Oolite Bulletins

Found this in the Galaxies spreadsheet on the Wiki planet list page… galaxy names:

Galaxy 1. Santaari
Galaxy 2. Colesque
Galaxy 3. Lara’tan
Galaxy 4. Angiana
Galaxy 5. Proximus
Galaxy 6. Sol
Galaxy 7. Jaftra
Galaxy 8. Xrata

Does anybody know where these names for the eight galaxies come from?

They're from the Acorn Archimedes version of Elite

Thanks Steve… I never played the Archimedes version.
Is that the version that had the ‘Copperhead’ as one of the core ships?

Yep, lots of new ships, including the Copperhead.

I never played it much myself, 'cos I thought the 16-bit versions lacked the magic of the original 8-bit versions.

Of course, that magic has been recaptured by Oolite

Yeah... I was playing BBC Elite. If I was capable of OXP'ing a ship, it would be the Copperhead.

I rather like the idea of galaxy names... it'd be nice to see in-game.

..not sure about galaxy 6, though

Zbond-Zbond wrote:

..not sure about galaxy 6, though

Yeah... that would have to be changed. Solaris, maybe.

Galaxy 6? Allison. I am for Allison.

We can always say the Doctor did it.

Allison to the stars, can I hear them singing? no that's the background microwave radiation

edit: actually, since the days of Acorn et al. there is vastly more known about the galaxies, probably some cool names could pop up. Allison is cool

I reckon "Dave" would be a good name for the 6th galaxy.

If the devs were to say ‘alright, let’s name the eight galaxies’ (highly unlikely, but you never know), I wonder how long the discussion would rage over which names to use.

The best thing - at least from my point of view, anyway - is that you can already have personalised galaxy map backgrounds, different ones for each galaxy. If you want to have 'Dave' showing in-game immediately below 'Galaxy 6' you can do so already!

So when are we going to have galacticnames.oxp?

Personally. I'd go for 'Galaxy 6 - Plinth' until the final name is decided upon...

Galaxy names would only work if it was universal, if everyone used the same names.

Banter in the spacer bar:
‘I was boosting hard down the Tomoka Run, over in the second (chart, galaxy, sector)’... or
‘I was boosting hard down the Tomoka Run, over in Colesque’.

I know which one I’d prefer.

The game generates its characteristic names from the initial seed, I glean, so perhaps it could be persuaded to generate names for each galaxy, or sector. At present Lave is in galaxy 1, sector 2 (presumably).
The NavySectorCommandStation is at Orrere (for sector 2).
A file surrounded by a fruit-cake may therefore be addressed to:

Cdr. Jameson,
cell 6345789 Lave Academy,
Lave,
Sector 2,
Galaxy 1.

OR

Cdr. Jameson,
cell 6345789 Lave Academy,
Lave,
Sector Orrere,
Galaxy 1.

OR

Cdr. Jameson,
cell 6345789 Lave Academy,
Lave,
Sector Orrere,
SANTAARI.

OR
(if new names were allocated all 'round)

Cdr. Jameson,
cell 6345789 Lave Academy,
Lave,
Hypotenuse Sector,
PYTHAGORAS.

Zbond-Zbond wrote:

The game generates its characteristic names from the initial seed, I glean, so perhaps it could be persuaded to generate names for each galaxy, or sector. At present Lave is in galaxy 1, sector 2 (presumably).

There is, however, an important difference between the two. Galaxies are part of the game, sectors are not. They are only defined through an OXP which the player may or may not choose to install. Therefore, while galaxy names may make a claim to being binding for all players, sector names may not. Personally, I have never been in any sector, only in galaxies (currently #7).

As far as the galaxy names are concerned: They didn't exist in C64-Elite, so I've only ever heard about them here on the boards, and didn't find them a necessary feature. I can easily live without them.

But, having said that, it strikes me as slightly odd to discover the names, decide that they represent a nice and welcome tradition, and then don't care about them but come up with different names oneself. I'd say, if we go with names in the first place, then it is the names that existed in a version of Elite, not randomly made up names.