Oolite Bulletins

Hi All!

Firstly this oolite is superb! Well done to the dev team

Elite was the 1st game I really got addicted to back in mid-80s with my Acorn Electron. Elite in 32Kb! But with this basic version I never got missions nor could I ever get out of galaxy 1 There was a bug in the Electron version I think!

Anyway - downloaded oolite yesterday and I am rated 'average' now with my Cobra MkIII. I've got some questions

1. Not downloaded any OXP - what is the recommended pack? I am running Linux (8.04 Ubuntu) on x86_64 (AMD chipset)

2. Keyboard (re) mappings. I don't want a joystick as I want to keep 'true' to the original elite (my choice). Can I just re-map the existing plist file? i.e. to get rid of the damn 'D' which is too close to S/W keys. Or should I create (if poss) a local keyboard.plist file and not overwrite the original?

3. Missions - never done them(!) Which mission would you recommend as a newbie?

4. Equipment. I've got some of the main kit:-
- Fwd Military laser
- Docking computers
- ECM
- Large cargo bay
- Energy Unit
- Fuel Scoops
- Witchdrive injection
- Scanning target Enchancement
- Multi-targeting system

I will probably get a rear turret - and maybe mining lasers on port/starbd later. Any tips on 'multi targetting system' - I've not managed to use it yet!

What equipment is worth getting next? I have about 10k credits and rising

Thanks!
Patrick/ (Commander Beeze)

Hi Beeze - welcome to the forums.

I too am a child of the 80s reliving his past!

I'm running a PC under Ubuntu 7.10 (the last upgrade from Fiesty to Gutsy did not go well so have resisted the move to Hardy) - what you can run will depend far more on what spec your PC is rather than what OS it runs - RAM, lots of it - the more you have the better it seems to run - and a gfx card capable of showing off all that lovely Shader eye-candy that's popping up all the time now.

As for OXPs - look on the wiki to be honest http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/OXP

Me I've gone for eye candy - anything Griff has done is fab if you have shaders and still pretty damn fine if you haven't. All the additional stations (Gitty Coriolis, Transhab etc) make it interesting to fly around. Your Ad Here will make you laugh and give you additional places to trade, as will Hoopy Casinos and Random Hits.

If you're still in Galaxy 1 then you want Long Way Round and Asteroid Storm at the very least for additional missions in that galaxy.

Add ships according to taste - there's a good description of most of them in the wiki.

Yes you can remap keyboard - also on the Wiki.

That's a start - add them one at a time and use Shift+F to check on your Frames/sec to check you ain't overloading your PC!

Enjoy.

DH

D'oh forgot to add - if you're still in G1 then throw in Lave oxp and the Tionsla Graveyard to make the game look like the Dark Wheel describes them and Tianve Pulsar is a nice place to visit if you install that OXP and Drew is working on an improvement even as I type!

Hi beezee, and welcome to the board!

1. There is no 'recommended' pack - completely your decision how close you want to stay to Elite or how different a gaming experience you want.

Personally I run some of the government-specific ones (Anarchies, Commies, Dictators) then some to make empty space not so empty (Deep Space Pirates, Sun Skimmers), some eye-candy (Lave, Diso, Tianve, Tionisla, Famous Planets, PA Groove Stations, Taranis Corp, Deep Space Dredgers, Generation Ships, Buoy Repair) and finally some missions (Asteroid Storm, Long Way Around, Random Hits) and probably a couple I can't remember right now. Basically I've kept away from ships from other universes (eg. Star Wars or Star Trek) as well as anything too powerful which I feel disturbs the balance.

2. Just edit the plist (but make a backup first..)

3. Asteroid Storm and Long Way Around are beginner missions in Galaxy 1. I think there were a couple of threads on this so good luck hunting!

4. Turrets can't be mounted on player ships.

The multi-targetting system works with missiles - lock on one target, then toggle to the next missile and lock it onto another target. Now you can toggle between missiles and your current target switches between the missile-targets. Allows you to either keep track of multiple targets, or fire multiple missiles at multiple targets quickly.

Have fun exploring, Commander!

- Micha.

Thanks for the swift reply Gents

Ok - will download some of those OXP for galaxy 1. I won't goto g2 for a while yet...

I'm running Ubuntu (8.04) 64 bit on my PC which is AMD64 6400+ (dual core) processor / 2Gb RAM / Nvidia Geforce 9600 GT card (has 512Mb video ram on it) - so I hope that's enough grunt for 'eye candy' OXP

Will make a backup of the keyboard mapping's file before I edit it. Ta.

Cheers,
Patrick/

DaddyHoggy wrote:

D'oh forgot to add - if you're still in G1 then throw in Lave oxp and the Tionsla Graveyard to make the game look like the Dark Wheel describes them and Tianve Pulsar is a nice place to visit if you install that OXP and Drew is working on an improvement even as I type!

Yup, hold fire on the tianve pulsar - a *much* improved version will shortly be available! Welcome to the boards by the way!

Cheers,

Drew.

@beeze - that's a mighty fine spec PC there - you'll be more than fine for the eye candy! (Mine's an Athlon 2800+, 1GB RAM 128MB FX5900XT)

drew wrote:

DaddyHoggy wrote:

D'oh forgot to add - if you're still in G1 then throw in Lave oxp and the Tionsla Graveyard to make the game look like the Dark Wheel describes them and Tianve Pulsar is a nice place to visit if you install that OXP and Drew is working on an improvement even as I type!

Yup, hold fire on the tianve pulsar - a *much* improved version will shortly be available! Welcome to the boards by the way!

Cheers,

Drew.

Cheers Drew...I'll hold fire if there's something in the pipeline

beeze wrote:

2. Keyboard (re) mappings. I don't want a joystick as I want to keep 'true' to the original elite (my choice). Can I just re-map the existing plist file? i.e. to get rid of the damn 'D' which is too close to S/W keys. Or should I create (if poss) a local keyboard.plist file and not overwrite the original?

The recommended procedure is to avoid editing anything inside Oolite.app. Copy it to the AddOns folder instead. There’s an old-school key mapping file you might want to try here.

Ahruman wrote:

beeze wrote:

2. Keyboard (re) mappings. I don't want a joystick as I want to keep 'true' to the original elite (my choice). Can I just re-map the existing plist file? i.e. to get rid of the damn 'D' which is too close to S/W keys. Or should I create (if poss) a local keyboard.plist file and not overwrite the original?

The recommended procedure is to avoid editing anything inside Oolite.app. Copy it to the AddOns folder instead. There’s an old-school key mapping file you might want to try here.

Can you be more specific?

I checked out the wiki
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite ... d_Controls

..and it said add your keyboard.plist to this directory
/usr/lib/Oolite/AddOns/Config/keyconfig.plist

I had to create this directory structure - bear in mind I have no OXP's and only the standard 'oolite' package via synaptic.

However, my key modifications do not work. Also the wiki gives a reference to linux keycodes which appears to be confusing.

I used the 'xev' command in an xterm window to get debug key information in hex and used the (scientific) calculator application to convert back to base10 (sheesh!). I wanted to remap 'd' (dump cargo) to 'Q' (caps)

<UPDATE>
Ok - It appears I can have my own 'keyconfig.plist' in my home dir, which overrides the system one

$HOME/.Oolite/AddOns/keyconfig.plist

This works
</UPDATE>

Furthermore, the wiki says the installed (default) 'keyconfig.plist' file is in:-

/usr/lib/Oolite/oolite.app/Contents/Resources/Config/

and my (recent) installation is here:-

/usr/lib/GNUstep/System/Applications/oolite.app/Contents/Resources/Config

Should the wiki be updated?

Well spotted - it's been updated.

Incidentally, after you make changes to your local keyconfig.plist make sure you hold down the Shift key during the next start of Oolite.

Micha wrote:

Incidentally, after you make changes to your local keyconfig.plist make sure you hold down the Shift key during the next start of Oolite.

Actually, keyconfig.plist is one of the two plists that are not cached (the other is logcontrol.plist), so any changes made to it are read immediately by Oolite, even without the Shift key pressed.

another_commander wrote:

Actually, keyconfig.plist is one of the two plists that are not cached (the other is logcontrol.plist), so any changes made to it are read immediately by Oolite, even without the Shift key pressed.

Argh!!

beeze wrote:

Also the wiki gives a reference to linux keycodes which appears to be confusing.

I used the 'xev' command in an xterm window to get debug key information in hex and used the (scientific) calculator application to convert back to base10 (sheesh!). I wanted to remap 'd' (dump cargo) to 'Q' (caps) ;)

You can use highly advanced syntax like key_dump_cargo = "Q". :-) (Unless you’re on a French keyboard, in which case that will map to Shift-A, unless you’re using a Mac. Simple, innit?)