Oolite Bulletins

Ok, I got to thinking what was missing from the Ooniverse and realised that some random BIG ships were. These will be mostly eye candy, but will provide various amounts of tests for the iron assed wicked amongst you as they wil have escorts.

There will be:

A superlifter:

Basically just a big square hollow rig for taking broken down other mega ships from one place to another. They won't give much reward as they won't carry much and they won't have any independent weaponry, but are a test for the beginner.


A Hospital Ship/Station:

What it says on the tin. Not much, if any armaments, but well protected by escorts.

A Cruise Liner:

Some armanent, well escorted. May give lots of fur, gold, gems, etc.

Super Containers

Used by Aid Agencies to take aid to Fuedal/Anarchy Systems. Well escorted, well armed. A real test. Will occasionally contain Quirium fuel, which will go BANG!

Private Yachts

Very well armed, very well escorted. A test for the hardest iron ass, but well worth the effort.

Maybe: A Shipyard

These will be rare. About 0.05-0.01 or less. Later versions will have some dockables.

Maybe: A Shipyard

You know what is also missing from the game (yet) and could be fitting to your oxp idea?

A shipyard (or general station) with a big enough docking bay so that capital ships can actually dock without troubles & tricks ...



L

Yeah. Maybe the next stage will be Russian Doll scenarios: ie, a ship inside a dockable inside a dockable, inside a dockable, etc. Wonder if that is even possible (or if it is, multiple item menus could be 'layered'? Hmmm.

Really looking forward to some of this stuff! Keep up the good work.

Maybe the next stage will be Russian Doll scenarios: ie, a ship inside a dockable inside a dockable, inside a dockable, etc. Wonder if that is even possible (or if it is, multiple item menus could be 'layered'?

Actually, that is already possible - I have seen the Navy Juggernaut from my oxp successfully dock at stations, and smaller ships can dock at the Juggernaut ...

Creates new problems, too, as when smaller ships try to launch or dock with their carrier while that station is in the way, as the carrier itself is docking there

Looking forward to your capital ships!

EDIT: While thinking about it ... it could be done. Just create a large carrier, that launches and docks ships. Then create a supercarrier that can dock the carriers, and a deathstar that can dock supercarriers

Something like that would need a background story, perhaps a series of high-rank missions?

"What`s that moon over there?"

"Have you seen those mega-carriers?"

"Oh no ... the mega-carriers are launching carriers ..."

"Mayday, mayday! An army in the Tislonia system, three hundred ships appeared in five minutes from this small ... moon ... do you have any idea how much this ship costs ... *static*"

@ Lestradae - is your avatar the loading screen from the original C64 version of Elite? If so, where did you get it from? I still have both my C64s and my original boxed cassette version of Elite - I spent a lot of time looking at that screen - in the end I covered my power light with blue tack so that my parents didn't know that I was leaving my 64 on all night so I didn't have to wait for the game to load up the next day - sometimes I'd even get up during the night... Hmmm, sad really, I think there was one summer holiday where I didn't venture outside at all - surprised I didn't get Ricketts!)

DaddyHoggy, allow me to assist you on the quest for The Loading Screen:
http://www.solvalou.com/downloads_wallpapers.php, 4th in the list.

Available in various resolutions as well

DaddyHoggy wrote:

@ Lestradae - is your avatar the loading screen from the original C64 version of Elite? If so, where did you get it from? I still have both my C64s and my original boxed cassette version of Elite - I spent a lot of time looking at that screen - in the end I covered my power light with blue tack so that my parents didn't know that I was leaving my 64 on all night so I didn't have to wait for the game to load up the next day - sometimes I'd even get up during the night... Hmmm, sad really, I think there was one summer holiday where I didn't venture outside at all - surprised I didn't get Ricketts!)

another_commander was faster than me

And yes, it`s that loading screen.

I also still have my old C64, but it won`t start up again ... it`s dead, Jim.

I used to play Elite for over two years on and off (more like on) in my teens, somewhere in the middle 1980s ... which made it easy for me to become infected by Oolite

Also, the crashing with parents over this game, when my mother (who is now 70) saw Oolite on my laptop`s screen she said "Oh no, it`s that again"

It made me script something for the second time in my life (the oxp down there in my signature) ... first time was something in Basic for the C64 ...

There you got me, all bleary-eyed for the old times

Have fun

L

@ L - I too was in my early teens in the mid 80's and therefore very easy to get hooked on Oolite (as I was with E:TNK before that, as I was with Elite+ in my early PC days (at Uni) and the Amiga version before that)

@A_C - thanks for the link - I now have it on my wallpaper! (Funny isn't it thought that Piccie was the bees knees when it was actually a whopping 320x200 at what, 8 colours (from a pallette of 16))

Thinking about your shipyard, AmenBrick, I'm wondering if there's some way of having it kind of outside
Not sure how it'd work: a kind of "forecourt" with lots of ships lying around (which, I guess, would have to match the ships for sale when you're in the docked state - could be difficult). Docking wouldn't involve flyinging through a door, but maybe just flying into a predefined area, or being met by a "docking robot" or "flunky ship"?
The shipyard could have an iron arsed defense station if anyone starts shooting at the ships for sale.

And I hope your "charity ships" will take note of the economic state of systems... I guess they'd be flying from rich places to poor places, ideally those with relevant stuff in the description eg "scourged by a deadly war" "beset by a plague".
I wonder if there's a full list of all of these alongside planet names? A search'n'replace would make it easy to position OXPs alongside relevant planets.

Here are my first run by models, I'm fairly happy with most and they all have less vertices and faces than my smaller ship (except the shipyard which has more vertices, hoping that works. under 500 on wings, but objs seem to have more...)

All comments and crits welcome.

Here is the Shipyard. I'm pretty pleased with it. When I move on to scripting, I will see if I can 'park' some ships at it. Maybe craft some unfinished models... Not sure if I'd be able to match the sale room to the models, at least until I have more experience at scripting .

The textures, when shown, are just testers and will most likely be changed.



Private Yacht

Happy with this. Will add some turrets in v.1.1+



Cruise Liner

Nearly complete. May darken the main 'walls' and add a Company Name.



Biodome

This was going to be the charity ship, but I had a better idea. These lonely wanderers travel for lifetimes, sad reminders of lost biospheres and civilizations. What fiend would destroy these?

Needs darker window frames?



Hospital Ship

May get rid of that tail and make the head bigger. Need a more interesting texture for the white.



Superlifter
Not really complete and a bit of a pain, because its off the main axes, so I keep having to rotate to alter it. Doesn't need much more to it, it's just a giant tug after all!



Aid Ship/Battleship

I was going to make this the aid ship, but it looks so solid and menacing, that I think it will be come something military. When will I get that Aid ship done? Lol.

They're all excellent - really like the yacht - quite whale like. Military ship nice too - front end reminds me of a WWII Submarine. Biodome ships are a cracking idea - post generation ship? (i.e. some jump capability but engines now broken?)

Keep up the good work!

PS - Forgot to ask how big is the Shipyard - is each one of those slots big enough for a ship to get into - or is it to sit beside on top of?

I don't know what you're on Amen Brick, but keep taking the stuff, those designs are superb. When someone said to you think outside the box, you probably replied - why does it have to be a box!

Looking good - love the idea of a biodome. Perhaps an installation that could be placed near a sun?

Maybe your hospital ship's livery, instead of being inspired by a religion of the mythical planet "Earth" (there is no sign of such a planet in all the 8 galaxies as far as I know), could be that of one of the religious icons from the Tionsala (?) orbital graveyard, those great religioons (sic) that inspire so many good works in the ooniverse?
Nice models - i like the rusty biodome. Maybe you can make some kind of Tribble (trumble?) link there... a place to go for biological controls to get rid of tribbles, or maybe a place infested with them?