Oolite Bulletins

Hi everybody

I am new to OOLITE. Really great game. I reached the average rating.
Now I have a couple of questions for which I could not find the answer..

-I read the OXP wiki, but it does not say clearly which OXP are best to
download for a beginner.

- Are OXP all compatible with each other? If yes, why not downloading
all of them ?

Thx

Welcome to the forums commander!!

There is no easy answer to your question because what opxs are better from others is something that has to do with your personal point of view but generally as a beginner you may need:

Some eye candy:
Sung textures
System redux.oxp (you may want to also install famous planets oxp)
Customsounds.oxp (more sounds)

Something that intensifies the war with the thargoids:
Behemoth.oxp
Behemoth war.oxp
Galactive navy.oxp
Thorgon treat.oxp

Some very nice flavors:
Commies.oxp
Dictators oxp

Some oxps that add variety to the game (stations, ships, cargo canisters, asteroids ect)

Asteroid storm.oxp
Cargo & wrecks.oxp
Globe stations
Torus stations
Transports oxp

And finally some mission packs
Ups courier
Military fiasco

There are no serious oxp conflicts as far as I know so you may install all the oxps you want but bear in mind that some oxps have a dependency with others. For example galactive navy and behemoth space war oxps need the behemoth oxp in order to work properly. Those cases are very few and always the writer of the oxp warn you (in the wiki oxp page or in the readme.txt inside the oxp) about those dependencies.

Also beware that some oxps introduce some very dangerous opponents in oolite (renegade pirates for example) so it will not be so wise to install them before you upgrade you ship with some offensive and defensive equipment and gain some experience as a commander

Most Mission OXPs will have a trigger such as a particular kill count before you are offered a mission, so you will find that the missions you can take should not be beyond your capabilities. You would get mullered by the stolen ships in the Militray oxp, if you tried the mission as a young Jameson, but to stop this the OXP won't activate even if installed until you have 1,000 or more kills. Similarly writers have used the Galaxy number you are in as a measure of your experience. The missions in Galaxy 1 are easy, those in G2 are a bit harder but still not too tricky. Assassins for example will throw you in the soup at times, but for this reason I set it in G7. I'm assuming if you played your way through the first 6 Galaxies and have done the missions there and can afford the 6 Galactic Hyperspace drives to get to G7, you are now a bad ass!

Ships OXPs are really a matter of taste. You migh find the Thargon Threat and Second Wave OXPs make the Thargoids a bit too hot to handle if you installed them alone as a young Jameson. But if you also installed the Navy OXPs to give the human Navy similar firepower, thing would balance themselves out. As Ark says Renegade Pirates is definatley one to avoid without an Iron Ass, but ship OXPs generally make a new ship available to both the good guys and bad guys. So you might be attacked by a Tiger pirate, then again you could be being blasted by a group of pirates in Cobra Mk IIIs and have a bounty hunter in a Tiger ride to your rescue!

don 't forget paintjobs.oxp!
A easy laid back collection of standard ships pimped and sometimes boosted a little to fit the times (of '05)
You won't get burned by this one.

the oxp boasts a few old pirate favourites in pretty colours and a more complete set of vessels in tiger colours.
This renegade group started out as the tiger-mamba with the lolling cartoon tongue. I had plans to create a small tiger gang mission oxp, but ran out of steam too early.
I gave a fellow modder permission to do with the tigers as I intended and assume he did a good job of it.

Thanks a lot to all of you for your answer.

You should also feel safe installing wolfwood's variants - all of the ships there fit in with the power levels of the originals and many of the included ships are actually based on models from various versions of original Elite (different special ships appeared in different versions of the game).

and Murgh's 'old rusties' oxp.
introduces more variety in the quality of well trusted antiques, a good bargain for that young Jameson who wants to haul cargo but can't afford a new Python.

Ok, now I have installed some of the oxp. Sung textures is very nice. Custom sounds are also ok (butI fear that I will get bored soon of hearing the same music). I have a small problem with either commies or dictatorships: when I approach too close from a non main planet, textures of that planet suddenly start flashing.
I have not installed any new mission oxp yet since I want to finish the G1 default ones first (btw, I have reached the competent rating and I have not been offered any mission yet. Is that normal ?)
Finally, I noticed that the trade-in value of my cobra is much less than the price of an even much weaker ship. I read some posts about Realistic Shipyards oxp. What do you think about it ? Does it fix the problem ?

Thx

bdug wrote:

Finally, I noticed that the trade-in value of my cobra is much less than the price of an even much weaker ship. I read some posts about Realistic Shipyards oxp. What do you think about it ? Does it fix the problem ?

That's my oxp there. Hi! Welcome to this great game!

The opinions regarding Realistic Shipyards are very different - it' s obviously a question of personal tastes and flavours, and what one wants to have in their game or not. Some people are wildly opposed to it, some 2.000 people have downloaded it in it's various incarnations (versions), some people write me that it's an enormous experience that enhances their game.

Oh well. I suggest give it a shot and see if you like what it does or not!

The "problem" you mention with the price loss is actually something the scripters who create Oolite want to have that way, as otherwise it's presumably possible to earn money by buying and selling ships. Therefore, a maximum repaired "old" ship fetches only 25% below it's price when it was new.

I personally think that's overdoing it and a 5% margin would be better, but I don' t decide those things and also don't intend to change them oxp-wise - so to your original question, no, this feature isn' t changed by Realistic Shipyards.

BTW: If you install, please actually read RS' s readme! As it adds-in a lot of other ship oxps in one go, you no longer need to install them as RS will overwrite them anyways - that includes Sung's textures, which also come as part of the RS package.

Noteworthy exemption from this! As the dragon.oxp of CmdrWyvern has been updated, and you should add that in as "Zzzzz Dragon.oxp" even if it says otherwise in the RS Read Me!

Cheers

L

bdug wrote:

Finally, I noticed that the trade-in value of my cobra is much less than the price of an even much weaker ship. I read some posts about Realistic Shipyards oxp. What do you think about it ? Does it fix the problem ?

This problem is best fixed by doing all the requested maintenance for your ship. Whenever the maintenance-option is offered to you in an equipment department, take it. Be refurbishing your ship's systems and respraying the cabin you will drastically increase its resell value.

most of the 'equipment' oxps are good too, but remember: the baddies will get the goodstuff before you do.

There's also one that allows you to live the life of an independent miner with more financial benefits.
assasins oxp is fun
random hits is great
i'll have to finish getHesperus_oxp at one time, so people can get back at that treacherous feline.

Commander McLane wrote:

Whenever the maintenance-option is offered to you in an equipment department, take it.

Is it not best to get your maintenance at a high-tech planet? I was under the impression that if you get a service at a low-tech planet it doesn't actually cover your high-tech gear – so you end up having to pay the full price again later on, next time you dock somewhere with a high tech level...

Ark wrote:

There is no easy answer to your question because what opxs are better from others is something that has to do with your personal point of view...

With all the OXPs available, the choices are endless

Ark wrote:

There are no serious oxp conflicts as far as I know...

I have had a couple of little probs with that myself, ship set OXPs cancelling out single ship OXPs. Although i have been checking the files as to try and rule any conflict issues out, every time i look in a station shipyard, some ships will vanish.
Anybody out there able to answer this ?

Commander McLane wrote:

bdug wrote:

Finally, I noticed that the trade-in value of my cobra is much less than the price of an even much weaker ship. I read some posts about Realistic Shipyards oxp. What do you think about it ? Does it fix the problem ?

This problem is best fixed by doing all the requested maintenance for your ship. Whenever the maintenance-option is offered to you in an equipment department, take it. Be refurbishing your ship's systems and respraying the cabin you will drastically increase its resell value.

And give your ship a new coat of paint, decloges the vent systems, de-ionize ships shields and soop, exe exe

FSOneblin