getting too excited here aren't I?

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:52 pm**

Try playing someting else... Atmost that could be made into an OXP, but don't count on it to be biult-in

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:08 pm**

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:
Try playing someting else... Atmost that could be made into an OXP, but don't count on it to be biult-in

I can't think of any other game that's as much fun as Oolite

I suppose it could be an OXP but it would be a big job.

Just day-dreaming

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:10 pm**

Purist Elite hat on...

One star, one planet - anything else is sacrilege.

Astronomical Hat on..

Double stars are atleast as common as single stars in our galaxy, so realism should allow this to occur within the 200 or so stars in the Ooniverse...

Practical Hat on...

Well, you can add extra planets for a start.

I wouldn't think it was too difficult to add the capability to 'addStar'?

You can sort of do it with addPlanet in a 'poor mans' sort of way already. If you do an addPlanet of sufficient size with an all white texture map you could make a double or trinary system. (though shadows etc, temperature indicators etc wouldn't work)... With a bit of imagination you could create red dwarfs, red giants etc...

I 'created' a 'Pulsar' for the tianve.oxp by using addPlanet, very fast rotation and a coloured texture...

Cheers,

Drew.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:20 pm**

GothStag wrote:
There's plenty of binary star systems around. Do you think it would be a good idea, or even feasible, to have binary & perhaps even trinary systems in Oolite?

“Ternary”.

This is unlikely to happen. More likely than, say, multiplayer, but not very likely at all.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:36 pm**

drew wrote:
I 'created' a 'Pulsar' for the tianve.oxp by using addPlanet, very fast rotation and a coloured texture...

Cheers,

Drew.

Just finished the black baron mission so I'm off to Tianve now to take a look at your Pulsar.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:53 pm**

Enjoy! Let me know what you think - it's a bit primitive, but I couldn't do much else within the confines of my programming capability (!)

Cheers,

Drew.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:08 am**

@drew: Have you noticed that the texture on the pulsar looks different than the plain PNG? I think that's because of the PNG not being of the correct ratio. I have recently created two textured planets, taking care that the texture really looks like itself when wrapped around the planet. Shall I try to work a little bit on your texture?

*****

As for multiple stars or planets in a system I have just written the following reply in another thread. Please allow me to just c&p here:

Myself wrote:
The simple equation 1 system = 1 sun = 1 planet is a heritage of the old Elite. In Oolite planets can (relatively) easily be added, and it has been done before. There are a couple of OXPs that add planets (or moons) in specific systems, like Diso.oxp (includes also an additional station), Lave.oxp or Tianve.oxp. There is of course Assassins.oxp, that makes use of this feature a lot. I myself have added two planets to a system in Galaxy 3 in Ghosts_from_the_past.oxp (WIP). Admittedly this is a long step away from having multiple planets in every system, but it's a beginning, and scripters are free to reshape more parts of the Ooniverse.

One thing should be clear, however: Having multiple planets does not in any way mean that the result will be a working planetary system. Oolite is not Celestia, although even that has been on the wishlist before. First of all, the Ooniverse is completely out of scale, as far as distances and speeds are concerned. In a realistic planetary system simulator you never would see much of the other planets (as little as you see the other planets from Earth: tiny, tiny dots), and it would take ages to travel between them, so in-system trade would be very boring. Second of all, in the Ooniverse all system bodies, suns, planets, moons, are fixed to each other. No movement, no orbiting, Kepler would be very disappointed. Whenever you enter a system, the sun, the original planet and all additional planets and moons are exactly at the same position.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:57 am**

Ahhh... now, you see, I had always carefully rationalised away the fact that the sun/planet perspective was always the same for any given system!

I thought, well, the witchdrive system configuration ensured that the 'end of the witch hole' had an exit feature like the swivel end of a vacuum cleaner, and that 'plugged' into every system in such a way that a relatively clear and safe path were established from the witch point to the planet. So, whenever you entered that system adjustments had been made to ensure you emerged in the same relative pattern, safe to transit to the planet....

...what do you reckon? ..."bullshit baffles brains...???"

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:01 pm**

Commander McLane wrote:
@drew: Have you noticed that the texture on the pulsar looks different than the plain PNG? I think that's because of the PNG not being of the correct ratio. I have recently created two textured planets, taking care that the texture really looks like itself when wrapped around the planet. Shall I try to work a little bit on your texture?

By all means!

Cheers,

Drew.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:55 pm**

Hey!
with bright shaders, this pulsar could now shine!
Get working Drew!

Anyhow.
Ahruman has already drafted the entity-properties for entity.sun, so get nagging.

here

Don't expect any instant results though, thinking about adding additional lightsources alone is greying the fur on our lazy programmer's back.

ps I really hated binary < ternary < quaternary < quintary etc systems in Frontier etc. they would really mess up the deadline on contracts.
Achenar at least made up for it in being a capital system with lots of ports and contracts to pick from.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:24 am**

I went to Diso just see to see the extra planets & beta station. It was very good indeed so well done that programmer!

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:34 am**

Lave is also pretty good in a busy kind of way.

Both were by Tobias Murgh IIRC.

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:27 pm**

I really liked the systems as they were in Elite II (Frontier) with the many stars, planets and stations and spaceports. I also like the one big galaxy. And the ability to land on planets. And the 3D layout of the local map. And the different sizes and ranges of jump drives. And the ability to target objects and stations with the autopilot from far away. And the ability to use the autopilot to chase other ships. And the way you had to plan what you wanted to use the available space in your hull for.

But Elite still worked better as a game.

If only Oolite could get those few cool features of Frontier...

(perhaps in v14)

Posted: **Thu Nov 01, 2007 6:32 pm**

Frontier just needed more features of elite.

Such as a inter-galactic hyperdrive to get to those clusters of systems 500LY away.
(I tried and my python just fell appart after -exactly- one year without repairs...)
+a comms system that did more than use standard replies of derrision would have been fun too.

Anyway: eventhough it had it's major bugs and failings, it helped me get through highschool on a C avarage.

Classic elite in fact gave me a head start in english, as my favorite game on the C64.

Oolite Bulletins

The creator of the Universe must be poor...

The creator of the Universe must be poor...

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