Oolite Bulletins

OK I've been meaning to do something with this for a while, and it's quite a bit longish so bare with me...

So a few weeks back some of you may remember me posting a pic of a Shady Thargoid Carrier (it was really shiny) which, in turn, lead to me doing a complete retexture of both the Thargorn Threat and Second Wave OXP's using Simon B's neoiltes Thagoids/Drones models.
But that lead to me doing a complete retexture of both the Behemoth and Galactic Navy oxp's...
All 5 oxp's now with shaders, in some cases new models etc.
But that wasn't enough, it felt unbalanced towards the Galactic Navy so I introduced my own tweaks to the Thargoids team, introduced new varients, made the Carrier fight in whichspace battles, vastly changed it stats, alot of other tweaking as well...
But then I got in game and realised... it felt unbalanced towards the Thargoid Team so I introduced my own tweaks to the Galactic Navy, introduced new varients, made some completly new ships, vastly changed their stats, plus fixed some bugs like missing thargoid AI's in GalNavy, alot of other tweaking as well...
And there are still plenty more things I want to add... but...

It was around this time I realised I may have overdone it a little, and had probably made something I could never release, since it used so many other OXP's assets used that I can't even remember where I got most of them, and they're now likely vastly differant from their Authors vision of their independant oxp's.

Halp!

Is it even worth considering trying to release this? Should I just try and make a stand alone oxp using my retextures? PAGroove just sent me an awesome Behemoth retexture, and I feel like I can't do anything with it because of the sheer complexity of trying to go about finding the original Authors, asking their permissions, etc.
And I don't really want to break apart the 5 oxp's and release independant retextures cause the end-product was really all one thing... /Sigh

What are your thoughts, oh friendly and wise forum goers?

It's really a difficult situation, because so many OXPs are affected.

Perhaps you could release it as one big OXP, with a big enough warning that it is meant to replace the original OXPs as an alternative view on them.

Then players could decide whether they want to use your package or the original OXPs.

I will eventually release the new version of ThargoidCarrier.oxp (but not anytime too soon), and from what you are writing about what you have done to it, it will be incompatible and also inreconcilable, I'm afraid. So it will work outside your pack, with the original OXPs.

As for finding the authors: start with the readMe's, the Wiki, and the different download sites. Or search on the boards.

I thought as much, well since my work on Bulk Haulers is done, I think I'll work on releasing my ADCK-Eagles 1.1 before working on this thargoid/galnavy oxp., as it seems like it might be a bit of a headache.

Well I did a search and came up with 'The Galactic Navy strikes back' thread. In the first post you get valuable info. I suggest you contact Nemoricus because he in turn has permission from Mat634.

I don't know who's the original author of the Behemoth. Maybe the Master and Commander himself? As he did the Bulk Hauler too?

Nemoricus wrote:

After a month of hard work by myself and a bunch of dedicated testers, the fifth version of Galactic Navy is ready for release.

The Navy has completely overhauled their scripting, replacing antiquated legacy code with the new and more powerful JavaScript. In addition, reserve pilots are now issued missions in the area near the Sector Command station that they receive their assignments from. However, since the distances are no longer as great, reserve pilots are now required to actively engage in each battle in order to be credited with the sortie.

Behemoth battle groups now use revised protocols instituted by Commodore Eric Walch that greatly enhance their coordination and effectiveness.

Join the Navy in fighting the Thargoid threat and get the latest version here.

Major, major thanks to both Thargoid and Eric Walch for their many contributions to this project. Without them, this would have taken longer and would not have been as well made as it is.

Special thanks to Screet, for being one of the best testers I've ever seen.

An extra special thanks to matt634, who approved my continuation and expansion of his superb work. I hope that my contributions to the cause will be judged worthy.

Happy hunting, Commanders.

I'm almost 100% certain Aegidian did the original Behemoth, as it uses his texturing style.

ADCK wrote:

I'm almost 100% certain Aegidian did the original Behemoth, as it uses his texturing style.

Correct.

Well then. It seems that every author is tracked down. Or am I wrong ?

Behemoth: Aegidian
GalNavy: Nemoricus
Thargoid Carrier: Commander McLane
Thargorn Threat: Arexack_Heretic
Second Wave: Thargoid
Thargoid Models/Textures: Simon B

And some of the above may be using things from other Authors too...

The Authors working on the 3 Thargoid ones are still active on the boards, Havn't seen much from Nemoricus and I believe Behemoth is Public Domain.

After I'm done working on another side project I'll see about contacting them. My main concern is GalNavy as it's the one most effected, with the others only really using the concept behind the ships, which in most cases have been remodeled&retextured.

I'm no where near having anything ready to release other than a lot of textures/models, i'll need to make new config files and AI's etc... And that will take a while

Ahem...

ADCK wrote:

Behemoth: Aegidian
GalNavy: Nemoricus
Thargoid Carrier: SELEZEN AND Commander McLane
Thargorn Threat: Arexack_Heretic
Second Wave: Thargoid
Thargoid Models/Textures: Simon B

It's becoming an increasing problem, backtracking who did what...

Selezen wrote:

Ahem...

Ahem again ...

ADCK wrote:

Behemoth: Aegidian
GalNavy: Nemoricus
Thargoid Carrier: SELEZEN AND Commander McLane
Thargorn Threat: Arexack_Heretic
Second Wave: Thargoid
Thargoid Models/Textures: Simon B

All published versions of Thargoid Carrier.oxp are Selezen only, aren't they?

What I am doing to it is a WIP and hasn't been published yet.

Thanks for the confusing corrections

Hehe no worries, I understand.

Rxke wrote:

It's becoming an increasing problem, backtracking who did what...

Completely agree, what we need is an OXP hosting site, I'm thinking along the lines of what TESNexus and Fallout3Nexus do for Morrowind/Oblivion/Fallout3 (google them)
But hosting is expensive, and Oolite isn't exactly a big money maker being non-profit and all that

A hosting problem will not really help. What we need is for people to be clear about licensing, and to put details of authors and license in their OXP so that everyone has access to the information.

The wiki can do everything a hosting site can do.

Cmdr James wrote:

The wiki can do everything a hosting site can do.

Except for the act of hosting the files...

Instead they're hosted on 3rd party sites, with links that may evapourate with time. Or worse yet, on sites like oosat, a site that has decayed to the point of uselessness, taking a great deal of oxp's that were only hosted there with it.

A properly maintained and centralised database of OXP's would do wonders for the modder community. A wiki and some forums is not a good way to host oxp's. But the point is moot, can't afford a hosting site anyway.

ADCK wrote:

Cmdr James wrote:

The wiki can do everything a hosting site can do.

Except for the act of hosting the files...

Instead they're hosted on 3rd party sites, with links that may evapourate with time. Or worse yet, on sites like oosat, a site that has decayed to the point of uselessness, taking a great deal of oxp's that were only hosted there with it.

Actually, Oosat is quite usable. Cap'n Hack doesn't even mind if you upload new OXPs, which I did with the first version of Anarchies, for instance. However, he doesn't maintain the table of OXPs anymore, so any new stuff will not become visible there. But decay?

I think you are talking about Oosat2, and here you would be right. The site crashed twice, and was as a site beyond recovery after the second time. However, most of the stuff is still there and accessible. The only thing you have to know is that it was backed up to "oldsat", so you have to replace "oosat" with "oldsat" in every URI.