Oolite Bulletins

I know this has been discussed a little before with no real outcome but I think a very basic comms system would add quite a lot to the game. One thing I noticed when I started playing the game again is that those long trips from beacon to planet could be made that much more interesting by being able to simply interact a little more with the ships you see en route.

It wouldn't need to be complex. A simple Hail Target would suffice. The ship could then ignore you or greet you and give rise to a few basic options. Whether, you see yourself as a trader, miner, pirate, bounty hunter etc. would determine the things you send thus giving you a better feeling of devising your own in-game character. A simple method of creating a basic hi - how are you? - I'm OK - Great, seeya kind of conversation would be nice with various options. Then there would be the more gameplay oriented conversations.

For instance, you could order another ship to jettison it's cargo for you (pre battle or during), or you could offer your own goods to others thus creating a kind of deep space black market system. I obviously don't need to go through all the possibilities a comms system would create. A straightforward SOS would also be useful. I know this has been discussed before.

Would any of this be possible in an OXP?

Zappa

Hi Zappa,

That would be very nice. For example a response could be:

,,Greetings commander Zappa, This is Boa-N17-23 travelling to Iscence. It's quite a nice day isnt't it but what do you want?

Select a option
1. Bather Goods
2. Sell Goods
3. Buy Goods
4. Exchange Equipment (missles, mines and bombs)
5. Ask for escort (auto join escort group, a suggestion I made earlier)
6. Ask for directions of Mark * (when in a random hits mission)

Then these options can each have each own sub-options

Heck, even just an ability to send a hail and receive a "Howdy", "How do", or "Hello" back again would be worth it. With the occasional "Whaddayawant?" or "Get bent" mixed in for variety, maybe. There could be a respect-o-meter based around your Elite rating: chatty Jamesons would get the rubber ear as often as not; Elite pilots could expect the occasional "Gasp! H-hello, Commander!" now and then.

Yes, yes, and yes! I have proposed it a long time ago (and probably wasn't the first to do so), and I still want it. The scripting possibilities would be endless!

zappa wrote:

Would any of this be possible in an OXP?

Here's the problem. If any of this would be possible in an OXP, then it would have existed for years now.

And the developers have made it clear that the implementation of any of it is on a post-MNSR* schedule.


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*Mythical Next Stable Release