Oolite Bulletins

First of all, I am a veteran Eliteer since mid-80's on my C64.
Also, I am a mod-megalomaniac. (Read: I've downloaded pretty much every OXP I could find)

My suggestion (or a question) would be this:

There should be a tool for installing and uninstalling the OXPs. Much like Oblivion Mod Manager for TES4 that got me spoiled.

I'm pretty much fresh to the Oolite scene and it is quite possible that I've overlooked a similar tool, so if you know any, please do reply.

P.S. I'm aware of OXPConfig..

Not sure why you'd need an "install" tool - all you do is extract the .oxp folder of the OXP be it zip, tar or whatever and copy/move to Addons folder of Oolite - I can't see that anything is actually simpler than that. Is there anything specifically this oxp installer should do for you?

Oh, and sorry I forgot my manners! Welcome to the forums!

I was thinking that a dependency managing tool for OXPs would be OK (I have not played with OXPConfig yet), given that there are quite a few that work only when specific others are installed. But for just installing and uninstalling OXPs, where install means "move .oxp folder to AddOns" and uninstall means "delete .oxp folder from AddOns", my preferred OXP manager tool exists already and is called Windows Explorer.

I still think of Windows Explorer as File Manager - does exactly what you want it to do.

another_commander wrote:

I was thinking that a dependency managing tool for OXPs would be OK (I have not played with OXPConfig yet), given that there are quite a few that work only when specific others are installed. But for just installing and uninstalling OXPs, where install means "move .oxp folder to AddOns" and uninstall means "delete .oxp folder from AddOns", my preferred OXP manager tool exists already and is called Windows Explorer.

Or File Browser for those of us with Linux...

- there are 200-300 OXPs, so simple "drag&drop" is not practical AT ALL. A tool with GUI and one-click-install would make things much easier...
- same tool could keep track of stuff like webpage for each mod, descriptions, sort them by categories or, god forbid, put some screenshots besides the names.. you know.. to remind you of what it actually is about..

Explorer is just too... plain. And it is a mess...

And what's with the zips? Have you ppl ever heard of 7z? (talking to general audience)

I posted something similiar when i first joined forums.
Quote from my earlier post:-

How about a in game download section where the better campaigns, ships general addons can be downloaded directly into the game. Battle for Wesnoth uses this idea and it works very well.

To download from an in game source would work very well and could handle dependencies for you, and maybe could give ability to update game engine automatically when new version becomes available.

And what's with the zips? Have you ppl ever heard of 7z? (talking to general audience)

Don't understand what your getting at here compressions compression is it not, maybe will save a few k at most?

I would be contempt with mod tracking feature of EliteWiki, since most of them I got from there...

Chaky wrote:

- there are 200-300 OXPs, so simple "drag&drop" is not practical AT ALL. A tool with GUI and one-click-install would make things much easier...
- same tool could keep track of stuff like webpage for each mod, descriptions, sort them by categories or, god forbid, put some screenshots besides the names.. you know.. to remind you of what it actually is about..

Explorer is just too... plain. And it is a mess...

And what's with the zips? Have you ppl ever heard of 7z? (talking to general audience)

I can certainly select 200 folders from within Explorer and throw them in AddOns in one go. Yes, it is plain and yes this is how it should be.

If I understand correctly what you are saying, you want a tool that connects to a website with the oxps listed, lets you select with checkboxes or some other selection method which ones you want, then resolve any dependencies that may exist and download everything required to your computer. Am I close? As an idea it is not bad, we just need someone to sit down and implement it because it is by no means a small project. Any volunteers?

As for 7z, most people here are well aware of it. But unfortunately, although much better than zip, it is not a standardized compression tool, while zip is and everyone has it. So we go with the lowest common denominator.

Hey Chaky,

First, welcome here!

Would you have the means to create what you suggest yourself?

Because one of the principles here in the wild wild west of the oolite boards is this: If you want something, do it yourself. If you have to find someone who does it for you, well ...

If you created the feature you suggested yourself, I think it pretty probable that it will be warmly welcomed.

Btw: If it is done, it should not be forgotten that some oxps are not meant to be used in conjunction with one another - like Simon's and Griff's ships oxps in raw state (atm at least) or my own OSE beta which is a merger of about 160 of the "200-300 oxps" you mentioned with the oxps it already consists of!

Just don't wait for someone else doing it

L

@Lestrade

Thanks for the welcome.

Not much of suggestions forum, ha?


I might just as well do that, one sunny day when I master some real coding. Until then, I'll hold on to this thread.

@another_commander

No. I'm saying that I want a tool that would make installing and uninstalling process more apealing and less where-did-I-put-those-mods-like.

I'm afraid that I'm used to mod managers that makes mod managing a breeze (mods that are far more complex and know-how consuming to install and troubleshoot the conflicts). I just thought that someone came to the idea for making similar tool for oolite.

Considering the simplicity with mods for oolite, it is amazing that no one did... or explains why not.

Long story - short: I've downloaded alot of mods and I would like to try out each and every one of them with least amount of clicks, drags and effort.

H/Well, I might even try and make such tool... one sunny day.

Hi Chaky, and welcome to the friendliest board this side of Reidquat!

I like the concept of what you're proposing, but to some extent I think you're comparing chalk and cheese..

TES4 is made by a commercial software company (with paid programmers) that's been running for at least 15 years, whereas Oolite is made, maintained and developed by a handful of volunteers in their spare time. They are kept quite busy just working out the bugs in the current development version in preparation for its upcoming release.

A similar situation exists with the oxp developers. The oxps are created (by volunteer fans) on different platforms (Mac, Linux and Windows) with whatever tools they prefer to use, are packaged up with whatever tool they happen to have on their particular system, and are hosted in many different locations as well. There is no one centralised download location for oxps and efforts to move in that direction have met with a number of difficulties.

- there are 200-300 OXPs, so simple "drag&drop" is not practical AT ALL. A tool with GUI and one-click-install would make things much easier...
- same tool could keep track of stuff like webpage for each mod, descriptions, sort them by categories or, god forbid, put some screenshots besides the names.. you know.. to remind you of what it actually is about..

Keeping track of all this stuff you mention (as well as the updates to everything) to enable such a tool to work would be a major undertaking for one person (or even two). I suspect maintaining it would be a full-spare-time job for one person also. As others have mentioned already, this is very much a roll-you-own community, and most of the regular posters on this board already have projects running where they contribute in whatever way fits their skills and available time best.

Taking on more work is probably beyond most of us here, which is why it was suggested that you do as we all have, see a need you can fill, and run with it.

Not much of suggestions forum, ha?

It's a fine suggestions forum, and lots of good stuff has come out of it... but sometimes the answer has to be "We're all flat out already, but your idea is cool, so why don't you see what you can do?" If you decide to give it a whirl, there are lots of people here willing to point you at resources, knowledge and tools, as well as helping to solve problems when you run into difficulties.

one sunny day when I master some real coding.

Why not use this project as the reason to bite the bullet and begin learning? That's how many of the oxp devs here got started.

Hurray, a OXPConfig-user?! Welcome onboard (or on BBoard), Chaky.

@Diziet Sma: Second that completely.
And I'd like to add that we (scripters) should better think about saving traffic and execution time by optimizing the oxps.

@Chaky: Have fun with the greatest game ever and this friendly place here.

btw: He,he,he C64 :-) Great memories,8,1

@ Diziet Sma

Thanks for elaboration..

.. and I'm not comparing TES to oolite. I'm just comparing mod-handling of the two, so, to use your words, I'm comparing Ementaller to Gouda.

BTW, TES4 mods are NOT developed by pro's either, with exception of DLCs. Even I have a project, so to speak, on that scene. (will not self-promote any further)

@ Svengali
I'm OXPConfig-user-wannabe at most.

btw, he he, my great memories were press-play-on-tape-kind... or, should I say "press-play-on" type.

Chaky wrote:

BTW, TES4 mods are NOT developed by pro's either, with exception of DLCs.

Yupp. Same for most other games. But in most cases the modders are no noobs, some of them are pro's and most others have a progging/scripting background.

Chaky wrote:

I'm OXPConfig-user-wannabe at most.

That's nearly the same :-)

Chaky wrote:

btw, he he, my great memories were press-play-on-tape-kind... or, should I say "press-play-on" type.

...and listening to the wonderful sounds (siren with catarrh) while drinking coffee :-)