Oolite Bulletins

(Hope this is the right forum.)

I'm new to Oolite (another old BBC Elite player) - fantastic game and I'm loving it. My question is: is there some kind of OXP which improves the look of the game while leaving the rules and content the same please? I've had a look around and can't quite find anything that fits this description, but worth a question to find out for sure I think.

Cheers,
Andy

Firstly alien greetings and welcome to the board And yes, this forum is probably the place for the question.

It depends a little on what you want to make look prettier, but there are several OXPs available. One thing to do first though (if your graphics hardware and processor are up to it) is to ensure shaders are turned on (when docked press F2 (or pause with P in-flight and then F2) and then in the game options menu set the shader option - if it's not available then your hardware can't support them).

From the OXP point of view:

• Generally - Anything Griff ever issued or was graphically involved in.
• Planets - System Redux and Famous Planets (and it's expansion pack).
• Stations & Systems- Bank of the Black Monks, Buoy Repair, Gritty Coriolis, PAGroove Stations, Tianve.
• Ships - Very much a matter of personal taste, but for example Freaky Thargoids, Hotrods, all of Griff's ships, shady Cobra, Sung's detailed textures and probably a whole host more.

There's probably a whole load of other ones I've forgotten that people with better kit than me will point you at (I only run a laptop, so can't even support shaders). But aside from the above there are more stuff like the system changing OXPs (dictators, anarchies etc) but you're changing the game a little there.

(Almost) all OXPs should be available via the wiki OXP page. [/color]

Don't forget there are some lovely new HUD designs out there as well - which change considerably your "out the window" view.

Thargoid wrote:

(Almost) all OXPs should be available via the wiki OXP page.

...which, by the way, happens to have a miscellaneous eyecandy-section.

Commander McLane wrote:

...which, by the way, happens to have a miscellaneous eyecandy-section.

...which (along with the rest of the sub-sections) a lot of people who update the main table either don't update or just completely ignore, and of course does not include specific eye-candy like ships or stations

Thanks guys. I've had a look around the Wiki, I think I was hoping for a lazy man's do-it-all single OXP. I'll experiment instead

Hhhmmm... ...your's in not the first request along these lines. Maybe it's time for 'someone' to produce an oxp that brings together all the oxps that merely improve the looks of Oolite without in any way altering the game play. If that is possible...?

Star Gazer wrote:

Hhhmmm... ...your's in not the first request along these lines. Maybe it's time for 'someone' to produce an oxp that brings together all the oxps that merely improve the looks of Oolite without in any way altering the game play. If that is possible...?

I have been banging this exact drum for a while now - this will turn out to be a very wanted feature for many players for all areas of Oolite oxp'ing, I bet, not only my special thing.

I second that!

AndyG wrote:

Thanks guys. I've had a look around the Wiki, I think I was hoping for a lazy man's do-it-all single OXP. I'll experiment instead

I think it comes as a surprise to nobody that I don't specifically care for do-it-all single OXPs. And the experiences so far with the first OXP of this type (RS) haven't been very encouraging.

But apart from the practical problems, OXPs are all about the player choosing in what kind of Ooniverse he wants to play. And your choices are--pretty much by definition--something you have to make yourself. Therefore I still don't see the very point of a one-size-fits-all solution for OXPs.

Commander McLane wrote:

AndyG wrote:

Thanks guys. I've had a look around the Wiki, I think I was hoping for a lazy man's do-it-all single OXP. I'll experiment instead

I think it comes as a surprise to nobody that I don't specifically care for do-it-all single OXPs.

Somehow, it doesn't

Commander McLane wrote:

And the experiences so far with the first OXP of this type (RS) haven't been very encouraging.

It's a complicated thing to fuse a lot of oxps into one, I should know. But then there are many better oxp' ers out there than me, who wouldn't stumble through doing this autodidactically from scratch the way I did (and still do!).

Actually, the bug-load of RS has become smaller and smaller, and my current beta-testers have been as good as failing to find any new ones in the last weeks. Time to create new and shiny ones

The biggest problem I experience and would expect (besides an army of inherited bugs and errors) is the updating. Someone changes their oxp, and "its" Extension would have to be updated ASAP too.

I think this can be done, but I agree it's complicated. Has this ever stopped someone here from doing something?

Commander McLane wrote:

But apart from the practical problems, OXPs are all about the player choosing in what kind of Ooniverse he wants to play. And your choices are--pretty much by definition--something you have to make yourself.

Well, the choices are still there with Extensions. I would suggest Extensions that contain everything oxp about a topic. Perhaps getting "the big picture" also makes it experienceable what someone wants in their game and whatnot.

But why not an "Oolite Missions Extension", "Oolite Solar Systems Extension", "Oolite Stations Extension" and "Oolite Government Extension" besides the future "Oolite Shipyards Extension"? Some people can then have it in one go and if they find it too much, they can easily go back and choose with more differentiation after having seen it all.

And there's still the option of "taking stuff out again" the other way around. A friend of mine who is a programmer has agreed to create a ship-deinstaller for me, that will be able to take out ships from RS/OSE by name, or any stats bandwidth. Also a way of differentiation, for example you say "no ships beyond 0.50 LS" and the installer takes all those out - or puts them back in again at a later date if you so request. Etc.

Commander McLane wrote:

Therefore I still don't see the very point of a one-size-fits-all solution for OXPs.

I agree with you on this one. But, if there were all those extensions I noted, there might be a "market" of interest in a super-extension that had all of them in there. I could live with that, I'm rather sure many other people would be interested, too. Especially newer players, I guess, who didn't play the original Elite.

So, those are my 0.2 Cr concerning the topic, I guess it all boils down to "can someone who requests this find someone who does it" - but an exchange of arguments really can' t hurt.

Cheers

L

Lestradae wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

Therefore I still don't see the very point of a one-size-fits-all solution for OXPs.

I agree with you on this one. But, if there were all those extensions I noted, there might be a "market" of interest in a super-extension that had all of them in there. I could live with that, I'm rather sure many other people would be interested, too. Especially newer players, I guess, who didn't play the original Elite.

You see, and that's precisely the point that gives me the non-encouraging headache with RS. I am quite certain that a lot of newer players have downloaded and installed various versions of it (you have kept us informed about its download statistics, so I know that a lot of people have downloaded it). But with its buggyness (is that a word?) it has made sure that they never got the chance to play the original Elite. Only a twisted, weird form of it. And as we are talking about new players, they usually couldn't even know that the behaviour they got wasn't actually Elite.

Okay, more and more bugs are being brushed out. But still, there are already 2000 folks out there, whose Oolite gameplay has been weirdened (and partially ruined) by buggy previous versions. An example: whoever missed the Constrictor mission due to RS' Constrictor bug, won't get it again; even with a new and fixed RS installed. He probably won't complain or report an error, because, if he is new to Elite, he doesn't even have a way to know that he missed something. But still, his Elite experience has been lessened, even without him knowing it.

And that's my headache. And the reason why I really wouldn't like to go down the inherit-all-kinds-of-old-bugs-and-add-some-new-ones path once again.

I honestly hope that you can make some sense of this, and even understand a little of my point of view.

(PS: Got your PM yesterday. Still haven't found time to reply. Was busy bug-hunting in different hunting grounds . But you'll get an--hopefully helpful--answer.)

It seems we're moving off topic from the original point - I'm well aware that OXPs that add and/or change gameplay are a can of worms. A single "best of graphics updates" though seems like a reasonable thing for a newcomer to want to have.

I'm getting there now when it comes to collecting the specific OXPs - it's really "just" ships/planets/stations/HUD, they seem to be the four important elements for an eye candy workover.

(For the occasional real nostalgia session I'd love to see a fully-wireframe OXP also )

AndyG wrote:

(For the occasional real nostalgia session I'd love to see a fully-wireframe OXP also )

You haven't checked the Game Options screen thoroughly, have you?

On my side. I am a newcomer to OOLITE but in old times I played the original Elite (Elite-plus in fact ).
What I find really really nice with oolite is this possibility of changing the game.
However, I am completely lost in front of all these OXP and I am wasting a lot of time making experiments, trying one OXP and removing one etc.

I know I have not much experience with oolite, but I think the following rules should be adopted when designing oxp:

- OXP should not mix missions and eyecandy features. Why ? because I may want to play the missions offered by the oxp but I may not want to change the look of my game. I would go even further than this: OXP bricks should be as small as possible. An eye candy oxp should modify only one feature. Consider Sung texture as an example: It modifies textures of ships and stations. but PA Groove stations modifies stations' textures only. Therefore, It is difficult to predict the output of using both oxp at the same time.

- On the other hand, some "official", ready made, consistent packages (hardly tested anf bug free) including several oxp should be made available to beginners who do not want to test all combinations.

OXPs generally play nicely together, so don't be afraid to mix em up. You'll get a lot of variety and the ship and station oxps in particular will all work together. Part of the fun is the variety - stations will be of all different types, tourus, trade outpost, military etc. The same station always appears at the same place though. You'll be fine with all the missions with system_redux and famous planets installed for eyecandy and asteroid storm for that matter (makes asteroids nicer looking but they are no changed apart from the eyecandy). Orbits is about the only oxp i can think of that might cause a problem as it moves all planets around, but apart from that feel free to throw oxps into the mix. Eg: if you have the paintjobs, sungs textures and dream team mods installed then you still have the standard uncharged Classic Elite ships in their stats but you get a load of variety to the paint jobs and models.